Death Toll

1.

Everything had a texture. Life, love, hate, and death, they all had a texture. It didn’t have to be a physical form to have a feeling. Emotions had texture as well. I was the one lucky enough to feel them. I could feel when others were in pain. I could feel when someone was in love, the floating yet fleeting feeling of having someone to love, or the aching, throbbing stab of the unrequited thoughts of adoration. I could feel the red, dry heat of hatred. It was my gift. A gift that I was born with, and never wanted, but eventually grew to know its advantages.
My gift had a curse, though. Even though I could feel other’s emotions, that projected my emotions even further. If someone had lost a loved one, I’d feel it more than they would, and I wouldn’t know why. Well, then I figured it out. I could feel pain, but beyond, physical, mental, and emotional. I could feel spiritual pain. And my soul is dying. That’s why I needed her. That’s why she needed me…
You maybe asking why I’m telling you this. Quite simple, really. There’s a bigger story involved. You see, I’m not like anyone else. I’m different, and nearly proud. Nearly… You see, I’m not all that different, though, as my story will well tell you. But, where do I begin? I know…
It was Prom night last year. I was to meet my beautiful girlfriend, let’s call her… Ivy, shall we? She had long brown hair, emerald green eyes, blue wire-rimmed glasses, and a smile that could ignite the sun. She was a nineteen-year-old High School senior, and I’ve been dating her for a year then. It was her idea to go on this date, but it wasn’t to the Prom. I’d be harassed out of there if I went, and it’d hurt her more than it’d hurt me. Instead, she was to meet me at her house, from which we’d have a picnic at the lake and go back “home.” She wouldn’t be in the Prom dress for more than an hour. And she’d be out of it for two days with me. She said to her parents that she worked late that day, early the next morning, and then went to party at a friends. In truth, she hadn’t worked for a week; she quit her job. But her father believed her, and she’d be all right. So I thought…

2.

Oh, well! Through that introduction, I never said my name. I’m so sorry. My name is Isaiah. No, not the one from the Bible, though, you may have heard of me. I’ve been walking the Earth for over a hundred years. I’m immortal. How’d I become immortal? Well, God made me that way. I saved a priest. Well, not just a priest, but the Pope. God saw that and made me invulnerable to Earthly attempts to kill me. That was in 1904. This story takes place in 2003. Impossible, right? Well, we’re talking aren’t we?
I see, you mean that I’m immortal, period. Well, I said to Earthly attempts, such as bullets, knives, and animals could not kill me. But other things could, creatures from another realm. Demons, you might say, and I will say. That was why I couldn’t believe that I had to face the Rising. I couldn’t believe that I’d face it alone. And I couldn’t believe that it would start, a year ago, on Prom night.

3.

I know, it’s how every story starts. But I’ll tell you that this one does not have a ghost from a hit-and-run, or a head held on to its body by a green ribbon. This one is far worse, as well as real. I should know. I’ve lived it.
It was a cold night for its season, clouds threatening to rain gray tears on to the dim ground. It was about forty-five degrees Fahrenheit. I cold feel the cold stabbing at me with shanks of rime. My nose felt numb, as I realized that I missed the eighty-degree summer. I didn’t shiver, but I was annoyed by it. It didn’t really matter, though. Soon, I’d be in the warmth of Ivy’s arms.
I heard people talking about me. “There’s Isaiah. God damn it, why doesn’t that freak just fucking leave?”
“Watch it! That man saved my baby!” I remembered that. An arson went back into the burning house, shot the dad in the chest, her in the hip, and had the gun to the baby. I was staying there that night. I heard the commotion and ran in the room, tackled the arson, and saved the family. The father went brain dead, and ended up dying. The mother didn’t care, he went brain dead anyway. I felt bad about it. I thought it was kind of my fault. I turned to see her walking toward me.
“Isaiah! Wait up! I wanted to thank you again for saving my baby,” she said. “I wish I just knew how to repay you.”
“Don’t. Your husband died in the shooting. I feel bad about it.”
“But, he would have been in more pain in life!”
She had no idea. She didn’t know I was immortal. How was she supposed to? I never told her. Instead of replying, I turned and left. I was halfway down the sidewalk when I heard a strange noise from where she was. I turned to see a pile of flames rising off into the cloudy sky. The woman was nowhere in sight. I walked on, not thinking anything of it.

4.

I was looking down, so it was hard to see the second sign. What made me look up was another sound. Some birds flew out of a tree, scared me for some reason. But, it made me look up and see the Ambulance in front of Ivy’s house. I thought maybe it was for across the street. It made me remember that I had her house key for some reason. I walked on. I just wanted to be in her arms. It was the only way I knew to stay calm, because, between you and me, I was scared. For no reason, I thought. It wasn’t until I crossed the street to go to her house that I heard the skitter of the claws of a creature that didn’t belong here. I turned to see where it was, but saw nothing. I went along my way.
I opened her front door and saw no one. She was supposed to be there, and I knew some one was home; all the cars were in the driveway. I went back outside, into the rose garden in her side yard. I reached close to the chimney and grabbed it. A gun. I hoped I didn’t need it. I didn’t even know how I knew it was even there. Though I hoped, I knew better. I went back to the front door and went inside. I started to regret that almost instantly.

5.

Wailing. I heard ear-shattering wailing. I had no idea what it was, but I thought it was in my mind. God, I wish it were. I walked up the stairs to where the noise was, behind her bedroom door, where I’ve been before, but never had the nerve to do anything in. Oh, shit, Ivy! My thoughts screamed in my head. Without any sense, I broke through her door and fell hard on my shoulder. It hurt like hell.
When I got up, I saw that it wasn’t her room anymore. It was a warped, misshapen reality. Glaring faces hung on top of organic walls. In the middle of the room was a tube with a creature in it. Black, mucus-covered vents hid on the walls. Random body parts were sculpted into the walls as well. A single winged creature was covered in the ebon dark of the room. Jesus, I thought, am I losing my mind?

It was possible. Organic walls? What the hell is this place? Where’s Ivy? What’s in that sculpture of an ass? Do I even want to know? Why’d I even ask in the first place? Why’d I plan on fucking my girlfriend without marrying her? Why’d I ask that at all? Why is it so fucking black in here?
And what in the name of God is that fucking thing in the tube? I walked up to it. It looked like a skull with two tendrils. A sign of things to come, it swam in motionless strokes, up and down. Black afterbirth covered the thing. It stared at me with hollow eyes. I wanted to smash that ugly ass thing into the fucking ground. It looked at me with that mocking false grin, just waiting for me to break it. But, I knew better. If I broke it, then my chances of finding Ivy would slim down. Besides, that wasn’t even the worst part of it. It didn’t even come close.
The worst part was the wailing. I knew exactly what it was just from the sound of it. It was the pain of the souls trapped inside this world, the world in her room. Did she create this place? Or was it my imagination as I walked to her door? I figured it out soon enough. Stick around, dear friend. The story’s about to get a lot more interesting.

6.

I moved along the slimy black walls, the gun in my hand, and my head spinning in perpetual orbit, no thanks to that goddamn wailing. I heard the fluttering of the vents as they opened and closed. Tubes connected from wall to wall carried God knows what to each other. I looked around and heard mechanical moaning. I was afraid to look, but I forced my self to. I could hardly believe my eyes. The tubes from the walls connected to three machines, two of which appeared to be female. Clear flaps of flesh covered the faces.

“What the fuck is going on here?” There was no use holding it back. Something was obviously wrong, and I had no idea what it was. I almost had to know though. Because, if Ivy was involved, I wanted to know who, or what, I should be looking for. And it sure as hell wasn’t three machines doing something that looked like, well, machine fucking. A mechanical threesome, oh, could you imagine how excited I was to see that? Actually, I was disgusted, as you could tell. Two of the machines, the “female units” were basically bones with dull, flesh colored metal skin. That wasn’t very attractive in my book. Yet, through it all, I kept thinking of Ivy, and being in her arms, her legs entwining mine. I guess it was the only way to get the sucking-fucking-robots off of my mind.
I kept on my way, almost forgetting that I wasn’t in Ivy’s house anymore. I just didn’t understand what this place was, as you’ve figured, but I was convinced that it was a dream. A very vivid dream with very loud sounds. A nightmare caused by my subconscious because it knew that what I wanted to do with Ivy was morally wrong. That explained the three horny machines. What about the thing in the tube? Maybe it was a fetus? Maybe I was scared of getting Ivy pregnant. Maybe I was afraid that the child wouldn’t come out normal because of my immortality. But, the why am I having such a weird-ass dream? That’s all it was, I thought. It was just a dream. A very real dream.
I looked back at the machines, and I don’t know why. Oddly, I’m glad I did, though. The “male unit” had released one of the females, which was now standing up. A black creature fell from her, humanoid in shape. Its hands were two claws, webbed in afterbirth. The eyes of the creature were gold, matching in brightness only to its bleached white teeth. It ran towards me in quick strides.
I backed up into another one of the creatures. Shit, I’m dead, I thought. I tried to escape, but it was no use. Their claws dug into my skin, an immense pain following it. My soul was in pain. But I had to go on. I had to fight them off, but to no avail. In a matter of seconds, I passed out.

7.

The taste of blood in my mouth reverberated its tang as I moved my tongue around my cheek. I felt sick to my stomach. The new room I woke up in was black, to little of my surprise, and slimy. Just like every other room in this world. Ebon darkness filled the already thick air. The smell of some sort filled my nose. Possibly semen? I asked myself. It smelled familiar, almost like that, reminding me of the rape of one of my friends a few years back. I felt her pain then, and it was strong now. I thought then that it was the memory of it. I was proven wrong in the next second.
“Isaiah?” It was a voice I didn’t want to recognize.
“Carol?” My own seemed distant, full of rage, blood, and bile. What woke me up wasn’t pain; I was vomiting. “Carol, where are you?”
I looked up to see a body that was no longer human. Tubes connected her face to her groin. Whatever the thing was, it sure as hell wasn’t my old friend. It spoke in a raspy, yet similar voice. “You see me just fine, Isaiah. You can see what those fuckers did to me. You can see the tubes, the semen, and the afterbirth. This is our fate. This is what we live for, Isaiah. This is how your God has forsaken us, the victims of the crimes of the Beast. We cannot bear the pain, Isaiah. We must be heard. Our voices, the voices of the pained, shall be heard from beyond the gates of this Subland!”

“What are you talking about?” I gazed at her new form in terror. It couldn’t be her, it just couldn’t. Carol’s body was, well, dead. The only human thing left on her was the slight outline of arms and legs. Her head had mutated with tendrils that resembled dreadlocks growing from lumps on her face and computer chip looking marks. The only remaining feature that was normal was her mouth, which was folded to a vile grin. She was definitely not the Carol I used to know, and by far wasn’t even a person.
She breathed and spoke again. “Your God, Isaiah, is a liar. He promises salvation to those who believe in him, and grants only eternal pain to the ones he judges unworthy of paradise. Those would happen to incorporate people like me, Isaiah: victims of rape, murder, robbery, abortion. We’re all here in the Subland, a place of torment, death, and revolutions of pain. A place where the wicked do not rest at all, but are put to work to figure out ways to overthrow the minions of Hell.” She paused for another breath. “The Beast will attack, you know. There’s nothing you will be able to do about it. Nothing can stand in the way of the stagnant demise of your home. All that can be done is to rush it.” Her folded smile flashed to one that looked eerily real. I was beginning to see what was going on here, and I didn’t like it.
My breath paused for a few moments. “Where’s Ivy?” I couldn’t listen to Carol anymore. Unfortunately, she felt the same way, it seemed. She raised her hand to chest level, palm towards the ceiling. She started to whisper some weird chant, but I couldn’t make it out.
Then, for no reason, I looked down. The gun. It was still in my jacket pocket. To tell you the truth, I felt like a fucking idiot forgetting about that. But still, would it help? Maybe she was too far-gone to be affected by my weapon. But I had to try it. I raised the gun and fired a round into her mutated head. Blood spurted from behind her head in a matter of seconds. I stood motionless, waiting to see if she could do anything else. She lowered her hand, gasped, and fell to the ground.
“Thank God that worked,” I muttered. I started to move away when I heard the humming noise from her back. Then the wailing started again. Pain. Not her pain, though. Ivy’s. I felt it stronger than before. In fact, I felt it so strongly now, that I fell to the ground, clutching my sides. I looked up to see why Carol was humming, but saw what would terrify me instead.
Ivy was behind Carol, nailed to the wall on an upside-down cross.

8.

I tried to scream, I honestly did, but the wailing proved to be too much. The only solace I had was knowing that she was alive. But I only knew that because I could feel her pain still. My sides burned, my ears ready to split. I could have sworn that I felt blood dripping down my cheeks.
And that damned humming! Why in the name of God was Carol fucking humming? I lowered my head to her back. It wasn’t just her back I saw. It wasn’t even skin. It was the same black, metallic, slime-covered exoskeleton this “Subland” had all over it. In fact, the only difference was that the shit covering her was moving. The spine was throbbing like a heart, branches soon following suit. The branches, or ribs, popped up with the spine, changing from black to silver. I realized then that her “skin” was alive, though she was not.
I got up, pointing the gun to her back. I didn’t fire though, I couldn’t. I don’t know why. All I did was watch as her skin pulled from her and flew up in the air. Her body changed as well, losing her shape. It held a disc with what looked to be maggots. The disc was smoldering. I watched as her skin turned to me, and pointed a finger in my face.

“Who dares disturb the Subland? Who dare comes in the name of God to destroy the Beast? Speak, for I, the Til, command it!”
I couldn’t speak. Instead, I opened my mouth and spat at it. It responded with what might have been a blare from its eyeless face. The Til then lashed its tail and cut my face.
It bled, sure, but I couldn’t feel it. All I could feel was its rage. It was livid that I entered its territory and killed its host. It was infuriated that I came with a belief of God. And worst of all, it was angered that I came here to take away its key to taking over the world. I figured it all out now. It took Ivy as a new host, one powerful enough to over through God Himself.
Well, I just couldn’t let that happen.

9.

To be honest, I felt like I was in a B horror movie. You know, when the hero gets fed up and is able to fight the last of the demons with only a sawed-off shotgun? Well, I was fed up, but I only had a Beretta 92. God damn it. I was fighting a creature that called itself the Til, with a piece of shit when it comes to armor penetration. I had an idea, though.
I waited again, for it to speak, but it wouldn’t. I had to provoke it the only way I knew how. I pointed the gun at its face.
Not good. It didn’t speak. Instead, it flew to Ivy and crawled on her. I knew it wouldn’t speak until it infected her. And I knew that the Til was going to win if I let it infect her. I made the hardest decision of my life then. “She’s too weak! If you infect her, you won’t have the power to destroy God!”
Its horns perked towards me. “Is this true, mortal?”
I grinned at it hesitantly. “Yes, it is. But I’m strong. God made me immortal. I’ve been around for over a hundred years, and I’ve been waiting for a chance to show Him what death is like! Come to me, and we’ll experience victory together!”
It bought the bait. It pounced off of Ivy and landed on me. It opened its mouth, bit my shoulder, and borrowed into me. The last thing I remember seeing before I closed my eyes was Ivy falling off the cross. I closed my eyes and waited for death to come. I heard the crashing of the world around me, the maggot disc crumbling, and the walls melting. In my mind, I saw that damned skull break apart in its tube. Then, blackness…

10.

My head was wet from the blood on the concrete. A priest was standing over me, holding a Crucifix on my shoulder, the one that the Til dug in to. I didn’t feel different. I looked at him and smiled.
“Are you okay, Isaiah?” he asked quietly.
“Yes. How’d you know my name?”
The priest smiled back. “Ivy told me. She’s inside the house.” I tried to say something, but he held up a hand. “Yes, she is fine. I guess you know, now, what needs to happen?”
I shook my head. I could barely remember what the hell had just happened five minutes ago.
“The world must change now, Isaiah. It must start dying, but first, you must try to fight the Rising of the Kingdom of the Beast. You were chosen for this purpose, Isaiah.” He helped me up, and then changed the course of the conversation. “By the way, what is your real name?”
“Isaac. And thank you for helping me out. Since you know about what I saw now, is that thing--?”
“The Til is in you, but it is dead. Go Isaac, Ivy awaits your arrival.”
I turned to leave, but didn’t get too far. I turned to the priest. “Wait, how’d you--?” He was gone. Another trick of the Til, or God? Right now, I didn’t care. So I opened the door to the house and walked in. Ivy was sitting on the couch waiting for me. Instead of our regular plans, though, we talked about the end of the world. We talked of how I was chosen to stop it. And finally, we talked about the fact that what I have done was responsible for part of the solution, the salvation of humanity. If only I knew why the demons came that night, though. I started thinking that maybe the Til wasn’t in me after all. Maybe it had actually won its battle.