A Voice called Hope

Keller awakes only to find himself reentering a world of death, terror, and madness but he finds an unexpected companion in the most trying of moments

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“Keller get up man. KELLER you need to wake up now they’re here. They found us. Get up now or we are dead.” At these words consciousness exploded around me in a rushing whirlwind of pain and noise. Matthew was holding me in his strong hands while shaking me back and forth. This was the pain I concluded quickly. My bruised body felt like it was being flogged with every push and pull of Matthew’s hands. His voice boomed all around me as he firmly but quietly tried to make me awaken. With each of the words he spoke, every syllable, it felt as if my head was being split apart.

The pain threatened to incapacitate me but I fought against it and found purchase in sanity. I slowly jerked up and Matthew instantly released me. As soon as his hands released me, my hands shot towards my head and I slowly rested my throbbing skull in my hands. My cold, sweaty, and clammy hands, I soon realized. My nightmare must have caused it, I thought silently. However, my respite lasted only momentarily as a thundering clang rang out all around me causing Matthew to dive for cover next to me.

“They must have found their way in,” Matthew hissed from the pipes he was using as cover. “We have to find a way out of hear.”

This idea seemed perfect to me in my panicked state, “Let’s go then.” I made ready to dash out of the pipes we were hiding behind.

“Wait man. We do not know where we are going yet,” he objected as he started glancing out from behind the cover. “I think I see an exit door over there.”

I followed his pointing finger to a rusted door that looked like it was about to collapse inward any second. I could almost see the room beyond over its leaning posture but I could not tell if anything lay beyond. Would that room become our funeral or our deliverance from the creatures forcing their way in from the adjoining rooms. “Okay. We make a run for the door but we gotta be quick. If they get in and see us we are dead.”

  Matthew looked at me and grinned slightly. “We will make it through this. Do not give up hope yet.” He waited for me to nod my head before continuing. “Now on the count of three. One. Two. Thr--.”

Before he could finish two doors above us exploded over our heads and the crippled doors rained down on us in pieces. Some missed us entirely but others cut deep gashes in our faces and arms when the pipes failed to protect us. But worse than the injuries was the high pitched shrieking roars that shattered the silence as creatures began to descend towards our hiding place. I knew that they were drawn by the smell of our blood and the scent of our terror as they wasted no time leaping from pipe to pipe towards us. Other that were small of body and did not possess bladed shoulders but instead sported disjointed elbows and spike covered fingers clambered down towards us shrill cries splitting their lips. Even others ignored the climb altogether and lept from the platform above. These were the strongest looking of the creatures I had yet seen. They were hunched being with bowed bodies but this was not to be mistaken for weakness. Hard muscles ripped up and down their mutilated bodies covered in decaying and scabbed flesh. Their hands ended in gigantic hooked hands that cut deep into the floor as they landed trapping them for a second before they ripped their claws back out of the floor. However, their skulls were truly terrifying. It appeared as if each one had the top half of its skull cut off by a sharp blade. A perfect hole sat atop each head full of teeth and a waggling tongue that appeared to taste the air as they located Matthew and I. The teeth chomped inside the skull without any thought or care as if they had a mind of their own and did not listen to the rest of the body.

These nightmares descended upon us and I saw our fate taking form. Death would be our legacy. Death at the hands of these monsters and I could feel despair begin to fill me. However, fate is a fickle and tricky master. Many games and many more options are played out by him on a daily basis. But today we got the better of fate’s twisted games as I felt Matthew’s strong hands grab my shoulder and force me into a run towards the dark corner of the room.

“There is a manhole in this corner of the room Keller. We are getting out of here but we gotta be quick.”

I looked at Matthew for what I believed would be the last time. I saw the terror constricting his eyes and the adrenaline pumping through the bulging veins in his arms. Even with the terror I knew he was feeling, I could see a strength and courage in Matthew. Perhaps, one born out of imminent death but courage nonetheless. His courage was enough to will my body, frozen by fear, to move. Slowly at first, then faster and faster as my body floored itself into a dead sprint right towards the rusted sewer cap.

As Matthew grabbed and tore the sewer cap off the hole, I heard the brutish creatures bursting through the pipes. I could smell the stench of rot and dried blood coming off of each creature as their footfalls shook the ground. I could almost feel their blades, claws, and fangs ripping into me with wild abandon and I froze in fear as Matthew’s head vanished into the sewer. I to this day still do not know what moved me but it was as if a giant hand grabbed my arm and dragged me into the manhole. Suddenly empty space was below me and my hands gripped the rungs of an extremely old and rusty ladder while my feet caused rust to descend into the darkness below with every rung they touched.

The darkness continued to grow as I descended deeper and deeper into the entrance of the old sewage system. However, silence was not my companion in my descent as screeches, roars, and jibbering followed me as the creatures attempted to fit into the manhole but could not condense their bulk to that of a human size. Their claws and blades, normally their superiority, became their undoing as they could not pursue the prey that they wanted to devour. They prey they had hunted throughout the abandoned building was escaping their grasp and madness took its toll. A bloodlust consumed them as great drops of blood began to descend upon me. A shower of rotten crimson.

They turned upon each other and began a bloody orgy. Limbs began to descend after me as the shrieks and roars intensified. The strong would take and devour the weak. So was the system that had come to rule this world. So was the system that the voice had tried to convince me would bring peace and not blood. The voice was a liar and the frenzy of these creatures proved in my mind that I would never give in and become a puppet to that monster. I would never become one of these things. One of these frenzied creatures. These thoughts gave speed to my descent until I finally reached the bottom of the rusty ladder. My feet landed with a squelch in a slimy pipe that I knew I would have to stoop to move around within.

The darkness was still all consuming in this dank wet pipe. Suddenly, a clawed hand grabbed my leg and I roared with terror and madness as I grabbed the hand and ripped it from me. With strength I did not know I possessed I took the hand and grabbed the arm it belonged to and using the arm as a fulcrum I hurled the creature to the pipe wall. And as I drew my hand back to beat the creature. To give myself some chance of survival from what would be this creature’s primal fury. However, through the rush of blood pounding through my ears and the shaking of my adrenaline fueled body, I realized that the creature was yelling.

“KELLER,” the voice thundered. “It’s me man. I needed to make sure it was you that followed me down. I thought it might be one of those creatures.”

Slowly, my grip slackened on the arm and my fist slowly lowered.

“That’s it man. Just calm down it’s me Matthew.” He spoke softly as his soothing voice calmed me and I felt the adrenaline trickle from my body and my heart rate decline slowly but steadily.

Finally, I released Matthew and slowly sat on the wet slimy metal. Silence descended between us. Silence that invited thoughts. SIlence that invited temptation and despair. What have I become? I almost killed Matthew. I could not make it on my own strength into the manhole. What is wrong with me? I tried to sort out these thoughts and discover what was infecting me. What infection had possessed me? Was it when the voice tempted me? Did he infect with me some invisible disease or weapon. Something that would change me into the coward I was becoming. Something that only wanted to survive but was unwilling to fight to survive. Less than a human but not a monster. Nothing left to fight for but still unwilling to die. Is this how I want to live my life? Like a rat constantly fleeing from predators. Constantly, fleeing for its life to sustain a pitiful and sorrow filled existence.

This line of thought only took me down a darker path. One who’s maw gaped open at the end of the pathway. Waiting to devour me in despair and darkness. One that cried out for the light of my life to be extinguished and I found myself desiring the end of the tunnel. I wanted to end the darkness of my life by immersing myself in darkness.

        The maws multi fanged sanctuary gaped open before me but as I approached a scream shook the darkness around me. A cry of shame and agony. A cry of regret and despair. A chilling aura seemed to descend upon me freezing me in place and causing my physical body to shake.        

        I recognized that voice. I knew that voice. It had cried to me on multiple occasions on the worst of days and given me my reason for living. My reason for fighting. Slowly, I turned and fear roared through my body and thoughts as I worried what I would find. A short silhouette faced me with a light at her back casting her face and body in shadows. I knew that silhouette. I knew it was my sister but I could not make out her face or her body to see if the boils still seeped over her and if the flesh was still covered in scabs. To see the bloody smears over her face. Covering her as it did when she was little and I cleaned her chin as she ate her food. Making sure she was safe and that she knew that she was loved. To see what she had become may finally break my spirit and destroy the heart that I was so desperately holding onto.

        Reluctantly and shakily, I approached her shadowed body. It grew before me and I imagined I could hear her breathing. A slow sighing sound before she in took another breath of air and the process repeated itself. Bit by bit, my eyes adjusted to the brightness of the light at her back and I slowly began to make out her features. Her small nose rebuilt on her face and curly blonde hair cascaded down her shoulders and blocked part of her face. I was almost close enough to make out more distinctive features when she suddenly turned around started walking towards the huge ball of light. The brightness that was almost too bright to bear.

        We headed towards that light together, brother and sister, as if the past hours had never taken place. As if there was no great destruction that had taken place. A destruction that twisted people into monsters that fed and fed and fed on the death and pain of others. However, even as these thoughts rose up in me and the despair they carried attempted to latch onto me and pull me down, the presence of my sister stopped and turned slowly to me. I stopped in my tracks as her face turned to look at mine.

        My sister had returned my heart and senses cried. She was back. Her slight form was no longer hunched and the blades no longer sprang from her shoulders. Her lesions had ceased and perfect white skin dominated her hands and face. Her eyes shown their deep blue that pooled in my vision and seemed to draw me in with their brilliance. The light illuminated them to a shining brilliance and the more I stared the deeper they sucked me in. There was a message in those eyes. I could tell that my sister wanted to tell me something but I could not determine what. Her mouth opened and closed but no sound came out. Nothing could help me determine the meaning of my sister’s visit or how I could interpret her silence.

        However, something was pressing. I could see it in the face of my sister. The face I had seen for years as she grew up into a young woman before my eyes. The need to talk and the need to tell shown in her face. There was no mistaking it. But as I wondered, she grabbed my hand and gently led me towards the light shining like a mini sun in the distance. As we walked together, I almost make out a crunching sound with every step I took. Like massive piles of dried leaves being tread upon by many feet. Not a word was spoken but the air was heavy with the unspoken words of my sister. The unspoken desire to speak to me as if we were simply children growing up with my dad and looking out for one another.

        Despite these knowings, I could not bridge the chasm of silence that stretched between us. I could not determine what secret message my sister wanted me to hear and decipher. Some unspoken truth. Some encouragement or warning. I could not tell which but seeing my sister alive and well even in this vision encouraged my struggling spirit. The heavy weight of my dream seemed to lift ever so slightly allowing me to feel joy even for a moment as I stared at her face.

        However, as I turned once again to the bright light in the distance, I saw shapes tall and limber as well as some stooped and bowed as if under the heavy weight of years of life. They shuffled, jogged, or walked towards us at a steady pace. Soon my curiosity of their sudden appearance began to give way to an unsettling realization as the light illuminated their bodies. Their light and dark decaying bodies where flesh was drawn back over bones that appeared frail but had the strength of iron in them. The hunched forms as they loomed nearer were crawling on all fours. Powerful legs rippled with muscle as their hands ended in claw like appendages made to rip, tear, and puncture with ease. They already appeared to be covered in the blood and viscera of a recent kill as they punched into the ground then draw them back out propelling their bodies forward in a powerful and ungraceful balancing act between claw and legs.

        Once my brain had finally processed what I was truly seeing and the immediate threat that was presented before me, I turned to grab my sister and run. To run as far and as fast as I could. To again protect my sister from evil in this world that wished her ill. That wished her death and mine. But as I turned to her and took her hand in mine, she refused to move. She stared at me as I pulled but she would not be moved. Then I looked into her eyes and I realized that she would not be moved by any amount of force. Her eyes were filled with sadness and regret but a resignation that was hard as stone. A resignation to die here. To end her existence here. To give into the evil that was coming towards us and let it consume her.

        A small smile stole over her lips as the hoard began to cry in joy and triumph. She slowly reached up and gave me a hug. She held me close. Her small body intertwined with mine as I fully understood why we were here. This was goodbye. My sister’s last act. As our bodies separated, I turned to the approaching darkness and had no urge to move. No urge to escape the approaching doom. The multitude of roaring throats shook my bones as the sound of pounding feet filled my ears.

        Only then did I realize that my sister had moved ahead of me and was walking to meet the dark mass of bodies approaching us. As I saw her small blonde haired body approach the dark mass, I could feel a power growing inside me. It grew with my desire to rebel against the heinous act that was about to take place. I had felt this pressure before, this desire, in my dream. But I could control it. I could meld it but still I could not summon what was needed. I could not find relief as the pressure continued to grow as the horde finally reached my sister. I could not look away as the horde descended upon her in an animalistic rage. No screams split her lips and no attempt to flee was made as the flood of bodies covered her in a chittering and roaring tide. As she was consumed the pressure inside me finally broke and pain coursed through my body setting my nerves on fire. A scream tore from my lips as my body crumpled to the ground wracked in agony. Upon my impact with the ground, a shockwave burst out from my body hitting the horde of nightmares like an army of scything blades. As the waves continued to pound their writhing bodies, they began to disintegrate as my emotions cut them down. It destroyed their bodies and left nothing behind but red puffs of blood and a shower of broken limbs.

        Bit by bit, the pain receded and I finally began to see the world around me again. After laying on the dark path in a fetal position, I slowly began to feel my body relaxing. Finally, I was able to move my body into a sitting position and surveyed the area around me. A dark pile of bloodied and broken bodies was all that remained of the nightmarish creatures. I stared dully at the bodies wondering how my sister could have desired to have this happen to her. Why did she give up the fight? Why did she let the hoard consumer her?

        In my time of reflection, a voice broke the plain around me. “She was bereft of hope Keller.” I turned quickly in a circle trying to identify the source of the voice. Light and dark reflected in all directions almost in a strange intertwining dance of shadows and light. That which revealed and that which hid dueled all around me. Somewhere out there I knew the owner of the voice must be hiding but without anything to pierce the darkness I was helpless to find the owner. “How do you know my sister? How can you even imagine to make that judgement on her?”

       

        “I am her and I am not her,” the voice sighed. “I am what was left of her when she died. The last pure part of her that always hoped and never wavered.” A chill filled the air at these words as I heard an audible intake of air from the voice. “The part of her that fought the hate the darkness has awoken inside of her. The darkness in its desire to have her was willing to destroy her if needed rather than see her walk free. The darkness that sapped her of her will to live. Her will to love until nothing but hatred existed. It consumed her until she no longer knew herself. So lost was she in the dark paths it awoke in her mind. She and I now only survive in your memories of her. The sister you knew will always live with you in your mind but I knew I must reveal the dark truth of her to you. A truth that she would not want you to follow her in. The blending of our natural world with the inhuman beasts that wander have allowed me to survive within you and I as well as she will always be waiting here to aid you when you need us most.”

        The voice now took on a heartbroken tone. “Please forgive me Keller. I was not strong enough to stop the encroaching darkness. I hold so much power within her. With her pure heart and mind but as darkness began to enter her I paid it no mind. I was so confident that I had such a stronghold in her I never felt that the seeping darkness was a threat. My light outnumbered it so greatly within her for the dark to have any chance at victory.” A sad hoarse chuckle whispered along the wind from the voice. I slowly sank to the ground again as the words washed over me. Crippling me with their weight as the realization of the speaker settled in. ‘This was part of my sister. The part that fought against the beast she had become. The only part of her I would have.’ My thoughts were interrupted by another gust of bone chilling and numbing wind as the voice prepared to continue its tale.

        “I was so confident… So complacent in what I allowed to enter her mind. The impurity and anger. The self-loathing and hatred. The words, the voices, and the other voice that began to rise within her. The dark voice. Full of hate and loathing. Full of dark promises and comfort through the suffering of others. At first I let it whisper. I thought it would destroy itself in self-hatred but she began to listen. Oh not immediately. She had lived with my voice too long but bit by bit she listened. A word here a sentence there. Soon she was ripe for the voice to delve deep into her mind and burrow deeper and deeper where I could not easily dislodge him. We fought so many times. My voice against his ringing out inside her head. I could constantly feel her confusion and indecision but then one day that changed. The indecision was gone, replaced by a desire to listen to the dark voice speaking forbidden knowledge and promises of power into her ear. Soon I was nothing more than an afterthought, a regret that was barely thought about except when her plans failed and she was only left with pain. But even then these moments barely lasted more than mere moments before the dark one was whispering more promises in her itching ears.”

        Finally, the voice broke. Quiet sobs interspersed her words to me. Her regrets and her confession. “And then she finally totally left me. I had to hide every minute of my existence. The voice haunted me and she constantly betrayed my location to him. She wanted me to be destroyed. She wanted my demise as I was a voice that reminded her of what she once was. The humanity that still existed inside her that she had turned herself off to. Then she turned. She finally cast me out when the explosion of unearthly power surged through our world… when it surged through her and awoke some part of her that I did not even know existed. An unearthly hatred was awoken and it roared to the world that held it bound and captive by our rules and laws. It was awoken and it found me. I was forced out of your sister in pure agony. I tried to stay. I held on and was beaten again and again by that creature. It put me through agonizing torture every second I was in her body until he finally cast me out. I left her body screaming in agony and defiance but I knew I had failed.”

        “I failed you and your sister. My continued existence within you is my debt that I must pay. I will aid you to destroy this evil and to encourage you when you need it. To grant you power in the battlefield of the mind. No matter what will assail you I will be here if you will listen to my voice. I will not abandon you like I did your sister. I and her will live in you as long as you look for us and do not abandon our memory. My power is growing weak as I have continued to battle the dark voice trying to break destroy you and you must reenter the material realm and live. You have a purpose greater than you could ever imagine. Goodbye Keller. I will visit you soon. Fight and do not give up not only for you but for the memory of your father and sister.” At these words, a strength filled me. A power I had felt build within me and I knew would be devastating when unleashed. It gave me comfort and a strength to face the horrors of reality. “Send me back,” was my order to the voice. Suddenly, a weightlessness filled me and the landscape around me began to dematerialize. Soon I felt myself falling and falling through a tunnel of pure darkness but even as the darkness swirled around me I remembered my sister’s face. A light shone around it as I descended and through it I found the hope and strength I needed to face the insanity that awaited me in the waking world.    

Author's Note

Here is another chapter in "The Hate Curse." It is still a ways away from a final draft but any help on character analysis or the story itself would be helpful. Positive or negative all reviews will be considered and appreciated.