Chapter 10: Breaking these Chains

Chapter 10: Breaking the Chains

Started 2/1/13

            Ding, dong. 

            Silence. I wait a few moments before ringing the doorbell again. Ding, dong. Still nothing. After ringing the doorbell a few more times, interspersed with periods of waiting so as not to be a nuisance, I get ready to just return to campus and call it a night.

            I turn around to walk back down the front steps of the house when I hear a faint sound behind me. A quick look over my shoulder reveals that the door has been opened just a crack. Creepy. I freeze for a moment, almost as if I’m expecting an arm to shoot out from inside the house and drag me in. Of course, nothing of the sort happens, so I decide to walk up to the door and peer into the crack. I can’t make out anything inside the house because the lights are off, but at the very least it doesn’t seem like anybody is near the door.

What should I do? Go in? But this seems so suspicious. How the hell did the door open if there’s no one around? The lights are off, too. Maybe I should just leave, this is crazy.

Ah, screw it. I need to find out what the hell is going on around here, and Professor Kusari may have some clues. Time to bite the bullet.

And with that thought, I step into his house, pushing the door open slowly. I seem to be in a small-sized living room, but with the lights off and it being dark outside, I can’t really make out any details. I shut the door behind me and fiddle around to find the lock, but then decide against locking it after all. I mean, what if I have to leave this place in a hurry for some reason? I don’t want to have to deal with the lock in the dark on my way out.

I summon my courage and call out in the dark, “Hello? Is anyone home?”

And of course, no response. I prepare to call out again, but a sudden loud creaking somewhere in the house causes me to lose my voice. My eyes have begun to adjust to the darkness, so now I can at least make out the furniture and where the walls and stuff are, but not much else. I hear another creaking sound. What is that?

I’m getting a really weird feeling. I can’t really explain it, but it feels like I’m being watched. From all over. My heart-rate picks up as my eyes dart around the living room, searching for the source of my trepidation. Even though it’s dark, if there is someone�"or something�"watching me, I should be able to see them! What the hell is going on?

I’ve become too afraid to even take another step into the house, but I’m also hesitant to turn around and walk back out the door. What did I come here for? Didn’t I decide to get to the bottom of this mess? There are still so many questions I don’t have the answers to: What happened to Professor Bradford? Why do only I remember him? What are those creatures that swallowed him up, and why did they come after me? And most importantly: what does Kusari know? He’s hiding something; I’m sure of it. I’ve come here to find out exactly what.

I swallow and take a couple more cautious steps into the house, but as soon as I do, a chill goes straight down my spine. It takes all my willpower not to yelp in surprise. What the hell was that!? I try to shake the sensation that something just passed through my body. I have this awful feeling that I’ve walked into some sort of trap; it’s as if I’m a fly stuck on a hungry spider’s web.  Despite my best efforts, I can’t even move anymore I’m so freaked out.

Wait a minute, fear isn’t what’s got me stuck; I literally cannot move a muscle anymore! My arms, my legs�"it’s no good! I can’t move any part of my body. The only part I can still move is my face. Yeah, ‘cause that’s gonna be a huge help to me right now.

I continue to struggle for a few moments in vain, my frustration quickly turning to intense panic. What the hell! What the hell! What the hell! Why can’t I move!? This is just like when that monster paralyzed me the other day! Is another one of those things gonna come and kill me while I’m stuck here like a sitting duck!? Damnit!

As I’m standing there ferociously struggling against my invisible shackles, something Atum once said suddenly occurs to me. He once told me that I have the ability to see things that others cannot, and that’s why I am able to see those monsters; that’s why I still remember Professor Bradford even when no one else does. He said I have the power to see beyond some veil or something. At the time, I hadn’t really understood him all that well, but now, after all that’s been happening recently, I think I may be starting to get what he was trying to tell me.

If I really have the ability to see things that are normally hidden, then maybe I can get myself to see whatever has me trapped here. If I can’t see what’s binding me, then I must just not be looking hard enough. I let out a breath as I close my eyes for focus. I can still feel something preventing me from moving, and it is making it somewhat hard to breathe, but it certainly isn’t squeezing me hard enough to suffocate me or anything. Besides the invisible restraints around me, I also still sense that I am being watched from multiple viewpoints at once. I clear my mind and try to “feel” out my surroundings with my mind’s eye, carefully tracing every nook and cranny of Professor Kusari’s living room.

As I traced over the room, I found some small spherical objects spread out around the room. I could almost feel a thread leading from my body back to each of them. They must be the things watching me.

I slowly open my eyes, and am immediately taken aback by what I see. There are glowing red chains wrapped around my body that seem to come from out of the walls. The chains don’t feel like normal metal chains, but are instead warm and pulsating, almost as if they were…alive. I take a quick look around the room to find out what the spherical objects I sensed earlier were. I’m greeted by the sight of several floating red eyes floating around the room, in the same places I sensed the spheres with my eyes closed. Gulp.

I guess when I felt I was being watched, it was because I was literally being watched. By floating eyeballs. Great. I knew I should’ve left when I had the chance. I’m not sure what kind of horrible death awaits me, but I’m not so sure I want to see it. Based on my current predicament, it’s really going to suck. I shut my eyes again; this time in frightful anticipation of…whatever is about to happen to me.

The thing is…nothing happens. At all. I just stand there waiting with my eyes closed, trying not to piss myself before I die, but I’m left completely unharmed. I tentatively crack an eye open when a familiar voice calls out to me,

“Oh, it’s you, Violet. So glad you could make it,” Professor Kusari says. His sardonic grin is almost audible.  

Suddenly the lights in the room come on, and after blinking a few times while my poor eyes adjust to the sudden change in lighting, I see him standing right in front of me. Kusari is surprisingly not wearing his customary black lab coat today. Instead he is wearing a black button-down shirt and black pants. He looks rather pleased for some reason. I don’t know why, but seeing this guy smiling down at me just rubs me the wrong way. Oh yeah, I know why, because I’m still freaking chained up!

“What the hell is going on here!? And what’s with these chains!? You better let me go! You’ve violated several laws here, a*****e. I could get you arrested for this!” I scream as I attempt to thrash about, which really just amounts to me wiggling around as I’m held in place by the chains.

The Professor’s look of satisfaction changes to one of beaming arrogance. “Hoh? Is that right? And just how exactly would you be able to explain this situation to the police?”

I hadn’t thought that far…“I-I, uh…”

“And besides, you’re in no position to be making threats, I’m afraid. I could easily make sure you never set foot outside of this house again. Then how would you propose to get me arrested, hmm?” he says with his evil shark-toothed grin.

“S-shut up!” He has a point. He could kill me or even just keep me captive in his house for an indefinite period of time.

“Furthermore, aren’t you the one who entered my house without permission?”

“It was unlocked!” I at least have that point.

Kusari looks up as he rubs his chin and says, “Ah, that’s right. I left it unlocked on purpose.”

I’m really annoyed by him at this point, but that makes me curious. “Why is that?”

His cold eyes return to me. “So that if we have any uninvited guests tonight, they will think twice about entering.” He glances over at his front door then back to me. “Good girl, you left it unlocked. Perfect.”

“Um…what the hell are you talking about?” I ask flatly. I’m really getting sick of how he’s having fun at my expense.

Kusari glances up at the floating eyeballs for a second�"so he sees them too after all�"then at me. He lifts a hand and holds it near my chest.

“W-whoa, hey! You’re not gonna touch me are y�"”

“Be quiet,” he cuts me off absentmindedly, as if he is in deep concentration. I notice that his eyes flash for a second, and then the next thing I know, he’s holding a chain-leash attached to a collar wrapped around my neck. The leash and collar seem to be made out of the same glowing chain stuff that is wrapped around my torso.

“Um, I’m not really sure how to say this, but…” I begin.

“Yes? What is it?” Professor Kusari responds.

“What the hell is going on right now?”

“Walk.” Kusari tugs on the leash, forcing me to start following him. We walk past the living room and head down a narrow flight of stairs that seem to lead to the basement.

“Professor? H-hello?” I call out to him, my voice shaking audibly. He ignores me and continues down the staircase, pulling me along with him.

“Don’t bother screaming for help. My basement is soundproofed.”

Remember that whole trying not to piss myself thing? I’m not so sure how much longer I’ll be able to avoid that.

“What’s going on!? What the hell are you going to do to me? I didn’t do anything wrong! Let me go! Why are you doing this!?” I scream as I try and break Kusari’s grasp on the leash by slamming his hand with my forehead. He doesn’t let go. Instead, he just yanks on the leash again, forcing me to fall into him. He makes me stand up again and continues to lead me down the stairs to my doom without breaking pace.

“Why are you doing this?” I ask again as a single tear falls from my eye.

He looks at me over his shoulder and grins like a predator that has caught its prey. “I’m afraid I’ll have to take your questions after the lecture.”

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

Let me know what you think! Also, please check out my novel Stardust!