Closed Neither Here Nor There: Hellfire

[Bluberry Bat]

<'... Someone... Sobbing? W-What the...'>
Carefully, Anna tried pushing open the door - she hadn't heard any other indications of life, and if someone else was in there... well, at this point, she was willing to take chances.
"H-Hallo?" She said aloud, carefully, and in a near-whispered voice.

 

[Coloursfall]

>Check photographs and black objects

These photos are more faded than the last ones, and depict a small family over the course of a few years. The first few discovered are of a young man and a young woman holding a tiny back-haired baby, with two little girls clustered around. The rest a show this child as they grow over a period of what looks like five or six years, playing with his sisters, at birthdays, and so on.

The black objects are charred bones, probably human.


>Push Open Door

The door sides open easily, opening into a large concrete-lined bunker, though it's hard to tel, as the walls are blackened with soot and ash. There are a few shelves on the walls, and a pristinely clean white door in the back wall.

The shelves and floor are stacked with blackened bones, a messy jumble with no regard for preservation. A few rats scatter from the piles and out the door as it opens.

 

[see ya]

Jacob eased a little bit, the pictures seeming happy and calm enough, certainly better than the abomination from before.

That is, until his eyes turned away from the pictures to the black thing. He studied it closely, trying to figure out what it was... Once he did, though, a sharp cry escaped his throat, ringing out and echoing through the tiny bunker. He couldn't get out of there fast enough, running past the pit, still not wanting to look down it, and over to the first person he saw: the one-armed girl from before. She was opening a door, and well... it seemed as good a path as any. He stood behind her, shaking but remaining quiet.

When he saw that what awaited him were yet more burned bones he gave another squeak, grabbing at Anna's hand... or where he expected a hand to be, but instead just grabbing empty air. He couldn't help but flush, embarrassed, but too terrified to be overly so. He clutched his bat tightly. There looked to be nowhere else to go, as much as it pained him to have to go in there...

"S...should we go...?" he asked, quietly and shyly.

 

[Zora of Termina]

Scarlet carefully edged away from the pit, figuring there was no way she would be able to get down there, and maybe she didn't want to anyway, because of the... the burned... oh god...

She shivered again, before briskly making her way to behind the boy with the bat from before, leaning over to look inside the door-

"...hgk... ohh... ohhhhh my... Are... are those black things what... I think they are.... ohhhhh dear..." You could tell she was trying her best not to fall over. Prying her eyes away from the bones, she spotted the white door and heard the boy ask.

"I... I'd say we should... I... ohhh... I do not want to stay here..."

 

[Bluberry Bat]

Anna had stopped breathing long enough to go lightheaded - and with a gasping inhale, she backed up, unaware someone was behind her, she quickly lost her balance... Tumbling over like this seemed to be a theme today, but that was the least of her concerns.
"T-Those are.. n-nyet, they cannot be, they just... how could... these are fresh, t-they are.. still doing..."
By now her confident exterior was broken, as she was borderline hyperventilating, glaring into the room.
"I-Is this really the only vay?..."

((...I think you broke her :C ))

 

[Zora of Termina]

Scarlet took a deep, shuddering breath, and took her first step into the room. Her eyes were shut tight; she didn't want to see the horrible visages on the floor. Although almost burned into the back of her mind were those creatures she had seen in the pit... which wasn't much of a better alternative.

She reached her hand out and ran her free hand down the surface of the door, swallowing hard. She heard the one-armed girl speak from outside.

"Someone... someone go... c-calm her down..." Truly, it just kept getting worse. Slowly, her eyes opened again, her hand slid down to the handle on the door, and she opened the door...

 

[Coloursfall]

>Open the Door

The door slid open easily, revealing what lay beyond; a large, medically clean and pristine white room, stocked with various bits of equipment, from the simplest of tools, to complex machines. Everything was set in pace neatly and was clean. Aside form the floor, that is. The tiles underfoot are caked with dried and fresh blood spatters.

The centre of the room is dominated by a hospital bed equipped with heavy leather straps and surrounded by tubes and wires. A small boy who looks barely older than twelve lays on the white mattress, the straps pulled tight around his limbs, naked except for a white blanket over his waist. The child is motionless, except for his laboured breathing. He's tiny, frail, and bald, and he has many freshly sewn-up wounds on his body.

 

[see ya]

Jacob entered the room slowly and cautiously. The bones were gone, but they had been replaced by something far, far worse.

"Oh... oh God..." he choked out, his eyes locked on the poor child on the table. He stared silently for a few moments, not sure what to do... but as weak as his knees became he found himself stepping closer to him, carefully, but with purpose. As he approached he saw the boy was still breathing, and a tiny spark of hope welled up in him. Jacob couldn't just sit there and do nothing while the boy suffered, so he started tugging at the straps, trying to find a way to work them loose with his shaking hands.

"C...c'mon..." he muttered, a little frustrated and scared something was going to leap at him in any second.

((>Undo boy's straps

 

[Zora of Termina]

"O...okay... this doesn't... this doesn't look too bad- oh... ohhhh my..."

Scarlet hadn't seen the floor till just now, and stumbled back when she did. And then she saw the child, strapped to a table... She struggled to hold herself upright; you could see her swaying, trying not to pass out.

"Ohhhhhh dear..." She managed to make it over next to the young man, and figured she would do the best she could to help undo the boy's straps... "Here, let me... dearie you'll be out soon..."

 

[Coloursfall]

>Undo boy's straps

The straps come free after a bit of working at them, and the skin under them is red and raw. The boy shifts slightly, opening his dark blue eyes and watching the people in the room. He moves his arms when they're undone, letting out a soft whimper.

"Mama..."

 

[Zora of Termina]

"..."

There came a small whine from Scarlet's throat during that brief pause. Her eyes went wide, tears forming at the lids. Suddenly she was back home, holding her daughters after the news came through about her husband. That little weak, helpless call... a defenseless child, calling for their mother...

"Oh... ohh god..." suddenly, she couldn't hold back anymore. She wrapped her arms around the boy and gave him a tight hug, while tears fell from her blue eyes like rain. She was very visibly shaking, and there were very audible sobs.

 

[Coloursfall]

>Hug the boy tight

When he's hugged, the boy lets out a squeal of pain, the contact putting pressure on his oozing wounds. He struggles, starting to cry franticly, crying out in German.

He's tiny and frail in Scarlet's arms, though something feels...off about the areas around his wounds. They feel...prickly, as if thorns lay just under the surface.

 

[Zora of Termina]

"Oh... I... I'm sorry..."

Scarlet quickly let go, though not before noting the frailness, the... prickly feeling. Suddenly, memories of that horrid picture came flooding back into her mind, and a sick feeling permeated her again. This... this was the child... bile bit the back of her throat, and she felt a sudden quick surge of... anger, at whoever could do that. But for the moment, she forced it back. She had too many, yes far too many emotions to deal with.

"Dear, please... p-please d-don't cry... I'm sorry... I didn't mean to... ohh..." She felt her heart hurting. She'd distressed the poor boy in her own meltdown. Tears still marred her face. She didn't know what he was saying, but it sounded like he was in such pain...

"I'm sorry..."

 

[see ya]

Jacob watched as the woman hugged the poor child tightly, wincing a little as she did so. He didn't blame her one bit for wanting to, but he'd been scared to lay a hand on the boy, as he was so tiny and frail he may as well have been made of glass, let alone the wounds that covered his body. He got a better look at the child's face, and more than anything those dark blue eyes... they weren't glowing this time, but this was him. The boy from that awful picture.

Jacob whimpered, having to steady himself on the edge of the table to keep from falling over. A wave of nausea brought on by fear, sadness, and not a small spike of anger shot through him.

Shaking his head and deciding that now was no time for passing out, he had to force himself into some kind of action. Ignoring the ever-present whispering in his ear that told him the boy was going to find a way to kill him, he started carefully checking the boy's body for areas where the wounds were less frequent, in case he or anyone else had to carry him out of here. It send a chill through his heart as he looked at just how easy it would be to carry the emaciated boy.

"P...please..." he said, voice as low and comforting as he could manage, nevertheless it was shaking heavily, "W...we'll get you o-out... Y-you're be safe with us..."

(>Check boy's body for places where wounds let up.