The Demon In A Suit

Not Everyone

They were in the darkness of the apartment before lighting up a candle in the center of the room to be able to eat and look each other in the face, not before checking all windows, making sure they were covered and no holes would let the light of that candle escape to the outside, for they knew that could bring unpleasant visitors. There was some cloth they covered in the remnants of a vodka bottle and used it to cover Gabrielle's leg wounds and also used the candle to roost some tiny mushrooms that were growing in the corner of the room, they all ate in silence for a while and then Danny finally broke the silence. 

-I'll bring some water- 

Gabrielle smiled and waited patiently for Danny with a dry mouth, she didn't drink anything since she got to the strange town. Danny brought back a gallon full of a yellowish liquid with some dirt in the bottom, he gave it to Gabrielle and said. 

-Go first.- 

Gabrielle smiled awkwardly and gave a zip to the water, the taste was acid and metallic. She then passed to Nicole without having another drink, Nicole drank with ease and then said. 

-You'll ignore the flavor after a while.- 

-Where is it from?- 

-From the walls, the roof and some puddles outside, you'll be amazed how resourceful one can be when suffering from dehydration.- 

Danny said while drinking some water. 

-You sure you don't want some more? You'll need it, trust me.- 

With this said Gabrielle took another drink to the water, this time she drink as much as her gagging let her and that's not saying much. She then gave back the gallon cuffing and covering her mouth. 

They all continued eating and talking about surviving and the terrors that awaited outside, then Gabrielle finally asked the question she had in her mind for a long time now. 

-Where are we?-

Neither Nicole or Danny hesitated to answer her and for a moment they looked like they didn't now at all. 

-Hell I guess, that would explain the things outside.-

Said Danny looking at the window. 

-Are we dead then?- 

-Nah, that's dumb, don't listen to this asshole, there must be a better explanation to it.- 

Said Nicole looking at Gabrielle. 

-Oh yeah? Like what?- 

-I don't know... Alien maybe?- 

-Aliens uh? Talking about dumb.- 

Whispered Danny to Gabrielle and himself while quietly laughing. 

-Well have you tried to escape?- 

Asked Gabrielle to both of them. 

-Yeah... It doesn't work like that- 

-What do you mean?- 

-Well maybe you haven't noticed but once you walk far enough the street you just go back to the beginning, we once tried going in opposite ways to see if one of us could make it but we met half way on the walk.- 

Said Nicole while explaining the many streets and routes they had tried already. 

-Well we have to find a way. I imagine food will eventually run out.- 

-No it won't, things tend to change in the streets outside after a while, new buildings come from nowhere while others disappear, people appearing from nowhere and leaving just like that, it's a real circus out there, you never know what you're gonna get- 

Danny mumbled to the girls while taking some of the food they didn't eat and putting it back into a single opened can. 

-What do we do then?-

Asked back Gabrielle with a concerned tone in her voice.

-We wait, we stay out of danger and we survive.-

-Until we die? Seriously?-

-Until we find a better way or someone comes to rescue us, like the police or something, although the police from town is a bit... you know.-

-Useless- 

Said Nicole while sharpening her knife with a smooth rock.

-Yeah pretty much.-

There was a long silence going along Gabrielle, it was obvious she wasn't happy with the way of doing things from the group, but deep down she knew that it was probably for the best, she had only 2 days in that hell hole so it was probably for the best if she went along with her new team's way of doing things. Hours passed in the apartment and Gabrielle saw Nicole and Danny come and go bringing more food and pieces of scrap. Each one of them had their own room, Nicole had a small one with a little bed that looked like it belonged to a kid in the past, it had a bunch of empty cans of food and packs of cigarettes. Danny's room was a mystery for Gabrielle, he always locked it up after leaving and when he was in it there were sounds of welding coming from the inside, according to Nicole, Danny once told her he used to have a welding workshop with his dad, they even had a business in town, not like it mattered anymore but the ability to weld was definitely useful in this dangerous other town. 

Since there was no night or day cycles they went to sleep when they were tired, and in this dark environment full of death and despair it was almost as if energy was stripped out of their souls just as water evaporating on the sun. 

-You shouldn't go out alone at the beginning.-

That's what Nicole told Gabrielle before going to sleep in her room, at the same time Danny was working in something and so Gabrielle used this opportunity to go out and explore a bit more, she went to the roof of the apartment building and gaze upon the seamless endless buildings and darkness from far away, the cold wind and the moonlight been her only confident for this most needed moment of reflection.

-There must be a way.- 

Gabrielle mumbled to herself. 

-If your eyes lie and don't show you the way...-

A voice coming from behind Gabrielle startled her, when she turn around there was the man in a suit standing there showing his back to the girl, she stood up and got close to the man trying to touch his shoulder. 

-Then cast them aside.-

The man said while turning around to face Gabrielle showing a river of black tears coming from his two hollow sockets that existed where there once were eyes, inside a small white light shinning like fire made Gabrielle jump back as she was trying to to fall from the roof. She lost sign of him for a second and that was all it needed, he wasn't there anymore when she looked around, only the horror of the memory of those back sockets and the sweating they came with. 

-We doing it now?- 

Gabrielle heard a deep voice close to her and immediately felt an empty void in her stomach. 

-Do it quickly.- 

And that's was the last words she heard before passing out, her head heavy and with a feeling of dizziness, she was out and in dreamland in no time at all, in there she found herself in a known place, that dance hall. she was opening her eyes when she heard the music playing and saw the people dancing in her surroundings. The smell of cologne coming from the gentleman in front of her was unmistakable, they were both dancing really close to each other and been this close for a moment she forgot everything about the other town, that was until the man in a suit finally spoke. 

-You're doing it so good Gabrielle, keep it like that and you will become a pro in no time.- 

-What are you talking about? I'm horrible at it.- 

-Perhaps, but you shouldn't let anyone know that, a good dancer will always know how to improvise- 

-Why do you keep bringing me back?- 

Gabrielle asked with a smile. 

-Why not? You don't like it?- 

-No it's... not that, it's just...-

-I just love to be the best dancer for once.- 

The man said with a charismatic smile, Gabrielle laugh a bit before looking at the eyes of the man, they were dark and hollow, but she felt no fear nor looked away at the sign of them. 

-You know, you never told me your name.- 

-And you want to know uh?- 

-It would be nice.- 

-Then you shall call me Laileb- 

The creature said in  a deep voice that eco thought the room. 

-Laileb... did we met before?- 

-What do you mean?- 

Laileb asked the girl with curiosity. 

-I feel like we had done this before.-

-We had.- 

-Is it always like this?- 

-How?- 

-So perfect.- 

Gabrielle said while getting sleepy in the chest of Laileb. 

-You need to stop dreaming Gabrielle, there's no time to lose.- 

The creature stopped and took the girl from the head getting close. 

-Remember Gabrielle, a good dancer always knows hot to improvise!- 

-But what if I get stuck?- 

Asked the girl while losing herself in the eyes of the creatures for the last time in this dance.

-Then look into the my eyes, they'll show you the way.- 

An just as she was there now she wasn't, instead Gabrielle found herself awoken by the cold wind rubbing her neck while feeling her head about to blow up with pressure, she was bleeding from her nose but since she was tied up from the hands and feet and also suspended on the air with her head down, the only blood she saw was on a puddle right above her. She looked around and saw a men looking at a picture of something in his hand and using his other hand to touch himself in an unproperly way. Gabrielle saw what it looked like the body of a women in that picture, probably taken from a polaroid since it was small, the body of the women was covered in red and there looked like there were missing pieces. 

Gabrielle did her best to stay quiet in order to observe her surroundings, they were in an empty building with some candles lighting the room, some tables and dust all over the floor, she didn't know where she was but knew it was not gonna be heard if things got ugly. She didn't waste time and started trying to untie herself quietly while the man had his fun, she glared at him from time to time to make sure his attention was not on her. Then he stood up and walked to the girl, Gabrielle  closed her eyes and pretended to be still sleeping. 

-Can't wait to play with you and I bet you can't wait to play with ol' Uncle Earl uh?- 

Gabrielle felt the tongue of the man walking through her cheek, she really made an effort to not react at this horrible sensation. Earl smiled and walked out of the room leaving behind a knife on the table, Gabrielle saw this as the perfect opportunity to improvise and so she did. 

She started bouncing from one way to another making momentum and stretching her hands to try and get the knife and after a couple minutes she manage to get it by the edge almost loosing it in the process. But she finally had it with her and she started to work, first the hands and then the legs, trying to fall on her feet so she wouldn't do any noise, then she though, she could just go out and run, but with a street full of monsters and this guys chasing her, did she really stand a chance? how much time would it take them to cut up with her and brake her legs and how could she be sure there weren't more outside? she needed a better plan or maybe she just needed to improvise. 

She knew Uncle Earl would be back any second and he was not gonna be happy once she saw her gone, but would he go out to chase her? she thought that maybe with the right scene he could, so she took the rope that was holding her tight and a chair next to the table, she used the chair to brake the window, making as much noise as possible, the window let out to the roof, making it look like she just escaped and with the little time she had left, she hid under the table. 

Uncle Earl didn't wait too long before entering the room running and with his pants down, he looked at the windows and didn't think twice before sticking his head out of the broken window, this was just what Gabrielle wanted, she tied the end of the knife with the rope very carefully and once she found her chance she did it. She jumped the man from behind stabbing him in the back, the man screamed and forced all he could but then Gabrielle used the rope and put it around the man's neck, from the chaos and the uncoordinated movements of Uncle Earl it wasn't that difficult to push him out the window. At the beginning the force of the fall made him trip and roll, making the knife cut thru his back like butter, then finally the rope got tight enough to start choking the man, it just took some seconds for the neck to break, then silence.

The girl went out carefully to try to recover the knife, she knew it would be really useful for future problems, especially since this maybe not the last encounter with a man like this, she took the knife but the body fell down the roof, making a lot of noise, that can't be good she thought. She sprinted without looking back, jumping on the roofs until she found a way down and then she kept running, she didn't recognize anything on her surroundings so she kept walking in silence hoping to eventually find something, a sense of direction, then she saw something horrible, something she didn't wanna see at all. 

There was a man stuck to the wall, arms and faces biting and scratching to keep him in place, the man was loosing hair and teeth and looked dry but his belly was full and about to burst open. The man looked at Gabrielle barely been able to open his eyes. 

-Please...- 

-Are you ok?- 

Gabrielle whispered while getting close. 

-Please... He'll be back.- 

The hands and body of the man had this back goo running down leaving behind a smell, it was a really particular one, like rust and rotten flesh, just like Whispers. But there was still some good intentions inside of Gabrielle that day, someone saved her once too, so she could at least try to save a life. She used the knife to take away the hands and mouths from the man, slowly to not make much noise, it took her a moment but at the end the man was free, she took him on her back and started walking, it was heavy for a man this skinny but she did her best. She moved him to a building close by and leaved him there. There she rested for a bit, she was tired and her head was still bleeding, she tried to ask the man some questing, easy stuff, like his name. 

-Jared.- 

-Ok Jared, what happened to you?- 

-Monsters...- 

That was the last he said before falling sleep, it wasn't easy to know how many days he was trapped in that wall, unable to sleep or stand so she let him catch a break. Before she could know she was falling asleep too, probably because of the blood she lost. 

There's no telling for sure how much time passed, but Gabrielle was quickly awaken by the screams of Jared, horrible screams of a dying man, there was something moving in his belly, something who wanted to get out. Gabrielle jumped on her feet and started walking slowly away, that's when a burst of guts and blood filled half the room, the stomach of Jared had opened with ease and from inside there was a skinny figure, like a kid that crawled out of his guts and started gaging on the blood of the man. 

-This is not happening.- 

Said Gabrielle getting ready with her knife and looking for the nearest exit, she knew that the noise was gonna bring something more there, the small figure from inside Jared stood up, not taller than a toddler and started walking towards Gabrielle slowly and laughing at her, almost like smelling her fear. It had claws just like the Whispers but also had a pair of big black eyes that looked directly to the girl, she started running and the creature chase behind her, it was small but also extremely fast, moving like a dog on four legs it quickly cut up with her growling and panting while biting her and slicing with his claws. 

-Ah! Get off me!- 

Gabrielle screamed at the creature before kicking it with all her strength, distracting it enough to run away from the building, there was a trail of blood leaving her with each step she took, but she didn't slow down, she know the needed to find the apartment before it was too late, so she walked and walked for hours until finally she saw the building. She smiled in relief and started making her way to it until she froze on her steps, there she saw a man in the entrance of the entrance of the building with a bow, someone she hadn't seen before, his intentions were pretty clear. 

In her mind there were a lot of ideas but nothing worth trying, she was not in conditions to try and stop it and the noise from a confrontation could be a magnet for Whispers, so there it was, the last opportunity to improvise and she was totally out of ideas, fortunately for her the man didn't look like he was in a hurry, if anything it looked like he was just waiting for the perfect opportunity, this guy was smarter than Uncle Earl, that's for sure. 

In this days Gabrielle learned some quiet useful lessons for survival in this other town, not all people can be saved, not even when we tried, not everyone has your better interest in mind, not even when your just minding your business and last but not least, not everyone has a healthy working brain around here. 

Gabrielle used the surroundings to go to the back of the building, entering through a window to access and then moving sneaky and slow to not loose more blood, she made it to the hall of the building and saw the man lurking around the corner, it didn't looked like he saw her but he was close, dangerously close, so she waited until he moved and he eventually did, then she continued her way. She got to the door of the apartment and knocked smoothly in a certain way, the door opened and she entered the room, Gabrielle was covered in blood and but so was Nicole, in her shoulder there was a arrow wound still fresh. 

-Stranger down stairs.- 

-We know.- 

Said Danny putting a chair back in the way of the door. 

-What should we do?- 

-You? Nothing, you're not in condition to defend yourself either.- 

Said Danny while walking to his room. 

-Then what should we do?!- 

-Leave it to me, I wanted to test this for quiet some time now and this looks like the perfect opportunity.- 

Danny mumbled from his room to then go out with an improvised pressurized gun  attached to a metal pipe giving it the form of an improvised rifle. 

-Now it's our turn to f**k this guy up.-