What Lies Within

"Anthony, we're almost there." I hear Gretel call out to me as we run down the hallway, Hansel leading us as we twist and turn around every corner. My feet don't tire, adrenaline now the only fuel that my body has to keep it running. "It's just up ahead." I hear Hansel call out as I eye the massive door, towering with its intricate designs embedded upon its steel frame. We stop in front of it, catching our breaths as neither of us speak for a while, chests heaving from the exhaustion. "You guys ready?"

I nod as Hansel places both of his hands on the door, his arms littered with dark fur as he tenses up. "Be ready to die Anthony." A bright crimson light emerges as two skulls take form around his hands, its mouth swallowing them up until his wrists. I watch him wince in pain as a sharp sound slices through the air. "Half-blood, you have chosen to return?" The door suddenly speaks, a disembodied voice filling the air around us.

"Open the door Kustos." A cold chill runs down my spine the moment he says its name, the feeling of anxiety of something I couldn't seem to explain. "I have paid you what is due."

A laughter suddenly fills the air, as if to mock Hansel's demands. "You dare to order me? You and your sister reek of impurity, and you believe yourselves fit to even stand before me?" Hansel drops to his knees as I hear the sound of grinding, as if bones were being crushed underneath the cuffs that held his hands. "Give me your essence, and I shall consider opening the door for you, you insolent mutt."

"Yield, Kustos." Gretel extends an arm towards the talking door, a red stream of light emerging from her palms towards it. "I know where your weaknesses lie." A loud scream shatters the air as contraptions suddenly make themselves known in front of us. The steel bite holding Hansel hostage lets him free as his arms fall onto the ground, heavy streams of blood trickle down onto the ground.

"I will see you in the afterlife, you wench." The voice fades out, dissipating in volume as the door is now fully opened in front of us. The room in front of us resembles a large chamber illuminated by a bright crimson shade of light. At the far end lies a ginormous red bud, its vines spreading all through the walls and the roof above it.

I help Hansel up and I feel his entire body trembling as I put his arm around my shoulders. I can't imagine the pain he just went through. I would've lost consciousness if it were me. "Hang in there." I whisper, to which I get a faint nod in response.

"So you have all arrived." A woman stands on the other end of the room, opposite from where we were. She stood tall; her eyes sharp as she turns to face us. "Lovely to see that the family is back together again. It's such a shame Rheya is no longer with us, although I did warn her." Three women with green, gooey skin emerge from the thick branches sprouting from the bud behind her as they spill a crimson red fluid onto the ground as they pull themselves into the surface. "Now, what are we all here for?"

Out of instinct, I take out my gun and fire a shot towards her direction. Blood soars through the air as I fail to hit her, instead hitting the shoulder of one of the three who immediately jumped in front of her, catching the entirety of my fired shot. Damn it! I immediately tense up as I watch the other two sprint towards me, way faster than anything I've encountered before. As they close their distance, their bodies distort in grotesque ways, joints contorting in angles that make them look broken.

A blade blurs into existence in front of my eyes as I stumble backwards, barely avoiding getting skewered in the head by inches. "Anthony, behind you!" I hear Gretel scream and a crack echoes throughout the chamber and I find myself flung almost halfway across the room. A rib or two probably snapped as I struggle to comprehend what just happened.

My body won't move as I watch the lady in red make her way towards me, a smile carved onto her eerily white skin. She looked dead, as if she was devoid of any form of life despite resembling her children in one way of another. "Humans are so fragile." The same woman I shot a few moments ago lets out a maniacal laugh as she passes a small dagger between her hands. "Tell me, Anthony Collins. What is it that you fear?" The mother places her hand upon my forehead as I feel the warmth leave my entire body, a chilling sensation crawls on the surface of my skin. "I want to know." Her eyes glow with an erotic sense of anticipation, as if she couldn't wait to tear me apart one by one.

"Let him go!" I barely hear Hansel scream from behind me as a roar echoes throughout the room. My consciousness was fading, her hand the only sensation I could feel as my mind goes blank from her touch. I can't move. My eyes begin to droop as I watch her look at me with that eerie smile she has, her dead crimson eyes the last view I see before I succumb to the darkness unfolding within my head.