Monsters Wail- CHAPTER ONE
Hello reader- this is the first chapter of a novel I’m writing- its only been roughly edited by me as of now so its sure to have some…
Hello reader- this is the first chapter of a novel I’m writing- its only been roughly edited by me as of now so its sure to have some errors which I apologize for- The novel is based on a screenplay I wrote in 2012- I never made the film so I’m giving the story a go as a novel.
If you want to follow the books progress and/or have any feedback you can find me on twitter @MdotStrange
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CHAPTER ONE- Monsters Wail
A harrowing screech like one million nine inch nails scratching one million dank chalkboards assaulted the ears of the large man that staggered up a dark flight of spiraling stairs on his way up. With a stutter in his step he shuffled his feet up and over each stair with a soft CLANK. A quiet mania in his eyes, burning- lighting his way towards this malignant sound of undetermined origin.
He slammed his heavy hips against the wall and tightened his grip on the big black pistol in his right hand, he took a deep breath and clenched his jaw, dropping his head. His deep labored breaths echoed off the cold metallic walls in the stairway, lit only by tiny underpowered yellow light bulbs in tiny cages. He slid along the wall as he moved up the spiral of stairs huffing and puffing. The shadows from the light bulb cages threw themselves over him like a honeycomb of spiritual spider webs.
Instead of going away from this sound, this sound that cries out to you, that laughs at you, that tells you to come now and to get away as fast as you can all at the same time. This man was moving towards it like a mindless moth flapping on its way to a buzzing electric light bulb.
Flashes of silver blasted off of the badge around his neck as he cocked his gun ready for whatever may lay at the top of the stairwell. He shoved away from the wall steadying himself, groaning like a feral beast as he rushed on to the top of the stairs.
Standing as tall as the doorway and nearly as wide, he was a massive man that looked like he could lift a refrigerator overhead without much effort. His barrel like chest rose and fell as he stood in silhouette staring at the closed door. The wooden floorboards creaking underneath his feet as he slowly shifted his weight back and forth. He loomed in front of the door while the sound wailed on.
He slammed his head against the door and raised a metal flask up to his red sweaty face with pink gasping open mouth desperate for a drink as he gulped down a punchy liquid with a disturbing urgency. GULP GULP GULP.
When people drink like this they usually are trying to mask and forget about something they have already done or they are trying to numb themselves to something they are about to do. Numbing himself for something he’s about to do. Numb the fear, numb the terror, numb the screams inside of your mind. The screams from the base of the human being, the core that is responsible for self preservation. Run away from the tiger, jump away from the fire, run away from this door and from that sound. Run away from the thing that you know is there. Run away.
His job is not to run, his job is to move forward, to kick down doors with guns blazing and get things done. If he doesn’t do that than who will? Its his job, its his job to be the man. He has to be the man. He is the man.
With a loud thump he spun and slammed his back to the door and held the gun up high. His hand shook as he pressed his ear up to the door, hearing nothing but the sound. This scream, this cry, this inhuman drone assault that pierces ear drums. Hoping to get some hint that everything is okay, that it is safe to enter, he heard nothing but this deafening sound. “Fuck it!” he said.
WAP. A dull slap as his large hand smacked the wall and searched its surface. Beads of sweat were born and died in small puffs of steam on his heavily furrowed brow as he scoured the wall. His eyes searched the dark in desperation. With a loud TICK the lights blasted on. He shielded his eyes with his free hand from the blasting bright lights that assaulted his sensitive eye holes. “Maternity ward” the worn metal plate with copper screws in each corner read.
“ This fuckin bitch…this fuckin monster “ he muttered to himself as he checked and re-checked his gun to make sure it is indeed locked and loaded ready to blast shit to shit. CLACK CLACK said the gun ready to kill. GULP GULP said the police man as he took down a few pills chased by a chaser from his metal flask. CLINK CLINK CLINK said the flask as it tumbled down the spiral staircase. Its job done numbing him for his moment to confront whatever may be on the other side of that door. The flask lay dead on the ground floor, dark with no more light to shine off of its silvery worn surface that had the word “Ryan” etched into in bold plain letters.
Plain straight letters, none of that flowery fancy shit, exactly the type of letters that a straight shooting cop would have etched into his secret liquor flask to let the world know “ I’m a straight guy- I shoot straight and I drink hard shit- thats how it is- no fancy stuff- the worlds fucking crooked so I need the hard shit in this metal flask to keep me from blowin my own fuckin brains out when they make me do what I gotta do at this fucked up job “ Could those plain metal letters etched into a silver metal flask really say all that? They already did.
The burly police man tucked his shiny silver badge into his shirt as he grabbed onto the door handle with his free hand. “Fuck it!” he barked. WHOOSH He jerked the door open and threw the sights of his gun down the long dark hallway tracking for a target that isn’t there yet. “Fuck” he barked again with white foamy spittle started to gather in the corner of his mouth. The door slammed behind him as he shot inside of the hallway. He moved faster than a man his size should move, agile, with coiled speed like a snake ready to strike. A musty stench filled the air as he covered his nose with his free hand, his eyes watered from the stinging aroma that hovered in the hallway like a lingering spirit. The sound, this smell. Run away. Run away.
The horrible sound grew louder as the man lurched forward through the hall, sliding against the wall with gun held out front scanning for targets. “ I shoulda brought a fucking flashlight” he muttered to himself as he tried to make out the stacks of debris on the floor. Long crumbled bags of unknown laid across the floor. He stepped over them on his way closer to the sound up ahead on his left. A flash of light in his eyes as he fired his hand down into his front shirt pocket. His hand returned from the dark pocket with a white plastic lighter. “I’m a fuckin idiot” he muttered to himself wishing he would have remembered that he had the lighter moments before.
CLICK a small flame appeared on the lighter. He knelt down to get a closer look at the debris on the floor “What the fuck?!” he barfed. The long crumpled bags of debris were in fact twisted, contorted human bodies in hospital gowns and garb. Headless bodies, gowns stained by dark burps of blood bubbling up from veins and arteries torn and mangled from abrupt flashes of gore and violence. He jerked his head up and down the hallway. He counted twenty bodies littered throughout the hallway or halfway in it. Arms and legs protruding from odd places. They laid like broken dolls torn apart and thrown away by a sadistic spoiled child.
Shooting back up and righting his posture he moved further down the hall, each footstep making a muffled SMUSH sound, heavy boots on coagulated blood and gore. Smush, smush, smush echoed on down the dark hallway littered with mangled human bodies. He stopped as the horrible sound crescendo’s. He held the lighter up to the name plate next to the door. His eyes darted back and forth down the hall “ Nursery “ read the name plate.
BOOF he kicked the door in without warning as his body folded in half attacked by a blooming stench that burned his eyes. The room was all a blur as the sound grew louder than its ever been. WAAAAAH the room spun with the penetrating sound. He covered his mouth with his free hand as his neck spun back and forth. THUMP he tripped over more folded debris with stained clothing and fell to his knee’s “ Sunofabitch “ he muttered.
He stood back up surrounded by dozens of wailing babies in tiny beds with stained sheets. Globs of thick saliva oozed out of their gobbing face holes like fish on dry land gasping for air. He reached over for a light switch CLICK nothing happened “What the fuck is going on here?” he murmured to him self. KLUNK CLACK a rattle from across the room. Like a laser guided missile, he fired across the room towards a small closet with a machine gun of heavy footsteps, pistol raised and held out front like a lance from a giant plainclothes Knight with a gun, locked and loaded “ Come out of there now you motherfucker! “ he barked towards the closet doors.
“AAAAH” a woman’s voice quacked out of the closet “ Come out of there now! Or you’re dead bitch! “ he screamed with a terrifying intensity that might cause a coronary in the faint of heart. “ I’m coming I’m coming! “ said a shaky woman’s voice. “ Hands up high or I’ll blow your fucking brains out right here! “ he barked again “ Ok ok!” the woman complied. He moved a few steps back, knees bent, head down, gun far out front and forward. “Open the door slowly and step out with your hands up!” he barked “ I’m coming I’m coming “ said the woman with a quivering voice. Thin fingers in white surgical gloves slipped through the crack in the door and grasped it tightly. The hand quivered as another slid out and took hold of the other side of the door “ I’m coming out, please don’t shoot, please!” said the woman. “ Just open the fuckin door, slowly “ barked the man. Like the opening of a dark flower the closet doors slowly unveiled their innards.
The man locked on with his quivering blue eyes and with the dead aim of his pistol as a lone woman dressed in a light blue hospital scrubs sat with her hands up, glints of light flickered off the fresh wet tears in her face. “ Whats going on? “ cried the woman. “ Shit you’re not her” said the man as he stood straight up and lowered his gun “ There’s a monster here “ he mumbled. “ A monster? What do you mean?- are you the police? “ said the woman.
He flexed his fingers on his free hand and made a fist “ Yeah I’m the police and I don’t know what I mean really- I’ve never seen it- I’ve only seen what its done “ he said as he pointed the gun at a headless corpse on the floor near his feet. “ So what are you going to do? Where’s your backup “ said the woman. Turning his head away from the woman as he tapped the barrel of the gun on a small table “ Don’t worry about that- just get the babies to shut the hell up its splittin my head right the fuck open “ he barked “ Is it safe?” said the woman.
He turned to face her and pointed at the ground with his free hand “ Lock the door when I leave and call 911- and how did no one find this yet? Isn’t there any security? “ said the man. The woman closed the closet doors and scanned the room “ Security checks every hour they should be here soon….and I heard it- the monster thing “ said the woman.
The man spun on his hells and bent his knees locking his burning blue eyes on to hers as he moved closer “ You did? what did you hear? what the fuck happened here? “ he fired. As she scanned the small cribs mentally checking off things to do she began to speak “ I was in here about to do my thing when the lights went out then I heard my co-workers screaming and these terrible sounds- I jumped in the closet and was there until you came “ said the woman. “ How long ago was that? “ said the man. The woman looked down at the floor than pointed up at a wall clock with frozen arms“ What time is it now?” said the woman. He raised his ham hock of an arm into the air and peered down at the metal watch on his thick wrist “ 11:42 “ he said. The frozen clock on the wall read 11:05.
“ So what did you hear?” said the man. The woman tended to the babies as the horrible sound started to fade “ I heard these heavy smushy thumps like something big and slimy was slamming into the carpet then people would scream then….” said the woman as she dropped her arms, tears erupted out of her tired red eyes. “ Then what?” said the man. Quiet, she waited as she sniffled and threw her hands up over her face as he tapped his gun on his knee.
She wiped the tears from her eyes, righted herself and stared into his face with quivering eyes “ I heard them screaming, screaming like they were out of their fucking minds, like they were being burned alive then this whoosh- like the sound they use in movies when an arrow is flying through the air you know that sound?” she said “ yeah yeah I know that sound “ said the man.
The woman nodded her head and continued “ So there was the screaming then that whooshing sound then a loud crunch like some starving person took the biggest bite they could out of fresh big red apple- this loud crunching sound- then the screaming stopped “ said the woman “ Is that all you heard? You didn’t see anything? said the man “ After the crunch I heard a loud rumbling thud like a heavy sack of potatoes was thrown down a flight of stairs- what happened here?” said the woman.
“ You stay in here lock the door and call 911 ok “ said the man as the woman continued to tend to the babies. The wailing of the babies started to fade as the man opened the door to the hallway and looked out.
“What’s going on? “ the woman said “ What is this?” she added. He stepped back into the room and closed the door without making a sound. He tucked his head into his chest “ I don’t know exactly what it is but I’ve seen this before- what it does- the headless bodies “ he said in a low raspy tone. “Where?” the woman said as she walked towards him desperate for answers to her questions about who or what had massacred all of her co-workers “ It was in a movie theater about a month ago “ he said opening the door into the hall again “ Just stay here and call for help you should be safe I have to go “ he said.
“ The powers out, the landlines are down “ said the woman as she lifted a silent phone with no ring tone from the desk “ We’re not allowed to carry our mobiles on duty, their all in our locker room on the other side of the floor “ said the woman. “ Ok well just stay here, lock the door, take care of these fucking brats and wait for the cops to come “ said the man. “ Ok I will and whats your name by the way “ said the woman. “ Ryan, Lieutenant Michael Ryan “ he muttered. “ Thank you Lieutenant Ryan and be careful “ said the woman as he stepped out into the hallway.
She rushed toward the door CLICKED as she locked it. “ I wonder who he thought I was? “ whispered the woman as she tended to the room full of whining babies. She dropped the bottle from her hand and spun towards the door “ A movie theater? Does he mean that movie theater massacre from a month ago? Oh my god “ She stood frozen as the babies began to wail again. She snapped out of her stupor and got back to work.
RING RING BLEEP BLOOP echoed through the dark halls towards Officer Ryan as he lurched forward past the mangled bodies on the floor. He looked down at the corpse of a headless woman lying in front of him and said with a drunken charm “ She aint gonna be needin that phone anymore unless they make heads free phones hahaha” he said as he hunched forward, yellow vomit split his tight lips and sprayed forward onto the grey carpet beneath his heavy feet “ Son of a bitch “ he barked half drunk, half sick and half scared out of his wits as he let the vomit pulse and flow from his gaping mouth with strings of thick saliva falling from the corners of his maw like sticky webs excreted by fat disgusting spiders to snag their unsuspecting prey. Too many fucking halves driving him mad in this dark hospital filled with fresh pollackesque art covered walls viciously painted by erupting headless fountains of bright red blood.
With a dull scrape he leaned and slid along the wall, gun held high with both hands ready to kill. As he moved through a new dark hallway mobile phones blipped and beeped, they rang and rang to no answer. The wailing of the babies had been replaced by the sounds of the phone calls and texts from the concerned loved ones trying to reach the myriad of headless corpses spread across the floor. “ Fuck” he barked as he kicked some sticky red goo of unknown substance from off of his boot.
His large foot lifted up off the ground and froze in place as he heard the strangest sound behind his current position. The sound stopped. His foot hanging in midair like a statue as he waited for more of the sound so he could process it and figure out what it was. The sound started again, he slowly put his foot down and spun around without making a sound. He squinted his eyes and tilted his head to the side as he could now make the sound out clearly. “ This fucking bitch “ he mumbled as he clenched his fist on his free hand. His giant pumpkin of a head vibrated with a silent rage, his jaw clenched and ground nothing down into ground nothing.
He moved towards the origin of the sound, closed double doors to the right of the hall he was in. He picked up speed as he swiftly and silently moved in front of the closed doors. The sound started up again, the sound of several women giggling. “ Thats fuckin IT “ he mumbled as he shook out his arms readying himself for battle. “ hahaha hehehe hahaha “ the laughs continued.
His gaze darted back and forth like a nervous bird, to the door, back behind him, to the door. His eyes frantic with rage seemed to spin and shake inside of the dark coals in his eye holes. “ ha ha ha he he he ha ha ha “ the womans voices continued laughing. The bones in his fingers began to rattle, the dark coals in his eye holes now red burning embers, out of his mouth a pyroclastic flow of lava that erupted with “ Die you fucking bitch! “
He kicked the double doors in and began firing BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG he leapt into the room and fired at anything semi anthropomorphic. If it looked a little like a living organism with two-ish arms or two-ish legs he fucking blasted it BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG Shining flakes of glass sparkled as it flew across the room, splinters of wood rained down from above BANG BANG BANG BANG CLICK CLICK CLICK Ryan’s gun shook like a jackhammer as he continued to aim at invisible enemies in the room CLICK CLICK CLICK “ Fuck “ he barked as he dug into his back pocket SLIDE CLICK he loaded another clip into his gun CLICK CLICK he was ready to kill em all again.
In two steps he dashed over to a light switch on the wall and flicked it on with no response.
He spun and surveyed the small room that held a few shot up chairs and couches puffing out dust and stuffing from fresh gun shot wounds, he leapt over the small reception desk and aimed his gun at nothing “ Shit, where the fuck did she go? “ he said as he wiped the white foamy spittle from the corner of his mouth. He held his watch up to his face and made out the time 12:05 “ Where the fuck are those security guys?” he muttered. “ ha ha ha he he he “ he spun and faced the laughter coming from behind a door mere feet from his feet that read “delivery room” He clenched his fists and fired a gust of Co2 from his quivering lungs “ I got you now bitch “ he barfed.
BUZZ BUZZ a dull underpowered yellow light flashed off and on inside a metallic spiral stairwell. Something shiny gleaned in the dark contrasted by the knurled matte black steel that made up the surface of the stairs. BLOOP BLOP sounds of maple syrup dripping from a fresh shunt in a bleeding maple tree echoed off the walls of the dark spiral stairway as a small river of thick liquid made its way down the stairs. Above the slow motion waterfall of coagulated goo laid a shredded and torn mess of organic matter, twisted and mangled like the end of a human arm caught in a wood chipper. A cluster of small dark blue tubes of varying diameters shot out of the gore, pipelines of life shut off causing an instant mess of death to the human head that was once attached to this neck. A silver badge also shined on in the dark, the hard metal the only thing that seemed to retain a spark of life on this dead security guards body that usually had a head on it.
“ Ok, one, two, three “ Ryan counted down as he faced the delivery room door ready for his final showdown with this “bitch” he was going on and on about. His massive chest rose and fell, again and again, faster and faster like a locomotive picking up steam. He gathered more and more oxygen to feed the fire supercharged with hard liquor that had consumed his soul and was about to leap out the barrel of his gun again and again until everything was smoking dead.
BAM he kicked the door in, rushed forward and took aim and at a young pregnant woman strapped into a delivery chair, her legs locked into stirrups. Her arms restrained, locked into metal handcuff looking devices. Grey-blue moonlight flooded into the room through a broken window to the left of the woman, shadows from the jagged broken glass painted her into a cage of light and dark. Her upper body spilled forward into the light as her lower body below her large swollen pregnant belly shrouded in thick shadow.
His eyes burned a hole into her for the split second he made eye contact before squeezing down on the trigger with all the force and belligerent rage he had inside of himself CLACK “ AHHH! “ the woman screamed out “ Don’t shoot! Please! Help me! “ she added. “ Fucking shit “ he barked as he pulled the firing mechanism back again and again on his jammed pistol. “ Son of a bitch! “ he barked as he wrestled with his own gun as it disobeyed him “ Help me please! “ the woman screamed out as she jerked her torso back and forth locked into the restraints. Her galloping cleavage danced and erupted out of the top of her low cut shirt and she jerked back and forth.
Her long shiny hair flipped past her thick glistening lips and fine features as she opened her mouth hole to speak words almost as silky as her skin “ Please don’t hurt me! Help me! “ He fired his gaze at her then quickly back to the floor as if terrified by her beauty and screaming sexuality, he averted his gaze from her form as if she was a sister of medusa that would turn him to stone. She had the kind of looks that would turn any straight man to stone if you know what I mean.
Staring at the floor and away from the gorgon that was trying to freeze him in his place, to get him to drop his guard and take his head perhaps.
“ Stop it! please don’t “ she pleaded. CLACK Ryan cleared the jammed chamber, ready to kill again. He stared into the floor as she fired her gaze into his sweaty red face “ Lady, I don’t give a fuck what you say I know its you so fucking die” he said as he raised his pistol in slow motion in her direction. “ My names Debbie- you know me I met you and your partner Rog… “ she cried as he cut her off “ Shut the fuck up “ he barked. CLACK the gun rattled as he pointed dead set on her forehead.
BAM Blood splattered across his face as he spat and blew red foamy bubbles from out of his mouth as a headless corpse stumbled out from a door to his right like a marionette without strings. A torrent of blood blinded him as he fired in all directions BANG BANG BANG BANG. The headless corpse crashed into him, he shoved it halfway across the room with a loud grunt as it exploded out of a large window CRASH the pulsating body squirted gore on its way down, tumbling and twisting like an out of control deranged gymnast until it met its final resting place with a heavy SPLAT. Its innards gushing out onto well manicured hedges with a strong pump of threadlike gristle and yellow goo.
Puffs of angry smoke rose like vengeful spirits from the red hot barrel of his pistol as he waved it around the room desperately trying to wipe the blood from his eyes. “ Son of a bitch “ he said as he removed the final smudge of burning red from his vision.
CLACK his gun rattled as he took aim at the beautiful restrained woman, this time he locked his bloody raging blue eyes onto hers. “ You fucking monster “ he barked. Her dainty hands flipped back and forth in the wrist restraints “ I didn’t do this “ she said. He wiped his face again and spat on the floor “ Yeh right you psychopathic whore “ he barked, finger on the trigger ready to end her young life. “ It wasn’t me- it was my baby- I can’t even remember the last month- what am I doing here?! “ she cried as her face was now wrinkled with sadness, her eyes dark and deep with despair. “ Bullshit you freak! How could it be your baby? “ he said with a mocking tone “ Your still pregnant so how was it your baby? Your full of shit you fucking lunatic “ he added. Her head locked into a reclined chair as part of a special setup to help violent and insane women give birth it seemed. Her head flipped back and forth in a pathetic attempt to dodge the volley of hot lead he was surely going to fire into her skull at any moment.
“ Please don’t! “ she shouted, tears streaming down her face. His burning blue eyes fired laser lights onto her face, like a doe caught in the high beams of a speeding oncoming mass of metallic death she was helpless to move and get away, to avoid the inevitable smoking hot molten death. His arm now locked solid like a steel beam with his black death hammer in hand, the rope-like veins in his wrist pulsed with rage and shook with new life as the time had finally come for him to do what he had wanted to do for so long. The mixture of rage, madness and the feeling of victory had sculpted a deranged smile onto his face as he jerked his trigger finger forward to end her life.
“ This is for Rogers “ he whispered as he pulled his rock solid trigger finger back to release the hammer and splatter her brains all over the room. As fast as a lightning strike struck a large snakelike shadow rose up from behind him, it floated back and forth like a cheap puppet in slow motion, it shined in the moonlight that spilled in through the broken windows. Its slick slimy surface glistening with gross.
Catching the shadow snakes shadow on the wall from the corner of his eye he spun around on his heels and BANG BANG BANG. Flashes lit the dark room like a hyperactive photographer gone mad in a combat zone BANG BANG BANG gunpowder, smoke and gore leapt in all directions like a tornado of hot metal and fresh bleeding meat CRUNCH then THUMP a heavy crash onto the floor. Silence. WAAAAAAh a baby cries BLOOP BLEEP mobile phones ring.
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Hello reader- this was the first chapter of a novel I’m writing- its only been roughly edited by me as of now so I apologize for the errors- The novel is based on a screenplay I wrote in 2012- I never made the film so I’m giving the story a go as a novel.
Thank you for reading. More soon.
If you want to follow the books progress and/or have any feedback you can find me on twitter @MdotStrange