CHAPTER III
Vincent had left close to three hours
earlier for whatever occupation he happened to have, and in the meantime I had
continued mending the large dagger holes that had been made in my clothing. It
had taken me close to an hour to clean the remaining blood stains out of them,
and the sewing was taking equally as long, if not longer. My fingertips had
become covered with small needlepricks, and every couple of seconds I found
myself licking the blood from my hands. The apartment had turned chillingly
quiet, with the exception of the eerie chiming of the grandfather clock in the
hallway, but it had lightened up quite a bit, and through the window I could see
that the snow storm had finally stopped.
I exhaled a breathless sigh, then let out
a quiet, "Ouch!" as I accidentally stabbed myself with the needle
again. I flipped a loose strand of my blond hair over my shoulder and continued
sewing, then immediately stopped as I felt a foreboding jerk shoot through my
veins, causing my to drop everything in my hands. I stared blankly down at my
fallen clothing, then slowly turned towards the window.
".............Someone’s here..........." I whispered softly,
gradually shifting to my feet and slowly walking over towards the pane of glass.
"...............I don’t know how I can tell.......but I can feel
them........Who is it....?"
I pressed my hand up against the window
and gazed downwards, surveying the surrounding landscape. The road was strangely
deserted, and even the snow lining the pavement remained unusually untouched.
Nothing stirred, even though I could feel the glass shudder beneath my palm from
a passing breeze, and gradually my vision fell to the small graveyard. I emitted
an internal gasp as I spotted the form of a man, probably in his mid-twenties,
with short black hair and clad in a heavy ebony coat, sitting atop one of the
gravestones and staring up at me. As soon as he noticed my presence at the
window, he slowly raised his hand and motioned for me to come down.
Immediately I drew back, clasping a hand
over my heart and trying to stop my quivering, then gradually forced myself to
take a trembling step forward and peer downwards once again. The man no longer
sat on the memorial, but I could see fresh footprints in the snow leading
straight towards the door of the building I was in.
I exhaled a terrified gasp and stumbled
backwards, lifting a hand to my mouth and listening to my heart pound in my
ears. Why am I so afraid...? I thought nervously, gazing out through the
window. I....I don’t even know who he is....Why is my heart beating so
fast....?
I whirled towards the door as a loud
knocking came, not from that one but from another seemingly down a flight of
steps beyond it, and froze immediately in place. ".............What does he
want from me....?" I choked in fear, my voice cracking, as I gradually
approached the door with quivering steps. "........What does he
want......?"
With shivering fingers I slowly seized the
doorknob, hesitated, then speedily tore open the door and gazed outside. As I
had suspected, it led out to a short flight of carpeted steps, which fell to a
small landing and then curved around the wall and disappeared from my field of
vision. I covered my mouth with my hand again as another knock came from the
bottom of the stairway, somewhere below the wall to my left. I held my breath
and cautiously leaned forward, attempting to hear any further noise, but silence
had suddenly ensued. My bare feet felt cold against the icy metallic threshold,
and a frigid breeze fluttered up the stairwell, echoing softly like an unseen
phantom.
There was a pause, and then suddenly a
deep, amused voice came from the doorway below. "........Allie, I know
you’re there. You can stop pretending you don’t think I hear you."
A terrified gasp escaped my lips, and I
immediately stumbled backwards and had to cling to the doorpost for support. I
staggered clumsily back onto balance, then leaned forward into the stairwell
once again. ".....Who.....who’s there?!"
"......................Just come
down, Allie, I want to talk to you."
"Who are you?!" I shouted
unsteadily, praying that my voice wouldn’t crack from fear. "What do you
want?!!"
"Just come down here, Allie. I
won’t hurt you."
"Who said my name is Allie?!"
"I know it is."
I drew backwards into the apartment,
clutching my heart in terror. Why am I so afraid...? I thought again in
panic, swallowing hard and flexing my shaking fingers. I don’t know
him......how does he know my name....?! "Get out of here!!" I
yelled down at him, my voice reverberating on the walls around me. "I
don’t know who you are, but you’d better leave, now!! My friend Vincent’s
gonna be back soon, and he’ll--"
"He’s not coming back. You know
that as well as I do. He won’t be coming home for at least another couple of
hours. C’mon, give me some credit here, Allie."
"Stop calling me that!!"
"What would you rather I call
you?"
I fell back into the apartment once more,
then managed to seize the door, even though it trembled in my faltering grip.
"...He’s insane..." I assured myself in a shaking voice. "Just
some drunk, that’s all.....You know this, Allie, he just staggered in from
some bar and is murmuring involuntarily....."
"Don’t shut the door, Allie,"
the voice from the stairwell told me, and immediately I froze in place.
"You can’t hide from me. I know where you are, every second. I know
everything about you. You can’t get away from me. That idiot Vincent you were
talking about sure seems to be absent-minded--he left this morning and didn’t
even close the main door down here completely; there’s only a screen door, and
I’ll break it down if you leave."
".....Are......are you insane??!"
I screamed despondently, forcing myself to remain on balance by leaning against
the postern. "What the hell do you want from me?? I call the goddam police,
you miserable--"
"...I wouldn’t do that if I were
you, Allie."
"Shut up!!" I cried,
covering my hands with my ears. "I don’t know who you are and this point
really don’t give a damn, but I want you out of here, now!! I’ll call the
police, I swear to God I will--"
"No, you won’t," he
interrupted me. "If you do, I’ll come up there. I’ll break down this
screen door and come up and get you. I don’t want to do that, Allie, come down
here and make things easier on both of us."
My hands.....they had turned so
cold.....and the bathrobe I wore....had it always been so soaked with sweat?...
I couldn’t stifle the shuddering that had now spread throughout my entire
body, and when I spoke again I could hear how tight my voice had become.
"That’s it, leave now!! You psycho freak, if I ever catch you around here
again--"
"I’m not leaving unless you come
with me."
Something about the way his tone never
changed made my blood freeze over. He was so unmovingly calm, so undeterred by
my increasing panic that my hands had turned clammy against the doorframe.
"Leave now, do you hear me??! I’m not going to tell you again--"
"Come down here to me and I’ll
leave." There was a soft squeaking noise, as if he were leaning against the
screen door, and his voice sounded reasonably taunting. "Allie, you
wouldn’t want anyone else to get hurt, would you?"
I blinked, drawing back. ".....Wh...what...?"
"I know about them all--Damien, Ryo,
Hiro, Will, Claude, the rest of those homeless bastards you hang around with--I
know every single one of them. You can’t hide anything from me, Allie. If you
don’t come down now, I’ll kill them. I’ll track them all down and destroy
them, one by one."
I backed up, staring blankly towards the
bottom of the immediate staircase as if he were in view.
".....You’re....you’re crazy.....if...if you think for one minute
I’ll believe any stupid threat like that--"
"....Just a threat, eh...? Care to
test the theory, Allie...?"
I felt tears of dread welling up in my
eyes, and I held my shaking hands against me. ".....Y...You....... Have you
been stalking me....?"
A loud, mocking laugh rose up the stairs,
and I heard the screen door creak again. "....Have you ever had the feeling
that someone’s watching you...? Have you ever thought that someone actually
might be...?"
A terrified sob escaped my lips,
liberating the tears in my eyes, and immediately I clapped both hands over my
mouth and staggered several feet backwards into the apartment.
"....That’s it!!" I declared in a choked voice, whirling away from
the doorway and dashing deeper into the room. "You’re out of your mind!!
I’m calling the police right now, and their going to drag you off to the
asylum where you belong!!"
"Allie, you don’t know what
you’re doing."
"Shut up!!" I seized the
phone receiver and attempted to dial some number--any number--by my hands were
quivering so much and had turned so numb that I couldn’t do anything in my
panicked state. "Come on, dammit!!" I whispered furiously to myself
through clenched teeth. "Come on, Allie, come on....!!"
I immediately emitted an ear-piercing
scream and whirled back around as a series of loud, echoing gunshots suddenly
sounded out from the hallway behind me, and I could even see a number of bullet
holes that had appeared in the wall above the landing. I lifted my hands to my
mouth and let out another terrified shriek, sending two frightened trails of
tears streaming down my face and splattering to the floor. Several loud pounding
noises came from below, finally succeeded by a tumultuous crashing noise and the
sound of a pair of heavy leather boots taking two large steps into the room at
the base of the stairs. Several more gunshots rang out, and I could see fiery
sparks of electricity in the darkness of the stairwell as many ricocheted off
the metallic banister.
The footsteps grew louder now, as if they
were now scaling the bottom flight of stairs, and I could see an approaching
shadow on the wall above the landing. "I warned you," the man told me,
his tone as calm as it had been before, raising his gun and firing numerous more
shots into the woodwork before him. "I said if you panicked, I would come
up and get you. I didn’t want it to come to this, Allie, I really didn’t.
Why did you force me to do this, Allie...?"
I screamed again, my timorous tears
soaking my cheeks and bathrobe, and tumbled backwards, into the bookshelf behind
me. Several publications fell to the floor with a dull thud, hardly
audible over the earsplitting gunshots and the sound of the man’s voice, and
my tearing eyes suddenly whipped towards an open volume on the floor. It was a
photo album, filled with numerous snapshots of various, unfamiliar people, with
the exception of one. I drew in a startled gasp and for a moment seemed rather
oblivious to the surrounding chaos as my eyes perused a certain shot of an
attractive young woman, with long blond hair held in a ponytail and sharp blue
eyes behind a pair of glasses. That’s her!! I thought in panic, falling
to my knees and lifting the scrapbook to my face. That’s the woman from the
mirror!! L...Lucrecia...?! Oh my God....she looks just like me....!
I was awakened from my thoughts as a
bullet pierced straight through the book in my hands, causing scraps of paper to
explode upwards as if caught in a windstorm. I emitted a petrified scream,
tossing my head aside and throwing the album to the floor, then slowly forced my
vision to climb to the doorway. A tall, ominous figure stood at the top of the
stairs, holding a smoking black pistol up by his face.
He was muscular and thin, with short ebony
hair falling to the back of his neck and a pair of unnaturally sharp emerald
eyes. He wore a zippered black coat and dark gray pants, with a shiny pair of
dark boots. At seeing my terrified, tearing face, his face slowly twisted into a
mocking sneer. "Don’t be afraid, Allie..." he told me with feigned
assurance. "Just come with me.....Then you won’t have to be scared
anymore..."
I began to sniffle involuntarily in a
panicked attempt to catch my breath, sending two more paths of icy tears down my
face, then held my hands against me and shuffled a foot or two back on the
carpet. "....N...no... please...." I whispered hoarsely, shielding my
face in a desperate attempt to protect myself. "Please don’t hurt me....
Just leave me alone..."
The man’s arm suddenly shot forward,
sending a series of bullets flying over my head until several struck the lamp
behind me, causing it to burst with a fiery eruption of electricity. I
immediately threw my arms over my head and let out a terrified scream, choking
on my own escaping sobs and fervent pleas for mercy. The man slowly lowered his
arm again, then gazed down at my trembling form on the floor.
"..............Come with me, Allie," he coaxed, holding out one hand
towards me. "Don’t make this difficult. I can see how scared you are, how
confused. Just take my hand and forget all about it..."
I didn’t budge for a second, simply
remained shivering and huddled up against the floor, then gradually lifted my
head, draped with numerous loose strands of sweaty blond hair and gazed
disorientedly at his extended palm before my face. My breaths were heaving and
my eyes still released frightened tears. My mind sent a scrambled jumble of
random, blurred messages before my face, and for a second I could feel my hand
gradually lifting from the floor...
A sudden gunshot sounded from behind the
man’s back, brushing his shoulder and transforming the large window behind me
into a wild spiderweb.
I emitted another screech and the man
whirled about, facing the doorway. My eyes suddenly fell to Vincent, who stood
atop the flight of stairs with his own revolver aimed straight at the man’s
face.
"...Next time..." he commanded
fiercely, "...I won’t miss..."
"...V...Vincent!!" I cried in
relief, exhaling a loud breath of ease, clutching both quivering hands against
my heaving chest. "Oh...oh my God...!"
The man before me exhaled an impatient
snort, then brushed a long strand of black hair from before his green eyes.
".....I don’t believe I invited you, my good man...."
"....Well...." Vincent thrust
his arm forward, aiming his gun towards the stranger’s head, "..Then
perhaps I will take my leave!!"
I emitted a terrified scream and covered
my ears as he suddenly released a barrage of ammunition, rebounding off the
walls, shattering glass. I watched in shock as the man before me held one arm up
in front of his face and bent slightly at the knees, shielding himself from the
gunfire. Though he wasn’t facing me I could hear in his voice that he was now
wearing a contented sneer. ".....It seems that your aim isn’t quite as
good as you made it--" He was silenced as his return fire commenced with a
click, and with an aggravated groan he tore the empty cartridge from his gun and
tossed it angrily to the floor. His vision snapped angrily up towards Vincent,
whose eyes immediately turned wide with horror and his hands that held his
weapon trembled for a moment
In the deathly silence that had ensued, I
could hear Vincent’s panting breaths murmuring,
".....Y.....you....How.....how in the hell...."
"...Hmph." The man breathed out
another irritated grunt and tossed his head, flipping another ebony strand of
hair over his shoulder, then suddenly shot his hand into his jacket and pulled
out a large test tube filled with some sort of turquoise substance. He cast one
more glance over his shoulder at my shivering figure on the glass-littered
carpet, then with a powerful thrust of his arm hurled the container to the
ground, causing an enormous cloud of crimson smoke to erupt and lash around him
like a protective fog. I let out another ear-piercing scream and covered my eyes
as the smog shot around me in vicious, whip-like motions, blocking my vision,
burning my eyes. Faintly through the haze I heard the sound of heavy, retreating
footsteps, followed by the loud sound of a door slamming into a wall and the
weighty gait continuing speedily down the stairwell. I could dimly hear the
noise of another voice hacking through the thick smoke, but I was too
preoccupied with my own choking breaths and fiery eyesight. I covered my mouth
to protect myself from the suffocating fumes and rubbed at my tearing eyes.
Gradually the dense blanket of smog began
to dissipate into a light scarlet mist, and faintly I could perceive a dark
silhouette maybe five or so feet away from me, shielding the lower half of his
face with the collar of his black coat and emitting a series of rasping coughs.
The image progressively turned to face me, still choking on the disintegrating
cloud, then took several quick steps towards me and seized my shoulder, giving
me several rough jostles. "....Allie!....Allie, are you all right??... Can
you hear me, react to my voice!!"
"....Uggghhhh..." I stared
blankly up towards the figure’s face through blurry eyes, attempting to
recognize his voice that had become muffled by the protective collar over his
mouth. "......I......I.....ughh..."
"Allie!! Wake up, can you see
me??" He shook me again, more violently this time, and slowly the vapor
dissolved enough that I could distinguish the pale complexion of Vincent.
"Say something, dammit!!" he cried distraughtly. "Don’t you
recognize me?? Wake up, please--!"
"............I....." I blinked
several times, then slowly shifted from his grip and lifted a hand to my face.
.....I
......I think I’m ok....." I gazed
blankly down at my palms, slowly drifting back into a state of consciousness.
".....I
.....I’m still alive......?"
Vincent stared over at me in silence, then
hurriedly got to his feet and threw a rather large plastic bag into my lap.
"...Here," he ordered firmly, turning his back and walking swiftly
into the kitchen. "Take these, now. Don’t ask any questions. We’ll talk
later. I’m getting you out of here, now."
"....What...?" I watched after
him for several seconds, then reached into the bag and stared at the clothing I
pulled out. "...What are--"
"Just put them on. Now." I could
still hear him shuffling around in the kitchen, speedily collecting items and
strutting rapidly back and forth. "I said not to ask me anything. Just
change into them, right now. We’re leaving."
I didn’t move for a second, then slowly
untied the belt from my waist and shifted the robe down my shoulders.
".............That......that man...." I whispered quietly, glancing
slightly to the right so he could hear my voice from his position in the kitchen
behind me. "..........Who........who......"
"...I don’t know. You’re in
shock, and you’re not thinking straight. Just change into those clothes and
let’s get the hell out of here."
"....But I--"
"Now."
I cast another glance over my shoulder to
check that he was not in the room, then pulled the tight black shirt with large
silver letters spelling out EVIL over my head. .....I.....I don’t
understand....I thought shakily, buttoning the shiny, dark blue jeans about
my waist and closing my eyes in jumbled meditation. Who....where ....why....
what.......ughhhh....head’s swimming....