A Serenade for the Innocent - 122 Red Dingly-Dangly Pendulum Thingies

“Heh. Well, this doesn’t look so bad! Look, the exit is literally right there!” He said as he pointed at the other side of the hall, a metallic corridor that is just as well-lit as the rest of what we’re seeing. From closer inspection, we can see that rows of fluorescent light are litting the exit to this area. “Come on. Let’s make a run to it!” He said as he stretched his feet, making him look like he’s about to run a marathon.

Oh, why yes! Be my guest and do it, Mr. Policeman; why the hell not, eh? It would be a great way to cut our numbers down.

However, while I was savoring the exhilarating thought of seeing this stupid policeman get what he deserves with his cocky attitude, the bloodied stranger suddenly wrapped his hands around the policeman’s waist and pulled him away from the metal area. The policeman was about to dash right through it when the bearded man suddenly did this to him, which made him exponentially more annoyed than ever.

“What the fuck are you doing!?” The policeman said as he suddenly punched the bloodied stranger’s arms! “GET THE FUCK OFF ME, FREAK! YOU’RE DISGUSTING!” The policeman then suddenly reached out to his bulging pocket but decided against it after gritting his teeth for a few seconds.

“YOU WILL DIE IF YOU GO THERE BLINDLY, MR. POLICE!” The bloodied stranger shouted with his usual hoarse voice while tightly pulling the policeman away from the metal room. He had his eyes tightly closed while the policeman punched his arms continuously, not even minding the excruciating pain this might have caused.

The policeman tightened his fist further, making his broad biceps to bulge out of his uniform’s sleeves. “WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA ANYWAY!?” The man then pointed his left hand into the invitingly bright metal area as he continuously jabbed the bloodied stranger’s hands with his right hand. “THERE’S NOTHING IN THERE!”

While the entire thing was happening, the nurse was at the policeman to stop hurting the bloodied stranger further, but not really doing anything to stop him from doing so. She’s kinda just… letting it happen while screaming against the thing that is still currently happening before her. She’s a weird one. As the endless mix of sounds coming from the three of them rang throughout the corridor, the silver man just stood there with his stupid silver face as he started to nibble swiftly on his silver nails again. At this point, even I am getting tired of calling out just how silver he is.

Meanwhile, the salesman, who remained relatively quiet throughout this entire debacle, quietly sighed as he stepped into the door. I thought that he would use the chaos around him as a way to be the first person to walk through the metallic hall, which brought me an inexplicable amount of joy. However, he started to take his black jacket off. When I realized what he was doing, I sighed as I rolled my eyes.

Just as I expected, while the four other people around him are doing whatever hellish scene it is that they’re trying to recreate, the salesman suddenly hurled his jacket forward into the air.

“Wh—” The nurse whispered weakly, finally stopping her high pitched screaming as she watched the jacket fall into the floor. It seemed that she’s clueless as to what the salesman was doing.

Meanwhile, the policeman is still swiftly jabbing at the bloodied stranger’s arms with all the fury in his heart. To be honest, the real wonder here is how the bloodied stranger manages to endure all of the policeman’s strikes with that malnourished body of his.

Finally, after a few moments of anticipation, the salesman’s jacket fell onto the floor with a soft sound, but the ringing noise that came thereafter was a stark contrast from it.

VREAAAAARRROOOOWWWW!

Wh… what the hell is that stupid sound? That sounded better when I last came here? That sounds like a pig getting heavily molested or something.

VREEEEEEEGGGHHKKKK!

Oh, these noises are just annoying now!

Those awful sounds reverberating around us are loud siren-like sounds that echo throughout the metal hall around us. I know it was supposed to terrify us, but with the way it sounded like a loud and much more annoying version of the noise that a cat thunders when it’s throwing a tantrum… I just can’t take it seriously! I then held my hands tightly as a light laugh managed to escape my mouth, which I managed to hide well since the rest of the people around us were not particularly looking at me.

Except for one guy…

The bloodied stranger looked up at me with furrowed eyebrows as his resentful gaze seemed to have judged me for even laughing a tiny bit at that ridiculous sound! I mean… IT DOES SOUND RIDICULOUS, THOUGH! Why does he have to be such an ass about it?

It continued to echo all around us like a banshee running throughout our heads! The sound was so loud that it interrupted the policeman from further hitting the bloodied stranger since he instinctively used his hands to cover his ears. Meanwhile, the bearded man still wrapped his grease-filled hands around the policeman’s waist, seemingly not minding the loud noise. The salesman just looked at the hall with a scowl while the nurse fell into the floor with her eyes closed tightly. For all I know, the silver man must have already died because of the fear brewing within him, which I do not wish to happen. After all, he is still my gateway ticket out of here. Thus, I went there beside the silver man to embrace his trembling body. He didn’t really respond to it whatsoever and just allowed his body to shake in my arms.

Due to the thundering noise all over us, none of the people around me realized that the ceiling started opening from the middle like an old elevator door. When the metal ceiling finally revealed the darkness lurking above it, the siren stopped. However, the sound that came afterward is just as excruciating as the one that precedes it.

Chains started to ring throughout the hall, giving off the sparking sound of metal clinking and hitting one another. Meanwhile, giant anchor-shaped metallic slabs began to descend from above swiftly. Below the anchor-like metal slabs are what looked like a wide arc-shaped blade that could definitely cut anyone with the greatest of ease. I also noticed that, as the metal slabs started to reveal its whole length, that its red color is greatly more accentuated around the blades, and the color of anchor-shaped slabs itself fades into black the farther it is from its arc-shaped edge.

“THAT’S THE REASON WHY YOU SHOULDN’T JUST MAKE A RUN FOR IT!” The bloodied stranger roared while still pulling the now dazed policeman away from the metallic hall.

“W-what… WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE!?” The policeman said as he finally stopped hitting the bloodied stranger with bloodshot eyes! He then pushed the bloodied stranger’s hands out of his waist. This time, the stranger was much more willing to comply with the policeman’s strikes and released his greasy hands out of the policeman’s waist. Now, his blue uniform has this distinct black and red mark around his lower half. Perhaps the bloodied stranger released the policeman this time, so the damn guy who kept punching him would just die already! I can’t blame him.

“They’re… they’re huge… are we supposed to dodge THAT!?” The salesman said as he started to tighten his humongous belly by pushing it deep within him with his hands. The man then gritted his teeth as he moved his gaze around to see if there’s a way to get out while the metal slabs have not fully descended yet. Perhaps, he thinks that he could bolt right out of there if he were a bit younger. If so, I would have even encouraged him to dash forward so that I could weed out our numbers already!

“LOOK AT THOSE BLADES! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! AAGGHHH…! WE’RE GONNA DIE!” The silver man shrieked while holding the damp wall beside him with his trembling silver hands. He then covered his face with his arms as he squirmed after seeing the swiftly descending metal slabs from above. I then noticed that a portion of his hands has started to reveal his pale skin. It must have been because of the wetness on the floor.

“There’s got to be a way to escape that thing, right!?” The nurse said as she immediately walked towards me. She then started tapping my shoulders as she spoke while pointing at the now open ceiling. Perhaps what she fears more is the darkness that lies within the ceiling more than the ones getting out of it. Her determined face earlier had started to melt away as a helpless expression crept upon her once vibrant face.

I have to admit, those things fall right away usually when I last came here, so I’m a bit surprised that it didn’t fell right away when the salesman threw his jacket onto the floor. Perhaps we need to have some maintenance tests around here someday.

After about two seconds, the anchor-shaped metal slabs started to fall quickly from above like someone had dropped all of them in unison. However, midway into the air, it suddenly halted its fall and began swinging from one side to another after it suddenly stopped dropping from above the ground. Instead of slowing down, the swinging motion of the anchor-shaped metal slabs just increased until it reached the wide spaces between the metal poles at the side of the hall. The direction that each of the nine metal slabs takes varies from each other that all of them looked like individual pendulums with lives of their own and different decisions they would make.

One could easily see that the pendulums would move slowly in its first swing to the right before partially hiding in the wall on the other side of the poles before swinging one swift strike to their left. The way it moved was so rapid that one could easily miss it if they blink. Looking below the continually swinging pendulums, one could see that there’s only about 2 feet or less of space left underneath the nine pendulums.

A wave of wickedness then started to emerge from within my heart as I failed to keep the edges of my lips from perking upward.

Crawl, maggots, crawl for your lives!