The Maggot in the Apple — Part V

Chapter 9: Chances

I’m following a monster. He had just killed a human being, and is walking away like nothing happened. A boy who wouldn’t even dare to hurt an ant, had taken the life of a man, and doesn’t even care. I can’t believe I’m even following him. His placid bloodlust is so off-putting it makes me want to stay where I am. I’m scared that if I somehow get in his way, he’d just quash me and continue on. But this monster is on his way to escape, and I’d do anything to get out of this prison of hopelessness. He turns round a corner. As I do the same, I’m rooted to the spot by disgusted horror. Tony is still walking ahead, but his knife is dripping freshly. Right behind him is a corpse of another man. He is bleeding profusely from his chest and neck, painting the floor with his dark blood. I lose my balance as I tumble backwards and hit the floor hard on my bum. My skin crawls as I place my hands over my mouth, trying to hold my vomit in. But then another man turns up in front of Tony. He has no time to react. Slash. Then another person. Shik. Two others… Tony stands farther down the corridor. All of the men behind him fall simultaneously to the floor with a lifeless thump. I can’t hold it in anymore. I turn to my side and let it all out. I’ve never been so horrified in my life. Shrieks erupt from within the neighbouring cells as the kids inside finally realise what’s happened.

I’d never forgive Tony for what he did then, for leaving me behind to get captured again by those criminals. But I can’t help but show a little concern to his sudden change of personality. Just before he had walked out of the cell, he had looked right through me, like I didn’t exist. The expression on his face was that of a different person, like someone, or something had possessed him. Now he walks on, not affected even slightly by the carcasses that he leaves behind him. I’m scared, I don’t want to follow him anymore. But he is on his way to freedom, and that’s what I want most right now. I suck in a huge breath through my teeth, get on my feet and begin to pursue him. I close my eyes tightly as I pass by the corpses, reluctantly stepping into the pools of warm, red liquid. Every step I take makes me want to stop, but my mind presses me on. My only other chance of escape is presented right before me, and I feel that if I don’t take it now, I’ll never, ever get another one. After a few paces, I open my eyes again. Tony is still in the same place as before. Only now he is looking straight at me. I stare back. His face holds the same expression of unwavering calm. He cocks his head a little to his left, like as if he doesn’t recognise me. He’s standing perfectly still, not a quiver in his body. The blood-stained blade of the knife in his bony hand gleams under the dim light of the overhanging lamp. I can’t read anything from his demeanour, and it scares me. The boy in front of me cannot be Tony. Something’s got a hold of him, and I feel nothing can free him from it’s grasp.

That’s it. I can’t bring myself to follow him anymore. My desire to escape is finally washed over by my existing hatred and new-found fear for him. I see Tony make a move. I retreat a step in haste, but he turns around and walks on, not fazed even slightly by me. I would take my chances of surviving in this place than follow a ghoul like him. I turn around too and sprint away from him, not looking back even once. But after a few strides, I bump into something hard, and almost instantaneously feel something metallic hit my head. I fall to the sanguine floor with my ears ringing. I look up at the culprit as I slowly lose consciousness. A man stands over me twirling a metal pipe in his fingers. As I see his sniggering smile, I black out amidst the excruciating pain.

Chapter 10: Survive

Tony

That’s a loud noise. It intrigues me. I turn around. It’s that girl, Evelynn. She’s unconscious on the floor. There is a man right next to her, and he drops a steel pipe to the floor. That noise was really loud, it must’ve hurt real bad for her. The man panics as he sees the bodies around him. It looks like he wants to get out of there. He grabs Evelynn by the hair and starts dragging her away speedily. Huh. He isn’t in my way. All I have to do is turn around and keep walking and hack every single thing that blocks my path. Right. That’s all it would take to become free. So I turn around, but am unable to take a step forward. I look at my legs. There isn’t anything holding me back, so why can’t I move? I try again, but in vain. Evelynn. I hear that echo in my head. Who? Right… that girl being dragged away. Again I hear a voice in my head. Friend. Friend? I don’t need friends. All I need is to escape once and for all. But before I take the next step, I look around me. The boundaries of the corridors are dissolving into blackness. Suddenly, I’m back in the same black expanse as before, back in the recesses of my mind. And there stands the same mirror. But this time, I don’t see a reflection of myself. It’s Evelynn. She’s on the dirt, in the rain. Her grey eyes are looking up at me in despair. Behind her, in the darkness emerges a glint of steel. I remember. It was our attempt to escape. I left her helpless on the ground, and ran for it. Right then a sharp pain seizes my heart. You spineless coward. Who said that? Why didn’t you go to her. I drop to my knees clutching my head. It’s the same voice as before. I don’t have the time for this. I need to escape. I look back in the mirror. I see only my reflection now. A little light appears suddenly inside my chest and is pulsating hard, trying to erupt from the shell of black that covers the rest of my body. Then beside my reflection, Evelynn appears. She looks broken. The scar on her head is gushing blood. Her thin legs are trembling horribly. The clothes on her frame are tattered cruelly and are more revealing. She looks terrible. Seeing this triggers something in me. She is my friend. She is in trouble, and I am going to just walk away? That’s no better than the last time. I shift my gaze back to my reflection. The little light has just gotten much bigger. As the light shines brighter and brighter, new thoughts of the old me started to flow into my head. Right. I am possessed by chaos. It’s stopping me from thinking about anything other than escape. With this thought, Evelynn’s image wraps its thin frail arms around my reflection, and the light in me shines brighter than ever, obliterating all the darkness from me… I come to my senses on the corridor. I turn around and see Evelynn being dragged just around the corner. It’s not going to be like last time. Wait for me Evelynn…

Evelynn

I wake up in someone’s arms. As I gather my senses, I look for the face of the person. When I find it, I gasp in panic. It’s Tony. But something’s different. In fact, there isn’t anything different at all. His expression of uncertain anxiety is back, which replaces the calm bloodlust from before. I look to my left. The man who had knocked me out is slumped on the wall, a trickle of blood dripping off his chin. But he isn’t dead. I can see his chest heaving slowly trying to find breath. Tony saved me and didn’t kill a person. I look back at him. My insides feel warm as I realise that Tony is back to normal. The monster I had seen before seems to have completely vanished. I shrug him off and stand on my two feet. As I do so, he extends an arm out, and is tending towards the corridor ahead. I take it happily, forgetting my past hatred for him, and run down the corridor with him… The next thing I know, we’re outside the abandoned prison. The smell of petrichor hints rain, but we pay no heed to it as we end up in an alley way. I recognise the surroundings. It’s the exact same place where Tony left — I interrupt my own thoughts. I don’t want to think about that now. I trust Tony, since he managed to come back to his usual self. We keep running, till our path is blocked by two men with knives. We stutter to a stop with our hearts in our mouths. I look at Tony. He looks devastated. What now? Retracing our path would be too risky. As the first drop of rain hit my shoulders, I feel a searing pain of something slicing through my calf. I trip over screaming in burning pain. I look up at the men. But they are still standing in the same place, ten feet away. No way… I turn my head slowly towards the boy next to me. The knife in Tony’s hand is wet with fresh blood. My heart stops as the rain begins. Shocked, I look at his face and I feel all my hope drain along with the precipitation. Lit by a flash of lightning, I find the monstrous calm back on his face. He isn’t even looking at me. Instead, he turns on his heels and runs off the way we came. I can’t even scream. I can’t even think. I just sit there, unbelieving. My brain seems to have shorted. My heart can’t keep up with my emotions. I’m swept over by despondence. It’s a repetition of a past chapter, an iteration of betrayal. Only this time, Tony is the one who makes sure I stay behind, not a stray garbage can. He’s using me again. I feel the hand of the man grab my hair, but I don’t resist and stare at the disappearing figure of Tony. It’s over…

Tony

The police found the abandoned prison. They managed to save a lot of children from there and arrest all of the men running that operation. I look around the room I’m in. It’s not a very big room. Just two chairs, one of which I’m seated on and a table. I’m in fresh new clothes, my nose seems fixed and the smell of myself seems foreign, not having been clean in long. A policeman bursts through the door. It’s the same man I first met two days before, after running into this police station drenched in the rain. He takes a seat across the table and shows me the picture of a pretty girl. He tells me that she is one of the many children who were found dead at the scene of crime, and that she was last seen with me by the lakeside. He wants me to identify her. I lean forward and look closely at the picture. Her grey eyes are wide with excitement. Her long black hair is tied into a ponytail and hangs over her shoulder covering her right half. Her smile is especially beautiful, almost childish. After looking at the picture a good while, I look back at the officer, my brain filled with puzzlement. He returns the same expression of confusion that I have when I ask him, “Who is she?”

FIN

This article was written for Festember: The Renaissance by Tejas Harirajan Radhakrishnan.