STITCH II

Someone was tenderly rubbing Henry's back.

A curly-haired woman was crouched down on the floor beside him.

She giggled.

He slowly opened his eyes.

He can't see her face.

"Henry, we never left you! We and your Dada always loves you! Your brothers need you! Protect them! You need to wake up! My Eager Beaver, wake up! Wake up!"

Her voice was familiar.

His tears fell from his eyes.

"WAKE UP!!!"

Henry coughed.

The lights came back.

His eyes slowly adjusted and the two silhouettes' of people started to become clear.

His head and chest felt so much pain.

He touched his forehead and looked at his palm.

There was blood.

"Who's the Bitch now, Henry boy!"

Said Sarah.

She was wearing the Burger's Plaza mascot suit. She was holding Stitches' head.

The manager was beside her holding a silver baseball club resting it on his shoulders.

He cackled.

He kicked him on his chest a couple of times.

Henry got hold of his mouth.

He coughed.

His hand was shaking as he looked at his hand.

There was more blood.

"What did I do to you?!" Henry said in a hoarse voice.

The manager glared at him.

"What did you do to us?! What did you do to us?!"

He kicked him on the chest again.

"You're fucking annoying! That's what you did! You're getting in the way of our plans on taking over this company! All I needed was to make my sweetie pie, Sarah here, to become a manager, impress the stakeholders, get rid of the CEO, and conquer the whole company!"

"Yeah! You deserve what you get, Mr. Brooks! For making me an idiot to everybody!" said Sarah.

She kicked him to the head.

Henry shielded his face with his arm just in time.

There was pain and throbbing everywhere.

Henry tried to stand but when he placed a force on his hand he fell.

The couple laughed.

"Ah, just in time!"

A group of people surrounded them forming a circle.

On the carpet Henry can see drawn lines.

It was a circle with a star in the middle with curious symbols on the star's points.

Henry's heart started to pound horribly again.

This was not an ordinary bullying.

It was a ritual.

The newly arrived people were wearing clothes same as him. They were crew members just like him. Henry can't tell who they were because they were wearing Stitches' the mascot's masks.

They turned off the lights.

One of them placed candles in glasses around the circle.

He returned to his place in the circle.

They started to chant unworldly words. It sounded ancient with some hiss and slurps between the words.

The atmosphere started to feel heavy.

Henry's heart pumped even harder now.

He gulped.

This was the place he was going to die.

Tears and blood started to mix on his face.

Sarah grabbed him by his hair and pulled him up. She had quite some brute strength. He looked like a hanging puppet.

The chanting became louder and faster.

Then, they stopped.

The drawings suddenly glowed in an eerie purple hue. Dark smoke seemed to be flowing from the star.

The manager wore a red cloak then, chanted:

"OH, GREAT OLD ONE! WE OFFER THIS PURE SOUL FOR YOU TO FEAST ON! IN RETURN LET YOUR DARK POWERS FLOW THROUGH US! IN RETURN MAKE US RICH AND POWERFUL! IN RETURN WE'LL FEED YOU ALL THAT DISGRACES YOUR NAME, AND ALL THE PURE SOULS YOU WANT! OH, GREAT OLD ONE WE BESEECH YOU!"

The star became animated and rotated.

Slowly at first then, it became faster and faster

CRAAAAAAAAAKKKK!!!

RRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIPPPPPPP!!!

An unseen blade suddenly cut an opening on the ground where the star used to be. Everyone felt a really strong presence inside that hole. Soot and trash fell into the hole that seemed so wide and stretches infinitely.

Henry took a deep breath.

"Is this how my life ends? Alone and have no purpose but, an offering to a demon? Our parents left us because we were worthless. I'm sorry Nate, I'm gonna do what Mum and Dad did. I'm gonna leave you too, your brother's not strong enough. Don't worry, Sawney will still be there for you. This is probably it, there's no more escaping this. Although, I still want to finish college, get a mediocre paying job, maybe a big ass house, and have a beautiful wife and kids. And Nate will be the favorite Uncle. Even in death, I still have the right to dream, can't I?" Henry said to himself.

He imagined his dreams to reality. He wanted to burn it into his mind before he dies.

Four long tentacles erupted from the hole. They aimlessly wriggled and slapped at the air. A smell of burnt burger patty wafted into the air.

"Oh, great one your tentacles are so beautiful!" said the manager, his eyes became teary and glossy.

A loud eerie, ear-piercing growl echoed from the hole.

The whole building shook.

Henry smiled.

He closed his eyes.

There was a loud thud.

Henry opened his eyes.

He was on the floor.

Sarah screamed.

There were hurried footsteps and shuffling.

"What did you do Armando!" snapped Sarah.

The Managers mouth, arms, and legs were tied up by the coils of the tentacles.

The cult members ran out the exit.

Armando grabbed Henry's arm, placed it around shoulder and lifted him up.

Henry widened his eyes in shock.

"Why are you---"

"You saved my Grandma! I'll never forget the time you lent me money. Because of you we had enough money to pay for my Grandma's operation. She's now telling jokes and her smile came back. It's all because of you!"

A wide furry muzzle forcefully pushed itself by the tight hole's entrance. It was madly snapping its bear-trap teeth.

The tentacles pulled the manager to the mouth.

The manager squirmed with eyed widened, looking at Sarah.

Sarah shook her head and ran.

The tentacles shoved the manager in its mouth head first.

Blood spurted everywhere as the muzzle devoured its soft prey, cutting his body and clothes into thin perfect slices.

"HOLY SHIT! LET'S GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE!!!" said Armando.

Armando and Henry limped as fast as they could.

They went past the kitchen and went out the dining floor. Everything was clean especially the open cash register. Henry slipped on the well-polished floor a couple of times. It was funny that their manager kept on insisting that "cleanliness is next to godliness," there was nothing godly about this place. The large glass automatic doors were now just a few meters from them.

Theystopped. A child was already waiting for them there a who was standing a fewfeet from the doors. Sarah was lying on the floor. Her face was full of sootand smoke radiated from her.