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Immortalized in Death
Copyright 2019 Albert Oon
Published by Albert Oon at Smashwords
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Chapter 1 – Die Forever with Me
Allie doesn’t live in anywhere special. The countryside she lives in isn’t known for producing the best crops or the best people, but it gets by. On one normal day, a strange girl with pink hair, white skin, and purple eyes showed up in a park while she was out. This girl has red bowie ties to hold up her pigtails, light blue eye linear, rosy red cheeks, and a pick schoolgirl dress with a red tie. The girl walks as if she glides across the ground and looks around as if she’s looking for a friend.
Being the girl she is, Allie goes up to the girl and introduces herself.
The girl smiles then says, “I’m Ellie. Do you want to be friends?”
“Okay! Let’s be friends!”
The girls quickly became best friends within a week. Ellie has a special ability to perform magic, which includes bringing plants and animals back to life and levitation. When other people saw her, they just assumed she was some kind of clown or performer because of the way she dressed. Allie thought more of her. The two of them were the bestest of friends in town.
On one day, Ellie asked, “Do you want to come over my house today? It’s tall, big, and a magical place.”
“I’d love to come over. Where is it?”
“It’s in the forest. You know you’re near it when you see the trees with the white leaves.”
“I’ll be there. Let me tell my parents first.”
Allie tells her step-parents about going over Ellie’s house, but she unintentionally leaves out the magical part of the house. Her parents trust their responsible daughter and let her go out. In the forest, Allie follows Ellie’s advice and finds the part of the forest with white trees. She’s never seen trees like this before. She hasn’t even heard of them being the area. Along with the weird white trees, there are flowers that grow on the trunk of the trees. The flowers themselves are pretty, however, they appear to have eyes in the center of them that follow Allie’s every move. She brushes this off as her imagination despite the lack of wind that could be blowing the flowers.
After going deeper into the forest, Allie finds a completely black and white house. The place doesn’t have many windows nor does the way to it appear to have been walked on recently. Wondering only about her friend, Allie knocks on the door while eagerly waiting. A noise inside that sounds like screaming makes Allie jumps, but then her friend opens the door.
Allie assumes the noise was the creaky door then says, “Hi, Ellie. This is a nice place you have here.”
“It’s great. I’m so glad you showed up. Come in.”
Once Allie walks into the house, her photo is taken by a creature with a camera for an upper body. It then crawls up to the ceiling before Allie can get a good look at it. She feels weak now as it feels as if all of her energy was drained from her.
“What was that?” Allie asks as she looks at her photo on the ground.
Ellie takes the photo from her and says, “It was just one of the many pets I have here. It snaps the photo of everyone who comes in here, so I have something to remember their first visit by.”
The interior of the house is nothing but black and white just like the exterior. Light can’t penetrate the windows, nor can it illuminate the dark spots within the building. The white lights on the candles barely light up the house.
“Do you have other friends?”
“I do.”
“Are your parents home?”
“They are, but they’re busy right now. Let’s eat lunch. They prepared it for us.”
“That’s nice of them. I can’t wait to meet everyone.”
“They’re excited to meet you too.”
Ellie opens the door to the dining hall. A large table is filled with various meats, fruits, vegetables, and desserts. The aroma from the room is intoxicating to Allie.
“Go ahead. Guests first,” Ellie says with a smile.
Allie eagerly steps into the room. The door slams behind her, and now the room seems much smaller.
“Ellie? What’s going on?” Allie says as she starts banging on the door. “Huh?”
The door feels like a solid wall now. Another large noise makes the room close in more. It’s obvious now that this is just an empty room and not a dining hall.
“Haha, you got me, Ellie. This is a cool magic trick you got. You can let me out now.”
The walls slowly begin to close in.
“You’re really starting to scare me. Let me out!”
No matter how much she pleads Ellie to stop the walls, she doesn’t respond.
“Please, Ellie! You’re my best friend, aren’t you?”
As soon as she calls Ellie her best friend, the walls stop. Allie sighs in relief only for her to be squashed in an instant.
“AAAAAAHHHHHH!”
Allie wakes up in a completely white room in the house. There are several other beds with children in them except these children don’t appear to be lively. They have white skin like Ellie, but their eyes are hollow with a permanent smile on their face. Allie is startled by this but is afraid to move because she is surrounded. The children go back to sleep, which makes Allie comfortable enough to get up.
When she enters the hallway, she finds more kids walking around from room to room. The hallway has candles with white flames on them to give it light. Hung up on the walls are pictures of children and young adults. It appears that their photo was taken by surprise, just like Allie.
She follows the children to a real dining hall this time with the food she previously saw. At one of the tables, she finds Ellie except she is all black and white and is wearing a striped schoolgirl dress.
Allie walks up to her friend and asks, “Ellie, what happened to you?”
Her friend turns to her with a frozen smile and says, “I’m always like this. I’m glad you asked about me first despite what I did to you.”
“What do you mean?”
“This house is ruled by mother who wishes to have all kinds of children for herself. She immortalizes them in death so no one in here can truly die. I’m just her favorite puppet that she uses to lure in people. What you saw of me was nothing but a hollow shell that I possessed.”
“Why is she doing this?”
“She wants to keep as many children away from death as possible even though she technically kills you when you first came in.”
“I actually died?!”
“The body that you came in with did. Your blood is tied to the picture that was taken of you. If you can get that and destroy it, then you can escape, but if you die after that, your soul belongs to the master of the house forever.”
“Who is the master of the house?”
“He is the one who gave mother her power. All I know is that you should watch out for the black cat in the house.”
“Where can I find my photo?”
“Deep within the halls of the house, but various traps will try to kill you. I don’t say this to everyone, but be careful, Allie. Dozens of kids have tried to escape, and no one has escaped. Most give up before they reach their photo. I think you should just accept your fate and stay here. We have friends, food, and loving parents.”
“Loving parents don’t kidnap the souls of kids. I’m going to leave here and go back home.”
“Go ahead and try Allie. I’ll be waiting for you at your bedside.”
Allie walks out of the room and wanders the house until she finds her way to a large art gallery with various pictures in them. These pictures are of other children, the black and white children, and creatures, one of which is the creature that took Allie’s photo. Now that she has a better look at it, she can see that the only color in it is the red in its eye.
Wandering through the art gallery, she finds that some of the pictures move by themselves as if people are trapped in them. A closer look reveals this to be the truth with people screaming in them in bursts as if they were in Hell. Above these pictures are the caption “Naughty child”. A snake-like creature with barbed wire on its body catches Allie’s attention as it goes from one picture to the next. She cautiously walks through the gallery, however, she doesn’t pay attention to the art and gets ensnared by the barbed wire snake and is taken into a picture. The barbed wire strings her up in a tight photo frame and cuts off her limbs before cutting off her head.
“AAAAAAHHH!”
“Welcome back, Allie,” Ellie says with her frozen expression. She waits for her friend to catch her breath before asking, “It was painful, wasn’t it? All of the ways you can die here are painful.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m going to escape here no matter how many times I die. Why don’t you join me?”
“I gave up years ago.”
“Years ago? How long have you been here?”
“I don’t know. Maybe a generation or three of kids? Anyway, I’m glad that you thought about me. Most usually hate me once they know what I did to them.”
“I don’t hate you, Ellie. I want to get us out of here.”
“You can try all you want. I’ve given up already and accepted my life here.” Ellie holds Allie’s hand. “Please. You’re the only one here I care about on the same level as mother. I don’t want to see you suffer.”
“I won’t. Have a little faith in me.”
“I don’t know what that’s like.”
“Then you’re going to see.”
Allie gets up and goes through the art gallery again. She finds the picture of her death on the walls, which plays it repeatedly. The feeling it gives me makes her sick, so she turns away from it and hopes that nothing like that ever happens again. This time through the gallery she manages to avoid the painting creature. Unfortunately, she doesn’t find her photo in the room, so she goes to the next one.
The next room has a collection of dolls in them. They are all posed differently with some squirming in place with blood leaking out of their eyes and the cracks in their skin. Not wanting to take any chances with these dolls, Allie moves around the room carefully to see what they will do. Oddly enough, nothing happens. When Allie moves to the next room, she exits out of the closet that was in her room.
“What?” she says in a surprised voice.
Ellie, who is still sitting by her bedside, says, “You made it through the first set of rooms. I’m surprised you made it past the doll room.”
“I wasn’t going to take any chances there. I moved as carefully as I could, and I always had my eyes on them.”
“That’s probably why. They’re set to attack anything that moves and they also respond to not being looked at. If you want to go to the next room, you have to go back through your closet. Why don’t you take a rest? You have all the time in the world.”
“I guess there’s no harm, but no funny business.”
“Oh, there won’t be.”
Allie sits at the dining table and looks at the food available. The table is as long as the room and is set up as a buffet. Despite the small crowd of kids taking the food, it automatically replenishes out of thin air. Allie takes the chicken and a salad with caution and eats it in the same manner.
“So?” Ellie asks, “How do you like it?”
“It’s delicious!”
Allie thinks there might be something more to it and coughs some of it out.
“There isn’t any magic in it if that’s what you’re thinking.”
The sound in Ellie’s voice appears to be honest, so Allie eats. She tries every that looks appetizing until she realizes that she’s been eating for a while now.
“I knew there was something to this food,” Allie says as she pushes her plate aside.
“This isn’t any magic at all. I would know. It’s just that your home doesn’t have food like this place. Why do you want to leave this place? Isn’t it nice here? You have always delicious food on the table, there’s always a new friend to make, and we can’t die. I’m not good at making friends, but since you’re here, I finally have a friend.”
“I don’t want to make my family and friends back home worry.”
“Who cares about them now? You have me with you.”
“I can’t always be with you, Ellie. I have to give other people my love and attention.”
“Why? I need more attention than your friends and family. I don’t have anyone who loves me like you do and mother.” Ellie hugs Allie. “My lack of friends is the reason why mother and the master convinced me to be their lure for them. Every single kid hated me after I brought them here except for you. Please. If you get back your blood then die, I’ll have no one to be with.”
“I promise it won’t be that way. Excuse me.”
Allie walks out of the room then sighs. She walks into her room and into the closet to continue her search for her picture. The room she finds herself in is a large toy room with various toys that are twice the size of her. The room is as large as two backyards while the toys appear to be cute and cuddly and looking at them makes Allie want to play with them. What’s most different about this room is that it has actual color to it with no black, whites, or even greys in sight. There are other kids in the room and they’re playing with the toys and taking them out of it. Everything here appears to be safe, but Allie resists the urge to play with the toys. Her desire to touch them weighs heavily on her, which gives her the impression that the toys must have magic in them.
The more she resists them, the more she wants to touch and hug the toys. Allie has never seen toys like the ones she sees in the room. Elegant dolls, fluffy stuffed animals, and detailed figures. The further she goes into the room, the more appealing toys she sees. By the time she reaches the next door, she’s sweating with dozens of toys surrounding her. It’s as if they’re begging her with their stare to play. Allie forces herself to go into the next room.
This next room isn’t as cute, appealing, or large as the last. Instead, it’s a library with rows and rows of books. The are three floors with different sections of various books from around the world that covers every genre imaginable. Some of the books in the library are rare ones with few copies existing outside of the house. The colors are no longer colorful as they were in the toy room. Now they are filled with the normal colors of a library with browns, blacks, and white lights to illuminate the room.
Still feeling the after-effects of the toy room, Allie stumbles around the room while darting her eyes around for possible danger. A snake with a barbed wire body comes out from the bookcase with a book for a face. When it opens its pages, a blank face with a smile shows itself.
“Let me tell you a story,” it says as it envelops Allie into its pages. “This is the story of the little mermaid.”
Allie is now dressed as the little mermaid and the scenery around her manifests as the creature talks about it.
“She wants to get the prince, but his heart is taken by another. At the wedding ceremony, she decides to dance her best for their happiness. Dance little mermaid, dance your sorrows away.”
Allie remembers this story differently, but she dances as the creature says to. What she forgets is that the little mermaid feels as if she’s walking on knives, which is one of the prices of walking with human legs. Allie too feels this pain in her legs but bears through it until things start to change.
“After all the pleasantries, the little mermaid is told that she doesn’t have to die. If she can kill her prince and his wife, she can live. She is handed a knife to carry out the deed. Will she?”
Knowing her story, Allie tosses away the knife and jumps into the ocean and out of the story. Back in the library and her normal body, she takes more care of where she’s walking. The storybook serpent comes out of the shelves again.
It says, “Let me tell you a story.”
She tries to avoid it, but the serpent catches her no matter how fast she runs.
The serpent says, “This is the story of Alice in Wonderland. She has just cried a river of tears and must dry herself off by running a race with several other animals.”
Allie starts to run with the animals but is having a hard time to because of her wet dress.
“It looks like Alice needs more motivation.”
The river of tears floods into the forest Allie is running in. Distracted by the sight, Allie trips and is caught up by the river of tears, which turns into a river of teeth that chews her up.
After her excruciating death, Allie wakes up screaming on her bed with her best friend ready to embrace her.
As Ellie embraces Allie, she says, “Stops this Allie! I was hoping that the toy room would hypnotize you so you would at least stay here for a while, but you had to go and die again!”
Allie pushes Ellie away and gets out of her bed.
“I’m not going to give up! You’re not my best friend if you want to keep me here for the rest of eternity!”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about Allie! I am your best friend because we can spend forever here without a care or worry!”
Ignoring Ellie’s words, Allie walks back into the closet. She makes it through the toy room again the same way she did last time with the same level of difficulty despite her going through it already. In the library, the story book serpent gets her again. Allie now has it in her mind that she has to go through the stories the serpents put her through. That would explain why this room is smaller and looks easier to get through than the past ones.
The serpent says, “Let me tell you a story. This is the story of little red riding hood. She goes to deliver some things for her grandma, but the wolf has eaten her and taken her place in the grandma’s bed. Little red riding hood doesn’t know this as she enters her grandma’s house.”
Because of what was said, Allie has a foggy head as to what happens in the story.
“Come sit next to me,” the wolf says.
Allie does this. She wonders why her grandma looks so different and remembers that her real grandma doesn’t live in the woods. Instead, her real grandma lives by the shore. She remembers that her grandma told her a version of this story. Once she remembers everything, she takes a knife from her skirt and cuts the wolf’s throat and makes him into a coat.
“That’s not exactly how it’s supposed to go, but whatever. I’ll just add it to my collection.”
The storybook serpent lets Allie go. Disappointingly, she doesn’t take her wolf coat with her. Further into the library, another storybook serpent catches Allie.
“Let me tell you a story. A young woman marries a man with a blue beard. This man appears to be very ugly, but he is wealthy and has status within the country. The two are married and the woman is allowed to go into any one of his rooms within the castle except for the one she has a key for. What will she do?”
Allie is standing in front of the door she isn’t meant to go into. Without thinking, she goes into the room and finds the decapitated bodies of many young women along with various bloody tools and torture devices that were used to kill them. Allie takes a machete from the tool rack and finds her husband who is currently sleeping and cuts off his head. She then shaves off his blue beard.
“That’s not exactly how it’s supposed to go, but I liked it. I’m going to add it to my collection. I feel anxious for the man you are going to marry.”
Allie is let go out of the story book but wastes no time in getting trapped by another one.
“Let me tell you a story. There is a woman who loves to dance in a pair of red shoes. Unfortunately for her, she can’t stop dancing. What will she do?”
Knowing the painful thing she has to do, Allie tells a nearby executioner to cut off her feet and he does. The shoes keep dancing with her feet in them and dance away from her. The executioner tells her that she has suffered enough because of the shoes. Allie knows she has to go to church and does. Her old feet try to block her from entering, but she throws them aside and makes it into the building and out of the story.
Once she’s out of the story, Allie gets her feet back and she appears back in her room.
“Did…did I beat it?” Allie asks aloud.
“…You did, Allie,” Ellie responds.
“That means I’m close to my photo! I have to get back in-”
“Stop!” Ellie throws a knife that cuts Allie’s right arm. “You aren’t going to leave me. I don’t care if I have to pin you to the bed with knives. I don’t care how many times I have to kill you. I want you to stay with me forever. Please!”
“Oh no…”
Ellie has Allie trapped in place. Allie tries to open the closet, but Ellie throws another knife close to her hand.
“The next one goes in your head then you know where you’ll end up,” Ellie states with a chilling seriousness with her face accurately representing her anger and sorrow, “I’ll put my knives in your feet and hands and keep you here until you learn that you belong here with me.”
“Ok…fine. You got me.”
“Finally!” Ellie hugs Allie and heals her cut. “We’re going to be friends forever. Let’s go sit outside for a bit.”
Allie and Ellie sit outside on the balcony of the house. They can see the entire forest from where they’re at. Ellie clings to Allie’s side the entire time in blissful silence with her one hand holding a knife to Allie’s neck and the other holding Allie’s hand.
Ellie says, “I’m just going to stay like this for a while to feel safe that you’re going to stay with me. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.”
In her mind, Allie hasn’t given up. She’s thinking up a plan to get away from Ellie. It takes her a little while, and she doesn’t like the plan, but it’s the only one she has.
She says to Ellie, “Do you want to grab something to eat? I’m starting to crave some of that strawberry shortcake I saw.”
“That’s my favorite thing to eat. Let’s go!”
At the dinner table, the two eat strawberry shortcake in the same position they were outside with Ellie still holding onto Allie with knives in her hands. A few of the kids are too afraid to ask why they’re like this while the rest don’t care as they endlessly stuff their faces.
Before Allie can do anything, Ellie says, “I never told where I came from. Do you want to know?”
“Sure.”
Allie thinks to enact her plan when Ellie completely wrapped up in her story.
“I came from a really poor family from the city. We never had much to eat or drink, and my parents were always sad. They always talked about how they were going to take care of me and my future. I swear they cried every night, even though they were always smiling when I looked at them. I decided to end their worries for me and ran away into the white forest. That’s how I got here.”
“Are you sure your parents wouldn’t be more worried after you left?”
“They might’ve been, but I’m sure they’re happier now without a daughter to drag them deeper down into poverty.”
“How long ago was that?”
“It must’ve been almost three decades by now. I don’t know and I don’t care. I let that go a while.”
“How does time work here?”
“It goes by a little faster than normal time last time I heard.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“That means if you were to leave now, you would be older than what you were when you came in. I didn’t mention that to you because I thought it would make you want to leave me more, but now, you’re going to be with me forever.”
Ellie lets down her guard and kisses Allie’s cheek with cream covered lips. Allie uses this opportunity to stab her fork and knife into Ellie’s eyes to blind her. As Ellie screams out in pain and wildly flails around with her knives, Allie moves away from her. The kids who hate Ellie go after her and start stabbing her to death.
One of the kids says, “Go! We’ll protect you!”
Allie runs out of the dining room and into the bedroom where Ellie gets out of her bed and goes after Allie. The kids distract Ellie as Allie goes into the closet and into the next room she needs to go through. It’s a nursery colored in a bright white where dozens of children are being nursed and played with by giant women with the body of a caterpillar. These women have permanent smiles on their faces. They nurse their children with endless gifts, food, and milk that comes out of the holes in their bodies.
One of them notices Allie and goes after her. It says, “Come to me little one. Let me take care of you.”
The large caterpillar goes after Allie while shooting a sticky substance at her. It’s a mad sprint as Allie goes from one end of the room to the other while using the other caterpillars and her surroundings as cover to get to the other room. She manages to reach it and enters a completely black room. The center of the room has a huge woman with eyes all over half her body with a mouth on the bottom hanging from the ceiling. When her eyes focus on Allie, the place where she is becomes illuminated.
“I see you,” the woman says.
The mouth on the woman’s lower half descends from the ceiling and makes its way towards Allie current position.
Ellie appears in the room and says, “You can’t see in this room, but mother lets me see perfectly! I’m coming for you, Allie!”
“Dang it.”
Allie goes through a different path from the mouth but can’t see where she’s going. It’s clear now that she’s in a maze and the only way she can see is if the woman in the middle looks at her. The places where the mouth travels are illuminated as well, which shows that the exit is below the woman. The mouth itself goes to where Allie was first spotted, so it doesn’t follow her and seems to only go where she is spotted. Once it retreats back to the woman, Allie follows it back to the woman, but it lunges at her as she follows it. She manages to keep a safe distance until Ellie reaches her.
“You’re going to stay with me forever!” Ellie screams as she runs after Allie with her knives.
“Stay away from me, Ellie!”
Allie tries to go around the mouth but is caught by its mouth as it curves to catch her. It holds her in its teeth as Ellie approaches.
“No! Stop this Ellie! It doesn’t have to be this way!”
“Yes, it does.”
“No, please! Please!”
Allie’s pleas don’t stop Ellie from violently stabbing her to death. When Allie awakes from her bed, she rolls to the side to avoid Ellie’s knives. She then takes them and stabs Ellie’s eyes again then backs off.
Ellie swings around wildly with her knives while saying, “Why?! Why would you want to go back to a life full of suffering and sadness?!”
“Because I have people worried about me. People that have helped me become who I am. I didn’t tell you before, but I’m adopted.”
Ellie stops swinging her knives.
“You’re adopted?”
“My original family was burned to death by a bunch of foreign bandits. I found those bandits and cut their throats. That didn’t help me at all. I felt ashamed of myself and slept on the streets for days by myself. It was only when a traveling couple found me was, I adopted. Even though I was bloody and dirty, they took me in and cared for me as if I was their real daughter. That’s why I never referred to them as stepmother or father. They taught me how to be a nice and proper lady. They’re the reason why I’m still alive today and I don’t want to keep them worried about me!”
Ellie hangs her head down in silence then drops her knives. Allie waits a moment to see what she’s going to do before going back into the closet. She passes through the caterpillar room the same way she did before and enters the maze room again. This time she uses her sense of touch to guide her through the maze. She holds her hand against the wall while looking at the woman in the center who knows where she is based on noise rather than her eyes despite her appearance. Allie draws a mental image of the map in her head as she navigates it.
It takes her a little while, but Allie manages to get to the end. As she touches the final door, Ellie appears behind her.
“Allie!”
The woman on the ceiling focuses in on Allie and lowers her mouth towards her. Allie quickly goes through the door and is sucked into it just as the mouth is about to catch her. She falls sideways for a little while before coming to a full stop to a photo of herself hanging in a dark room. When she pulls the photo down, it makes a clicking noise, which turns on a light to reveal a wall filled with countless photos of children. Startled by the sight, Allie backs away and into someone who puts their arms around her. Looking at the person, it’s a woman with the faces of children on her skirt. The woman has a dark grey scarf that goes from her neck to the inside of her mask that has a pretty face with a smile on it. Her long white hair comes out a small hole on the back of her head.
Allie asks the woman, “Are you the mother?”
“I am, sweetie. I am impressed that you managed to get your photo. It’s been a long while since the last of my children accomplished such a feat. Bravo!”
“I’m not your child.”
“You are whether you know it or not, and not just my children, but my most precious child. I’ve heard your story and your soul should be as rotten as my master’s, but yours shines like the stars.”
“I’m leaving whether you like it or not. You can tell your master that.”
“He’s always been watching you, my dear. He isn’t able to touch you because of your glowing spirit and your angel that protects you, however, we will have you if you die. Think about that before choosing to move on.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“Think about your friend, Ellie then. She’s never been so attached to someone until now. Right now, she’s an emotional wreck. I’ve tried to get the other children to calm her down, but she’s killed them all. Repeatedly. If you leave here, she’ll suffer for all eternity.”
“I’ll rescue her from this place then.”
“I’m afraid you can’t. She and the other children, who have pledged their soul to my master and me, will all suffer if you escape the house. It was their choice. They were old enough to know what they were getting into and they’re going to live with that decision for the rest of eternity. Think about that before if you manage to get to the exit.”
Once the mother lets go of her, Allie appears back in her room with Ellie crying in the corner. The exit is so close but feels so far now. There’s only one more decision to make that will decide Allie’s fate and the fate of the rest of the children stuck in this house, and she’s already made up her mind.
Her mind is already made up. Allie breathes in and out a couple times before looking at her photo. It bleeds blood that infuses itself into her, which fills her with life and strength. She then looks at the girl she used to easily call her best friend.
Allie approaches her and says, “I’m going, Ellie. Goodbye. I hope your immortality was worth it.”
“…Is that all you’re going to say to me? Is that all I really mean to you?”
“If you were really my friend or even a good person, you wouldn’t have sold your soul or brought me here. I don’t hate you. I’m not even mad at you. I just pity you.”
Ellie sits in silence for a second before lunging at Allie with her knives. Allie catches Ellie’s hands before the knives can touch her.
“If you don’t want to here, then I’ll force you to! Mother will make you be with me forever! I deserve it after all the people I brought here. You’re her special child, so she has to reward me. You’re never going to leave me, Allie!”
Allie turns the knives on Ellie and sticks her hands to the wall.
“I’m leaving here, and this place is going to disappear!”
“I’m going to come after you, Allie! You will be my best friend forever!” Ellie begins to sob again. “What’s wrong? What’s so wrong with wanting a best friend to always be with?!”
“Because all you care about is yourself. You don’t care about the people you kidnap or me.”
“I love you, Allie!”
“You don’t love anyone but yourself!”
Ellie excessively cries as she falls to her knees with her hands still stuck in the wall. For safety, Allie takes a couple knives from her. She then walks away from her former best friend and into the closet for the last time. This last room she enters is rusted and covered in blood. The heat in the room makes it feel like a furnace. Allie collects herself one last time before moving forward. She hears something that sounds like wet meat walking around.
When she turns the corner, two mouths fused at the jaw. She backs away as the jaws close down on the corner and crush it. A monster turns the corner and reveals itself to be a horrible monstrosity. Its head is composed of four mouths fused at the jaw with one huge mouth in the center. The same is true for the back. Its legs are two fused mouths while its body is hunched up like a dog. Not wanting to give this monster a second to attack, Allie throws one of her knives into its main mouth then slides under it while cutting its belly. She then mounts it and stabs it until it collapses as her hunting experience with her father pays off. The monster spazzes out on the floor as it clings to life.
Allie runs away from the monster and comes across a dead end with a large boiling pot of lava at the end.
She says aloud, “There’s no other place to go. This place is just one short corridor with a monster at the end. It’s no wonder why no one managed to escape.”
The mother, Ellie, the monster, and a black cat approach Allie.
“It’s over, Allie. Since you’re so special, I’ll give you one last chance to submit to my master and me. You’ll be spared a painful death and you can live forever with your best friend. Doesn’t that sound nice, sweetie?”
Allie thinks about it for a second before putting her hand on the boiling pot.
She responds, “No.”
She then tips over the boiling pot, which releases the fires of Hell. The fires quickly burn the house along with everyone in it except for the souls who didn’t submit to the master and Allie. The black cat and the mother try attacking Allie while burning but the fires prevent them from doing anything but burning in suffering. The monster is turned to ashes while Ellie burns like the mother.
She reaches out to Allie and says, “Please, Allie! Take me with you!”
“I can’t, Ellie.”
“Then tell me that God will forgive me, and He’ll save me!”
“God forgives the living, not the dead. You’ve already past your period of grace. The door to mercy is shut in your face and you’re the one who did it.”
Ellie screams in anger at Allie as she walks away. A path is opened for Allie as she makes her way out of the house. Along the way, she passes by the other monsters she saw with the other burning souls. Once she leaves the house, she sees that the house turns into a pillar of fire. She can still hear her former friend and the rest of the souls screaming, so she walks away as the fire from the house spreads to the trees with white leaves.
In the sky, Allie sees the freed souls dancing among the stars until they disappear and move on to Heaven. When she steps foot away from the trees with white leaves, she looks back to see a burning blaze. Even at this distance, she can still hear screaming. The fire from the house doesn’t spread to the normal parts of the forest and is contained by an invisible force.
Right now, it is raining, so Allie hurries back to her house. While running, she comes across a puddle. In her reflection, she can see that she’s now a young woman.
She still has the same dress and hair ornaments she wore as a child. Tears come to her eyes over her lost childhood. She bears her pain and moves on. Further into the forest, she sees a familiar man with hunting equipment. The two stop to look at each other as they slowly approach each other.
“Allie?” the man says with a quivering voice.
“Daddy?” she responds in a similar voice.
The two rush to embrace each other before her dad kisses the forehead of his adopted daughter repeatedly.
“Where have to been for the past few years?” he asks, “The entire town has been searching for you. Some of them thought you were dead, but your mom and I knew better.”
“It’s a long story, daddy.”
Allie explains the story to her dad as she leads him to the large fire in the forest. Since her daughter is always honest, he believes her. They spread the tale to the town, and they honor Allie as a hero. A funeral is held for all of the children who died and didn’t submit to the mother and her master. The fire in the forest is still burning and turns into a popular tourist attraction that brings much-needed attention to the small town so it can prosper.
A passing family hears of the tale and inquires about Ellie. It turns out that Ellie’s family has been searching for her ever since she left. They’re sad to learn of her fate but relieved to hear the news so they can let go of the past. They are accepted into the community despite their daughter’s actions. As for Allie, she makes up for the time she lost. She already went through one tragedy and recovered from it, and she wasn’t going to let another keep her down.
The End
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