Chapter dedicated to svckfr0mthemelt

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Blood curdling screams errupted from the lab. It shook me to my core. The few times I have heard Chris scream, it's never been like that. Never. I've figured out Ryan's plan for the most part, but it's fucking painful. Those coils he made Nikki and I install, they were used to create a massive electric field around Chris and the Walrider. As much as it was hurting that evil son of a bitch, it was also killing Chris.

"This is going to end one of two ways." Ryan admitted, "Either the Devil will use that energy to send the Walrider back to where it came from, or He'll give up on using Chris as a host and find someone else."

"And if that happens, what happens to Chris?" I asked.

He glanced up at me from where he sat on the floor. The look in his eyes told me my biggest fear. It was sorrowful, one that resisted confessing what we all expected. He didn't say anything. He didn't need to. The Devil's possession of Chris is the only thing keeping the Walrider from taking him. After He left Kuza, the creature didn't seem to care about him either. I'm not sure if he's after a host or after the Devil. Either way, we can't keep nearly killing people in trying to find out.

"For Angelo's sake, the Devil better step up." Ricky said.

"He better do it for all of us." I murmured, "I don't want to lose Chris."

Hot water is something people take for granted. To feel it run over my skin for the first time in weeks felt amazing. Solitary was so cold, I almost forgot what warmth felt like. I nearly staved in there, but even so, my figure was still pretty curvy. My dearest Kuza couldn't help himself either. I've become accustom to his touch. That's why I knew when I was approached from behind, it wasn't him. Hands sneaked up my ass as the water cascaded down it.

"Hey, Baby." A deep voice mused in my ear, "You're new."

"New to you." I scoffed as I pushed a tan colored hand off of me, "I don't want to be put back in the hole for fucking you up, so do us both a favor and fuck off."

Regardless of denying his pig advances, I also just wanted to enjoy my shower. We don't get a lot of time in here. Usually I've got someone to watch my back too. Just so happened that today, my attack dogs weren't here. Plus this asshole apparently doesn't understand I'm not one to fuck with. They all have to learn the hard way.

He shoved me forward into the tile wall. Yeah, I might be deadly, but I'm not strong enough to overpower someone stronger than me. Being in the hole meant I wasn't getting time to work out. I had no muscle on me anymore and I was rather small compared to how I prefer my body. He pulled my arms behind my back, resisting any attempts I made to get away.

"Feisty one." He teased.

I gritted my teeth, "Get off of me, you piece of shit."

Well, he did, but not by choice. Someone pulled him back. I turned around in time to see Chris deck him. For someone who's forced himself on several of his girlfriends, he didn't take kindly to rape inside the prison. Not a lot of people did, actually. Once their little fight brought attention to the situation, more people started to beat on the guy.

"You okay?" He asked me. Chris turned on the shower next to me, groaning as the water hit him.

"Yeah," I replied. It was hard to resist touching him because damn did he have a nice body. He doesn't admit it, but I know him and Angelo have something between them. Out of respect, I kept my hands to myself. "Are you?"

"Pissed." He replied simply, "Guards cut my visit with Ange short today. I didn't even-" He sighed, "Never mind."

"He'll come back." I optimistically responded. If I can't have hope for myself, I can at least give it to someone else.

"That's not the point, Dev." Chris slammed his fist against the wall. If it wasn't tile, he'd probably kick it too. "I just... Fucking... Goddamn it. I have to see these fucking walls day in and out. The one time a month I get to see a small glimpse of the outside world, they love to rob me of. It's fucking bullshit and I'm sick of it."

"I'm sorry." I looked up at the water of my shower, letting it fall onto my face. I closed my eyes, "I swear, one day, we're going to get out of this shithole."

"Yeah," He scoffed, "Right. The Great Escape."

The distinct sound of high heels against concrete echoed through the hold at a quick pace. Ashley's voice followed, calling, "Ange, please! Stop!"

She couldn't keep up with Angelo in high heels. He obviously had a head start on her, and he was pissed. I rarely see Angelo angry but when someone hurts his husband, you fucking bet he's going to be livid. Ashley was supposed to keep him far away from this. Instead, he's listening to his love's painful screams. Angelo shoved Ryan over on the ground, tightening his fists.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" He shouted at him.

He raised his fist but I quickly grabbed his wrist. "Ange, please." I pleaded, "I know it sounds bad right now but he is trying to help Chris. He's trying to help all of us."

Angelo gestured towards the door, yelling at me, "You fucking call that helping? Does that sound like helping?"

"Sometimes," I sighed, "The cure is more painful than the disease."

There was a fire in his icy eyes I'd never seen before. It was pure fucking anger. He looked like he wanted to pull my windpipe out of my throat. The only thing that stopped him from doing so was the power cutting out. It went nearly pitch black, aside from the lights of everyone's phones and the lasers of the scopes on our guns.

Ryan got to his feet and attempted to open the door to the lab. It didn't budge. He slammed his fist against it, exclaiming a very frustrated, "FUCK!"

"I'll check the passageway." I replied.

"Which one?" He asked.

I raised my eyebrow, "There's more than one? I meant the one on the second floor."

"Try, but I doubt it's open." He said.

It's still worth a fucking try. One of these days, I've got to get my hands on the blueprints for the lab. He's got to have fifty secret passageways I don't know about. I hurried upstairs, knowing someone was following me. Assuming it was Ricky, I didn't glance over my shoulder to look until I heard Manson call for Twiggy. Why the Hell was the little freak following me? Fuck, as long as he doesn't get in my way, what do I care?

"It's locked." I called down to Ryan once I reached the door.

"The hatch is too." He responded. His hand raised to his earpiece, "Can you two see anything?"

"No," Nikki spoke over the line, "Something came down over the windows. Some kind of metal cover."

"It's there for emergency lock downs. That explains why we can't get in." Ryan explained.

If anything good did come out of this, the screaming stopped. The power outage knocked out the coils. It didn't seem right, though. Why would the doors remained locked? That power didn't go out from the coils being turned up too high. It blew for a more supernatural reason, I'm guessing.

Twiggy's buggy eyes drawled across the room. He pointed up above the secret passage, muttering, "The vents."

I glanced up there. The grates that, for the most part, are covered up were showing a little. Maybe it was enough to be able to get in. I looked around, finding a small table to be able to stand on. It wasn't much but it'd have to do in an emergency. I tried to pull the grate off by myself. Unfortunately that wasn't working. Well, I don't have a screwdriver, but I do have a pistol.

It took a few bullets, considering I was aiming in darkness. The others must've gotten freaked out by hearing gunshots too. I was able to pull the grate off. It was still a tight hole to try to fit in. Yes, I realize how that sounded. C'mon, this is a serious life or death situation. No time for fucking sex jokes. Moving on.

"There's no way I could fit through there." I said as I walked over to the top of the stairs, "We need someone way smaller to do it."

Everyone seemed to instantly turn towards Ashley. She realized the looks she was getting and dramatically sighed. "Being short is great, they said. You're funsized, they said." She grumbled as she pulled her high heel boots off.

"At least it's not me this time." Ricky joked.

Ash shot him a dirty look, then came upstairs. Ryan followed to help. She climbed up on the rickety table I was using. I gave her an extra boost and she was able to pull herself up into the vent. My hope is she'll be able to unlock the door from the other side. If not, at least she can tell us what's going on in there.

"Oh, fuck." I heard her mutter.

"What'd you see?" I asked.

There was a pause before her response came, "You don't want to know... There's just a lot of... What the fuck... Blackness. Not darkness, actually blackness. I... I think Chris is unconscious. He's on the ground, at least."

"Can you see my desk?" Ryan asked.

"Y-Yeah, yeah, I can."

"There's a control panel next to my computer. The dark blue switch in the corner of the panel will unlock the doors. It's going to ask you for a passcode when you hit the switch. It's Bambi." He instructed her.

"Like the Disney movie?" She replied.

He sighed to himself, "Yeah."

I flashed him a sympathetic smile. He's never going to get over her. I'm convinced of that. Especially now that she's dead, and he blames himself for that. I glanced over at Twiggy, realizing he was getting uncomfortable. He was fidgeting and looked like he was about to explode from anxiety.

"Are you alright?" I asked him softly.

He shook his head frantically, "N-No... This can only end badly, th-this..."

The doors suddenly made a jolting noise. It started the both of us. Ryan moved aside the table and managed to get the passage door open. He rushed in and we both followed. When we reached the top of the stairs, Twiggy fell over on the ground. He grabbed his head, tangling his hands in his nest of hair. Ryan went to get the main door open while I knelt down to help him.

"Manson!" I called for him once the doors were opened.

If anyone could help Twiggy, it was him. They were no different than Angelo and Chris in those respects. Speaking of, Angelo rushed to his dearest husband's side. He knelt down beside his body, which laid on the floor unconscious. Manson picked up Twiggy and started to carry him out. He was babbling some shit about "the end" and creepy ass shit like that. At this point, I don't know what to take seriously and what to disregard as craziness.

"Is he...?" I couldn't even bring myself to ask.

Ricky knelt down beside Chris' body, feeling for a pulse. "He's alive." He said.

"Barely." Angelo's eyes darted up to Ryan, "Was this fucking worth it to you?!"

Ryan ignored him. I wish I was that skilled at blocking people out. He pulled up Chris' eyelids, revealing his eyes were pure black. It faded really fast but we all still saw it. I'm not sure we were meant to.

He groaned, "Get Angelo out of here." Ryan looked up at Josh, narrowing his eyes, "Now."

"Ry-"

"I said now!" He snapped, "You don't want him to see this."

Josh and Vinny grabbed him by his shoulders. Angelo tried to fight back but he was too upset to manage to get away. There was tears breaking out of his crystal eyes. I felt horrible, knowing how it feels to be dragged away from the love of your life. Ryan-Ashley followed them out and closed the door.

Ryan scurried over to one of his cabinets and grabbed a scalpel. He came back over to Chris and dropped on his knees. Taking the blade, he brutally sliced through both Chris' wrists. Blood began to flood out on the cold grey floor.

"Drain the disease." He muttered.

"The Walrider got to him?" I asked.

"Unfortunately. I'm just not sure this will make it leave. According to it's legend, it evolves. So, something that may have worked to kill it once may not a second time."

Ricky turned away for a moment. It was hard for him to see. He was practically looking in a mirror. Eventually, this thing has to run out of ways to kill it. When it does, we're pretty fucked. We're so far from fucked, it would take the light of fucked a million years to reach the earth. Chris raised his hand up to his head, pressing his fingers against his temple. He winced when he felt stress on his new cuts.

"Fuck." He groaned and let his head fall back on the ground.

Ryan sighed out of relief, "Get him into a bed for me. I don't want anyone else in here yet."

"I'm going to go check on the others." Ricky responded.

I carefully scooped Chris up. It was difficult to carry him because he's taller than me. Ryan's back was too fucked up to do it though. I was the only other one in the lab. Gently, I laid him down on the bed in the back. I got something to wrap up his wrists up. Ryan went back to his desk, most likely to start logging all this information. After a few minutes, he pushed himself away from his computer.

"I need to go speak with Reese. I'll be back soon. Nikki is still watching." He said, pointing towards the skylights.

Ryan headed out the door. I finished wrapping Chris' wrists, then returned the gauze to it's self. He sat up in his bed and eyed me. I was shocked he hadn't asked about Angelo. He didn't ask about anything, really. If I just woke up with my wrists sliced open, I'd like to know why. He got up from bed while I was reorganizing a few things on the shelf.

"Are you okay?" I asked suspiciously, "You really should be in bed."

"I'm fine. Perfectly fine." He purred.

He was concerning me. Especially after he just got possessed by pure evil. Chris suddenly shoved me into the shelving unit in front of me. He drew in a breath along my neck as his hands began ripping open my jeans.

"Ch-Chris," I grunted, trying not to moan. Normally I do enjoy this type of contact but he'd never do this to me without my permission. I tried to push him back, "What... The fuck, are you doing?"

"Shut up." He growled, dropping his tone to a vicious whisper, "You want it. You want it, you whore."

"Stop, fucking stop! This isn't you!" I yelled at him.

He threw his hand over my mouth, pulling my shirt up with the other. "I told you to shut the fuck up."

Chris moaned in my ear as he pressed his tight jeans into me. He ripped off my shirt and shoved me down to the floor. I started to try to get up to run, but he kicked me back down. He grabbed me by my throat and threw me into one of the exam tables. I struggled to get back on my feet. Once I did, he pushed me over the edge of the table. I tried to make it as visible as possible that I was struggling so Nikki would notice something was wrong.

"Ghost, tell me you're just playing hard to get." He spoke to me over the earpiece.

I managed to push Chris back enough to reply. Putting my hand to it, I told him, "Fuck no. This isn't Chris doing this though. He'd never-"

Chris slapped me across the face. It sent me spiraling onto the ground again. He pulled me up by my belt loop and tossed me back over the table. Apparently cutting his wrists certainly didn't work. I don't think the wounds even effected him.

"Fuck's going on?" Ryan hissed.

"Chris is beating the fuck out of Ghost. He's trying to fuck him." Nikki responded.

"Nothing's going to fix him." He said, "Take him out."

"Ryan, I'm not-"

He sharply interjected, "If you don't, I will."

"There has to be another way." Nikki insisted.

I'd want to believe that too. When I'm fighting for my life, it's hard to convince myself of that. By this point, Chris had gotten on top of me and was choking me. He was still trying to get my clothes off but I'm sure he didn't care if he had to fuck a dead body. I hit him upside the head. It barely phased him.

I heard the door slam open. My vision began to blur. Along with it, my strength began to diminish. For a moment, I swear I saw that fucking evil bastard over me instead of Chris. I started to black out. My ears were ringing so loud. I still managed to hear something I wish I hadn't. A second before I passed out, I heard a sharp gunshot pierce the air.