The Pale King - XV

Part 1

Thomas knew he was close behind, he could feel in his bones. The doctor was just up ahead if only he could see farther ahead he could move faster, be with them quicker. All he had was the faint glow of some matches he had swiped in the kitchen before descending into the darkness. The halls he traversed were crowded with abandoned things and the rooms gave off a faint smell of wax and decay. Despite the acrid smell he gladly breathed in the match smoke instead of the musk of the space he occupied. He much preferred the sterile smell upstairs to this, despite the fact he had grown to hate the smell of “clean” years ago. Things upstairs were too clean, too pristine, too sterilized for his liking. He understood it was meant to prevent disease, and it was necessary from all the nasty things the men would and could expel from their bodies. But down here, it was too dark, too dusty, and too musky. The air felt heavy with years of dust and oppressive thought as if the walls remembered the men who had been captive behind these bars.

                Thomas, when he was young, didn’t much believe much in ghosts or spirits or the beyond. His grandmother and aunt dwelt in that world of mysticism, where he was intrigued in the real and the visible and the now. As an adult, spending so many years behind these walls himself, and being, as he was, able to “speak” with the men stuck here with him, he felt a certain connection to things unseen. He had feelings, intuitions, and senses about the world beyond this one. That included the energy felt form that world. He was certain, that walls could hold the energy of the past, that hauntings weren’t just a hoax, and that emotions fuel a great deal of physical change to the world around us.

                Beyond the smell, there was an overwhelming feeling that permeated the hallways he slinked through. A sorrow and an anger that was contained here just below their feet one floor above. It made his skin crawl and his stomach turn with each new step into that dark hell. He wanted to turn back, return to his room, somehow lock the door and finish reading his book about a man who murdered to see if he could become something great. But he had to push forward. He had to meet up with the doctor, he had to escape, if only so he could get help back to this place for the men upstairs that still lived. He had to find a way. He had to survive this atrocity.

                Up ahead, he heard echoing voices and slowed down. One voice was distinct, the same hiss he had heard year after year when the man was exacerbated, on the brink of a heart attack.

                “Shut it!” the echo carried.

                Thomas moved a little closer and called out.

                “Doctor?”

                He waited there was no response, maybe it wasn’t Starcross. He had to try again.

                “Doctor!?” his voice echoed down the dark hallway.

                He waited again.

                “Thomas!?”

                “Yes!” Thomas called out again and took a step forward. He felt a hand on his shoulder and another wrap around his mouth. He was pulled backwards into a side room littered with old equipment and sat in a chair. The matchbox was wrenched from his fingers and a light was struck. The faces of six men, all smiling dark grim smiles, illuminated before him. The leader of them, the man he had seen before roaming the halls like a great white shark stood before him, blood covering him.

                “Now you just stay quiet. Thank you for leading us here. We won’t hurt you. This will all be over soon, and we will all bask in the light of day once again, as free men. Free men, able to fulfill the trials of our lives, to succeed and to be merry once more.”

                Reginald nodded and the men holding Thomas down let him go and snuffed out the light. They shuffled out into the darkness. Thomas’ breath was lost to him in the moments he was put in that little room. He was sure the bloodthirsty man would eat him alive as he surely had done to garner his blood-stained clothes, but he was spared.

                He clicked his teeth and swore as tears started to stream down his face. He had never come this close to death but it was more than that. The man with the bloodied face had something else about him. He simply felt wrong to be in the presence off. His eyes shined with a blackness that Thomas had never witnessed before. It made him feel like a child.

                Down the hallway the sounds of men getting attacked erupted then died off as fast as they had come. Thomas snapped back to his senses and ran down the hallway. There was nothing he could do to stop them but he couldn’t just sit by and cry. He had to do something.

                He burst out into the red light of the hallway and saw only two men standing. The bloodied patient and James the black ward orderly that Thomas had known for a long time. They were standing eye to eye. Littered around them were the bodies of the rest. The other patients from yellow ward, the staff, and Dr. Henry Starcross lying against the wall clutching his chest. Thomas fell to his knees at the sight. He watched as the two men stared each other down. James gestured behind him to the room with the wheelchair. The bloodied man nodded and walked into the room to retrieve, the silent man.

                “The Pale King.” Thomas whispered.

                James turned his attention to Thomas and smiled. He had the same dark look that Reginald had. The same eyes. Thomas clicked his teeth and twitched; it made James lose his smile.

                “Do you suffer?” James said taking a step forward.

                “What?” Thomas said leaning back. He didn’t have the strength left in his legs to move.

                “I can end your suffering. Let me help you.” James reached out with a bloodied hand.

                Thomas squirmed but couldn’t fight off James’ grasp. The younger man grabbed him up and pulled him towards the large morgue freezer doors. James flipped a light switch and pushed open the large hangar door revealing the room within.

                “See they no longer suffer.” James said gesturing inside. The small room, what Thomas could only assume was meant to hold ten people on ten gurneys, was crammed full of bodies. Patients from black ward, and what looked like blue ward, staff from both wards, and any hapless full that stumbled down here from anywhere else. Thomas wretched and spewed his guts onto the floor, the hot contents steamed in the cold of the room.

                “He said, I wouldn’t be harmed.” Thomas said pleading with James.

                “Who? Him?” James said looking over his shoulder to the bloodied man who now had the silent man in tow.

                “Yes, he said I wouldn’t be harmed. That we’d be freed, and able to live merry lives.”

                “Oh did he? Well that might be his purpose. But mine is to end your suffering. Don’t you want to be without suffering? Don’t you wish to escape this cruel life? This cruel existence?”

                “No! I want to live!” Thomas said reaching up to James’ collar. He tugged and the crucifix fell out, catching the red light of the hall and the blue light of the freezer.

                “You wish to live? To go on suffering? But why?”

                “To live is to suffer, to endure is to live.” Thomas said tears streaming down his face.

                “Fool.” James said pushing Thomas away.

                “Are you ready? We must leave. The Pale King wills it so.” The bloodied man said gesturing to the door that lead to the back exit.

                “Yes, I’ve done all I can here. Suffer in peace, you wretch.”

                Thomas was left alone in the darkness as the two men carted off the silent man. He sat and wept and clutched at his heart full of pain and fear. The walls seemed to ebb and flow with pain and anger and fear. The feelings crashed over Thomas as he knelt not willing to give in but not strong enough to stand up just yet. The weight of what he could see held him down like a boulder on his soul. It took all his effort to crawl away from the open freezer door into the hall where the two men had escaped. It would take much more for him to stand and walk out of this hell. For now, he would rest. Let his mind calm down and let the emotions flow out. He would survive this atrocity. He would survive at any cost.

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