A Serenade for the Innocent - 123 Now, There's Something Red on the Floor

“Now, now, friends, there’s no need to panic about those huge things swinging by your heads! It will be fine! You will be fine… as long as you follow my instructions correctly.” I said as I tried to wave my hands around my chest to ease their growing paranoia. “It will be easy to go through this area since the floor is smooth. All of us just need to lay on the floor and push ourselves up with our feet like worms. Of course, we should do it carefully, so the pendulums wouldn’t hit our heads. It would be better if we do this with our backs on the ground, so we could see if the pendulum is about to hit our heads. If we crawl with our backs facing those swinging things, we might make some mistakes and have our heads cut off instead.”

“The priest speaks facts, friends!” The bloodied stranger said as he hunched his back forward while approaching my side. I then placed my hands around his shoulders and thanked the Lord God in heaven for making my cassock long-sleeves because I would rather mutilate my arms instead of having my skin touch whatever bacteria is on him. However, I tried my very best not to touch his skin with my bare hands; no way will I get whatever skin disease he has on me! He then continued his words, “Since there’s a lot of us, we can’t possibly move ourselves from this door to the corridor on the other side. After all, this corridor presented to us in the second area is too narrow. The best way to go around with this is to crawl on the floor one at a time, waiting for each other’s turn. With this, we can ensure that everyone gets their turn to be on the other side one at a time.” He then breathed heavily as he stretched his hunching back to straighten it. “This is not a competition, friends, so we must do this right.”

I wanted to click my tongue as I tried my hardest not to distort the smile on my face into a terrible scowl. Nevertheless, as much as I hated the way this bloodied man had taken the spotlight away from my stunning smile, I am quite pleased that he did so, for it meant that I had to speak lesser than I did earlier. After all, I am still injured myself. As much as I would like to pretend that I don’t mind the bruises around me, it felt like Satan himself is poking my skin with a toothpick straight out of the flames down below in hell itself!

I then looked around me and saw the varying expressions of the people around me. The salesman stared at the sides of the pendulums as if trying to calculate if he could leap through it if he tried. I’m sure that among all of us, he’s the one most unwilling to do the crawling route. I knew it for a fact after seeing the way he lowered his plump stomach by pushing his stomach into his insides while keeping himself from breathing. Meanwhile, the policeman looked at us with his hands on his waist, appraising what we just said with a frown. The nurse had her gaze down onto the shiny metal floor, indicating her uncertainty about this whole crawling business with a pair of shaking eyes. The silver man, on the other hand, is… Do I really have to explain it further? I’m sure that all of us here already know that he’s just out there shaking in fear one way or another anyway!

At the end of the day, all of them are uncertain about what we had just said as they showed their unwillingness to follow our instructions. They were all pretty much wordlessly telling us that they don’t trust this method.

Haa… I want to get out of this area already. The only reason why I got excited about it is that I might finally see someone die, but if my message to my family didn’t come across well, maybe I still won’t be able to see some blood spilled soon.

Let’s just get this over with then!

“Alright!” I exclaimed as I clapped my hands with an obviously fake excitement in my tone. “I’ll go first, so you’ll know that doing this method is perfectly safe! Besides, if we stay in this area a tad bit longer than this, the Crawlers might come right towards us!” I then walked towards the first pendulum a few feet away from the doorway of the second area. When I turned my head away from my companions, they all looked uncertain about what I’m about to do, but none of them really stopped me from going.

Just like I had said, I laid on my beck, I pushed myself forward by squirming on the floor like a silly little worm and looked up as the pendulum swung mere inches away from my very eyes. However, I wasn’t scared. I could physically feel the way the pendulum swings above me since they move a bit too swiftly that it would literally send slashes of air on my skin. Fortunately, nothing happened just as I expected, and I managed to get out of the nine pendulums unscratched! At best, I just felt the pendulum tickling my skin a bit because of, uhh… physics?

Stunning!

“See?” I screamed as I stood on the other side of the area. I then cupped my hands around my lips as I continued, “You can do it too! It’s perfectly safe as long as you know what you’re doing!”

Probably inspired by my bravery, the silver man stood up from his dumbfounded gaze while sitting on the damp floor, “I’M NEXT! LET ME OUT OF HERE!” I saw him moving around like a fool on the floor as he left a few glitters on his track. Safely, he managed to get on the other side of the area, brimming with joy. As he yelled out loud about how he managed to get on the other side of the room, he suddenly embraced me with his warm and excited body. I then noticed that some of the silver paint on his back had been removed, showing a bit of his brown hair.

The policeman then went right after the silver man wordlessly before clicking his tongue. From the look on his face, it seemed that he had rather come on the other side of the room instead to make him look like some kind of leader figure for the group. He managed to crawl out of danger, but when he stood up on the other side of the hall, he averted his eyes from us while gritting his teeth with displeasure.

“I would love to go next.” The nurse timidly said with her two hands balled into two fists around her bosom. The salesman and the stranger indulged her wishes and made her crawl to safety. Just as all of us had expected, nothing happened! She managed to breathe clearly with a relaxed sigh as she crawled to her safety on the other side.

“Friend, I think it would best for me to come next. I mean… having a shady man at the end of the line might cause some commotion on our friends there on the other side.” The bloodied stranger loudly said to the salesman, so I could hear what he had spoken clearly amid the loud swinging and creaking of the pendulums. “People tend to shake when they’re crossing this darn thing, and that’s really how this place gets them, you know? The more you shake, the more you tend to move your body upward, it seems. I would like to reassure you that there’s nothing to be afraid of since I can see you being a bit too bothered by this crawling business for a while now.” The bloodied stranger was then about to extend his arms to place it on the salesman’s white long-sleeves shirt, but he suddenly pulled his hand away instinctively, not wanting to dirty the salesman’s clothes.

Oh, Jesus, please tell me this is a dream! This can’t happen! He has to go last, or else the lights closing plan will be useless! I bit my knuckles while observing the two men on the other side until I saw the salesman puff a chuckle.

Seemingly seeing the way the bloodied stranger pulled himself away from him, the salesman shook his head while looking at the bloodied stranger. He then said, “If you think I’ll be scared because of you, then you’re wrong, 100%. If you’re saying that I’m scared because of you, then you’re wrong.” He then slapped his stomach with a hearty laugh, “Look at this thing! Everyone will be afraid to crawl below that thing with this kinda stomach! I mind the pendulums more than you, pal, so don’t be too hard on yourself.”

The salesman then approached the pendulums before the bloodied stranger! YES! YES, THANK YOU JESUS, YOU’RE MY REAL BROTHER; OH, THIS IS JUST GREAT, AMAZING! HALLELUJAH! The salesman then suddenly jumped around while stretching his head from side to side while profusely trying to breathe in and out loudly. The salesman then laid his head on the floor before inhaling his stomach until it descended down into a less burly state. The salesman then pushed his stomach further down with his hands as he crawled into the other side, hurriedly, with a reddened face. The bloodied stranger then stood there on the other side of the room with awe as he saw the unexpected kindness of the burly salesman.

When he saw that the salesman was about to reach the ninth pendulum, he then laid on the floor as I started hearing him sniff before he screamed, “THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I’VE BEEN UNIRONICALLY HAPPY TO BE IN THIS GOSH DARN STUPID PLACE! WHOO! GOD IS REAL, FRIENDS! GOD IS REAL, AND HE’S WITH US! THANK YOU, PRIEST! THANK YOU, EVERYONE, FOR MAKING ME BE WITH ALL OF YOU! I WILL NEVER FORGET THIS DAY EVER IN MY LIFE!”

The man then proceeded to crawl into the other side of the area as tears started to flow out of his eyes, making the grease on his face spill onto the perfectly glistening floor. If the silver man left a trail of glitters, this man left blackened blood, bile, and grease, painting the gray floor into a black mess!

He then passed through the first pendulum. I bit on my knuckles as I waited for some kind of response from my family. Nothing came.

He passed through the second pendulum. The bloodied stranger merely laughed as he went on. Meanwhile, the people around me cheered him on loudly other than the policeman.

He passed through the third pendulum. I bit my knuckles even harder as I tried to find another plan to get rid of the man in the next area without anyone noticing.

He passed through the fourth pendulum. Suddenly, weird noises started coming from above, like countless feet moving about in the darkness. This prompted the stranger to move quickly.

Thus, in no time, he passed through the fifth and the sixth pendulum with ease. I then looked all around the well-lit room, trying my hardest to see if there’s some visible camera around us this time. Still, even with all the light around us, I can’t find anything resembling a camera!

As the loud creeping noises echoed from the darkness lurking above the endless shade on the ceiling, the bloodied stranger finally reached the seventh and the eighth pendulums. I then gritted my teeth as I saw that my family seemed to be not giving me any response. I then walked closer to the ninth pendulum to welcome the bloodied stranger with my usual fake smile, but I really didn’t want to stay in this place any longer. Not because of the Crawlers but because my plan will soon be in shambles! I stood beside the silver man who seems to be happily egging on the bloodied stranger near the ninth pendulum.

However, when the stranger finally peeked his head out of the eighth pendulum, the light on the two sides of the room slowly flickered.

Oh…

And it flickered again as his head approached the ninth pendulum.

Yes…

Then, after two more large fluctuations, the lights closed!

YES!

I then extended my feet forward and felt that the bloodied stranger’s head was still right there.

PERFECT!

The people around me started screaming in panic after the suddenness of the lights going out. Thus, when I stepped my foot firmly onto the bloodied stranger’s forehead, his pleas of help went unanswered. After all, everyone else is just as panicked as he is, wondering if the Crawlers will finally come to eat them whole.

PERFECT!

Swiftly, with the same foot I used to trample on the bloodied stranger’s head, I kicked the living holiness out of him on the back of his head, making his face raise into the swiftly swinging pendulum above him, making him utter nothing but an indistinguishable noise, which sounded a little bit like this, “BLEEEUURGGHH!”

PERFECT!

After a few seconds, the lights started to flicker once more as I swiftly kicked the damn fool’s head once more, but this time, my strike was far stronger than the first one to make sure that he’s dead when the lights went on again. The pendulum now slowly passed through his face with the sound of metal ripping through skin and bones, sending the loud noises of lifeless ripping throughout the area.

PERFECT!

Then, I don’t know why, but the heel of my other feet moved in a circular motion on the slippery floor. Thus, I suddenly lost my balance. Uh, oh…

Not perfect…

I then shrieked as I felt my body falling onto the floor. The demon take this slippery floor! If I hadn’t moved swiftly, I would have had my legs cut off with the bloodied stranger. I may survive it, but not only would I lose a foot, but the people around me would also know that I was the one who offed this disgusting thing!

NOT PERFECT!

Since the pendulum was still grinding on the bloodied stranger’s head, my feet hadn’t reached its unsharpened blade as it elevated in the air. Thus, with quick thinking, I managed to push my body away from the pendulum, by shoving someone else forward, making me flung backward. Whoever I pushed is the person nearest to me, and he shrieked loudly as I heard the loud thud of something hitting a metal surface. Then, what followed that is the squishing noise of something seemingly stepping on a slime-like thing on the floor.

When the lights opened, I noticed that I was on the floor, a few inches away from the blade of the pendulum.

I didn’t really see much other than the sight of a bald head sticking out of the dark ceiling above me. The bald head hovering above then moved back into the eternal darkness behind it with an appraising look. I then moved my head around as I felt the injuries in my body ache. I couldn’t really see anything, but I do know one thing… Now, there’s something red on the floor.