"Tales From An Ex Convict" Creepypasta r/nosleep

Creepypasta Story My father spent 14 years locked behind the thick steel doors of the berry telford state penitentiary located right outside of texarkana texas recently i took an interest in the dark events that have happened to various family members and sat down to ask him if he had any chilling stories or experiences he could share about his time he spent incarcerated anything that he hadn't shared with me before i was both pleased and horrified as for the next two hours he divulged some truly chilling and grotesque tales i'll just let you know that some of

these stories are graphic and if you have a weak stomach well i'd advise you not to listen any further for the rest of you i won't spare details and i'll lay them out exactly as he laid them out to me my dad was sent to the telford unit a few months after his 21st birthday sentenced the 20 years for armed robbery it is a maximum security prison designed to mostly hold suspected gang members and violent criminals The first day is a total shock to your system you're stripped and cavity-searched coming in and out of every

room you have a bedtime you're timed at meals and thrown into a cell with three other inmates telling you the house rules and which bunk is yours then laying in bed that first night well that's when it hits you that this is home and this is your life now out of anything i can recall that feeling of helplessness and hopelessness that loss of freedom that's the scariest part of prison he told me that as the months pass you get used to your routine you start to need the structure even crave it he said he decided

to make the best of it learn as many skills as he could and stay as busy as possible one of his vocational skills he picked up was plumbing and soon became the in-house plumber for the a building now the way the prison is set up is that there is an a building and a b building inside each building there are 10 cell houses each cell house contains 12 cells that can hold anywhere from one to four inmates each in the middle of each cell house is the rec room where the cells all open up And

this is where the inmates spend most of their free time in addition to the cell houses each building also contains several solitary wings labeled from aseg to zseg when i first got there everyone kept joking that if i stepped out of line the guards would send me to mseg one day i asked the buddy who had been locked up for 15 years already when i got there my people kept talking about mseg and not any of the other segwings look his buddy told them people who have extended stays in m just don't come back the

same some don't come back at all the guards know it that's why they always fill m last or put new guys there who they think might be troublemakers a knight in m and you'll straighten your act up real quick i've never been there myself but i talked to a couple inmates who have and they both told me the same thing something evil lives in that place so like i said my dad had become the on-call plumber for a building he said it was about six months into the job when he had his first encounter with

m seg whenever a toilet was stopped up or something was leaking the guards would just knock on my Door and lead me to the problem it wasn't around the clock type of thing i didn't mind though any excuse to get out of the cell was fine by me plus you get your own cells since you'd be coming in and out at all hours of the night and day so that was a nice perk as well anyway one night there is a knock on my door and the guard tells me to get dressed rochelle we need

you in seg i get up the guard opens my door and we start heading down to seg it's a real mess down there and i've seen a lot of [ __ ] in my day but this is crazy the guard told my dad as he let him down the connecting corridors well just make sure you wear your gloves and booties rochelle my dad was curious and asked the guard what had happened it's a looney tune on suicide watch i guess somehow must have snuck in a piece of metal hey look i shouldn't tell you this

but i don't want you to be surprised when you get in there crazy cut off his own genitals he threw his testicles out on the run but we can't find his penis that's where you come in when they reach their destination there was another guard standing outside with an inmate holding a mop Waiting to clean up after my dad was finished my dad said when they opened the door to mseg it was almost hauntingly dark four or five dim overhead lights ran down the hallway but seemed to act more like spotlights and gave off practically

no ambient light you said there was a trail the blood leading towards the back of the corridor each seg block had 14 cells with solid steel doors each door had a small window that could be opened and closed from the outside and a tray slit which the guy must have used to toss his testicles out as he got closer he could see that blood was running out from the cell towards the end of the block through a small gap under the door open 13 the guard yelled to another guard behind a glass window controlling the

electronic locks when i went into that cell well i couldn't believe how much blood there was it was on the walls and the ceiling the entire mattress pad was doused in it the toilet was flooding up to the brim and it looked like it was filled with blood i used the cup to transfer the bloody water into buckets until i could start to see the silhouette of something under the water i could see a big wad of Toilet paper so i pulled it out sat on the floor i could tell something was inside it as

i started to slowly unravel the wad all of a sudden i started hearing this noise coming from the air vents tonk tunk tunk well it sounded like someone crawling or trying to sneak through them almost i didn't think much of it at the time but i'll get back to that later anyway and roll the paper and sure enough the guy's pecker was right there the guard took it and dropped it in a bag of ice and after making sure the toilet flushed he started leading my dad back to the entrance of mseg and when we

got down the hall waiting for the exit door to open all the lights went out [ __ ] muttered the guard against the wall in me and i stood back against the wall my dad continued and as the guards tried to figure out what was going on i heard that noise in the vents again it was coming from the cell i had just come out of tonk tonk tunk well i didn't know what it was but it gave me this awful feeling and as i was standing there i realized it was getting louder and faster

and closer to me it sounded like whatever was in that vent was now in A dead sprint right at us the guard was trying to ignore it but i could tell he heard it too because he kept looking back over his shoulder and started yelling at the guard behind the glass hey hey tonk tonk tunk hey hurry up and get this [ __ ] door open and just as the noise in the vent got up to us well the lights came back on and it went silent the door opened up and the guard got us

out of there as fast as he could a few days later and i saw the inmate who was waiting on janitor duty that night and asked him if he had seen anything and he told me he saw them wheel a guy covered in blood out on a stretcher and that he was screaming about a man in the vents and that the man that told him to do it my dad also asked him if he had heard anything in the vents while he was mopping up but he told my dad he didn't hear anything but that

he found the metal from the man from 13 had used to cut himself it was buried in a pool of blood the guy said damn this thing too looked like a piece of shrapnel cut out from the air duct metal now the next story my dad shared With me is more graphic and scary in the sense of what human beings are capable of we get new guys that think they're going to be bad asses all the time sometimes it works out for them and sometimes it doesn't there's a lot of serious gangs in btu and

sometimes you get a guy who comes in from a local street gang that doesn't really comprehend how violent some of these big gangs are it's like they are playing gang just to look cool like you know how kids play cops and robbers the problem is is that they think all the other people are just playing gang two or something anyway we had this one guy ricky he had come in and everyone but him knew it was going to end badly for him he was this young hispanic guy and he thought his small town gang was

a direct rival to another hispanic gang ms-13 he would curse out and disrespect them in front of everyone at chow time and in the halls and scream at their members who'd passed his cell he'd only been there a week some of the elders tried telling him he needed to calm down before he got hurt but ricky was hard-headed and he just wouldn't hear it Well one day during dinner the chow hall was quiet and ricky was nowhere to be seen my table was dismissed first and as we made our way back to our cell house

we turned the corner to see ricky covered in blood stumbling towards us arms wrapped around his stomach he was completely naked big patches of his skin cut from his body where his tattoos had been both of his eyes were popped out of their sockets or just dangling towards the ground side of his head was caved in where they had stomped his skull until his eyes came out as he came closer i could see he was holding his intestines and his hands the worst part to me is that he hadn't died during it that he was

conscious for every blow and every cut he just hobbled up the hall in our direction crying and asking why can't i look up why can't i look up he collapsed and passed out a few seconds later died right there at our feet they never found out who did it alright i'll share one more story my dad shared with me i found it kind of creepy as this is getting pretty long About seven years into his stint in prison my dad said through a series of circumstances he ended up having to stay the night in mseg

the a building was being renovated and repaired and as a result they were sending the inmates to stay in seg in waves well it had been years since my dad had been to the rarely used mseg and he had convinced himself that he was just hearing things that night they were leading prisoners out one cell at a time and transferring them to various seg blocks my dad's cell was on the end and he had his cell to himself so when they transferred him it wasn't accompanied by any other inmates to his dismay all the segblocks

had been filled except for m that is they led him down to the end of m and opened the door to 14 which was right next to the cell the man had cut himself in all those years ago everything was fine until lights out it was really dark in there each cell has a little nightlight thing above the toilet but it's not enough to see anything or read or write anyway it was so dark and i figured the only thing i could do was go to sleep But all night i kept hearing the guy in

the cell next to me talking to himself the way the cells are set up the vents carry any little noise to the adjoining cells the vent themselves are located at the front of the little cots in each cell people would sit next to them to communicate and pass time during stints and solitary but this guy wasn't talking to me it was like he was talking to himself it was starting to really wear on my nerves i banged on the vent and told him to keep it down but he just kept talking in this whispery voice

and it sounded like he was chanting the same thing over and over but i couldn't make out what he was saying i put my ear up to the vent and try to hear what he was saying and the hairs stood up on the back of my head when i swear to god i felt his breath in my ear as clear as day i heard him whispering i remember you i remember you i remember you i remember you in this frantic melodic tune well you won't remember anything when i bash your head in if you don't

keep it down in there i told them and all of a sudden his voice got a little louder And angrier in tone i'll slit your throat i'll slit your throat i'll slit your throat now i was a little unnerved but i've heard a lot worse after so many years in prison so i just told him to [ __ ] off decided i'd let the guards deal with it in the morning well morning came and when the guard brought me my breakfast i told him if he didn't do something about the guy keeping me up all

night in 13 that i would what are you talking about rochelle you're the only person in mseg the guard told me as chills ran down my back that night as soon as the light went out the whispers started again and this time i was petrified i'll slay your throat i'm gonna slit your throat i'll slit your throat the whispers were more aggressive this time clear too then all of a sudden they went from whispers to deep guttural screams it scared me so bad that i fell out of my cot and scooted on the floor until

i felt my back hit the wall posing the air vent as my eyes came into focus and absolute horror i saw the silhouette of a head directly inside the vent i couldn't make out its features but i could see its eyes they Were full of hatred and rage and they were locked right into me fast the louder he just continued screaming that he'd slit my throat as the air vent casings started to shake now the vents go straight up in a duct to a main duct then back down to the next cell through another so

you can't see into your neighbor's cell from your cell that meant whatever this thing was it was right inside my vent i jumped up and banged on the steel door as hard as i could yelling for a guard help help somebody a guard came running down the hall and as soon as he slid the door window open the vent went silent oh you gotta get me out of here something is in the vents i pleaded with him to my surprise the guard didn't even protest my request instead he just told me to hang tight for

a second and then clicked his radio and said need an open cell for a transfer from nseg he paused for a second then leaned back into his radio and simply said he's back he opened the door and led me down the corridor and as they did the whole time we were followed by that familiar sound in the vents talk talk talk now i've seen and heard a lot in my years Not a lot gets under my skin but i was shaking like a leaf the whole way out of mseg i don't think i even took

a breath until i walked out the blocked doors and heard them shut behind me i finally worked up the nerve to ask the guard what the hell was in those vents well i don't know rochelle warden will tell you there's nothing in those vents and all i could tell you is that whatever it is it's evil my dad told me some interesting rumors and theories about who the man in the vents might have been and even a theory as to why the guard had said he's back that deals with a failed exorcism and a cover-up

by the warden as well as a few more spooky stories both related to and not related to mseg that some fellow inmates had told him lots of tales of violence too but i thought i'd keep those to a minimum my dad said he had three main jobs during his time at telford the first of which was the on-call plumber the second was maintaining the boilers down in the boiler room and the last thing he did before being released was take care of and train the bloodhounds This first story takes place during his time with the

bloodhounds i'd gotten pretty good with the guards after so many years with the same old faces you develop a friendship almost the guys with good behavior anyway a lot of people see the guards as enemies and just really like to make a hard on themselves i myself tried to look at the prison as my workplace and the guards as my co-workers and supervisors helped me to think about like that distracted me from the fact that i was in a cage plus you were allowed more freedoms when the guards liked you it wasn't uncommon for the

guards that had been there for a while to treat us guys during serious time more like equals than they treat a lot of the rookie guards in prison respect is earned by years not by titles and badges as i was saying i'd made friends with the senior officer over at the kennels and when the job opened up after one of the tenured hounds had puppies he let me fill the position i would feed and train the dogs early every morning and again late every evening they just attached a leg monitor to my leg and let

me run the dogs through a Big fenced in wooded area i would set up obstacles with dummies going out and hiding them in a tree or in a hole marking their scent in various places along the way now at first they had a lot of trouble and would get distracted by any kind of noise or animal smell but after a while they were so good i couldn't trick them no matter what i tried sometimes the guard would have me hide myself i'd climb a tree jump to another take a piss on some leaves double back

and double back again anything to break the scent trail but damned if they didn't find me and there's not a lot i could have done in my life outside of having you boys that i'm proud of but man was i proud of those dogs so one night we were doing a run in the dark which we practiced from time to time i went out first and hid several dummies four or five of them then i hid myself the object of the game was for them to find me and not go after the dummies which i

would rub dog food or pheromones on stuff a domestic dog would head right for after i hid the last one i circled back using all of my usual tricks and found a nice climbing tree where i decided to camp out at From there i just waited to hear their booming barks blast through the trees and sure enough not 10 minutes had passed and i could already hear their barks closing in on me at this point i'm looking around to see if i could spot them yet then off a little ways in the distance probably 30

yards from me i could see them circling a tree through the fog in darkness i figured it would be any minute now that they'd be at the base of my tree letting the guard running along behind them know where i was but to my surprise they just stayed where they were barking up the wrong tree and that's when i saw it the shape of a man about 20 feet up in the branches of the tree the hounds were circling i didn't put a dummy in that tree did i i had to ask myself it was

dark when i hid them so it was possible i guessed but how high it was well i hadn't put a dummy more than 10 feet off the ground and this thing was up twice as high i could only make out its silhouette against the moonlight i noticed it was a similar shape to a man but not exactly like a man its limbs seemed too long and they just dangled lifelessly and limp as it straddled the Branch legs hanging off either side and right then i just about fell off my perch when its head moved and

now seemed to be staring straight at me started tilting its head slowly from left to right over and over then all at once it stopped moving completely before raising one of its lengthy arms and with a hand full of fingers that had to be at least a foot long it began waving at me my heart was pounding i clicked my ankle bracelet three times indicating to the guards there was trouble and a few tense moments later with me staring at this thing and it staring at me i heard the guards yelling out to me and

calling the dogs off coming from the direction i was staring in directly behind the thing in the tree you must have heard them too because i swear to you it twisted its head completely backwards and stared in the direction of the oncoming guards simultaneously waving at me the entire time here i yelled out taking my eyes off the creature for two maybe three seconds i could see a slew of flashlights beaming out from the woods ahead bathing the leaf carpet below in a yellow gleam and i looked back up to the tree where it was

But it was gone when i told the guards what i saw they thought i was joking or just seeing things but the senior officer on duty s o cheney said that he had seen something too they radioed into hq thinking an inmate might be loose the entire prison goes on immediate lockdown to do a count only to find that nobody was missing while they were doing the counts inside me and the five guards out of the kennels just stood there waiting for the okay to return me to my cell maybe it was a civilian i

remember one of them suggesting i've heard a lot of people trying to break out of prison but who on earth would want to break in one of the guards asked rhetorically and reports of orangutans escaping from the zoo joked another as the rest started laughing orangutan orangutans don't fly interjected s o cheney in a clearly shaken but at the same time in a serious voice he had been quiet ever since we left the woods and he had this nervous concerning look on his face well what do you mean replied a puzzled guard as the laughter

abruptly stopped uh look chaney sighed orangutans don't fly at whatever the [ __ ] was in that tree It well flew out of there and it wasn't a [ __ ] bird either everyone got quiet and the atmosphere became uneasy as we stood outside the kennels nobody had any reasonable answers as to what it could have been we stopped doing night runs for a while after that and when we started back i never went that deep into the woods again still gives me shivers to think about so this next bit are some things my dad

was told by lifer and ranged from more creepy crawly to spooky but i thought it was all interesting and bizarre enough to share one of the guys who used to preach a lot in the chapel was a guy named terry who was serving life for homicide before checking into the slammer he was a dentist but looking at him now you'd never guess this tattooed hardened criminal used to be this little white collar upper class man rinsing teeth and filling cavities somehow he finds out one of his buddies had been fooling around with his wife but

his buddy didn't know he knew you see well one day terry invites him down to the dentist office for some free dental work When he gets his buddy in the chair he starts pumping him full of that laughing gas dentist like to use and to hear terry tell it he gave him nearly the whole damn bottle anyway after about 20 minutes of breathing in this gas terry's buddy is out of it he's practically paralyzed and for all intents and purposes terry proceeds to start pulling out the guy's teeth one by one and dropping them into

the guy's throat terry said his buddy was awake the whole time just laughing uncontrollably while tears streamed down his cheeks his eyes letting terry know that he was completely aware of what's happening before long he starts choking on his own teeth and he suffocates to death after everyone found out about terry's case he started calling him dr giggles after chapel me terry and a couple of other guys would swap stories and shoot the [ __ ] from time to time one sunday we got to talking about some of the weirdest things we'd seen and heard

since coming to prison now terry worked in the infirmary doing everything from admitting and discharging inmates to assisting the doctor during surgery to applying bandages and helping them to the restroom Things like that he'd seen pretty much every injury you could think of from rapes stabbings overdoses hell there wasn't a whole lot that surprised him as far as all that stuff goes anyway he told me about one guy who had managed to off himself in a way that shocked even mr old giggles himself the skinny little white guy gets carried in on a stretcher one

day after collapsing and seizing up coming in from yard terry told me he's foaming from the mouth and convulsing something awful i'd seen him around before quiet guy kept to himself and never gotten any trouble an ideal inmate well doc has me strip him down and we start looking for track marks or anywhere he might have stuck a needle thinking this was probably an overdose or some kind of reaction to an illegal substance but we search him head to toe and don't find any marks so immediately we start thinking he must have ingested something one

of the nurses pulls out a syringe and starts drawing blood to run a quick chem test and that's when we hear it this noise was like a baby rattle except it's coming from this guy on the table we all just look at each Other trying to make sure we just weren't hearing things and that everyone else could hear it too so anyway we lean in close and start listening to where it's coming from the guy's still shaking as hard as a 10.0 earthquake and when we realize the noise is coming from beneath him two nurses

flip him over and the rattling sure enough gets louder doc well i think that's coming from his ass i said not believing what i was saying doc has the nurses split his cheeks and right there poking about an inch out of his [ __ ] i [ __ ] you not was a rattlesnake tail we had a call in animal control to remove the snake and the local vet for an anti-venom but by the time they got there the guy died right there on that stretcher animal control gets there and pulls a foot long rattler

out of his ass and the hand to god the damn thing was still alive but its mouth was tied shut with a piece of twine so we knew it couldn't have bitten him like that so doc does an x-ray on the guy's corpse and none of us can believe what we saw there was a second snake and it had made its way all the way up into his lower intestine X-ray shows a second piece of twine too that had unwrapped from the snake's mouth somehow and i guess the snake just went to town and started

biting at this guy's insides doc said it looked like an upwards of 30 different bite marks and that he was a dead man even if we'd gotten him the anti-venom in time best we could figure out is he saw snakes nest out in the yard and either he was trying to sneak them inside to keep them as pets or maybe he was going to use them on someone who was causing him problems but in the end all we could do was speculate my dad told me he told terry about his experiences in mseg and that

terry just nodded along completely unfazed and then told him about his own experiences with a man in the vents look terry began i've been working in the infirmary for nearly 16 years there's a reason the guys in the firm call it seg de morte i've seen more people wheeled in here on stretchers from mseg than all the other seg blocks combined and it ain't exactly like they're packing the house over there you know and every time i mean every time The air blowing from the vents in the operating room starts to smell like death old

death like something that died a long time ago like decay it got to the point that any time we heard someone was being admitted in from mseg we would tape off all the vents we tried just closing them off at first but they always open back up if you didn't seal them shut i think it likes to watch its victims die the thing in the ducks i mean the thing in the duct i mean you could hear it moving around in there going from vent looking for an opening for a hole in the tape trying

to see well we just ignore it the number one rule with oncoming from mseg is never look at the vents never acknowledge it when it speaks and never get too close to it well one time we had a new inmate start working in the infirmary and it wasn't three days before we had incoming from em tell him to go tape off all the vents but i guess he had missed one he'd heard the stories about seg de morte but you know sounds like an urban legend or something so he didn't take it too seriously well

guy is wheeled in from morte yet tried to off himself by biting huge Chunks out of both of his wrists we're trying to hold him down to get a needle in him to sedate him and he ends up knocking the new guy back a little in the struggle and his glasses fall to the floor new guy leans over to pick his glasses up and just start screaming and pointing at the vent he had forgotten to tape off out of instinct i look over to see what was wrong and there he was right inside the vent

staring up at the new guy screaming back at him i'm not really sure how it works but i know when he talks sometimes he only talks to the person that noticed him first like they're the only ones who can hear what he's saying the new guy runs out of the room and i just look away before it sees me looking i know better than to acknowledge him the vents start shaking and the lights flickering until the inmate dies from massive blood loss after they die he always leaves and you could hear him crawling through the

vents back to seg after we dealt with the corpse i found the new guy and told him never ever look at the vents and make sure you always tape them all up he's always watching i said And if you look down at an open vent you could bet your ass he'll be looking up from it what did he say to you anyway he just said the new guy as he trembled he just kept telling me to open the vent he he told me to open the vents so he could rip out my tongue and eyes

the new guy quit the next day can't say i blame him though my dad followed up his story by asking if terry knew anything about the origin of the man and the vents or if he had heard anyone talking about it around in the rec room i've been here for about 32 years now i started hearing about the man in the wall maybe 25 years ago i can't say for sure but word among the old heads is that this guy gets sent here to the telford unit sentenced to life for killing his 80 year old

mom in her sleep well first night he's here he tries to sneak a shank into a cell and gets caught anyway he gets sent to mseg this is back before mseg was avoided like the plague so it was filled a lot more regularly now people were in and out of seg all the time back then and they'd always come back and tell their stories about the crazy guy in cell 13 screaming through the air duct he said He'd shout in different languages and sounded like he was speaking in tongues or something every time his time

in seg was up the guards go to release him back into gen pop well he'd attack one of them and so they'd eventually stop trying to return him to population at all people coming back from m sec would say that he would chant incantations and proclaim that he had given his soul to satan and he'd brag that he'd be feeding on their flesh in hell eventually everyone just took to calling him voodoo bob something of an urban legend around the yard cooler you see by this time he would have been in seg for going on

10 years so most of the inmates had never actually seen him since there are so many seg units only a small percentage wind up in m but that didn't stop people from trying guys used to get in trouble on purpose in hopes of being transferred to m just to see if the myths were true without fail any time someone managed to find themselves down there they'd always come back with a new story about something crazy voodoo had said or done now this next part was told to me by a guy who said a guard had

told it to him so take it with a grain of salt if you want The guy tells me one night the power goes out in mseg and the control board malfunctions causing all the solid doors to unlock but the main block door stuck shut and the guards can't get it open it was late so most the inmates were sleeping and didn't even notice but voodoo bob he never slept the guards just watched from behind the stuck bulk doors as for the first time in 10 years he came out of a cell in horror they shine

their flashlights through the blocked door window and watched as the door to 13 creeps open and voodoo bob who is down on all fours but reversed so that his stomach is facing the ceiling makes his way out onto the run and these slow and exaggerated tiptoed strides he stops in the middle of the run halfway between his cell and the one across from him and just turns his head to the guards and smiles he continues across the run and proceeds to open the opposing cell door and he slithers his way inside after a minute or

two he crawls out of that cell sneaks into the next and then the next until he had visited every inmate unlucky enough to be an mseg that night he Finishes up and calmly heads back to a cell leg's moving like a swimmer's arm during a backstroke and closes the door behind him now the guards are frantic at this point alarms are going off practically the full staff is there trying to pry the door back but as soon as voodoo locks himself inside his cell just like nothing ever happened the lights came back on and the

blocked door slides open they rush to cell 13 to detain voodoo bob but when they open the cell he isn't there they then start checking on the other cells and inmates and what they find are nine bodies and the new benchmark for the word massacre he'd sliced up every inmate and seg cut to gullet left him absolutely mutilated beyond recognition word is it looked more like a slaughterhouse than a crime scene well the whole prison goes on lockdown while they try to find him two weeks pass and they still have no idea where he went

but cameras along the doors and fences show that no one escaped so they know he's in the prison somewhere and that's when the inmates start complaining about a rotting smell coming from the air vents the guards realize where old voodoo Must have gone they start pulling down the ducks over msg and sure enough there were scrapes and claw marks in the ventilation as if someone had been maneuvering through them never found a body though and how he got in there well nobody knows since the vent cover in his cell was still on and screwed in

from the outside and the duct going up to the connecting duct are too small for even a child to fit through it wasn't long after that that the people started saying that the ducts in mseg were haunted and all the spooky stuff started happening now that's the legend anyway i never met voodoo myself and he was already supposedly in seg when i got here but a lot of people i trust say he existed so i tend to believe it but other people have other theories say it was already haunted when voodoo got there that the

thing in the vent is what made him do it in the first place i heard from a friend of a friend who helped out in the clerics office that the warden had letters sent out to the families of all the inmates ventboy had butchered he was apparently already under a lot of heat from the higher-ups and didn't want this making headlines my friend source in the Clerics office said all the letters painted the guys who got slaughtered that night as monsters saying things like they got killed when some inmates caught them trying to rape a

female guard where they were oft when gang members found out they were mulling dope up their ass you know stuff no parent would want the world to find out their kid was a part of so he had all the families signed ndas in exchange for a settlement that was next to nothing now if you look them up in the prison records it's like they never existed you remember that big revival that outreach ministry put on a few years back now what was it called um that uh that mike barber guy well i was talking to

brother baskins and he said that he saw the warden talking with mike and a few other preachers that came in after service one night and that they grabbed their bibles and headed back towards the segblocks he said he was about 10 minutes shy of starting his shift on janitor duty so he went ahead and grabbed his mop bucket and told one of the guards he was going to start over and seg and he gets there right at first everything seems normal and There's no sign of the warden or the preachers on the run down between

segblocks but as he gets closer to the end of the run he starts hearing shouting at a ruckus coming from inside msg in jesus name i rebuke you demon i compel you to leave this world and return to hell from whence you came baskin said he heard awful screams coming from the vents too violent angry screams he said it sounded like it was speaking in some kind of dead language mixed with english and he said it sounded like seven voices coming out of one mouth from high pitched to low and all at once as the

preachers got louder so did the screams coming from the ducks and it sounded like it was moving and banging on the metal like it was trying to get out we do not fear you demon heard one of the preachers yell we are protected by the blood of the lamb the only true god tell us your name demon so that we can return you to hell he said his blood ran cold when booming out of every event in the entire segwing all at once and all around him he heard eggos quad gusto carnes now i don't

speak latin baskin tells me but the way it spoke the evil in its voice I'll never forget those words me and baskins and some of the other guys in chapel spent some time looking up different languages before we even knew it was latin after figuring out what it meant i haven't been able to forget it either so like i was saying this thing sounds like it's everywhere all at once and it's screaming latin and snarling the walls are rattling the lights are fading in and out brother baskins said it was like a tectonic plates were

shifting right there under the floor he said the room was spinning and he became dizzy and disoriented and his ears started ringing so loud he couldn't even hear himself think as he stood there alone outside there in the segwing run baskin said well i heard the priest start yelling out his name begone sabnak in the name of the lord of our god and the holy spirit and the son jesus christ sabnak you are condemned back to hell and then the demon let out this terrible loud cry loud bang shot all the way down the segwing

ducks whizzing past him and then all the way back up again then something slammed into the Other side of the mseg door and then absolute silence baskins told me that for a few seconds there was just this calm in the aftermath like emerging from the rubble after a tornado and he just stood there and tried to process what had just happened and whether or not it was finally over but then mseg doors opened and outrushed the warden mike barber and gang doused in sweat and breathing heavy dragging out a preacher who looked unconscious baskin said

he realized the loud thud on the door must have been that preacher being thrust against it he said they're all coming out like they'd just done 12 rounds with tyson and i'm just standing there on the run with my mop finally in the middle of all the commotion warden notices me looking pale as a ghost and just tells me to go back to my cell not say a word to anyone now for a good while after that we didn't have any more problems out of the mseg in the infirmary then one day it just started

up again and we get a patient in from m and the man in the vents was back staring up at us from the vents watching and appreciating his handiwork After my dad told me what terry had said we just sat back and sipped on some jack and coke for a little while i caught myself feeling uneasy not wanting to look at the vents in his house well i guess he just started thinking about the guys voodoo bob had killed in seg and the way the warden was able to just cover it up like that you

know a lot of guys in there don't have any family at all no visitors no letters there's nothing to look forward to on the other side no one to protect you from an [ __ ] guard deciding to punish you in their own way sega's pretty bad if you're staying any amount of time but it's not the worst place in the prison to be locked up that dishonor belongs to the deprivation pods is a room with no windows no clocks no lights no sound the dark can really play tricks on your mind when you're in

it for too long for some people six days can feel like six hours for others six hours can feel like two weeks you lose all sense of time you can't tell day from night and it's like you're just going to the state of suspended reality i guess that's why everybody calls it the black hole And i used to hear this story about a guard who got killed way back before i got there the elders say he was real tight with the warden and when the local police came to do an investigation all the tapes in

the hall where he was killed had suspiciously gone missing from the surveillance room just the essential two hour block of footage poof it was gone so the investigation goes nowhere case was dropped but some people say that the warden had taken those tapes and that he knew which inmate had killed the guard they say warden didn't want the pd figuring out who did it and prosecuting them in court where he'd probably get the death penalty the warden didn't want him getting off that easily now old heads that remember the guy say he was one of

those inmates that never got visitors or anything at mail call no family or friends on the outside no one to protect him one day he gets transferred from his cell and doesn't come back years pass than decades everyone's forgotten about him most of the inmates there now weren't even inmates when he was roaming the prison halls and So a couple of years into my sentence a pressure valve snaps in the wing where the depth pods are the whole wing is flooded and they have to bring in an outside company to fix it because of where

it broke behind the walls well to do that they have to transfer everyone from the pods to cells anyway we're sitting in the rec room playing cards and as the guards are leading this shaggy disheveled looking guy into a holding cell his hair goes past his knees and his beard goes down to his waist which is already odd because there are strict dress codes when it comes to grooming this guy is pale too he has the complexion of printer paper and across his forehead he has his big tattoo that says ricky one of the elders

i'm playing cards with looks up and with a confused look on his face says what the [ __ ] is that ricky you know him i asked him well i i think so but hell i can't be the same person can it ricky goes into a cell and he just starts screaming he was talking almost like a toddler like someone that had just learned how to talk or like a deaf person might it was that old man Who's that old man and so we jumped up from the table and went over to see what was

wrong and he was weeping looking in the mirror asking who that old man was ricky ricky it's me tommy keane do you remember me no no tommy keane was young you're too old to be tommy he was crying inconsolably but finally we calmed him down enough to speak and tommy asked him where he'd been he told us he'd been in the dark floating through space with a nice grey man and that's all he could remember i asked tommy when was the last time he'd seen ricky tommy told me it must have been at least 30

years we started to piece together what had happened to ricky and taking into account the work being done in the depth pods and his long hair and disheveled appearance we had a pretty good idea ricky had been locked up in the black hole in the quiet in the dark alone for three decades seeing himself in the mirror for the first time in 30 years he didn't recognize himself he didn't realize how long he'd been gone his speech was out of practice with only himself to talk to and everyone he used to know was either all

of a sudden old or dead All day he just kept pleading with us to take him back to space that he just wanted to go back to space back to the gray man ricky hung himself with his bed sheets that night it was just all too much for the guy we got on the subject the prison escapes and i asked him if anyone had ever escaped while he was there a few guys wrapped themselves in cardboard and made it over the razor wire fence one time they get caught after a couple of weeks but not

before they broke into a house in a nearby town killing the husband and raping the wife and daughter before killing them too i mean there are at least 15 to 20 serious escape attempts a year most of them don't make it past the prison doors and even if they do they always get caught eventually i remember one night though when i was out with the guards at the kennels and the alarms started going off when that happens the protocol for inmates is to drop to the ground immediately wherever they are and lay on their stomachs

until the sirens stop so there i am laying outside on the dirt looking ahead to the tree line in the distance where i would run the dogs Then this cracking noise starts moving across the trees i see branches popping and it's going from one tree to the next and i could see the treetops swaying like something big was moving through them that does that for a good five minutes or so and then from the woods i hear this guy start screaming bloody murder sounded like he was in pain and a lot of it at that

and i could have swore i heard someone else start screaming too along with him in this high pitched screech but i've heard people making some horrible noises when they're injured bad enough so i thought that it was maybe all the same guy when this guy is screaming out there in the woods all the guards and the dogs take off into the trees except for two that stayed behind to watch me eventually i hear the dogs barking the way they bark when they tree something then i hear one of the guards radios go off from the

other end and it's one of the officers that ran into the woods i need a medic and the tallest bucket lift we could get out to the kennel area and uh maybe a chainsaw a bucket lift a baffled voice responded affirmative we've located the Fugitive he's impaled on a tree about 40 feet up gonna need something tall to get him down i got escorted back to my cell right after that so i didn't see what happened next but i asked dr giggles if he was still working when they had brought the guy in to the

infirmary that night he told me that he was on shift when they'd brought him in and that he had a large branch impaled all the way through both sides of his thigh where they had had to use the chainsaw to cut him free he said the guy was still alive hell still awake even and after the doctor removed the limb and had him stable enough to talk sensibly he asked him how it happened and the guy said i was running to the fence when all the trees just started snapping and something picked me up and

carried me off into the sky it all happened so fast and before i knew what hit me i was looking down to tree tops and we were going even higher oh [ __ ] man i thought it was going to carry me clear up into the clouds but then i heard the alarm start going off and it let me go i must have passed out when i hit the trees at some point i woke up the thing The thing was just floating there staring at my leg and picking at it i started screaming and then

it screamed too but when it heard the dogs coming it flew off snapping back through the trees and terry thought the guy was just making it all up but i believe him i think it was the same thing me and c.o cheney saw that night we're running the hounds now i'll finish up this post with a story from within the dark corridor of mseg this one is from a fellow inmate who my dad called seven that had found himself there a couple weeks into a sentence i'll tell it to you as if i'm seven telling

my dad when i first got to the telford unit i was a disrespectful young prick i had a bold hatred towards authority and like an idiot i assaulted a guard well to teach me a lesson they tossed me an m whatever no big deal i thought well night time hits and i start feeling antsy all of a sudden like something's off but i just can't place it anyway i think well [ __ ] it try to get some sleep it must have been two maybe three am when i first noticed the smell It was this

thick god-awful stench like burnt hair mixed with spoiled meat and i'm freezing now i'm talking middle of june in texas and i'm so cold i could see my breath all i could figure out is that it must be coming from the vent so i pull the pillowcase off my pillow and drape it over the vent cover i laid back down and after a minute it's cold again i look and the pillowcase isn't on the vent anymore not only that but it wasn't even near the vent it was all the way across the room by the

toilet it was a little unnerved but figured it was probably a rat or something dragging it off so i get up drape it back on and as soon as i turned around and i hear it hit the wall across from me i look down at the vent and i see this guy looking up at me and as soon as i see him he ducks his head out of sight and i hear him shimmy up the vent and it sounds like he stops in the next cell over i was a little startled for a minute but

then i just started getting pissed now this was before i'd heard anything about msg and the man in the vents so i'm thinking the guy next door is [ __ ] with me you know he's disrespecting me oh i got you [ __ ] i shout at him through the vent and for the next 30 minutes i'm down there using my thumbnail to try and unscrew the screws on the vent cover i got two of them off and this pops his head down from the ducts and is staring at me hanging upside down and then

pops his head out of sight again it was too dark to make out his features but his eyes seemed so clear and visible almost like they were glowing or something and the outline of his face was all sunken in so i thought this was just a little guy you know could take him easily next time he sticks his head down i'm gonna grab him by the hair and pull him down and i thought well a couple minutes go by i had the vent pulled back and where i took the two screws and i'm just waiting

for my opportunity then i hear something moving my way from the cell beside me in these short quick sporadic bursts ting tink just like that it moved from the duct above the neighboring cell then straight down the duct right inside my wall and stopped right before the vent opening Then as fast as a snake strike he popped his head down into view and our reflexively launched for his hair as he opened his mouth as wide as he could and let out this deep and constant scream i tried to pull back but my momentum carried me

forward my arm now fully inside the vent his eyes quickly changed from this look of curiosity to absolute rage as he raised his head back up and quickly shot his arm down grabbing mine he pulled me so hard i felt my shoulder leave its socket i twisted around until i was laying flat on my back my arm now being pulled all the way inside the duct up to my armpit he's yelling things at me now you [ __ ] you stupid [ __ ] i'll rip your limb to limb i'll eat your [ __ ]

eyes you stupid [ __ ] and he's screaming with such anger and yanking my arm so violently i start to think he's gonna pull it right off i'm just bouncing off the ground and against the wall like a rag doll as he tugs the guards must have heard me slamming against the wall because they come stampeding down the run as i don't think i had said a word up to this point i was in shock i suppose but as Soon as i see the guards open the door i start yelling help help get the [

__ ] off me get it off me then i hear this thing in the wall start mocking me in this whiny voice before going back to angry again get off me get it off me it mocked and then began screaming again you [ __ ] you stupid [ __ ] hey don't talk back to it one of the guards warned me i feel this sharp pain shoot up my shoulder and when the thing goes quiet for a minute i realize it's chewing on my fingers and i feel this hard crunch and the sound of bones

shattering to dust in its teeth the three guards are down on the ground trying to pry me out of its grip but it's no use it has me and it's not letting go right before i pass out i see one of the on-call ministers run in puts a crucifix against the wall and a thing releases my arm i see the preacher man slide the crucifix up along the wall where the vent runs and hear the things scooting upwards and back away from it the guard pulls me out and i lose consciousness next day i wake

up in the infirmary missing three fingers and i had a dislocated shoulder You know i remember feeling like the vent was too small for a person to fit in when my arm was inside it except for where he was wherever he was it felt bigger like the vent expanded around him i well i don't know how to explain it anyway long story short i've learned to mine my p's and q's since then and that's where i'll end it this time my dad says he goes to church with a guy who got out last year and

that guy was the one who took over his job at the kennels after my dad got out my dad's going to talk with that guy either tomorrow night or maybe sometime in the next few days and i'll update you with any new stories that he might have i'm also kind of excited to get into some of the stuff that happened when my dad worked in the boiler room suffice to say my dad's fellow inmate had some interesting tales of events that took place after my dad was paroled like i said he's the guy that took

over training the bloodhounds after my dad and a lot of his stories dealt with the creature inhabiting the woods by the kennels I'll start this off with a story mark my dad's friend was told by one of his friends after having his own run-in with the creature one night this is what mark was told a new guard tower was being built at the edge of the property where the warden figured security was a bit vulnerable it was right outside the woods where they trained the search dogs in a crude path just wide enough for a

van carrying a work convoy was cut right through the trees well they started bringing us out there in a chain gang every night about three to four am to dig a ditch for the plumbing and electrical from the tower to the main campus it had me and about nine more inmates digging out there until around noon when it started to get too hot in the texas sun anyway one night we load up in the convoy and start headed that way and out of nowhere it starts pouring cats and dogs we tried digging for about 30

minutes but the ground had turned into mush and we're just making a mess so the so tells us to load back up in the van there were two more chain gangs out there that night chain one chain two five inmates on each Chain shackled up at the ankle well the guys on chain one get into the van and me and the guys on chain two are standing there in this torrential downpour waiting for the signal to board when the treetops directly beside us start shaking and branches start snapping and cracking we all hear it start

looking up at the trees trying to figure out what the hell is up there but before we see anything the guards usher us inside the van we get inside take our seats and the driver starts the engine but by now the whole trail we came in on is nothing but mud and we ain't moving a guard steps out walks around the vehicle and steps back in he tells the driver the tires are all down in the ground halfway up the rims and muck and we'd need a tow truck to get out but until the path

dried up there wasn't any way to get a toe out there so they radio inside and we're told just to hang tight about that time one of these guys in the seat behind mine start spouting off and pointing out the window up at one of the trees what the [ __ ] is in that tree over there look the whole van looks to see what this guy is pointing at And in the thick gnarled branches of a tree about 20 yards off are these glowing yellow eyes just watching us now the van is in an

uproar yelling at the guards to get us [ __ ] out of there you know you get hardened to violence and stop fearing the physical but most of the guys that are locked up for a good chunk are petrified of the dark of the things that lurk there even if you didn't believe in ghoulies and goblins when you came to prison you get left alone to face your inner demons long enough and you realize that they must have come from somewhere so everyone is in a panic acting like a lady that's seen a mouse but

the guards yell at us to sit down and shut up we're in a staring contest with the eyes and the trees when they slowly pull back into the void and disappear not a second later on the roof of the van a loud thud hits us as the van wakes from the impact everybody hits the ground and there's absolute silence and then we hear cree cree cree as whatever was on the roof started walking back and forth from the front of the van to back what the [ __ ] is up there Sheepishly whispers the guy

shackled next to me the so just looks at him and slowly puts his finger to his lips silently shushing him never taking his eyes off the van ceiling now everyone is looking around at each other in this thick dense atmosphere too afraid to hardly breathe then the thing on the roof lets out this ear piercing screech and then starts rocking the van so violently i thought it was going to tip us over the guys on chain one start looking frantically at each other [ __ ] this one of them shouts they all jump up and

bolt for the exit guards and a half whisper half yell telling them to get back onto the floor but before they could do anything about it the guys on chain one force the door open and dart outside the van stops shaking immediately and we get up and look out the window to see what's going on all i saw was this dark blur swooping down at the guys on chain one who are running back towards the prison and i watch as in a flash that the whole [ __ ] chang gang gets yanked sideways 15 feet

into the trees it was just like something sucked them up one second they were there and the next they were gone Oh [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] god damn it the so starts ranting and everything goes quiet again eso is trying to figure out if he should call in to report the incident and missing inmates yet or not probably thinking they'd make him get off the van and go after them if he did and finally he clicks in his radio this is esso davis we got a problem out here at tower

eight roger so davis this is hq go ahead with your issue over right about that time the guys on chain one come running out of the trees as white as ghosts screaming for the driver to open the van doors as they get closer we could see that there were only four men on the chain and that the lead man barnes was missing and when they got right up to the van we could see that still shackled and dangling from where barnes was cuffed was his leg all the way up to the knee yes so davis

go ahead with your issue over so davis repeated the voice in the radio hesitantly he clicked the button on the radio uh so davis here gonna need a search party for an injured inmate missing in the woods by eight over roger that esso davis over a second later the sirens start going off as the driver Opens the door and the four inmates still on the chain run inside one of the guards unlocks barn's leg from the shackles and just tosses it outside the door none of them spoke a word as we just sat there nervously

locked inside the van we could hear the hound start barking from within the woods and officers shouting to one another as flashlight beams danced in and out of sight a couple hours pass and then so davis's walkie goes off and the voice of a distraught guard comes through um this is uh officer martinez i've located the missing inmate well some of him just like that the sirens stopped ringing and the prison comes off lockdown we were instructed to wait on board the van until sunrise and then were escorted back to our housing units when it

was light enough to safely walk the mile or so to main campus one of the inmates on chain one lived in the same unit as me when i saw him and wreck later that day i asked what the hell happened out there i'm not sure he began this thing this [ __ ] thing it just dragged us through the brush like we were nothing started pulling us into the air so fast that i started blacking out How to hold the barns and it yanked him so hard through the branches that he hid a limb and

it ripped his leg right from his body well the rest of us start falling back to the ground and i could see it carrying him off into the canopy of leaves it just vanished i don't think it even noticed it was holding us anymore jesus christ i said horrified did you catch a good look at it i wish the god i hadn't it was nine maybe ten feet tall and thin uh anorexic almost i didn't see its face but from the back of its head i saw its long wiry gray hair whipping through the wind

its arms hung down all the way past its knees and had these these uh spiny fingers each one the length of my forearm and on its back its wings its [ __ ] wings imagine you flip one of those daddy long leg spiders upside down now you make that 100 times bigger and tape it to your back there were these skinny long maybe 10 feet each articulating tendrils and they didn't flap or whatever like a bird's wings now they would just randomly and ever so slightly twitch at the end One at a time and randomly

not like in sync or anything you know [ __ ] man i don't even know what that thing is but but i do know that god didn't make it dry as i might i couldn't get any of the other guys to talk about what they saw out there they just as soon forget anyway they never did find all the barns but here tell they found pieces of him scattered across all 60 acres of the treetops you know hands here some intestines over there never found more than a chunk in any one place and i heard

too that warden sent barnes family one of his famous ndas worst part is he was set to be released in a month and after that we didn't work on tower 8 in the dark anymore we all agree we would rather sweat in the summer heat than come face to face with whatever that thing living in the woods was mark then went on to tell my dad about his own running with the creature from the woods it takes place where else but the kennels i asked my dad if he could describe the kennels so you guys

and myself could picture them better he said the building looks like a horse stable almost there's a dirt Hall down the middle probably 15 feet across that splits two walls lined with metal dog pens and it's open all the way through with no doors on the ends he said that at one end past the kennels are a couple of storage closets for dog food and dummies and between the pens and the closets there are haystacks that they use as cushion for the dogs to lay on it's an all wooden building with a steep tin roof

now hopefully that provides a good enough image and with that out of the way here's what mark told my dad one night i mean why is it always at night anyway one night i'm out there at the kennels getting the dogs and equipment put away there was only one guard on dog duty that night and he felt comfortable enough with me that he left me there alone when he had to head back to the main building to use the restroom i caged the dogs put the dummies away and pull out the feed when all the

hounds just start whining and whimpering then i feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up for no reason at all i'm just frozen i got this awful feeling in my gut that something's watching me well i work up Enough nerve to take a look around and my eyes are drawn like magnets to the pitch black tree line in the distance i can't see anything but i just know something's there lurking observing me hell it's studying me i stand there in a trance for the longest time then just snap out of it and

start filling the bowls with feet so i could get out of there as soon as possible i'm about four balls in and don't don't i hear something hit the roof now i don't mind telling you i wasted no time jumping behind the haystacks and hiding myself as best i could i hear whatever it is up there and the roof start walking around this is after the whole ordeal with the convoy at eight so i have a plenty good idea as to what it might be and i'm practically pissing my pants and then dun dun leaps

off the roof and i hear it land right outside the kendall breezeway i am just praying to god it doesn't seem me now through a crack between the haystacks i see its shadow cast across the dirt from the moonlight behind it And the dogs have all gone quiet now i could hear my own heart beating as i see its shadows start walking into the kennel i see these long snake-like things six of them on each side fold up and retract into its back as it moves further inside with one arm it's dragging its hand along

the closet walls and then across the metal closet door it's so loud my ears start ringing and it sounds like nails on chalkboard as it starts to pass me it stops right in front of the haystacks i'm absolutely losing it inside it's right in front of me and i could see its skin this leathery grayish brown color and its fear almost like a raptor's feet it had three black claw like toes and it walked upright on the balls of its feet and i hear it sniffing the air and i'm thinking it's going to smell me

it's going to find me and do only god knows what with me it's leaning into the haystack sniffing closer and harder and about that time one of the hounds start barking at it and it lets out this terrible screeching noise and just goes ballistic it's screeching and slamming into the walls and swiping at the steel pen doors it unfolds the things from Its back and flies up smashing against the roof it's flying around hitting everything like a june bug or something now in my head i'm just praying please god please god when i see the

on-duty yard's headlights shining in the breezeway headed my way the thing swoops down snatches up the hundred pound bag of feed and flies off towards the trees the guard rushes in gun drawn and finds me hiding in the hay he said as he was driving up he saw it too and watched it fly away i just sat there not knowing if i should be glad he'd seen it or not you see it makes it harder to tell yourself it was all on your head when someone else sees it happen you know anyway i used to

like being out there alone but now anytime he goes to the restroom i just wait in the squad car mark goes on to tell my dad that every now and again he'd come out to the kennels and find the dog food or a haystack missing the steel pen doors dented in where everything pulled out from the closets like something had been rummaging through them sometimes at night he'd hear the treetops crackling and watch them sway back and forth When there wasn't so much as a gust he said he never came face to face with the

creature again but did have one more terrifying interaction with it by proxy mark relays that a few months after his harrowing encounter he is out of the kennels again putting away the hounds and dummies this time the on-duty guard is with him though and a voice comes through on the guards walking and for the next few minutes mark and guard just listen as the calls coming in get increasingly more distressed here's what mark heard over the radio that night uh hq this is ceo green out of the tower eight over a female voice response this

hq go ahead tower rate over hq something big just crashed into tower eight roof were your cameras able to catch what it was over that's a negative tower eight my security cameras do not provide a visual of tower roof over another voice comes through tower eight this is tower 6 i currently have eyes on you it appears someone is standing on top of tower 8 over tower 6 this is hq did you say someone is currently on top of tower 8 over this is tower six and that's affirmative hq I've clear visual of someone atop

tower eight over tower six this is tower eight you sure you haven't been pulling any of them funny cigarettes out of confiscation over that's a negative tower rate the person in question is now crouching on tower roof over hq this is tower rate i'm going to go out on the walk and see if we can take a look over tower 8 this is tower 6 and i do not recommend that you leave the tower bay over tower 6 this is tower 8. what the [ __ ] tower 8 this is tower six whoever is on

your roof has just jumped down onto the tower walk i've lost visual and repeat i've lost visual over co green comes back through the walkie the terror in his voice apparent it is looking right at me oh god it's teeth jesus christ tower rate this is terrorist six do not attempt to exit the tower bay i repeat do not attempt to exit the tower bay hq this is tower a it is uh smashing against the glass it's uh trying to get inside jesus what the [ __ ] is it terri this is hq exit through

the stairwell lock yourself inside we have officers and route Officers are in route over oh god oh god it broke the glass tower 8 this is hq please respond over repeat tower 8 this is hq please respond hq this is tower sex something just flew out of the towerate bay and down into the trees and i jesus christ i think it had ceo green mark then told my dad a week later couple of hikers found a skeleton on some trails about 15 miles out it was picked clean to the bone they do a dna test

on the marrow and lo and behold it turns out to be co green eventually my dad and mark switch gears from the creature in the woods the mseg and my dad asks him if anything new had happened since he's been gone well as it just so happened mark had in fact heard a few stories and rumors and he shared them with my dad i had a buddy who used to work down in the boilers anyway he said sometimes when the evidence locker would get too full they'd send the old clothes cases down to be burned

well one day he's purging records and he comes across this box that is absolutely crammed full he starts wondering one person could have a file this long so he sets it aside and decides he'd go through it before he Tosses it in the incinerator he starts rifling through it reading some of the most awful stuff and it dawns on him that this file belongs to none other than voodoo bob now he's really curious but there's just too much to read though and no way he could sneak it all back to his cell so he just

starts scanning for the good stuff and that's when he sees it voodoo bob's diary he shoves it in his pants and tosses the rest in the fire when he gets back to his cell after his shift he pops it open and reads it covered to cover so the whole thing gave him the willies said he wished he had just burned it anyway this is what i remember about the diary from what he had told me it was black one of the spiral five subject notebooks except the metal spiral had been replaced with twine the margins

of every page were filled with little doodles of pentagrams and devils and latin phrases he couldn't make out the first few entries was voodoo talking about how remorseful he was for killing his mom about the voices in his head that told him to do it and now he was glad he was finally alone and The voices couldn't talk to him anymore but as the days went on the entries started getting darker he started talking about how the voices had followed him to a cell and seg how every night from the shadows in the corner of

his room something would speak to him from the void tell him to do things you know terrible things he said sometimes the thing would float down out of the darkness and hover over him while he slept voodoo came to believe that it wanted to use him as a host and as months passed he was getting tired of fighting it or trying to keep it out so he writes this entry one day saying that he planned to give his soul to the demon that night and after that every page was inked in his own blood and

seemed to be just nonsense and incantations and sketches of demonic beings but every once in a while though in the corner of the page there would be written in pen the words help me my friend in the boilers figures that voodoo was still in there somewhere trapped inside himself begging to be set free as this demonic force took control now whether that thing followed Voodoo to m where if i had been lurking there the whole time waiting for someone vulnerable enough to feed on well i don't know but i think whatever is in those walls

at least part of it is voodoo anyway a few years ago they shut down msg indefinitely now if you walk down the segwing you'll see it taped off with caution tape and crucifixes hanging all over the door people say a guy wound up an m and somehow the thing tricked him into completely removing the vent cover the thing crawls out of the wall and eats him alive and the guy just well just lets it do it doesn't yell or anything a guard comes the next day to bring him chow and sees him all chewed up

lying lifeless on the cell room floor and when he looks up he sees the thing from the vent crawling upside down across the ceiling now priests rush down the run and try to coax it back to the vent from outside the cell but it's too strong now it's been fed you see it's full all they could do now is bless every square inch of them outside 13's door and pray that it can't get out my buddy who cleans down and sag says if you look through the block window you could see its shadow From under

the cell pacing back and forth on the m run now after hearing what mark had to say i asked my dad if he ever had to purge evidence himself when he worked in the boilers oh yeah he said about every six months or so they'd wheel a cart full of boxes of papers and files and have us burn them i followed up by asking if he had ever found anything interesting like voodoo's diary you'd see things inmates had used to off someone with a shank a piece of wire a razor would get pictures too of

crime scenes or of contraband that they'd confiscated where they'd found it and where they'd found it i guess the craziest thing i ever saw were the voodoo dolls probably voodoo bobs i asked no no no voodoo bob wasn't the only one in telford practicing witchcraft you know in fact there was a whole cult the warlocks or wiccans or well whatever you want to call them the voodoo doll was one of theirs but used it as a weapon during the holy wars i then asked him to just back up a little and explain to me what

he meant by holy wars all right well when i was working in the boilers the prison was going through what we had just Started calling the holy wars there was this group of fanatical christians and they had taken upon themselves to start a crusade against this cult of people who like to dabble in witchcraft see it started with just verbal altercations but it escalated into this violent struggle that must have lasted a good two months the first real bad incident happened when guards checked the showers one day and find one of the cultists hanging from

the shower head with his throat slit and a piece of cardboard stapled to his chest with some bible verse about blasphemy written on it a few days later another guard opens a cell next to an inmate who says he heard his neighbors shouting and they find him in there arms legs and head all severed and his torso split up the middle but it doesn't make any sense because he bunked alone and his cell door had been locked the whole time well the false prophets are certain it was done using some sort of witchcraft so they

even the score by baptizing three of the warlocks indefinitely in the toilets and saw their cells the inmate who usually wheeled down the evidence to the boilers happened to be One of the cultists he wheels us in a fresh load not long after the drownings and sitting on top of the boxes are these three rope dolls so me and a co-worker don't think anything about it other than they look kind of creepy so we start tossing the contents of the cart into the blaze and not a minute later all of the fire alarms start going

off the guard supervising us leads us out onto the yard where all the other inmates are lined up we start asking around trying to figure out if anybody knows what's going on and someone tells us that a few of those fanatics were standing around preaching to the mice and out of nowhere they just burst into flames so after they do an investigation they say one of the guys just spontaneously combusted and wound up setting the other two on fire but i know it had to be those dolls and some kind of black magic was responsible

but i don't want the same thing happening to me so i just decided to keep my mouth shut and mind my own business so i asked him if he ever talked about it later with his co-worker in the boiler room and he got quiet and the somber look washed over him with um with boogie nah I don't think that man even comprehended what kind of evil existed in the world he was always happy always dancing you see that's why i used to call him the boogeyman you see boogie was a black guy when i first

got to prison i hated black people my old gang was a bunch of rednecks and skinheads and i think i just started hating them to show off or something and eventually i got convinced that i actually did and when i came to prison my hatred just got worse everyone is separated segregated everyone sees color first you see except for boogie he just saw people he was sent there on drug charges got addicted to crack and couldn't kick the habit but he was a really good guy super friendly and upbeat she was the type of person

that wouldn't hurt a fly i start in the boilers and realize my co-worker is this cheery black man and i asked for a job transfer immediately but it gets denied at first i just ignored him as he keeps talking to me every day like he thinks we're all friends or something he'd get some coal on a shovel to do a little twist and toss it in the boiler it was like he didn't see i hated him or Well maybe he did maybe that's why he was just so persistent he used to call me boss hey

boss why you so down today don't you know god made the stars you see everybody was boss everybody was good eventually i started talking back to him out of boredom or loneliness or maybe curiosity and the more we talked the more i realized that this was one of the most genuine people i'd ever met and i had hated him solely because he was a different color than me that night i get to my cell and i just pray to god for god to make me color blind to take the hatred i've been carrying all these

years out of me the next day i go to the boilers and i see boogie but now he's just a person you see i see him like he sees me for the first time like a human being with a soul and dreams i start thinking about this swastika tattooed on my arm that boogie has to look at every day and i try to apologize it and for the way i used to be and he looks at me and says hey boss don't sweat it man we all make mistakes i didn't know i like macaroni until

i ate macaroni You dig that tattoo don't make you who you are any more than the skin makes me who i am at this point tears start falling from my dad's eyes and it's the first time i've ever seen him cry so i tell him we could talk about something else but he just continues you know the worst thing the absolute worst thing you can do to someone that hates you is let them see you happy well there's a lot of hate in prison it's always looking at the worst thing one day i come down

and to boil her and boogie's not there i start thinking maybe he's sick or something and and i figured i'd check on him after my shift was through well i start smelling this awful burning smell coming from the other side of the boiler and i tell the guard i'm gonna have a look and see if something had fallen against the casing i walk around leaning against the searing casing of the boiler it was boogie see he was tied up at the wrists and ankles and covering his eyes and mouth are three little paper cups affixed

to his face i yelled for the garden well we pry boogie free his shirt and skin already Melting to the metal now christ his face was so swollen that his head was as big as a basketball and i pull the paper cups from his eyes and out pour about two dozen spiders black widows brown recluses just this buffet of spiders his eyes are taped open and they've been bitten so many times he just had two balls of pus oozing from his sockets where his pupils should have been his nose was clamped shut forcing him to

breathe in through his mouth and sure enough when i remove the cup over his lips even more spiders crawled out from his open mouth well um the guard shines a light down his throat to see if his airway had closed up and reflected back from the beam of the tiny eyes of a funnel web that had made its nest in his esophagus see boogie was dead this beacon of hope and joy was just gone and you know what for what reason for what reason anyway security cameras showed three members of one of the white supremacy

gangs had jumped him in the hall when he was headed into work and they get sent to sag then off to huntsville to join the boys on death row and every now and again when i'd start feeling low I swear i could hear boogie's feet dancing down the metal staircase that leads to the boilers i just i'd look over and whisper to him i know i know boogie god made the stars i think i'm going to wrap this post up on that note i want to get this up and edited so you have something to

read sooner rather than later i still have so much to expound on from my dad's days and the boilers to a female apparition the inmates call the black widow to a corrupt guard turned serial killer taking and murdering inmates the amount of material left is astounding as long as you guys are interested i'll post updates as often as i can but for now i'll leave you this i asked my dad why he thought so much evil was trapped in those prison walls and this is what he had told me residue it's what's left over when

you die you see well everybody leaves something being good or bad and out in the real world there's a kind of balance but in a place like prison a place packed full of the worst kind of people what gets left behind is a concentration of evil you see it pulls together it stagnates and permeates everything Even the very air that you breathe the dark is darker and inhabited by things that are even darker still and the silence is louder and more silent all at once you spend your life locked up and then your death too

i guess that's the thing good about cages nothing ever gets out a former correctional officer my dad keeps correspondence with wrote my dad back a letter divulging one of his more horrifying and unexplainable experiences after my dad told him he was collecting stories of the sort my dad said his name is c.o johnson and that his tale takes place during the same period of religious uprising during which he'd found the rope dolls on his evidence cart quickly before i get into ceo johnson's letter let me set the scene for you as it was set for

me it's mid-december of 98 and the prison's holy wars are in full swing the gang of righteous crusaders are getting bolder with sects in every housing unit preaching hellfire and brimstone in the rec rooms as the weeks pass they start amassing more and more followers And before long they're the largest single group inside the anguished walls of the telferred unit inmates just start calling the religious fanatics the penitentiary prophets at chow time every day prophet leaders are up on the table shouting and preaching all the while followers are falling out on the floor speaking in

tongues and dancing like possessed men in the spirit when the guards try to shut it all down riots start breaking out in the halls members start refusing to eat or drink citing a breach of religious freedom and by the end of week two prophet members have managed to starve and dehydrate themselves to death moore threatened to do the same so the guards are forced to let them continue on as they were preaching condemnation to anyone not wise enough to turn from their wicked wiles and follow the lord in direct opposition to the prophets is a

group of practicing satanists who came to be known as the order while the prophets would preach in the chow hall the order starts holding seances and performing rituals calling out to and inviting the devil inside this is when Things really start to escalate and the prophets take it upon themselves to purge the prison's population of the blasphemers the order's numbers start to dwindle down after several violent killings and beatings on their own practicers it scares off some of the more fringe members the cultists that remain however were steadfast and never failed to retaliate in the

most gruesome and brutal ways inmates are found dead in their cells bodies and limbs crumbled up like old practice letters six were found wearing a crown of nails that had been hammered into their skull each having one leg severed and tied to their arms forming a grisly flesh crucifix before being hung upside down decorating the rails along the second floor walkway after seeing and hearing some of the gory details inmates started to suspect that witchcraft and black magic was involved now during this battle over god and the occult something to the tune of 42 inmates

are slaughtered from early september all the way up to christmas by the time the smoke had finally settled it's in the thralls of this chaos that Seo johnson's letter takes place now paraphrasing and skipping personal parts this is what it said you know dave i try not to think about this stuff i spent enough time around evil and violence during my 43 years in the penal system that i decided to leave all behind in those cells when i retired but since you're asking i suppose one more nervous walk down memory lane won't kill me it

was the december of 98 when all those religious zealots were making a ruckus i remember because it was snowing outside it's funny maybe i'm just calloused to it all but while we're in the middle of finding inmates sliced to bits and nailed to the walls the only thing unusual in my mind is the fact that it's snowing in texas i get up that day same as any other have my coffee i kiss my wife and i head into work by the time i get there the white stuff is coming down like what i'd imagine a

blizzard looks like up north i scan through security and find out the prison is on lockdown and the guards are all on watch i asked my buddy what's going on and he tells me they found eight of those fanatics Dead in the halls he said they had been completely skinned and the strangest part is that the skin and hearts were missing i asked him if he knew who did it and he tells me that all the cameras just show them walking into the hall and then they go blank see what's odd about this is none

of the bodies were found in the same place which means that simultaneously eight cameras just malfunctioned when murders took place and then the cameras just start working again right after anywho everybody is locked in their cells and the guards are on edge but the count comes back good minus the eight deceased so we start our normal duties with everyone locked up half the guards head to chow hall to start the meal prep since we'd be delivering trays that day there's always a shuffling of responsibility when that happens and when it all shakes out i end

up on fence patrol so i go out into the snow which is halfway up to my knees at this point and i start walking along the fence line it's usually a rather uneventful way to spend a day and what i would consider a short straw job but that day especially you see it was excruciatingly Cold and i expected to be working inside so all i had on was this little windbreaker that worked about as well as well wet toilet paper anyway i turned down the stretch of fence that heads off through the trees and right

there at the edge of the woods is this guy standing stark naked staring out the chain link i instinctively drew my weapon tell him to get down on the ground and i remember my voice not reflecting how scared i was you do this job long enough i guess you get good at that i suppose you know sounding confident when you aren't not being brave when you're afraid well so i'm yelling at this guy to get down and he doesn't even acknowledge me just keep staring out at the fence now mind you he's covered in tattoos

inked in prison green so i know this is an inmate and i'm thinking someone must have messed up on the count try to radio for backup but the blizzard is too thick for me to get out any kind of communication from where i am i approach him with my gun drawn still pleading with him to get down and that's when i noticed that running up from the back of his feet all the way to the tip of his head were these stitches All sutured up out of black string about as thick as a shoelace thus

far he'd been still as a board standing almost like a mannequin in one of those fancy department stores from my vantage point he's standing at an angle and i can only see the side and back of him but i can't shake this feeling that he looks familiar and that's when it hits me this is one of the inmates found dead in the halls that morning or his skin at least against every ounce of sanity telling me not to i know i've got to get around to his front to confirm his identity i get up right

behind him and my trembling hand starts making its way through the falling snow reaching out for his shoulder and then just as my fingers touch his flesh in this fast swooping spin he twists his body completely around and is now standing face to face with me i jump back and fall into the snow and he just stares for a second more before swinging around towards the woods besides us and runs in this robotic motion and disappears into the trees now i don't know what made me do what i did next maybe adrenaline maybe stupidity maybe

both But i climb up out of the snow i grab my gun and i take off after him now the trees are so thick out there i could hear him moving through the brush but i can't see him so all i can do is follow the noise of the rustling ahead and the footprints through the snow he's leading me deeper and deeper inside the whole time this voice in my head is screaming to just go back finally i hear him stop moving on the other side of the heavy thicketed branches i double check my pistol

and make sure the safety is off then i cautiously make my way through the bush to confront it i work my way between the leaves and the trees and the trail opens up to a small clearing i'm bathed and dread as i see the lifeless skins of all eight deceased inmates lying in a perfect circle head to head and face up in the snow they're all stitched clothes and filled with hay that i could see sticking out of their open mouths and empty eye sockets it's like some kind of demented flesh scarecrow and i see

the footprints i'd been following and they were leading to the man by the fence now laying in the circle joining the others as if he'd never Gotten up and walked away i'm panicking i'm clicking in my radio praying someone responds and then this choppy staticky voice comes through but i can't hear what it's saying so i start scrambling and pacing around trying to get some signal when i see something move in my peripheral i stand frozen for a minute not wanting to know hell not wanting to see i take a deep breath and swing around

gun drawn to my utter horror three of the flesh men are gone and what's worse i could hear something circling around me more than once something from the sound of it the others were now up on their knees bowing and kneeling around the circle like worshipers at an idol and i start to feel the ground vibrating under my feet my head is telling me to run but whatever part of your brain it is that works your legs wasn't working for me i was unable to move so i just watched i watched as the earth between

them started to open up from below i could see this glowing like thing from the embers of a flame and these long spider-like appendages started to reach up from the depths the tremors got so bad they buckled my knees and As soon as i hit the snow i snapped into survival mode i darted out of the clearing back into the trees and i ran as fast as i could and i could see two of the missing flesh crews were running through the forest beside me in that same robotic stride i must have gotten lost and

turned around because i'd been running for 10 minutes and i could see directly in front of me i was coming back up on the glowing pit whatever was coming up from the hole was screeching and growling in these deep haunting howls that echoed through the trees i turn around and as fast as i can sprint i go aimlessly back the other way praying i find my way out but no matter how long or far i ran i could hear those bellowing moans right there in my ear right behind me it was maybe noon at the

latest but the sky was pitch black and it became apparent that i was getting nowhere i look around and i don't see the reanimated cadavers trailing me anymore so i do the only thing i could think to do and i dig a ditch in the snow and bury myself in powder well not about 30 seconds later i hear footsteps crunching in the snow around me Then i feel something walk right across my shallow snowy grave back and forth over my freezing body they go searching for me now for what purpose i didn't want to know

pacing around in their search one of them kicks up some of the snow covering my eyes and it must have felt my face on its foot because it just stops and slowly turns around this thing this this living carcass looks straight down at me and it has no eyes but somehow i know it sees me just as it starts to take a step towards me i hear a loud screech and see one of those spidery things from the pit bolt out from the branches above and pierce the flesh crows straight through the chest and then

snatch it up into the limbs and i hear it whip through the tree tops and off into the distance i wait there a good five minutes and finally i start working myself out of my trench i get up and take a look around to see if the coast is clear but when i turn around there's a flesh crow standing 20 feet away and it's headed straight for me i stumble backwards pull out my pistol and fire three shots but it doesn't even flinch as the bullet seemed to go right through it I scramble backwards until

i hit a tree and right when it is no more than an arm's length out its legs turn to jello and it falls to the snow in a crumpled heap the sky lightens up and all of a sudden i know where i am i don't hear the creature from the pit anymore either for a moment i was watching the sunlight breach the leaves and reflect golden rays up from the blanket of white covering the earth everything was serene the moment is quickly replaced with a realization that the serenity i felt could be fleeting so i

jump and high tail it out of those woods and i don't look back until i hit the prison doors and when i start to tell the others what i just saw i just thought myself [ __ ] who'd believe me instead i just tell them that i found the missing skins and warden has a search party sent out to retrieve them i relayed the general vicinity of where they were but insisted i was too shaken up to go back into those woods anytime soon a couple of guards told me that they'd broken up some cultists

and cells performing some kind of ritual when they were delivering trays just before my return It got me thinking maybe they were summoning something out in those woods using the flesh crows somehow and must have gotten interrupted right about when that one turned to mush at my feet they only ever found two of the flesh crows holes in the chest as if something had been ripped out the warden sent them down to the boilers to be burned i used to hear the guys from the kennels complaining about missing haystacks from time to time though and

i always wondered if it was one of those things refilling itself right up until i retired five years ago every once in a blue moon we'd get in a call from a concerned civilian driving down i-30 that would say they saw a naked prisoner out standing by the fences so i always figured they were still out there somewhere wandering through the woods now right before i retired i decided to get it all out and i finally tell a buddy about what went down that day you know what he tells me well he says this you

really had me going until you said it was snowing in texas after reading c.o johnson's letter my dad goes over to a junk drawer Opens it up and pulls out a pack of paul mauls in a box of matches and lights up a cigarette he rarely ever smokes and when he does it's usually because he's mulling something over so i break the silence by asking him what's on his mind well it's just something ceo johnson wrote in his letter you know about the missing haystack he tells me oh well what about them dad i inquired

well first of all i remember going into the kennels and finding a missing stack every now and then never really put much thought into it but now it has me wondering you see i wonder because sometimes when i'd run the dogs they'd get off the scent and lead me to this little tunnel going down between some big rocks now they didn't stay off course often but when they did it was always to that same little tunnel now i could tell it went down in good ways but i never knew how deep it actually was or

if it opened up at the bottom sometimes i'd hear something moving around inside it but just chalked it up to a wild animal but one time though the dogs led me out there and one of them starts sniffing out something sticking up from a rock about 10 yards away And when i go over and inspect it i recognize it right away it's a piece of used bailing wire used to hold the haystacks together at the time again i don't give it a second thought now after reading the ceo's letter i'm starting to suspect that maybe

one of his flesh crows drug it out there if maybe well they were what was moving around down in that tunnel it makes sense when you think about it i ran the dogs all over those woods if they were really out there wandering around i would have seen them at some point it's almost like they were hiding from something maybe that's why anyone only ever spotted them at the fence maybe just well maybe they were trying to get out whatever it was that came out of the ground that day what if it's hunting them you

know it's feeding on them maybe it needs them to complete the ritual the cultists were performing maybe it's the same creature i saw on the tree that night you know the same one mark saw well i'm just probably jumping to conclusions but still it well it kind of gives you pause though no he was right on both accounts he was in fact jumping to conclusions and it did in fact Give me pause i couldn't come up with a better theory based off everything i have heard thus far maybe one of you has some insight as

to what the flesh crows are and what the purpose of the cultists creating them would be from there we got a bit on a lighter subject when i asked him why everyone in prison had a nickname for seemingly everyone and everything nah not everyone just the people who do something memorable be it good or bad as to why well i don't know inmates like to pass down stories and antoine from c block just doesn't have the same ring to it as old two-step two-step i replied he get that name when boogeyman was taken my dad

laughed and told me no you see two-step never danced well then why'd you call him two-step this is one of those things you think you really want to know but you really don't he laughed but you'll swear you do until i tell you so here it goes a guard hears this hooting and hollering from inside the sea block showers so he runs inside he goes in to seize antoine this big man going to town on the skinhead's backside the skinhead keeps yelling i changed My mind get me out get me out the guard breaks up

their love session they put their clothes back on and he walks them out of the showers to find the whole block guards and all are crowded around the shower exits he's got this look of astonishment on his face and he's just as wide-eyed as he can be shaking his head one of the inmates yells out to him from the crowd what's the matter seo you ain't never seen a man put his dick in another man's ass before without missing a beat ceo looks at him and yells back yeah but this is the first time i've

ever seen one have to take two steps back to get it all the way out now the whole cell block starts rolling to tears and ever since then the legendable two-step had been passed around the yard from inmate to inmate he was wrong this time i was glad to have been told the legend of twostep and for the next 20 minutes we just laughed as he divulged some of the more comical nicknames and origins thereof but the mood quickly took a turn for the dower as he goes on to tell me you see not all

these monikers spin these funny little yarns though Some of them are born from the sinister from the malevolent actions of nefarious hands you know you got voodoo and the wreck room ripper you have the black widow and the christmas creeper oh hell i could go on for hours black widow i replied as hearing about a woman behind the prison bars had piqued my interest well most of the time when the warden has to deal with the dead body he'd managed to find a way to just make it go away a lot of times he'd have

the remains boxed up and buried somewhere in the fields in an unmarked grave and we tell the families that because they died in prison that they were state property and convinced them they were holding them as evidence until they figured out who did it the honest truth is that more often than not the corpses were torn up so bad he could never let the family see them like that now i don't know if this was to protect himself or the families but i do know it didn't provide a whole lot of closure anyway one day

this lady in a long black dress was like a wedding dress you'd wear to a funeral or something shows up at the prison gates demanding to see her deceased husband's remains while the Warren comes out to the fence and tells her he's already in the ground but that he'd escort her to his gravesite figuring telling her was no more trouble than it was worth so he leads her out to a plot of ground with three or four fresh graves your husband is in one of these he tells her you don't even know which one she

sobs heartbroken i'm sorry we can't afford to mark every grave in a state-run prison but i told you to send him home i told you just to send him home yes ma'am you did and like i said you stay property now and property she screamed and discussed before finally snapping and launching herself at the warden reflexively one of the guards accompanying them out to the burial site pulls his pistol from the holster and shoots her twice in the stomach she lurches backwards and lands on what may her may not have been her husband's tomb bleeding

out on the freshly turned soil the guard and warden just standing there watching her squirm neither one believing what just happened now what the hell did you do that for co she was unarmed god damn it jesus christ how the hell am i supposed To explain this get her to the infirmary now now god damn it the guard and trembling nervous voice starts apologizing to the lady as he is carrying her in his arms as fast as he can to medical i'm sorry i'm sorry i wasn't thinking it was instinct it says place i'm sorry

i'm so sorry as he nears the infirmary he hears her whispering in this weak lethargic gurgle and he stops running trying to make out what she's saying i don't remember i don't remember she weeps you you don't remember what ma'am i don't remember his face for the life of me i can't remember my husband's face tears streaming down her cheeks past the black veil covering her eyes now that's the last thing she said before dying on a cold steel infirmary table an hour later now a few months after that an inmate on janitor duty comes

back from his shift and he tells us what he sees when he's sweeping up one of the long corridors of an empty block wing i'm all alone and it's dead quiet save for the buzzing of the fluorescent lights above i always get this eerie feeling when i'm working the halls over there as it is but last night it was thicker And i couldn't shake it well right when i got to the end of the run i start hearing what sounds like soft whimpering coming from behind me like a like a woman's whimper i turn around

and down at the other end i see this lady turn the corner and start coming towards me she's in this long black dress and her face is covered and her hands are holding her stomach like she has a stomachache i yell out and ask her if she's okay but she just keeps sobbing and moving towards me and then well i notice the way she's moving her dress is dragging on the floor so i can't see her feet but it's almost like she's floating like like she's gliding down the hall a few inches off the ground

and i start backing up but i'm at the wall and there's nowhere to go i can't speak i want to yell for a guard but i'm too afraid to make a noise she's not more than me to you when i see her hands are purple and rotting like if you cut off the circulation around your wrists for too long and where she's holding her stomach well hell i could see that she's bleeding something awful i shut my eyes as she closes the distance and now i can hear her hovering right in front of me then

Goes all quiet she stops sobbing and i open my eyes hoping she's gone but when i do looking back at me through her dark lace veil i see two eyes as black as coal peering back at me i see the part of her face peeking out below the veil is the same suffocated color as her hands with one of her arms she reaches up and puts on her lifeless cold hands under my chin and pulls my face up to hers she stares at me like like she's studying me like she's trying to see if she

recognizes me and after what seems like an eternity she lets me go and floats backwards a few feet before turning around and starts sobbing again as she slowly flies down the run and turns the corner i asked my dad if anyone else had ever seen the black widow and he told me that just about every inmate had seen her wandering the halls at some point see sometimes at night you'll hear cries coming from outside your cell door and if you look to the window you'll see her there looking back through it she never leaves until

she sees the faces of everyone inside and she knows it's not yours she's looking for when she's sure she floats to the next Window always searching for what she doesn't remember for the husband she didn't get to mourn my dad then shared a few more tales of the black widow and some of the other spectres purportedly haunting the halls of telford we then slipped down the rabbit hole of conversation and found ourselves on the topic of killings committed by guards it doesn't really happen that often usually it's the other way around some of them though

like c.o johnson for instance by the time it's all said and done they spent more time inside the prison than the majority of the inmates you gotta imagine that out of all these free men choosing to spend their lives behind bars at least a few of them have a screw loose somewhere well we have this new guard in the unit friendly guy one of those buddy buddy types with the inmates his last name is mangle and naturally everyone just starts calling him mr mangle well mr mangle had this morbid curiosity with what brought everybody to

prison especially inmates with more violent crimes he'd ask us stuff like did they scream how much blood was there did the knife go in easy Now he's working in the unit about six months when he winds up shooting and killing a guy trying to hop the fence now this guy was coming up for parole with good behavior so the entire population is suspicious of a story but it's a guard's word against a dead inmate so i mean what can you do now i don't know if he had a taste for killing before that happened but

i know he was certainly hungry for it afterwards mr mangle is forced to go on mandatory leave of absence as his protocol following incidents like that and when he returns it isn't long before inmates start going missing now nobody knows where they've gone but cameras along the perimeter show no one's escaped so it's assumed they must be hiding inside the facility over the course of five months seven prisoners mysteriously vanished without a trace and no one has any answers eventually after reviewing security footage investigating officers noticed two things the inmates all disappeared going around the

same corner to an unmonitored corridor and shortly after mr mangle always appears coming back from the same place so they go in they do a Sweep over the hall where the inmates were last seen they dumbed them before and come up empty but they go back thinking they must have missed something somewhere well they get down there and who should appear walking out from inside the custodian's closet but a bewildered mr mangle well the warden sees him and tells mangle to follow him back to his office to answer a few questions i guess it dawns

on mangle that the jig is up and he runs back into the closet slamming the doors shut behind him officers pull the door open and mangle is gone hell they pull everything out and start searching it top to bottom when they notice a couple of loose tiles in the floor they pull up the tiles and sure enough it opens up to a big shaft below the shaft was part of the defunct subterranean wing of the prison that had originally been intended to be a third level that was never finished due to several mishaps during construction

it had lied dormant for decades until mr mangle decided to promote himself to warden over the decrepit labyrinth of rusted cells the guards scoured the dark maze for hours but never did find mangle they did however Find the missing inmates six of them were locked inside the long abandoned cells emaciated having been starved to death the seventh inmate was located in the kitchen area chopped up rotted and stuffed in the coolers part of him were found on trays with bite marks and missing chunks of flesh he'd been attempting to feed number seven to the other

six and i guess they had all been in fact eating him that isn't until the meat spoiled several sweeps over the next few days yielded no answers as to mangle's whereabouts but then one morning he just emerges from the closet sliced all over with broken ribs and a shattered leg the guards rush over and detain him and he doesn't even fight them while being interrogated he confessed to the killings and when they asked why he ultimately decided to give himself up he told the questioning officers that he hadn't been alone down there that something evil

more evil than mangle even crept through those halls at night now word gets around the population of this secret underground prison wing and some inmates scheme up a plan to escape down there themselves Three men sneak their way down the shaft and a day later one comes tumbling out of the closet looking about as beat up as mangle he says mangle is right that something else inhabited those cells something inhuman it reveals that the two remaining fugitives were never found that the guards refused to even look for them so the guards just believed a story

like that i mean what if he was lying i postulated well most of those guards have been working there long enough to have seen some unbelievable things themselves so it's not as outlandish as you might think and hell didn't you read ceo johnson's letter as crazy as it might be some of those guys have even seen it snow in texas my dad and i were sitting on his couch finishing off some letters to be sent off to several inmates in an effort to appease my inquiries into the prison's darker chapters it was in the midst

of this that a local news report playing in the background caught our ears the anchors relayed to the listening public that a woman had jumped off a nearby bridge into oncoming traffic after having lost her child in an accident in the patch of asphalt a few months prior It occurred to me then that sometimes the world outside the prison's walls can be just as bleak as the ones inside it the same thought must have gone through my dad's mind as he looked at me and said the sedates was too much for her sade i asked

it's a portuguese word when someone you cherish is missing so they'd is the love that's left behind inmates used to use it to reference the angst and limerence you'd feel after being stripped of all the little joys in life once being locked up people on the outside don't know what to do with that kind of longing and helplessness they don't know how to let it lead them well what do you mean dad when you've always been free you can't appreciate what that truly means every step you take is just another step it's not taking you

anywhere other than the stride past the one before it sometimes i see people like this lady on a bridge and i pity them they never learn to cody wample never learn to grit their teeth and push on they will never get to look forward to anything the same way an inmate gets the look forward to his freedom you see the best way i can explain it Is if you have two people walking towards the same destination one of them threw a field of lilac and daisies under the bluest of blue skies the other is traveling

through a long dark tunnel well the person going through the field is going to enjoy the whole walk sure but when they finally get where they've been going well it's just another part of the feel to them it's pleasant but nothing special and ultimately just more of the same now the person down in the tunnel though well they're nervous they're afraid hell they're claustrophobic even but they can see the light and it gives them hope something to aim for or to look forward to when they finally emerge from the end of the tunnel they're stricken

with the luminosity of it smitten by the lilacs this isn't just another part of the field for them salvation it's elation and knowing that the worst is behind you but you can't know the significance of where you stand until you realize where you stood you see i think that's why so many inmates wind up going back you chase this radiant brilliant light ahead for so long and all of a sudden you're looking back at it and there's Nothing guiding your path anymore i contemplated my father's profound metaphor and then asked him what about people doing

life for them their tunnel is a closed circuit where the light must seem so far away that they know they'll never make it there in time what guides them well you just gotta realize that it can always be worse for every dark tunnel there's a darker one below it and whatever tunnel you happen to find yourself in if you walk it long enough persevere hard enough well you'll find your light like the guys who escaped down the shaft in the custodian's closet for example they thought it couldn't possibly be worse than life in prison but

they were wrong he went on to tell me that those guys tully adams and houston had managed to sneak out from the chow hall and ransack commissary before making their way down into the vacant balls beneath the prison the entire unit was on lockdown until the next day when adams finally reappeared running back from the closet bruised and battered before collapsing at the feet of the first guard he saw after an extended stay in seg Adams was returned to population greeted by a slew of curious inmates and this is what he told them well i

guess it was totally that first approached me with the scheme he and houston had been working up they had this elaborate plan to set a fire down in the chow hall to distract the guards then bust ass to commentary for supplies before making their way down below to mangle's fabled stomping grounds he tells me halston had already done a scope of the custodian's closet and had ensured him there was some truth to the myths of the abandoned prison under the linoleum says too he knows the guards down in laundry where i worked were all chain

smokers and didn't mind sharing a sig with an inmate who kept their mouth shut when one of the guards would sneak a puff so totally asks me if i could smuggle back a match or two for their little distraction and if i want in on the getting out and i'm thinking man i'm serving 40 to life in here i won't see the other side of these walls until i'm nearly 70 and that's if i'm lucky so i just look at him and say hell why not next day i'm folding clothes and the co lights one

up I ask him if he minds if i bumped one so he hands me a cigarette pulls out a box of matches and tosses them to me i open the matches pull out four or five while he's looking the other way then toss the box back i get to wreck give tully the contraband and he tells me the next day it's all going down tomorrow comes and the guards make the call for dinner i look over at tully and he gives me the nod so we join the mass exodus down to chow me and tully

are hanging out at the end of the line near the exits when i see halston walk over to the trash cans up front and toss something inside he starts walking our way and when he gets just about up to us the trash can behind him blazes up the guards by the exit rush over to the fire and we burst out onto the run and we sprint down to commissary tully picks the lock with a bobby pin and we start filling garbage bags with candy bars ramen noodles bottled water hell anything we could get our hands

on in the back of the room on the storage shelves we find two flashlights a little portable am fm radio and toss them into the bags as well whole time we're Running from commissary to the custodian's closet looking like some backwards version of santa claus when the sirens are going off i'm thinking we ain't gonna make it there before getting caught but i guess fate was on our side because we didn't see a single guard the whole way there thank god for the texas board of corrections and their chronic understaffing i suppose so we squeeze

into the closet and sure enough halston wasn't lying there on the ground with a stack of pocket bibles working as paperweights was the distinct outline of a cut out in the tile hal pushes the bibles to the side pulls up the hidden door and starts tossing our bags down the chute shoot dunk they hit the ground echoes shot back up the shaft and i could tell it must open to something large underneath that was the first time i think it really hit me what we were doing then this was happening it was real after the

last bag lands halston looks up with his legs already dangling halfway inside the chute and says well i guess that means it's my turn he starts making his way down and just before his head is out of sight he gives one more smirking glance See you boys on the other side after about 15 seconds of downward maneuvering he shouts back up and tells us we're cleared to join him tally leans over picks up one of the little orange bibles now scattered across the tile and tosses it to me what's this for i asked him confused

hey he responds you just never know he grins and winks at me then joins house than on the other side i look at the bible for a second and almost toss it back to the pile with its brethren on the floor but then i think you know what what the hell and i instead slide it into my pocket with that i take a deep breath and enter the chute the chute itself is about as wide as the main air ducts running along the ceilings up here maybe 18 by 18 a man can fit but it's

tight anyway i shimmy down all the way to the bottom until i feel my feet start to dangle free in the air i can't see below me and i'm terrified of heights so i start to panic a little bit just let it go halston shouts to me you ain't gonna get hurt tell you what you'd be a big boy jump down here and i'll give you some extra time outside yourself today sounds good [ __ ] you how I roared back not appreciating his sarcasm oh come on adams totally intervened it's a 10 foot drop

at most you'll be all right man i i can't man i don't think i could do this so what are you gonna do then go back up here i'll open up my arms and you can jump right in come on princess and i'll catch you just jump better yet i'll lay on the ground and unzip my pants and send a pole up for you to slide down house that mocked here hang tight adams i have an idea totally assured me i'm just hanging there half in half out of this shaft praying i don't lose my

grip i can hear the floor scraping below me like something heavy is being dragged across it then what sounds like something else being placed atop it alright adams just lower down a little more totally instructs i do as he says and am relieved to find something solid under my feet i complete the descent and see through the dim light shining down from the closet above that they drug an old desk over and stacked a chair on top of it see too what my head was telling me was an endless abyss it was really just an

eight-foot drop from the chute to the floor You good now princess halston jokingly asked yeah i'm good now [ __ ] no thanks to that little pole of yours we pulled the flashlights we lifted from commissary out of the bags and shined them around the room everything was unfinished wires were pulled out and hanging from cutouts for outlets and places intended to be light fixtures the floor was solid concrete the builders having never gotten around to tiling it there were cobwebs in every corner and dust permeated the air protesting our arrival for disturbing its slumber

unfinished walls stood as interior windows into what were meant to be private rooms well she ain't pretty but she's home alston said after our inspection well let's hope not totally answered there's got to be a way out of here to the outside well let's [ __ ] find it then halston enthusiastically quipped we grabbed our bags and started exploring the decrepit ruins as we moved from corridor to corridor this looming feeling of uneasiness overtook me the darkness seemed to almost fester like it wasn't a result of lack of light but Rather bled out from some

place darker still like it was an open wound an infection almost the air was damp and musty like a wet towel that had begun to mildew after being lost behind the hamper the sounds of scurrying mice avoiding the oncoming strangers could be heard scampering down the halls and as we worked our way through the ominous shadowy passages this dreadful deja vu hit me as it became apparent that we were walking through an exact albeit unfinished replica of the level directly above us so we spent the next few hours wandering the unlocked cells and crumbling walls

along the perimeter of the complex looking for any breaches to the outside whole time we do i'm looking back over my shoulder and in the back of my mind i'm thinking the guards are going to come running up on us at any moment halston must have been thinking the same thing well i don't think they're coming down here boys god damn it feels good to be a free man we ain't free men yet you dumb [ __ ] totally snaps back hell we're deeper in prison than we've ever been i'll tell you one thing though

if nothing else i'm going to enjoy the vacation while it lasts Not long after that we decided to call it quits on our search for the night and get some food and sleep and start again in the morning we made our way to the kitchen opened the doors and were greeted by what must have been a hundred fleeing rats running away from us in every direction jesus christ this must be where the snitches go to be reincarnated housed ingested we looked around and grabbed a couple of big pots and exited the kitchen to the chow

hall halston starts a fire in one of the pots the other we fill up with some bottled water and use fire from the first to heat it up once it got to boiling you already know what went down tear into our bags and let the feast begin now imagine this best of the 80s playing on the literal radio in the background while tully stirs up eight full packs of ramen halston is slicing the vienna sausage and jalapenos and i'm crunching up the fritos and cheetos man it was a hell of a spread [ __ ]

we even melted down some snickers and moon pies and made s'mores for dessert the best i've eaten in nine years now totally might not have thunk we were free men yet but hell if i didn't feel like one We just sat there around the stoop hot fire swapping stories and dreaming about what we were gonna do when we got out tully was going to the beaches of mexico to taste the and senoritas halston had plans to make his way up to west virginia where his cousin had miles and miles of untamed farmland and me i

just wanted to hug my best girl my mama one more time on the outside and if they caught me again after that well so be it for the first time in a long time i forgot that i was in prison i forgot that we were fugitives and all of a sudden i was 10 years old again camping with my dad oblivious to the sinister turns my life would take for a minute there i wasn't serving life for a minute there i was living it anyway stomachs nearly bursting the full toll of the day's events starting

to take hold we use the grime covered chow hall tables as a bed to keep us off the rat infested floors the other guys were conked out already but a combination of anxious energy that the guards still may crash our sleepover and halston's incessant snoring had me wide awake i sit up on The edge of the table and leaned over the stewpot warming my hands over the flames the temperature felt like it had dropped a good 30 degrees since we'd first shimmied our way down into the depths i'm rubbing my hands together trying to warm

up when from behind me just outside the chow hall doors i swear i could hear this raspy breathing as matic almost i turn around and inspect the darkness filling the door frame and the breathing stops as soon as i do and that same uneasy feeling i'd felt when we'd just arrived crept its way back up my spine i could feel this negative force afflicting the darkness just beyond the border of my vision hey get it together adams and i whispered to myself now i shake it off and i pivot back around to the fire but

just as i take my eyes off the door a loud crash echoes down the hallway behind me startled i whip back around heart racing and i scour out into the abyss tully must have heard it too because he groggily sat up rubbing his eyes and said these [ __ ] rats are driving me crazy i just let out this nervous chuckle wanting to believe him yeah these these [ __ ] rats man Hey man hand me your flashlight will ya i gotta take a piss he informed me um yeah here you go catch i toss

him the flashlight and he gets up and walks out of the chow and i watch the yellow beam move down the run and then turn the corner towards the restrooms about a half hour passes and he still ain't back so i'm thinking he's either trying to find something to wipe with or maybe he got lost another 30 minutes pass and i figure i should go check on him so i wake up halston tell him that tully's been gone a while he hands me the other flashlight and i start to get up when i hear someone

coming down the run i focus my eyes through the shadows and i see it's tully making his way back to the camp chow it's too dark to make him out well though and his flashlight is off so i turn mine on and shine it at him the beam hits his legs first i just remember not really comprehending at the moment why or how his feet were dragging on the ground behind him i slowly lifted my light up across his body and i see his white uniform now had this large dark stain running down it his

arms were dangling lifelessly at his sides When my light got up to his shoulders i see his head was drooping over like his neck had gone limp he's just hanging there suspended in the air but somehow still coming forward see that's when i noticed this black figure one was trying to conceal itself behind him it must have realized i saw it too because as soon as i did it stopped moving with one arm completely outstretched it opens its hand and tully hits the ground like a sack of potatoes halston hears his body crash to the

floor and jumps up to see what's going on now my light is right on this thing but the light doesn't pierce it nothing illuminates around it it's like it's just absorbing the beam somehow all we see is the black silhouette of a man standing there staring back at us time stopped as we exchange glances for what seemed like an eon before the thing once again started creeping towards us and broke the silence in this gravelly lamprophic whisper fee fi foe thumb who's down creeping round in my slum halston yelled back trying to sound confident but

the fear in his voice was apparent who who the [ __ ] there What the [ __ ] did you do to tully the thing replied in these calm long drawn out words i broke his [ __ ] neck oh man what the [ __ ] did you just say halston screamed as he grabbed the frying pan lying on the ground near his feet i said i broke his [ __ ] neck and i ripped out his [ __ ] tongue and i'm going to do the exact same thing to you oh now you just

[ __ ] up you big halsen takes off in this dead sprint right at it frying pan cocked back the thing doesn't even flinch as he slams the pan right across its face i guess hal must have realized he made a mistake because he drops the pan and starts to back up but it just well it just pounces on him like a wild animal and starts clawing and biting at his flesh chunks of him tearing off and flying through the air and i will i'm ashamed to say that i just ran i ran right out

of the side door with houston's agonizing screams ringing out from the darkness behind me now i wanted to curl up on a ball on the floor but i knew i had to get as far away from it as possible i knew i had to hide it's pitch black And i'm making as many turns as i can down the winding corridors stricken with panic and looking over my shoulder praying i don't see it trailing me i eventually end up in a more finished part of the level and i realize i'm in the segwings that i must

have reached a dead end i go to turn back but i hear its voice reverberating off the walls from the halls i just ran from come out come out wherever you are he began in that same growling whisper before his voice morphed into this deep unnatural demented yell as he spoke so i can rip you gut to gullet i sprinted into the first open door i saw and ran nearly to the end of the run before diving under the bed frame of an empty cell where are you you whispered almost playfully then ending his sentence

in that same ungodly baritone hal i'm hungry [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] what do i do i'm thinking frantically i scoot back as far as i can beneath the steel cot and i just hope it doesn't find me then i hear it push open the blocked doors that i just come through it starts walking down the run again and i hear it it's opening every cell door as it slowly makes its way to mine i don't know whether To shut my eyes or force myself not to blink as the cell directly

adjacent to me creaks open i'm holding my breath afraid it will hear me breathe as i hear its footsteps come to a stop just outside my door and then i hear the creaking of the cell door through a dim light illuminating from somewhere above i see his legs now standing in the door frame his feet are charred black and burnt and he gives off this rotten odor of decay petrified i watch as it walks a few steps further into the room and stops again then it just well it turns around and walks out before going

to the other side of the run and opening the cell doors all along the opposite wall until i finally hear its footsteps exit the block and head back down the segwing i'd yet to move at this point i was just sitting there paralyzed and praying i didn't hear its heavy steps come lumbering back my way eventually i calmed myself enough to look around and inspect my surroundings in horror i noticed that i hadn't noticed in my scramble to hide the floor around me was littered in bones human bones In large piles all strewn all across

the cell then i look up to see the source of the dim light was an unfinished air duct that appeared to go up to the level above now i became all too aware of where i was i had hidden directly below mseg directly below cell 13. the thing hunting was the man from the vents it was voodoo bob and i was currently nested right inside his lair now i knew i had to get out of there that i had to make my way to shoot we'd come in on with every bit of courage i could

muster i crawled out from the bed frame and silently exited the room then moved cautiously into the adjoining cell where i pause and wait before going to the next and so on till i had made my way onto main seg run now timidly i hug the walls inching my way through the catacombs ducking undercover where i could to listen to catch my breath i moved at this languished paste for hours it seems like occasionally hearing voodoo prowling a hall or two over haunting me now i'd stop and hide and wait for him to creep into

the opposing direction then begin again Not a moment too soon i see the dull yellow hue from the shoot above shining onto the concrete a hundred feet off i start working myself up to take off to it when right outside the room i desperately need to get to i hear his ominous steps my heart sinks as i see voodoo come into view crawling upside down on the ceiling circling back and forth in front of my exit now he must have known that that was my only way out he was waiting for me toying with me

i was trapped i realized even if i managed to hide from him indefinitely how long before i starved i knew somehow i had to get him away from that shaft i would need time to scale it even if i somehow managed to make it there before he caught me i needed as much space between him and me as humanly possible now about then i feel something nipping out my pant leg and just about jump out of my skin i instinctively twist around and i look down and an utter relief i see is just a mouse

and right then a light bulb goes off in my head the rats in the kitchen maybe i could use them to create a distraction So i slink back from the corner i'd been peering out from deeper into the run then take the long way around the corridors back to the chow hall i get there and our little fire has all but turned to embers mercilessly providing just enough light to see halston's mutilated remains being fed upon by an army of rodents i averted my eyes i had no time to grieve no time to be repulsed

i knew i had to act quickly and so i crept to the kitchen and carefully yet haphazardly stacked up as many pots and pans as i could i then made my way over to halston's corpse and i whispered in his ear god forgive me then i turned my head away and reached my hand deep inside his stomach and grabbed a handful of the first solid things i felt and pulled from his body i returned to my pile of pots draped his forcibly exhumed intestines across it from there i snuck back to my roosting spa perpendicular

to the chute and waited it wasn't long after that that the rats took the bait and the pots and pans came crashing down and not a second later i see voodoo dashing sideways along the wall on All fours sprinting to the source of the crash stomping so hard that behind him was a trail of indentations in the brick not unlike fresh footprints in the snow i hear you he roars as soon as he passed i dart out to the chute as fast as my legs will take me scaling the desk and chair in a single

bound and start to struggle my way up the shaft i'm moving like i'd never moved before all my focus directly at the light from the floor above but about halfway though my pants snag on a piece of metal protruding from the shaft wall and i hear voodoo screech from the kitchen and rage as he realized he'd been duped now i'm vigorously yanking my leg but it's no use and voodoo is pounding down the hall back my way i'm frantic shouting up the shoe praying someone hears me and then from below i see voodoo's white eyes

pop into view looking up at me peek-a-boo he snarls he climbs inside and starts clawing at my legs and pulling me towards him oh i'll slit your throat you [ __ ] [ __ ] you stupid [ __ ] i'm gonna rip you in half you [ __ ] you [ __ ] [ __ ] and i feel his nails shredding my legs As blood gushes from the wounds he starts to scale my body i'm thinking [ __ ] this is it for me this is how i die but when he gets up to about

my waist his hand touches my pocket and he shrieks and slides down the shaft aways oh you [ __ ] you [ __ ] little [ __ ] i'll get you for that now it takes me a second to process what had just happened and that's when i remember tully the bible he'd given me hell it was still in my pocket i reached my hand down feeling for its leathery binding and pull it out as fast as i can as voodoo starts climbing back up towards me his mouth is now wide open it's filled with

rows of tiny jagged teeth and as he goes to sink them into my flesh i thrust the bible straight into his throat well he falls back out of the chute and hits the ground below with all my might i yank my leg free and scuttle up the remaining distance exploding out of the opening and spilling out into the closet i grab the tile cut out and toss it back over the opening as i see voodoo is now in a mad dash up the chute i swing my arms over to the loose stack of bibles And

sweep over as many as i can atop the now sealed shaft i lurch back against the wall as the hidden door rattles and rocks voodoo screaming the most heinous and insidious things from beneath it and finally just stops i could hear him start descending back into the catacombs below take a moment to collect myself then hobble out of the closet and onto the run where i just collapsed and start kissing the floor after that i hobbled my way to the guards and turned myself in i used to hate this place you know but now well

now i don't think it's all that bad in comparison after hearing adam's chilling account the poetry and symmetry of my dad's metaphor became apparent adams had found his light at the end of the tunnel he had learned to appreciate where he was because of where he'd been there was something beautiful about that i thought i couldn't help though feeling bad for tully and halston as i looked at my dad and said that sucks for those guys that they got their first taste of freedom in years and they just have it torn away so violently you

have to remember he tells me those guys were criminals they weren't meant to be free they were Locked up for a reason and if you know what they'd done i bet you wouldn't feel so bad for them well what did they do well those two were always hanging around each other they liked to bully some of the newer weaker inmates there was one inmate in particular that they'd taken interest in they'd made him their pet they'd steal his commissary beat him rape him emasculate him in any way they could started to make him take his

visits with his wife and son dressed up like a house [ __ ] imagine seeing your dad like that as a little boy well the guy decides he'd have enough of it one day and tells them he won't dress up like that in front of his kid anymore to his surprise they tell him and they leave him be well the guy's wife always shows up at the start of visiting hours like clockwork and houston and tully know it so they have a couple of friends on the outside come visit them during the same time as

the guys having his visit about an hour in halston rushes the guard and totally runs over to this poor guy and just starts shanking him in the stomach Over and over and over again while his son and wife watch and horror through the glass they kill him in the most brutal way right in front of his own little boy but what about adams he seems like a genuinely nice guy all he wanted to do was see his mother one more time and my dad took a deep breath and continued well that's the weird thing about

adams he was always talking about fishing with his dad again having one of his mama's home-cooked meals but you'd think for someone so attached to his parents they'd visit him once or twice right but they never did hell not once since i'd been there he'd gotten a single visitor aside from legal counsel well no one knew what his charges were only that they must be serious seeing that he was serving life but one day though his file is pulled for review up in the office and one of the inmates that worked there snuck a curious

peek inside after that word gets out that adam's mysterious charge was double homicide the victims of which being the parents he so desperately longed to see apparently he had taken some drugs and became so Agitated and disoriented that he pulled the hollow end of a shotgun on them now i don't know if he was just lying to himself about it all because he can live with guilt or if he truly believes they are still out there waiting for him to come home i honestly don't know what to make of it that's so sad for him

and his parents i said contemplating and reevaluating my previous feelings as sympathy listen son i know you feel bad for these people but they didn't get to prison by acting like saints despite what they tell you the empathy you feel inside isn't an emotion they're familiar with for all that luminous light at the end of the tunnel they are the thing in the dark that's chasing you towards it in the mail were three unassuming white envelopes addressed to my father having come in from the prison he brought them inside tossed one over and i carefully

peeled back the seal to reveal its precious cargo the first letter i eagerly opened was from an inmate by the name of walter ramirez who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for drug possession and parole violations my dad told Me that ramirez is what was referred to inside the prison as a boomerang a boomerang is an inmate who keeps winding back up behind the prison's barbed wire fences no matter how many times the guards walked them out through the gates ramirez would come in on a six-month or a two-year sentence the charge is always drug

related service time say his goodbyes for what he'd swear would be the last time just to be reintroduced to the population a few months later i can't really understand why someone would keep doing that to themselves i commented just like that god forsaken prison everyone is haunted by something be it ghosts the past the future or in ramirez case drugs it's not as easy to exercise those demons as hollywood portrays i suppose i conceded but i just think given the options knowing what i know about the prison i don't know i think i'd make it

my mission to stay as far away from that place as possible oh you would you have a good head on your shoulders a strong moral compass must have got it from your mother's side because you sure didn't get it from me But you see not everybody is that strong and to tell you the truth a lot of the stuff that happens in there well you kind of just bury it deep inside you forget about it we'll forget about it how well i'm i'm not really sure about that myself but before you brought all this up

i never thought about any of it just like it hadn't happened like i'd had amnesia over the whole thing i well i can't explain it but as soon as you asked me all these memories came flooding back all at once and in vivid detail it's like i would reflect on my time there i only remembered the good parts sometimes i have these dreams where i get out of bed and i find myself walking through the twisted pines beneath the moonlight to the prison when i get there the gates are always open welcoming me and i

well i don't know why but i always walk inside once there i find myself drawn to a light at the end of the long hallway like a moth to a flame when i arrive i see the light coming in from the cell and it feels like it's my cell instinctively i step through the door and lock it behind me the lights go out and i feel free almost as strange as that sounds You have nightmares you must mean now he hesitated for a moment as he assessed my question no no not nightmares it's like that's

where i'm supposed to be you know kind of where i want to be like the prison itself is calling to me beckoning me home when i wake up i'm relieved to see i'm still in my bedroom of course but at the same time somewhere deep inside me is this vague sense of disappointment of dislocation perhaps ramirez had experienced the same ominous beckoning home i thought maybe all inmates are lured by it and find themselves sleepwalking in the night and threw the pines back into the belly of the beast maybe it wasn't the long past tunnel's

light that kept them returning to a cell as my dad had presumed but then maybe it was maybe it's all the same thing maybe the light is the beckoning maybe regardless though of whatever it was that kept bringing ramirez back to telford this time it had decided to keep him for a while long enough to perfect his penmanship i noticed as the top page of his letter's contents were inked in these immaculate precise pen strokes As the pages went on however the pristine writing devolved into quivering tremolous lines as of halfway through he'd suddenly developed

a severe case of parkinson's disease as i inspected his miser further i registered that the shift in his long hand had not been the result of some spontaneous illness but rather the fear-infused scribblings of a trembling man and this is what he wrote popeye it must have been a while since i've last heard from you i was starting to think you'd forgotten about me well i'm just pulling your chain man or do you even wear chains anymore now that you're on the outside i was delighted to receive an invitation to your wedding a few months

back unfortunately i was not able to save the day regrettably i had already committed myself to a prior engagement [ __ ] seriously though dave congrats on the wife me and the guys all got a kick out of your invites how are your boys doing did your youngest finally graduate my oldest will be a senior this upcoming year as you can imagine it's wearing on me that i won't be there I used to hope she would understand but hell i don't understand it myself now i just hope she can forgive me someday have you written

terry lately he's my selly now how about that he and some of the other inmates from chapel are going to do some kind of holy cleansing thing with father thomas but i told them they ain't no damn priests but they've got all their minds made up so we'll see how that goes big john and pete hobbs well they finally made parole they'd been denied a combined 34 times but god approved in the same week hell can you believe that the boys down here in el house threw them a little going away party going to miss

those guys how it won't be the same without them we miss you too dave can you imagine how many pickle jars have gone unopened around here since old popeye flew the coop all the same and no offense but i hope i don't see you again anytime soon this side of the bars if you know what i mean in all honesty pop that's right about where i feel comfortable leaving this letter now i thought at first maybe i just pretend i didn't notice your questions about my experiences with the occult But you know as well as

i do not a damn inmate in this place reads their mail less than a dozen times before putting it down now i guess i could have lied said i didn't have any to speak of but something don't feel right about lying like that hell maybe if your son is posting these things online like you say someone will finally take notice and do something about it so attached to this i've sent you a couple of pages detailing my worst encounters i hope they help you with whatever it is you're doing your friend wr ramirez just as

promised ramirez had included a few pages recounting his more bizarre observations i imagine he took a long drawn breath of reluctance before begrudgingly confessing the oddities to which he bore witness i guess i'll start this off with some of the stranger but not necessarily evil things i've seen in here this first little bit takes place over in the depth pods like i said it isn't inherently scary or anything just kind of peculiar well my first job when i came back this time was a hard scrub you know not like a janitor or anything but someone

that does the really deep Cleaning scrape the grime from the tiles polish the metal get under and behind things etc etc well one day i guess the deprivation wing was finally free of inmates so i got sent down to do the hard scrub on them anyway when i got there all the doors were open all the lights were on which i found strange in and of itself just to see it lit up like that but the strangest thing was was what was inside some of the pods now the first few were rather tame a little

graffiti crudely decorating the walls tally marks etched in marking their meals to count the days but otherwise nothing more than a typical house cell minus the window but then i walk into maybe the fourth or fifth cell down the line and adorning the brick is this michelangelo of a portrait the mural itself is this beautiful depiction of space of the planets and stars all inside this impeccable swirling galaxy and as i look closer inspecting what i think is a smudge across one of the planets i see that it's actually a featureless gray man-like being and

he's leading another man by the hand as they just float across the universe i call the Guard in and ask him about it you know who did how did they do it and why they did it he tells me he thinks it was once ricky's cell but that he has no clue how he did it there are absolutely no lights when you're in deprivation just constant stark darkness and they aren't allowed pens or pencils couldn't seem to do anything with them anyhow but i'm telling you the thing on this wall would put the sistine chapel

to shame it was bright and vibrant every line deliberate and exacting it was breathtaking now needless to say when i go in the next pod i am once again taken aback when the exact replica of the mural in the pod before also spans this wall except it's zoomed in some the planets and stars now larger in foreground and the grey man has now moved from the furthermost planet and over one planet closer to earth and with him are two men instead of one so i call the guardian again i'm perplexed thus he tells me that

the inmate in this pod had never been into the previous one and that his time had been served after the carver of the first one was no longer with us he assured me this wasn't something the prison staff themselves Had done either now the story was the same as i moved in and out of the different pods in each one was the same image just projected larger the gray man moving another planet closer finally stopping in the orbit of the massively scaled earth carrying with her more and more men as he did but in the

penultimate cell well the tone or aura of it just completely morphed in this pod was the gray man again but instead of the planets he was in front of a prison this prison floating above it staring down at it with his back to the audience of admirers that may have happened upon the mural then in the last cell his true insidious agenda was revealed he was inside the prison now and he had transformed from this kind of benevolent being guiding the seemingly lost men into a monster his eyes were now black holes and several of

the men were being sucked into them and his mouth was wide open as her razor-sharp teeth appearing to be feasting on the rest now the last couple of pods well they really made me uneasy it was like i was seeing something i wasn't meant to and i just scrubbed the remainder of the depth wing as quickly as i could and got out of there Make of it all you will chalk it up to the resourcefulness of caged men if you'd like but after seeing it i can't help but feel there is something more to it

than that now the other incident or what have you took place just a few weeks after that it happened in each house so i wasn't there for it personally but everyone living in h said the same thing this is what i heard you see one morning an inmate wakes up to a cell mate shouting these panicked bewildered shouts of where am i where am i open this door get me out of here well he turns over to his cellmate to shut the hell up and all of a sudden he too finds himself bewildered his soulmate

is still across from him lying in his bunk and looking over at a third guy who was just ranting and raving for the guards the other guy in their cell is dressed to the nines i'm talking full three-piece suit fine leather loafers and a briefcase which he is slamming with both hands over his head on the door guards come rushing down the run peer through the glass and then look at each other just as baffled as the three men inside they open the door pull him out and bring him to a room for interrogation He

tells them his name is jonathan adler and that he's a criminal defense attorney from the dallas area he says the last thing he remembers he was filling out paperwork in his office for a murder case he just lost next thing he knows he wakes up and he was in that cell ceos make a few phone calls and a story oddly enough checks out with a lack of other recourse they let him go wife picks him up and carries him off down the interstate now after word of mr adler gets out and around the population it

turns out he had represented a few of the inmates that were locked up at the time he said he was a public defender and a shitty one at that they seemed to think he was working with the d.a to put as many people behind bars as possible irregardless of guilt but then everyone in here will tell you the same thing about their own lawyer so you know take that with a grain of salt anyway the last guy he defended ends up hanging himself in his cell after being convicted of a murder and sentenced to life

everyone on the jury for the trial says adler really dropped the ball that he'd left so many claims and accusations unrebutted Unattempted even that the jury had no choice but to convict him two days after his suicide new dna evidence is discovered completely exonerating him big help to the guy now right so like i said the guards let adler go and watch him disappear down the hallway a week later in sea house this time another inmate is awakened to those same panicked screams the guards don't believe what they see when they get to the cell

once again but in pajamas instead of astute adler is back and banging on the cell door they let him out watch him drive off again and that's the last the telford unit sees of him now a handful of people here keep in contact with inmates from various prisons littered across texas they all start getting letters back from their pen pals that this screaming lawyer has just been appearing in their pods and houses too apparently every day for three weeks straight adler would be doing paperwork or having dinner then just black out and wake up in

some prison after a while i guess he just gave up because one morning an inmate wakes up to adler once More in their cell this time though he isn't screaming he's hanging from the ceiling with his necktie wrapped around his throat craziest part about the whole thing though the last inmate he defended his name was george carmichael but all of his friends said that they called him karma all right now on to the portion i've been dreading see this one is related to what you said in your letter about c.o johnson now he'd mention something

that he called flesh crows well without the full context of this story i knew immediately what he was talking about you see i've uh i've seen was about eight months ago now i guess i was working out in the crops with my coworker charlie crest we were tilling up the soil getting it ready for seed when charlie tells the ceo he's gotta take a piss now ceo doesn't want to walk us both all the way back inside so he tells him to go piss in the bushes a little ways off so charlie heads to the

trees and disappears behind the trunk of a massive pine in about three minutes pass and co starts yelling at him that time's up all right inmate wrap it up let's go in mate what the hell are you doing over there draining a lake Ceo's commands are met with silence however god dammit crept not today he groans he clicks in the button on the side of his walkie but before he can relay that there is a possible escapee the leaves in the bushes beside the tree where charlie was relieving himself start shaking violently we both just

stood there watching as for the next 30 seconds the bushes rattled and rocked a moment later charlie stands up from the thicket inmate you got about 10 seconds to get your ass over here i thought you said you had a piss not take a [ __ ] charlie remained still for another five maybe six seconds without uttering a word before finally starting the trek back over to the crops come on get a move on inmate the co ordered but charlie didn't seem to grasp the urgency in the ceo's voice as he maintained his sluggish measured

pace and that's when i first started noticed something was uh well was off he'd been walking at us with the sun directly behind him almost concealed in the glare of it but as he got closer it became apparent that this man slowly approaching was not the same man that Had departed just a few minutes prior his features were drooping almost it was as if you had to put a king-size sheet on a queen-size mattress his skin just didn't quite fit it was loose over the bones of his nose with his nostrils hanging down an inch

past the tip his eyes were halfway covered by his sagging brows and his lips and cheek were bunched up and to the left to the side of his face his fingers looked like a child had haphazardly stuck his hand in a late text glove with some fingers twice as wide as they should have been and others flapping freely where he'd missed the hole the most disturbing part of it all was that whoever this oncomer was he was wearing charlie's uniform then it hit me that even in this disfigured form i recognize this man not as

charlie crest but as one of the fanatics whose skin had gone missing all those years ago but now how is this possible i thought before i could contemplate the matter further the ceo drew his pistol and started shouting on the ground in may on the ground now he or it acted as if nothing was happening as if a loaded weapon wasn't locked directly onto him As he continued ignoring the seo's commands and inching onward it started making these muffled groans like someone trying to scream with duct tape covering their mouth right now in mate down

right now god damn it now by now is just a few yards away as it slightly shifted and directed its path right at the co now you stopping me i'll be forced to fire if you don't comply and get on the [ __ ] grounds and then pop pop pop pop four shots were discharged from the ceo's weapon directly into its chest stumbled backwards then crumbled to a heap on the ground i watched and appalled as it started to twitch and wiggle and writhe as its blood spewed out onto the dirt and fused with the

earth till the entire area around it had turned to mud now as the co started to rush over he was stopped in his tracks when it started wretching and lurching wildly where it lay then again in disgust we just watched as the skin around its mouth opened up and stretched like jowls of a python as it began making these awful heaving noises and it started to regurgitate out what appeared to be a ball of hair disgust turned to horror as the hair Was forced out further i could see that it was not in fact a

ball of hair but rather a head of hair charlie's hair still attached to charlie's head before long charlie's entire lifeless face had been expelled as the thing opened its mouth wider still and made its way slithering down past the shoulders and then his waist until charlie had been completely vomited up he was naked covered in bile and blood and strands of loose hay his chest was an open cavity where the co's bullets had pierced through his fleshy constrictor and into him now fully divorced from charlie the thing the flesh crow lay on the ground not

unlike a deflated balloon it lifted its flattened head and peered at me gazing placidly up with its empty sockets it then well started to flail itself through the mud and towards me hurling one limp arm over the other scraping itself forward it was moving so slowly i just stared at it in disbelief nothing pressuring me to move it was no more than a shovel's length away when in a movement too fast for me to react to it unexpectedly launched itself through the air landing right at my feet i Tried to no effect to jump back

out of its reach but clumsily managed to trip over my own laces i feel this tremendous pressure on my thighs as its rubbery arms took one in each hand push my legs together and position itself right between the bottom of my soles its mouth open and protracted and through its gaping hole in a single gulp it devoured my feet up to the ankles its hand worked its way up to the outside of my hips pulling me towards downwards as it swallowed me further it had managed to submerge me all the way up to the knee

within its bowels when the co screamed out back up back out of it ramirez but its strength was incredible i tried prying its taut leathery hands off of me but they didn't budge i [ __ ] i can't it's too strong the co ran up behind me and started yanking me from the pits of my arms i'm now waist deep in its fleshy carcass and yank as he might i was only slipping further inside [ __ ] [ __ ] off hold ramirez co told me as he sprinted off and disappeared into the farm shed

a moment later he re-emerges carrying something with him i couldn't be bothered to notice as the Thing was currently working its way up and past my chest i begged him hurry please get it off me the ceo appears at the base of his feet now nearly encompassing my own over his head the ceo thrust back an object he'd retrieve from the farm shed which i now know is a pitchfork the last thing i see before its lips fully engulfed my eyes is the co slamming the pitchfork down towards the ground i find myself completely engulfed

in darkness all sound is muted and muddled i can't speak or move i'm buried alive atop the dirt the pressure by which it's wrapping me is tremendous and restricting my breathing just as i start to fade from consciousness once again starts to twitch rattling my bones from within the next thing i feel is a hard steady tugging at the toughs of my hair and then there's a release of sorts the constricting force squeezing down on me lightens up i feel its lips sliding down from my forehead and suddenly i can see again and i see

that it is the co who is yanking out my hair pulling me from the only part of me that there's left grip and i feel the flesh crow as it were expelling this slimy liquid all over my body and it starts Wretching just as i had done with charlie's corpse soon again i can hear and then i could speak again until finally the co is able to grip me from behind and wrap his arms around my chest and wrench me completely free in one final tug now we take a moment to collect ourselves as the

heap of deflated skin at our feet persistently squirms and plays towards us and i see the pitchfork piercing through its feet and into the clay below affixing it to the ground eventually ceo mutters somberly there's a there's a gas can and a spare cage in the kennels can't do it here but you see there's a blind spot out near the back of the yard i just nodded without saying a word and walked to the kennels grabbed the gas in the cage and walked back we carefully used the pitchfork to drag it along the ground and

into the cage luckily for as strong as it was it didn't weigh very much we carried it as it silently tried to worm its arms through the thin slits between the bars of the cage cautiously out to the blind spot next we drug charlie's fresh cadaver out to join his writhing captor We made sure no one else was around us then proceeded to douse the cage in its contents head to toe in gasoline we doused charlie too struck a match watch them burn and then bury their ashes under nearby sycamore now we told the other

guards that charlie had escaped into the woods and that the discharges they may have heard were merely an attempt to stop him after that i just went back to myself and well that was that hell i hadn't breathed nary a word of this until now and god willing i won't ever have to again it was from this point on that the beautifully penned script began to change into barely legible offhand it appeared to have been written some time after the previous parts an urgent addition to the otherwise meticulously planned message it seemed hurried frantic even

with straining eyes i deciphered its contents aloud dave i'm not sure how to begin sees about terry he went down into that damn prison cellar and ever since he got back he just his well the way he's been acting well it's worrisome to say the least i told him not to go down into that [ __ ] basement he's not an ordained minister or priest He's not trained for that [ __ ] so i told him he was susceptible to that kind of thing last three days he's been agitated and paranoid hell schizophrenic even he

hasn't slept since he returned to population i don't think he's eaten either he just paces the room all night whispering to himself the nonsensical murmurings of a madman at least at least i thought he was talking to himself the last night i swear to god we were the only ones in the cell and i had heard someone talking to him in this angry hateful whisper and it's just not terry you see it's briggs too hell half the guys that went down there are acting differently now disconnected from themselves when the inmates that saw them crawling

out of that shaft says that they didn't come out there alone neither says they pulled out this old man and he was dazed and completely out of it it was covered in dirt and soot and well he thinks well he thinks it was voodoo bob or the bob part of him anyway honestly dave i'm afraid that terry brought back more than just a disoriented old man from that [ __ ] tomb i oh [ __ ] i gotta go they're calling for mail haul if you don't hear back from me by This time next mail

call well i'm not sure what that means but i can't imagine it's anything good signed ramirez i put down the letter and look up to my dad who is now staring down at the remaining envelopes in his hands but this concerning and gaunt expression what's wrong dad i asked his eyes rolled up to meet my gaze as he passed me the second of the three letters i realized then the source of my solemnness that had overtaken him the second letter was from terry hey you popeye how's life been treating you me doing well baptized six

inmates last service god is good brother we missed your testimonies though dave you always had that tinge of poetry when you spoke selling up with that old boomeranging rascal ramirez now well as for your question of whether or not i could send you back some dark and creepy crawly tales well you might just be in store for a whopper of one father thomas petitioned the warden to let us exercise the abandoned prison wing gonna give voodoo a big fat lip and a black guy it'll be me briggs father thomas a couple guys that got here

after you left and a few ceos boy you should hear ramirez work himself up over the whole thing Like he's my wife or something you'd think he'd be the one going down there not me anyway i have to finish this up after we get back i'll fill you in on the good stuff then god bless you dave bro terry a change from black to red ink on the page represents terry's return from the prison's underbelly hello dave we just got back from our fight with the devil i was right and assuming i'd have doozy of

a new tale for you at the moment though the whole ordeal is taking its toll on me my head is pounding and i have this terrible cough i'm not sure if i'll get around to all the gritty details before mail call if i don't get to feeling better but i'm sure father thomas can fill you in if i wind up taking too long to respond i just hope this cough is the only thing i brought back well i'll write you some more tomorrow i've gotta get some rest signed bro terry now just like in ramirez's

letter the wording started to become frantic and carelessly scribbled from that point on the lines ran through the margins and outside their prescribed boxes the paper was deeply indented from the source of the pen's tip And even tore through in some places this is what the last part of terry's letter said dave i uh i think there's something wrong you see i'm having these thoughts loud thoughts dark thoughts i can't even go near the chapel anymore without my stomach turning to knots you [ __ ] i feel like i'm losing control whatever happened down there

well i you stupid [ __ ] i don't even remember it anymore it's only a couple days but the whole you [ __ ] thing is this blanket my now but somehow i i remember you you know i remember you dave i remember you screaming in the seg halls you [ __ ] you stupid [ __ ] i'll slit your throat i'll slit your f [ __ ] throat you [ __ ] the remainder of the letter went on like this sprawled across every inch of available space and i glanced up to my dad who

appeared to be even more solemn than before i wasn't sure what to say how to comfort him you know maybe it's a maybe it's a joke you know to scare you to get back for all those wedding invitations i offered he just died and said no no son it's uh it's not possible The words he chose you see i had told terry about what happened that night to me and mseg but you were the first person i ever told what the thing was actually screaming at me well uh what about the other letter maybe there

is some answers in it defeated but desperately hopeful he passed me the third envelope my search for answers however was off to a rough start as the return address merely showed that it had been sent from telford but not by whom the center had not included a name it was heavier than the last two letters as well and thick as if someone had folded over a magazine and crammed it inside trepidatiously i opened the letter to my dismay and was greeted by even more questions solely contained within its numerous pages addressing my father was the

same two-word phrase multiplied and repeated to infinity come home dave come home come home dave come home come home dave come home what does it say he asked me like a cancer patient asking their doctor about their x-rays trying their best to be optimistic but i didn't have the heart to tell him none nothing i think Ramirez must have accidentally sent you a letter meant for his daughter by mistake i'll take care of it he nodded at me and i could tell he knew i was lying but he let it go you trust my judgment

on the matter well he said breaking in the uneasy stillness i've i've got no choice no choice i have to know what happened down there i have to make sure terry is okay you know to check on ramirez i have to talk to father thomas and sooner than the mailman allows i have to uh well i have to go back to telford my heart sank i couldn't help but question the good that would come from my father making the long drive back to the prison what could he do that someone else already there hasn't i

could tell by the look in his eye that there'd be no changing his mind however but why could it really just be that he was worried about his friends or was it something else was he lying to himself convincing himself his motives were justified had he mistakenly just answered telford's relentless beckoning home to all the former residents it never meant To relinquish well i couldn't be sure but i did know one thing if my dad was going to go back through those hungry gates he wasn't going without me the impending drive to telford wave heavy

on my mind as i meticulously folded the garments i'd need for the trip into a small duffel it loomed ominously before me a fast approaching execution date as i warily waited for my father's call to say he changed his mind and that i'd been pardoned of the charge i'd driven the six hours of winding asphalt before but somehow it felt different this time it felt like i was meeting with an old friend for the first time after discovering their darkest secrets it felt daunting and dangerous regardless of my trepidation however i knew tomorrow's arrival would

come whether i willed the two or not and i would be better served to face it well rested i toss my now ready duffel from my mattress to the floor pulled back the blankets and uneasily though i lay offered my eyes to the sandman the sleep did not come easily however as the night's muted stillness emerged as an unexpected antagonist to my slumber The earth while faint dripping from the bathroom sink congealed with the erratic kisses from an overgrown branch outside against the siding to produce a cacophony of deafening distractions with my eyelids now defiantly

ajar i became audience to the banded shadows cast through the open blinds whom now danced carelessly across my walls shamelessly drunk off moonshine between the relentless silence and the now all too luminous dark i decided to put a few more miles on my long since rickety box fan its creaks and rattles were a welcoming beverage pouring into an empty cup of a thirsty man the constant whipping of air did well to quench much of my anxiety and though i know in all actuality the volume in the room had noticeably increased it felt hushed somehow but

as quickly as it arrived the tranquil ambience was cut short still in its infancy as the gusts of wind spilling forth from my fan had begun to rustle up a stack of loose paper on my dresser the fluttering stationary i realized were the letters to my father that i had been transcribing earlier in the night their nap had been abruptly interrupted and now cried Out to me as a toddler needing to be rocked back to sleep begrudgingly i stumbled out from my bed to readjust their position and remove them from the windstream as i neared

the dresser though they took flight into the air as might a flock of pigeons being assailed by a child in the park and i stood frantically reaching in the flurry trying to wrangle up the rectangular snowflakes as they fell more than irritated i leaned over blaming them for misbehaving as i angrily corralled them up i opened a trunk drawer and crammed them haphazardly inside to let them know they were being punished as i turned back for bed to my great displeasure i spotted another sheep being flown flat against the corner of the wall i stomped

over to it and yanked it from the ground i gave it a score in full scowl and when i did i caught a glimpse of what was written on the page come home come home come home my breathing was immediately hastened i felt the blood running from my face as this seemingly innocuous message felt more like a foreboding omen than a coincidence of chance i quickly shoved it In a drawer with its fellow inmates and tucked myself back beneath the blankets i cleared my mind averting myself of all incoming thoughts and resolved not to open

my eyes again until morning the dawn hit me like an inebriated driver careening through a stop sign foot still on the accelerators i felt the impact groggily i put on a pot of coffee before stepping into a cold shower rather though i might the unclean feelings i had about what lay ahead would not rinse from my skin as well the coffee and icy water did little to wake me it was as if i were a zombie that i answered my father's jarring knocks on the door you ready he asked as would a soldier to a

comrade as they prepared to engage in a firefight as much as i can be i replied alright he said with a deep inhale let's go i grabbed my bag and placed it in his trunk as he tossed me the keys and informed me that i'd be driving i didn't mind thinking that watching the road may keep my mind off of where it was leading me you get any sleep you look tired my father asked no not a wink i think i'll put in a complaint With the sandman department you oh like a baby he assured

me i wonder how it was that he was able to sleep so soundly knowing he'd be returned to the cage in which he spent so much of his life i wondered too if perhaps it had something to do with his dreams the prisons beckoning if perhaps he was in fact looking forward to being back within the thick walls of telford once again i wondered but i did not ask we hit the road at half past six that morning and barring traffic or car trouble had planned to see the familiar razor wire fences filling the dashboard

window by two the asphalt was damp with dew and a light fog permeated the horizon the sun seemed reluctant to climb and i felt as though it too was dreading our journey so um what exactly is the plan you know when we get there i mean i asked my father whose gaze was held steadfast down into the floorboards without looking up he informed me well plan is to take it up there during visiting hours and have a visit with ramirez and then wait in the parking lot until we see father thomas come out and i'll

have a little chat with him as well it's sunday though so we'll have to catch up with Him between services well i mean what if we don't see him or if he doesn't want to talk son i've spent 14 years behind bars i'm good at waiting we'll see him eventually and when we do he'll talk the next hour or so of the drive was rather quiet my father had always been a quiet man rarely speaking unprompted and i had inherited disdain for frivolous conversation and small talk as we hit our first bit of traffic on

the freeway however he uncharacteristically broke the silence you know the weather's kind of glued me out huh he asked uh yeah i could definitely go for some clear skies right about now yeah me too and this traffic is crazy i mean why are so many people up this early on a sunday morning his sudden interest in idol chit-chat was a poor facade to disguise the concerning undertones in his voice um church i suppose hey is there something on your mind i prodded no i mean not really well actually he confessed it's just well you know

you don't have to do this i know you're worried about me and after everything i've told you about the prison I i don't blame you but i'll be fine if you want to wait in the parking lot or in the hotel room well i won't blame you and i'll tell you everything that happened when i get back you know i've already spent enough of your time inside those walls when you were growing up i'm just coming around to see that you shouldn't have to return there ever again and if you just want to turn the

car around and go home and let me take the drive by myself that's okay too no i insisted there's no way you're going through those doors without me i'm a grown man now and i can handle myself if i need to but you know i've come too far i've heard too much i have to see it for myself if something other than inmates and guards are living inside those cells i have to know well if you're half as stubborn as i am i guess there's no changing your mind just you know the uh the offer

stands all right all right but don't try to pressure me to stay behind if i still want to go ahead we have a deal that's a deal he nodded eventually the traffic fan thin and the tires quickened their mastification of the advancing asphalt before us The sun too had now loathen risen but its rays were still hampered by thick storm clouds whom had to this point still held their tears inevitably their wounds became too much to conceal as they let out a thunderous roar and the rain began to fall thick and heavy droplets vigorously tested

the highest settings of my father's windshield wipers as we drove my field of vision became so compromised that i was having trouble seeing the lines marking the lanes so i put on the hazards and pulled over to the shoulder man this rain is bad i said merely stating the obvious i'll hit the road again as soon as it lets up my father who is now looking up from the floor boards and out the passenger side window seemed to not have heard me hey hey i said i'll start again when the rain eases is that all

right with you yeah oh yeah that's uh that's fine he responded snapping free of his trance all the while maintaining his gawking gaze out the leaking glass you see something out there i asked befuddled um now it's it's nothing just do you see someone standing over there in those trees Like a lady um i can't really see through the rain all that well but no i don't think so why do you ah you know i i think i might just be seeing things he turned to me and then jested you know probably just these old

man eyes of mine i felt like there was something he was hiding but didn't press him for any details as he shifted his eyes back to his feet as we sat parked waiting for a break in the storm i kept peering back over to where he'd ask if i'd seen a lady and while i could only make out the silhouettes of the pines in the distance i couldn't shake this feeling that someone or something was there i began to feel unnerved by the shrouded tree line and decided i would chance traversing the road once more

i eased my way back into the interstate and slowly crept onward about 50 yards from where we'd just been i looked up to the rear view mirror and in shock on the road behind me i saw the dark figure of a woman through the mist she appeared to be standing almost tangled up by her own limbs each wrenched in an angle that seemed to conflict with her joints before i could bring It to the attention of my father the ravenous headlights of an oncoming vehicle behind me bounced into my eyes and the gleam of them

caused me to momentarily flinch away when i returned my view back to the mirror the woman was gone and the headlights were now all but tailgating me the speed of the car would not have given the woman time to remove herself from its path and what's more the driver never even slowed it was as if he didn't even see her as if she was never there the driver quickly changed lanes and accelerated past me i scanned behind me one last time before we descend a drop in the road and at a view of where she

had been and as i had suspected the lady was gone hey what's wrong my dad asked taking notice of my paranoid fidgeting you know i thought i saw that lady you mentioned oh good you said with a subtle hint of relief in his voice i thought i was going crazy that's the thing though i might be going crazy too i mean i saw her i swear i did she was standing right in the middle of the highway all bent and twisted and then she just well she just vanished maybe i have old man eyes too

well you probably just saw a deer he Said the subtle relief replaced by obvious alarm don't um you know just don't worry about it just concentrate on the road and let's make it to the other side of this rain yeah it sounds like a plan his suggestion that i just saw a deer struck me as odd he was the one who'd asked me if i'd seen the lady in the first place and now that i told him i had he was telling me i hadn't it was as if he was pleased by my sighting of

her until i described her now he just seemed disconcerted by it all for the time being i just filed the incident away into the ever-growing list of things to be answered later and concentrated on navigating safely through the downpour eventually the precipitous curtains parted and gave way to reveal a still parched stretch of earth we had reached the midway point and once we put a substantial distance between us and the cloud burst we pulled into an unassuming rest stop to stretch our legs i worked the pump as my dad went inside to fill a prescription

of drinks and snacks i watched him walk to the counter hauling two arms full of goodies and then look back through The window towards me i did the traditional texas nod to let him know that i saw him too but he didn't reciprocate the gesture in fact he didn't seem to notice me at all he was looking towards me but his concentration was beyond me his expression now grave and worrisome confused i peered back over my shoulder to see what he could possibly be staring so intently at but there was nothing just the road in

a vast empty field beyond it i eased my attention back to my father and watched as he handed the cashier a bill then hurried out the door without receipt or change hey let's take off we need to make it to the prison before visiting hours are up he shouted almost nervously as he quickly closed the distance between us yeah one sec let me just finish filling the tank just close it up i mean we have enough gas to make it i did as he asked and closed up the gas cap looking back to the vacant

field one more time before returning to the vehicle once our tires were spinning again i asked my father about his behavior at the rest stop you alright you're acting strange back there did you see something again it well Yeah you know i don't want to get into it right now but sometimes i see that lady she's harmless i think but i don't like to stay where she is for too long the lady from the trees how is that possible i mean we've traveled 100 miles since i pulled over oh i'm not sure he said sometimes

she's just there outside my window i don't know what she wants and well i don't want to find out so it's best to keep moving is she going to find us again you know catch up to us i asked now slightly disturbed no no and besides it's just me that she's after i think to be honest i was a little surprised that you could see her no one else ever has i thought you had to play the game for her to appear so i'm not really sure what that means but as long as you don't

look out the window she can't get any closer look i'd kind of like to drop it you see my mind is on other things we could talk about it after all right yes sure the atmosphere was melancholy as we began the last half of our trip to lighten the mood i suppose my dad turned on the radio which truthfully i don't know why we hadn't before and started flipping through the stations they're headed straight Into a slaughter the cowboys had no idea welcome window watchers and we're on the highway dell the last station must have

been a little too on the nose and apropos from my dad's liking as he abruptly turned the radio back off it wasn't as if i was reading into it all too much or even the mass media had begun to foreshadow what was to come as the road wore on the sparse spattering of douglas furs that had decorated our peripheries began to thicken in density it wasn't long that they formed a solid wall the piney bristles and sticky bark the sight and smell of them was dreadfully nostalgic and sent me back in time to the days

i would make the journey to see my dad instead of with him it was familiar but at the same time oddly skewered my pensive still down memory lane was interrupted however as my father pointed up to a sign fast approaching hey that's our exit he said motioning with the hand i anxiously slowed the vehicle and took the ramp as he instructed i guess i'd been so lost in thought that i hadn't realized how close we'd gotten apprehension started to pull through me and i began to consider my father's Offer not to wait outside before i

had time to process my plans however we were fast approaching the last turn of our curious jaunt as we careened around the final bend i almost expect to see a black gnarling tower of hammered steel wrought iron beams instead what now appeared before us was a humble building of concrete and brick one that if not for the fences and guard towers could be just as easily mistaken for a large schoolhouse i found it disappointing almost hell it was anticlimactic even it was as if the monsters scraping out the walls of my closet for so long

had run out into the light revealing himself to be no more than a mouse i put my blinker on indicating my indication to make the concluding right and my dad put his arm across my chest in a gesture for me to halt hey pull over for a second he directed sure why what's up when we get in there he said matter-of-factly let me do the talking alright just if anyone asks you anything i'll answer for you okay um yeah that's fine i said in compliance having not had much desire to do the talking myself in

the first place i pulled back onto The road and made my turn into the prison's long driveway before coming to yet another stop at the first checkpoint as i did a young guard adorned with thick dark sunglasses stepped out from his perch inside his booth and approached my window he twirled his finger in the air signaling for me to roll down my window and as i did he leaned down and peered through into the car now who we here see today oh hey dave he said pulling his shades down from his eyes and onto the

tip of his nose i haven't seen you here in a while staying out of trouble i see my dad remained tight-lipped but nodded in agreement the guard spoke in a heavy texan drawl so heavy in fact that seemed like a caricature or a cartoon version of an accent it was as if rehearsed almost like he was acting after seeing my dad in the passenger seat he seemed to relax a little bit and lean further down on the open window into a more comfortable position he continued now so what brings you here today dave you coming

for a visitor you're planning to stay a while just a visit my dad replied shortly well that's a damn shame dave that's a damn shame you know we Miss you around here dave like to have you back more often my dad grunted the young guard then shifted his attention from my father to me and who we got here one of yours dave what's your name son i my dad grabbed my arm firmly and interrupted me by addressing the guard himself this is just my driver he's not staying the guard eyes still on me spoke again

to my father all right all right dave we'll let the boy and girls up front know who you are here to see and they'll get you all taken care of the guard stepped back from the car and as i took my foot off the brake he shouted out to us one more time oh and dave welcome home as we left the check-in station and navigated our way through the parking lot to find an empty spot i said that guy's a character huh weird but at least he's friendly seems like he really likes you though were

you guys close yeah i've uh i've never seen that guard before but he and that's when it dawned on me the guards so enthusiastic about seeing my father again well he was about my age my dad had been a free man now for more than a decade the guard would Have been a teenager during his release my father recognizing the confusion on my face looked up to me as we parked the car and explained look i told you a lot of weird stuff happens here i don't know that guard and as you've already put together

there is no way he knows me either and that's why if you're going to do this it's extremely important that you let me do all the talking just do your best to be a fly on the wall and hopefully go unnoticed you understood yeah well i think so good now are you sure you still want to go through with this now i thought for a second and then answered against my intuition yes i'm sure well alright then let's go we exited the vehicle and cautiously made our way up to the steel double doors of the

lobby the symbolic threshold between one world and the next i took a deep breath as my father pulled the handle and with trembling knees i stepped inside the walls were a facade of painted white cinderblocks trimmed in a dark green plastic border plastic palm trees sat in clay vases in each corner of the room and there were worn chairs arranged strategically around the room It smelled pine saul and lemon and felt very much reminiscent of a hospital waiting area for the dmv perhaps once inside though everything slowed down we stood at the rear of a

long line of visiting families as they emptied their pockets and were waved down by metal detecting paddles from there they'd make their way up to the front counter where a female guard would send word to ready the inmate they had come to see for each person in front of us you could add 10 minutes to our weight but persistence paid off and before long the guard behind the thick bulletproof glass was calling us up to the counter now hey guys who are we here to see today she asked us walter dean ramirez my dad answered

back sure let me just pull him up she said turning to her monitor as she began to type away at her keyboard after a moment with a look indicating she was having trouble with our request she asked again who we were there to see as she continued searching her screen walter dean ramirez you said yes ma'am that's correct my dad confirmed oh oh my she began i'm so sorry i don't know how to tell you this but it looks like mr ramirez is deceased Deceased what how i when my dad responded in disbelief well it

doesn't tell me how but oh goodness darling i'm really sorry it looks like he passed on yesterday well what about terry lee gins one second hon let me check on that uh looks like mr guinness is currently in solitary confinement so he can't have visitors today boy i'm just the bearer of bad news ain't i was there anyone else um no that's it that's all right thank you anyway my dad looked and motioned his head back towards the parking lot when we got to the car i asked him that is crazy about ramirez what do

you think happened i don't know but i bet terry had something to do with it father thomas will probably have some answers for us let's just wait here and watch for him to come out okay i nodded as the hours passed waiting for father thomas the storm we'd long since outrun had caught back up to us the sound of the rain bouncing off the sheet metal roof of the car was a welcome addition to the lackluster soundtrack of the day the storm rolled completely over us and opened to clear through setting skies before the father

would finally exit the prison doors My dad hopped out of the vehicle and shouted from the open doorway father thomas hey father thomas a man with thick gray hair adorned in full catholic priest's attire looked confusedly around the parking lot for the source of his collar he put his hand cuffed over his eyelids and leaned as of screening to see my dad in the distance brother david is that you he asked a tinge of glee in his voice yes sir well how about that how in the world are you dave what has you back in

this neck of the woods i'm good father thank you and actually i came here to speak to you to me said father thomas slightly taken aback yes sir to you see i wanted to ask you about brother terry and walter ramirez and well about what happened down in the abandoned prison wing oh i see father thomas replied with a bitter reservation as he made the last few strides up to our vehicle well dave i won't lie to you nothing good came from going down there look he said peering in a paranoid manner over his shoulders

and behind himself i'll talk to you about it i knew you were close to those boys and the whole thing breaks my heart not Here not at the prison just tell me where to meet your father well shoot i'm preaching again in an hour can you meet me tomorrow say around noon at the milly's diner just up the road yeah we weren't planning on heading back before tomorrow anyway we said father thomas as he curiously looked into the car spotting me oh this must be your oldest boy huh dave don't tell me um nate my

dad gave me a look letting me know it was safe to respond and i said close i'm nick it's nice to meet you sir i've heard a lot of good things ah nick that's right you'll have to forgive me son i ain't seen your dad and what's been now uh 10 years and well my memory ain't what it used to be no sir not at all my mom still forgets my name sometimes so i'm impressed you even got the first letter right good man he told me well nick dave i'm gonna get me a bite

to eat before next service this prison food is free but between you and i well i'd pay somebody not to have to eat it well you go ahead and get some food we're going to check in the holiday and off i 30 if you need us but otherwise i guess we'll just see you tomorrow after the parting greetings had all been exchanged I put the car in reverse and headed back down the prison's winding drive a different guard stopped us again at the checkpoint and did a mandatory check of the trunk to see that we

hadn't smuggled out any inmates as we started to pull away from the rear view i saw the previous guard step out from the booth and with our windows still rolled down his shouts were met without resistance as they chillingly found their way into my ears bye dave i'll see you real soon bud he yelled with a playful dramatic wink we want it back dave we want it back oh and tell your son that we love his stories my heart started racing as nervous adrenaline flushed through my system maybe maybe someone at tulford had stumbled across

my little posts on the internet and spread them around to the other guards seemed like the most logical explanation but somehow it didn't seem like the correct one and he wanted what back had my father taken something that didn't belong to him listen just ignore him offered my dad an attempt to quell my fearful demeanor i could tell though that he was uncomfortable as well it didn't sit well with him that the guard knew who i was what i'd been Doing and whatever it was that he wanted for some reason i knew that concerned my

father most of all i sped down the rest of the drive and made a sharp right without even slowing i was more than elated when our tires were back on the interstate and we were putting miles between us in that damn prison the gps led us to a holiday inn just up the road in texarkana and i was glad to have further walls separating us my dad went to the counter and asked the receptionist for a room smoking or non-smoking she asked one smoking one non king queen double beds two rooms with king beds if

you got him he replied okay and would you like a room with a view oh no that's okay i'm not big on views okay sir you're all set here are your room keys you'll be on the fourth floor all the way down the hall to your left my dad handed me a room key and we went up to the elevator to the fourth floor as directed once there we put our bags into our respective rooms and immediately left the hotel all together to do as father thomas had done and grab a bite to eat over

dinner we discussed in great detail who the lady in the rain was and something my dad called the window game as well we tossed out Theories over ramirez's unexpected passing and why terry was currently being held in sec with full stomachs we returned to what would be our roosts for the night and as soon as i entered my room i felt what little energy i had left drained from my being i was asleep before i even hit the mattress it had been an exhausting and puzzling day and i found solace and the fact that tomorrow

would bring answers or so i hope so anyway i don't know how long i was out but i know that it was in the deep throes of the night that i was awakened to a frantic banging and a muffled yet panicked shouting on my father's door just outside of my own david david david wake up its father thomas quickly i need to speak to you immediately it's well it's about brother terry i was jarred awake from my sleep by an alarmed fracas on the door adjacent to mine in the hallway my father's door as it

were as i listened with perked ears i deciphered the cause of the frenzied commotion to be an unnervingly panicked father thomas david wake up it's father thomas i need to speak to you about brother terry it's urgent i heard my dad's door creep open and his Weary voice engage his unexpected visitor the early throws of the conversation were too muffled to make out clearly and my curiosity was stronger than my will to sleep by this point so my hobbled bleary eyed to join the unexpected reunion outside when i arrived in the hallway i saw my

father's door was left to gape and that he and father thomas were already inside the disheveled reverend was sitting anxiously at the edge of his bed his appearance to me was troubling no longer was he the neatly kept antiseptic man we'd seen coming out of the prison just hours earlier gone was his chummy amiable demeanor replaced instead by one denoting unrest and fear-induced paranoia his head would turn sharply and abruptly to and fro to address the smallest disturbance in the room meeting them with trepidation and ultimately relief it was as if he was expecting something

to be there hiding in the corner waiting to catch his glance his once immaculate black robes had been exchanged for pajamas tackly decorated with seemingly fresh smears of mud and dirt there was a small cup below his left eye and a swab of dried blood Now painted his cheek his hair was awry and tangled up with dried out crumbling leaves he was agitated and fidgety seemingly unable to remain still as he sat with one leg crossed over the other rocking his foot in vigorous anxiety his eyes met mine as i entered the room but he

did not otherwise acknowledge my presence my dad was leaning against a small stationary table on the wall adjacent to the open door with arms crossed sporting a gaunt worrisome expression presumably processing the manic information he'd just been relayed father thomas looked up at my dad smoking room um yeah you need one my dad asked if you don't mind david responded the reverend with the vulnerability and humility of a starving beggar on the street no not at all here my dad reached into the pocket of his coat strewn over the chair next to him and handed

father thomas a cigarette the father then parsed the unlit smoke in his lips and held it there with a trembling finger as my dad stretched forth the lighter and sparked it for him he took a long deep inhale caging it in his lungs as he closed his eyes After a moment he exhaled and a plume of smoke filled the air around him that's better he said his nerves noticeably calmer forgive me come in son close the door behind you i did as he asked and then addressed the room for clarity's sake and asked them to

recap what i'd missed so what's going on i heard you mention something about brother terry he escaped my father replied his succinct response doing little to help my confusion escaped how when did they catch him do they even know where he might be he my dad began before father thomas cooley interrupted him he's in my trunk the reverend delivered in an almost nonchalant manner before taking another long drag from a cigarette wait wait he's he's in your trunk my dad gasped in a tone revealing that their conversation hadn't made it quite to that point yes

the reverend replied in an irritating vagueness in your trunk the trunk of the car that you drove here what my father's astounded disbelief not relenting as i found myself internally echoing his sentiments we should not have ever gone down into those haunted halls Father thomas sighed as a wave of mournful regret washed over him whatever was down there what demon lurked those dark corridors well i have no doubt it has terry now hold on father i interjected with all due respect it sounds like you're the one who has terry yes son indeed i do and

truth be told the whole thing is my fault i should have fought the beast alone i knew that the others as well intentioned as they might have been were not prepared to face that kind of unadulterated evil we cornered the creature with the spoken word and holy artifacts and i successfully cast him from his earthly host but i fear he did not return to hell from whence he came but instead sent forth his legions into the vessels nearest him but terry being the closest and i suspect most infested by the scampering spirits i prayed that

i was wrong but tonight i could deny no longer that terry was in fact horribly possessed i was laying in bed not two hours ago reading scripture and preparing next week's sermon no different than any other sunday evening as i sat my bible and notes aside for the night I felt a quickly manifesting sense of looming darkness permeate the room instinctively i clutched my rosary and began to cleanse the room through prayer i was interrupted however when i heard a fur wrapping on my bedroom window i nervously looked through the yawning blinds and peering back

at me well it it was brother terry piercing me through the pains with hateful intent but i chimed in just because he escaped and found out where you live well i don't see how that means he's possessed by a demon no no you're right the reverend agreed in a gruff whispery voice now normally i would say it's a disgruntled inmate a scary prospect of course but not one of spiritual origin however my bedroom window is on the second floor and below it is a sheer wall to the ground so to see him staring at me

through that window in particular well you get the picture when i saw him doing what can only be described as floating there i i immediately darted for the bedroom door as i heard the glass shatter behind me i reached for the knob only to feel myself jolted backwards through the empty frame and see the outside of my home now quickly shrinking in the growing Distance before me as he carried me hastily through the whipping wind of the night sky he was shouting the most awful things things that my oath to the priesthood would not allow

me to utter aside from the insidious threats he kept repeating the book priest give me the book my mind was reeling and all i could think about was he must have been asking for the bible still resting on my bedside table so i told him it was back at the house and that i'd retrieve it for him if he only returned me unharmed to solid footing as i did he sharply and abruptly stopped in mid-air as we hovered meters above the treetops below i felt his grip shift as his arms wrapped my chest and then

suddenly screeched in pain as if he'd mistakenly touched the searing end of a hot poker i could see a fresh and immediately festering burn on his arm in what looked to me to hold the shape of a crucifix and that's when i remembered the rosary still adorning my neck i yanked the chain free snapping the clasp in the process and grabbed the cross dangling from its end tightly into my hand i then said a prayer as with all my might I wrenched it downward and punctured the flesh of his thigh he dropped me from his

arms with a howling cry as we both came hurtling back down to the harsh cushion of trees below i crashed through the leaves violently leaving a wake of snapped branches marking the path of my descent from the heavens eventually a large set of twin limbs finally wedge me mercifully between them god must have guided my fall as i emerge from the impact relatively unharmed only minor scrapes and bruises to tell the tale as i untangled myself and climbed the rest of the way to solid footing however i saw that terry had not been so fortunate

he was impaled on the trunk of a small fallen oak splintered straight through the chest the most disturbing sight i can assure you most disturbing of all though was that he was still alive cursing me with the same spiteful vigor it appeared he was more concerned about being stuck there than his by all accounts fatal injury now i wasted no time pondering the hows and the whys of the scene however and quickly made haze back to my house once there i gathered together every rope Roll of tape and chain that i could find as well

as every holy object my arms could carry i threw it all in the back seat of my car and started the engine but then as i started to drive back where terry lay spiked i remembered something the book he'd been asking for in my frantic struggle i thought maybe he was speaking of my bible but then it hit me i had obtained a diary some years ago now that a guard had confiscated from an inmate that smuggled it back from the boilers the diary belonged originally to a man named abner haney or as he is

colloquially known amongst the prisoners voodoo bob i taken the confiscated diary to translate its foreign text and after months of varying degrees of success among its passages it now rested in a locked filing cabinet in my office i had had several of the inmates whom frequented chapel at the time helping me to dissect its pages brother terry among them it dawned on me that this must have been the book that he was after i ran back into the house and shuffled around the contents of the cabinet where i retrieved The diary then drove the half

miles or so back to location from which terry's scornful screams could still be heard echoing through the forest when i arrived i was relieved to see he had not been able to free himself and with him still impaired i took the opportunity to bind his arms and legs i then pried him up and off the piercing splinter protruding through his rib cage to reveal a gory circular window wide enough to see the open truck of my car parked behind him i further bound him with chains and the remaining rope then drug him through the dirt

as he continued his onslaught of obscenities i worked him up along the rear bumper and rolled him over into the empty hole where i proceeded to seal his mouth shut with an exuberant amount of duct tape lastly i taped several crucifixes to the underside of the trunk lid in an effort to keep him from attempting to force an open now once i felt sure that he was sufficiently bound i retrieved the diary from the passenger seat and brought it before him to confirm my hunch is this what you're after demon the tape ensured that he

couldn't speak But his eyes lit up as he rocked and struggled against the ropes restraining him his reaction told me what i needed to know and i knew that it was in fact what he had came for now my questions answered i sealed shut the lid and resolved myself to drive him back to telford i suppose i had made it halfway there when an idea that returning him to a cell inside the prison was not perhaps the best course of action after all he was locked in seg and had managed to escape the only way

i could have managed that happening was that if he had help what if an inmate a guard had let him out who's to say they wouldn't just do it again and that of course was ignoring the fact that there was now a hole eight inches in diameter straight through his chest i mean how could that possibly be explained by forces outside of anything but the supernatural yeah i fear that returning terry to telford would cause panic among its residents and then i thought about the book about the passages i couldn't read the newer ones we

could never decipher and well then i remembered you david The thought struck that perhaps you could read them now i know it sounds crazy but i don't think the fact that you appeared before me today of all days was a mere coincidence it was as i believe god's divine plan my dad looked baffled to say the least his thoughts obviously reflected my own i could tell that he too wondered how father thomas could have the smallest expectation that he could read what the father and other inmates had not been able to after months of dedicated

research but my dad perplexedly replied how can i help i don't know a second language i'll be the first to admit it's a stretch but well it's the only hope we've got at the moment you see most of the diary is written in latin aramaic and hebrew and while challenging to understand i can use existing resources to decipher those pages some of the passages though are written in an even more primitive and primal language a language described in some of the other passages to be the original language the language of the dead and well from

information i can gather from the decipherable sections It can only be read by the dead sometimes i gathered that abner's trapped soul would manage to break free and leak ink onto the diary's worn pages he would reveal himself in the form of desperate cries for release and sometimes rather interesting information you see among his desperate passages he wrote an entry describing the demon who now held him captive it appeared to be a transference spell roughly instructing the reader how to control the spirit and possibly how it can be returned to the burning depths of hell

from once it rose however the incantation itself is written in the dead language and i not any living man can translate it i'm ashamed to say it was arrogance that led me to disregard instructions outlined in the book as i led those men down into the abandoned prison labyrinth my training as a priest has falsely convinced me that i was prepared to dispatch of the evil i see now the importance of the cursed book's unheated warnings may god forgive me okay i interrupted an unabashed confusion but if it can only be read by the dead

well How could my dad help to read it you never did tell him did you david the reverend somberly addressed my father told me what i my father remorsefully saw it i didn't want to worry you boys he reached into his draping coat and pulled out a cigarette before he continued i guess it was a few months into my incarceration i uh well i collapsed coming in from the yard just one second i was fine and the next everything went dark i don't know what happened to cause and i don't remember anything after that either

but i awoke in a wooden box to the sound of dirts getting across its surface it was the unmistakable sound of being buried alive i started screaming that i was awake for them to let me out not a moment later i heard a panicked muffled conversation and then saw the sharp end of the shovel prying up the nailed shut lid i was greeted by two guards and the father here they're white-faced and breathless as of emerging from the shallow grave at their feet was a ghost and i learned soon after that well maybe that was

what they were seeing i was through no mincing of words that i had been declared dead A full 18 hours earlier that i hadn't taken a breath or held a pulse in nearly a day but now all of a sudden i was alive and remarkably healthy the next few days i became a lab rat of sort as doctors and nurses in the infirmary fruitlessly examined me for answers to what i had just experienced ultimately the cause was never discovered and well i wish i knew more about it all but honestly just a blank surmising from

what i think father thomas is getting at i'm assuming he's hoping that my time on the other side will work as a technicality of sorts and allow me to read the still untranslated sections of the diary yes david you're right in your assumptions if you don't mind well i'd like you to try to read abner's instructions i mean i'll give it a shot but i don't think it's going to do much good you know i'd feel like i'd known if i had magically become fluent in a second language all i ask is that you try

said father thomas as he reached behind him and pulled out a leather-bound book that he had tucked away into the waistband of his pajamas I've learned as much as is possible for me to learn from the book's cryptic texts he professed as he tentatively relinquished it to my dad i hope you have more luck i mean sure but what exactly am i looking for inquired my father as he took the diary and began to tepidly scan through its pages abner writes that the spirit haunting him has been displaced he tells that the spirit once inhabited

a powerful demon a demon that too is familiar with the inmates of telford a demon that i believe you may have encountered as well david i have my dad responded puzzled by the reverend's assertion well i believe he waved at you once creature in the woods i postulated precisely the father confirmed the creature is the spirit's former body for lack of better description now the beast is just the soulless husk now the beast is just the soulless husk acting out of nothing more than instinct and muscle memory i do not know how the spirit has

come to be dislodged perhaps by choice but i suspect to destroy him he must be returned to his original form i believe that abner's incantation details How it may be possible for us to do that okay well here's to hoping you're right what's the page my father inquired the very last reply the reverend with baited breath my dad ruffled through the diary and arrived just shy of the back cover his eyes searched it intensely desperately attempting to make sense of this hieroglyphic markings i um i'm sorry i a defeated exhale left from father thomas with

the sound of my dad's regretful apology but then no wait the words they see it took me a minute but i uh i can read them father thomas suddenly reinvigorated swiftly hopped up from his bedside perch hustled to my father peering over his shoulder at the pages of the diary what does it say david um quickly we've not a moment to spare it says well i don't think i could translate it to english but essentially it's a list of words to be read off in order giving the speaker of the words control of the spirit

or demon well um control of where it goes rather i can read it but it's still very confusing well i think if i understand it correctly the body and the spirit need to be next to each other for it to work but Well it see it doesn't say what'll happen once they're reunited only that this will reunite them what if reuniting them only makes the demon stronger what if it wants to be rejoined i asserted well it's very possible father thomas admitted in truth well i worry the same but i do know that when casting

the spirit from a human vessel it lingers until it finds another that's what happened to terry to briggs to that young guard oats it dispersed itself between them sending its legion of demons fleeing to the first vulnerable soul they saw oats that was the young guard from the check-in station i remember reading his name on his uniform that's why he knew you isn't it he's seen you before from the mseg i asked my dad yes father thomas answered the more i think about it well it makes sense that the demon may have used oats to

free terry from a cell tonight i mean who else could or would have released him so you believe the fragmented spirit is controlling all three men simultaneously what about briggs why not just release him too i questioned Well as i said terry was the closest man to the demon when it was dispelled and as a result i think the most of the demon's power now resides in him and as for briggs well he's uh he's dead his body was discovered shriveled up and mummified the life seemingly sucks straight from his being and no i can't

prove it i think that was terry's handiwork consuming and reassembling his scattered ghosts for all i know oats is dead now too a victim to the same malicious fate all right well [ __ ] i'm muttered oh sorry father forgive my language but let me just try to surmise all of this so we have to somehow lure the beast from the trees into the same place as terry and then my dad needs to read the magic words and then we can kill it or hopefully any ideas on how to do that i mean can we

funnel it into a cage with holy objects they seem to work on the spirit i'm afraid the holy objects are of no use on the creature now remember he isn't evil more like an animal crucifix won't cause the same lethargic reaction as it would on its former host we do need to drive it into a confined area somehow but the logistics of that elude me My father who had been thumbing through the diary seemed to have found something interesting on one of the pages without even glancing up he enlightened us of his discovery you know

i think i have an idea voodoo or um abner you see he wrote something about a ritual involving the beating hearts of eight dead men human sacrifices that when all consumed will create a new soul within their consumer the flesh crows i shouted excitedly after piecing together what he was alluding to but weren't there eight of those i mean maybe a spare no not a spare the eighth was to be used as a doppelganger of sorts the beast only needs seven to create a new soul and after it had devoured them it transfers the new

infant soul into the remaining empty vessel after transferring its soul it becomes a hole again returning to a state of catatonic hibernation waiting for the next time it summoned i think maybe that's how the spirit haunting the vents became separated in the first place see this creature is making copies Ramirez and the guard burned the eighth if i recall correctly so if the creature consumes the seventh flesh crow he will be full and there will be nowhere to transfer the spirit possessing terry now by my math only a handful of the flesh crows have been

accounted for and i think i know where the others may be hiding forgive me but flesh crows father thomas asked ah it's a long story my dad answered but back during the holy wars there were eight men found skinned alive in the prison halls with the skins and hearts missing seo johnson later told me that he saw the skin in the woods stuffed with hay and walking around aimlessly through the trees anyway as you've gathered i think the creature in the woods is hunting them and while it's risky but i think if we can capture

one well maybe we can use it as a bait to lead the creature and trap it in somewhere all right well how do we find these reanimated carcasses the curious father inquired you see when i worked with hounds in the kennels my dad began they used to lead me to a small opening leading down between some large rocks i used to hear something moving Down there there was always hay in the direct vicinity i think that's where they hide from it if we could get on to the prison property somehow coerce a flesh crow from

the cave i have a feeling that after that it won't take long for this creature to find us but how do we get inside the gates i mean it's not exactly a convincing pitch to tell the guards to let a priest an ex-convict and his son and to room freely on the grounds to hunt demons not to mention the possessed fugitive in the trunk i said expressing my skepticism of the chaotically evolving plan leave that to me father thomas hawford i can make a few calls and depending on whose duty bargained for a lot to

a little unmonitored time at the gates with that father thomas pulled his decade-old flip phone from his pocket and stepped out into the hallway a moment later i heard his faint voice petitioning our entry with an unknown person on the other end of the line i took the alone time with my father to ask him a few burning questions so you died you didn't even tell us i didn't want to worry you besides once it was over and i was okay what good would it do to bring It up well i suppose i begrudgingly conceded

but you really don't remember anything nothing at all he hesitated for a moment then spoke in a considered engraved manner well i remember running i remember running through an endless dark everything was pitch black and the floor was scalding hot burning my bare feet i ran aimlessly for days and i never hit a wall and the texture of the floor never changed i remember feeling so thirsty and tired but i knew i couldn't stop where they would catch me who would catch you i'm not sure it was too dark to see but from behind i

heard someone or something following me sounded like a pack of wolves but it felt more sinister than that and when it called out it spoke several voices at once all saying the same thing in unison your soul belongs to us now i don't know what it was but i knew i had to outrun it and after what felt like weeks of constant pursuit i saw a vague yellow hue in the distance and well when i reached it i woke up in a shoddy box in a shallow grave my grave But like i said i don't

remember passing out or dying i just remember the nightmare that ensued and running and eventually waking up well that's why voodoo remembers you isn't it i mean it must have been him and his legions who were chasing you and the guard oates the thing he wanted back that's your soul isn't it my dad's side a grievous sigh and in this typical poetic fashion said well that's the thing about prison the judge gave me twenty and in that time i learned that even if your sentence doesn't reflect it in prison everybody gets life there are no

pardons no paroles and well at telford i think everybody gets death too just as my dad finished relaying his haunting antidote father thomas re-entered the room with an aura of urgency about him we can get in but we have to leave now there's a shift change in an hour and after that our window of opportunity will be gone my dad shot me a glance as if to gauge what i was thinking i knew what he wanted me to say he wanted me to tell him to go ahead without me that i'd wait for his return

from the safety of my hotel room but instead my response left A bitterly remorseful taste on his tongue i said well what are we waiting for let's go we hurried out into the hallway and then anxiously down the elevator i resigned myself to not think beyond the current moment to not consider what all the culminating snapshots and time were leading to stepping through the sliding glass doors of the hotel and out into the parking lot beyond we were greeted by the emotionless chill of a deep autumn night the world outside seemed to be more peaceful

than it should have been caught up in an ignorant doldrum blissfully unaware of the chaos that it held within its waning hours as we made our way back to my dad's vehicle father thomas left us with some parting instruction just follow close when we exit the prison pull off to the shoulder and join me in my car once we lure the creature there there will be a back entrance to the underground wing left unlocked the new shift will make their rounds to check all the doors within an hour or so of clocking in so we

won't have much time there any questions the instructions were clear enough and we shook our heads indicating we needed No further clarification good the father nodded now let's be on our way and may god be with us with that father thomas departed our vehicle for his own which he'd parked off and away from the others in the corner of the lot we backed into the empty lane between the spaces and waited for the reverend to pass us and take his place at the front of our small convoy as we got in line behind him i

could see his trunk was abundantly wrapped in rope and links a bungee cord it served as a grim and constant reminder of the priest's insidious cargo and the bleak task ahead as we traverse the winding black ribbon dividing the thick uncompromising walls of towering pine zooming past us on other side i too was reminded of my father's dreams his long journeys home through the twisting trees beneath the shining moonlight above i wondered if perhaps the familiarity of it all had dawned on him as well the highway was desolate and completely bereft of passing motorists and

for the first time in my driving career i found myself longing to be caught up in a traffic jam My eyes were transfixed on the reverend's blaring red taillights and i distracted myself by blurring in and out of focus the distraction did not last long however as the father's car swerved violently to the right as his brakes screamed out painfully the awful screech reverberating through the crisp night air i watched horrified as he abruptly careened off the road bounced into a shallow ditch and plowed onward until finally slamming to a stop against the tree of

a massive fir tree i quickly pulled off to the shoulder as my dad reached into the glove compartment to retrieve a flashlight we hastily yet nervously exited the car and began sprinting our way to the crash as we neared the father's vehicle there was a thick smokey fog forming around it from beneath the tire wells and up from the radiator pine needles still falling like rain from the rattled branches above my heart sank as the flashlight beams penetrated the rear view window i saw the reverend's head drooped over seemingly unconscious from the impact and graciously

oblivious to what was encroaching upon him in the back seat was a second figure and although I had never met him well it didn't take me long to understand that i was looking at terry goons what happened next is beyond my capacity or desire to accurately articulate terry looked back at us through the glass and shot us a devious almost playful smile before climbing between the father and the steering wheel straddling him as he maintained eye contact with his horrified audience and up until this point i had not truly allowed myself to believe in any

of my dad's stories not fully given up on my skeptical viewpoints or my remaining threat of sanity and though i had spent the last few weeks listening to and recording the most vile and atrocious acts that i could fathom i could have gone the rest of my life without bearing witness to one but as terry impossibly gripped the priest's wilted head between his pressing hands and then effortlessly pulled it up from his limp neck stretching it to unbelievably gruesome lengths the devastating reality that my father had not been weaving a yarn of fiction shook me

to the core i watched as father's head was ripped from his shoulders the connecting tendons popping like Tightly wound guitar strings one after the other i felt my stomach boiling as vomit threatened to evacuate my mouth as we started silently backing up towards our own vehicle a moment later terry opened the driver's side door and stepped out palming the late reverend's decapitated skull as blood drained out the dangling tendons and formed a thick pool on the yellow grass below heads up he shouted an unnaturally deep voice before tossing the severed head at our feet ah

what's wrong dave don't feel like playing catch there was no reply as we continued reversing away until the hood of the parked car kissed the back of our thighs come on dave it's your old pal dr giggles aren't you even going to say hello nick my father whispered get in the car start the engine i'm not now he ordered i skirted my way along the hood opened the door and then i slid slowly into the driver's seat i turned the key and as the flashlights blasted the darkness ahead terry's haunting visage was seared into my

mind his white prison garbs were stained in multiple shades of red indicating that they were soaked In more than just the father's blood his eyes were glossy black spheres encased in horribly vascular sockets his expression told a story of pure hatred mingled with wicked amusement through his chest just as the father had said was an aperture through which i could see the illuminated trees behind and his feet well they weren't touching the earth below him as he glided in the air towards us as he approached ever closer my building anxiety was palpable get in get

in the car dad i urged my father just put it in drive he yelled back going so soon dave terry sarcastically probed i wouldn't dream of it terry my dad quipped back with an air of confidence i was surprised to hear my father started moving across the car and out into the highway with terry steadily closing the gap nick toss me the diary my dad ordered still backing up with his eyes locked on the encroaching inmate i reached over to the driver's seat and grabbed the book and then threw it through the open window to

my father this what you're looking for terry he said as he held it up over his head the sight of it seemed to spark immediate rage in terry who was just a few meters away from crossing The cars beaming headlights himself oh give me that [ __ ] book he snarled you insignificant [ __ ] give me that book before i slit your [ __ ] throat my dad casually tossed the book maybe 20 or 30 feet ahead of me centered with the hood of the vehicle you want it terry then take it everything from

that point sped up considerably terry bolted for the diary which was now laying face down on the asphalt as he bent to retrieve it my dad shouted now now nick hit the gas without even thinking i floored the gas pedal and sent the car barreling full speed at the unsuspecting terry i hit him going upwards of 40 miles an hour sending him up over the hood smashing against the windshield i continued accelerating down the road blindly before i harshly threw on the brakes and launched him several meters forward scraping along the road before me i

then sat in an adrenaline-fueled haze as from the side mirror i saw my father retrieve the book and start sprinting my way i threw the car in reverse and lurched forward so violently that my head nearly slammed against the steering wheel i stopped just shy of my Father and he quickly jumped in the passenger side seat we have to go he isn't dead my dad warned as all too soon terry began to stagger himself back up off the ground david said the beast give me that [ __ ] book my dad rolled down his window

and antagonized the demon further you want it well then come get it [ __ ] he rolled up his window and turned to me we go through with the plan just drive he won't be far behind i let off the brakes in florida past the reeling terry speeding down the interstate until he was out of view i felt numb unable to process what had just transpired unwilling to even try i opted to focus on the road instead before long we were on the last stretch of highway and the task at hand began to feel more

daunting with every mile to this point we had been lone travelers on the interstate but as i took the exit for telford a shiver ran down my spine as headlights filled the rear view mirror when we passed under a stretch of dim street lights to my utter dread i recognized the car behind me it was the fathers just drive the turning is straight ahead my dad informed me as i rounded the last corner and the prison came Into view the overwhelming realization that i was now fully wedged between a rock and a hard place became

painfully apparent with the demon behind me and countless more before me i knew that as i came up to the prison's long driveway there was no turning back as it were there was only one option remaining and that option as much as i didn't want to was to finish the [ __ ] job with the telford building now firmly framed within the dashboard window a long mental checklist of things we'd need to do in order to survive the night ran through my mind things like not be captured shot possessed or otherwise killed in some unfathomably

horrific manner to be honest our prospects for survival against the plethora of mounting threats seemed just a little more than daunting my already bleak outlook was further hampered as the ravenous fugitive now dead set on tasting our blood made a dangerously sharp turn onto the final stretch of road behind us in the late reverend's car using a contrarily ignored speed limit sign as a time stamp i began counting the seconds between us and the fast gaining terry 26 27 i mumbled under my breath as the father's great lincoln passed the marker slow down we're gonna

miss the turn my dad shrieked his panic voice pulling me from my arbitrary calculations i slammed on the brakes leaving thick black skid marks on the asphalt as i harshly drifted the car into a chaotic shift of gravity onto the prison's concrete drive i quickly corrected the tires and floored the gas out of the tailspin and up to the check-in station an antsy guard was already standing outside the booth frantically waving us down with both arms i pulled the car into a screeching halt just beside him and as i started to roll down my window

his fretful anxious questions were carried in with the breeze are you with the father where is he you have terry i my dad began as the emergence of the reverend's car casting an ominous spotlight on her already uneasy gathering immediately answered all the guard's inquiries in one devastatingly succinct visage without saying a word he backed up apprehensively into his booth and pressed the button opening the sealed gate Before us he then grabbed the spare walkie off the counter and tossed it through the open window if you need me i'll be on channel three it's private

my name is hobbs now go go the guard's voice denoting the pressing urgency currently bearing down on us as i put the car back into drive and slowly let off the gas my dad shouted one final parting directive to the wary hobbs whose trembling hand was hovering just above the button controlling the widening gates hobbes leave it open with that we blasted forward and found ourselves on the jagged side of the razor wire terry swift to join us about halfway up the driveway my dad pointed to a rough dirt pathway protruding from the left side

of the concrete and cutting its way through a large empty field take that trail ahead he instructed i whipped the car violently onto the path sending dust and gravel into a large plume behind me tossed up from the rapidly revolving tires below i could see that the trail was leading into a thick line of pines in the distance the tops of which appeared to be precariously balancing the full moon above we bounce forcefully In our seats as the wheels challenge the uneven ground for dominance i swerved around several deep potholes still muddy from the day's

early rain that threatened to halt our entrance into the canopy of hanging branches ahead soon however and though the speedometer did not reflect it i apprehensively pressed on as the wide open field gave way to the hungry mouth of a dark and narrow leafy tunnel where do i go i frantically shouted uh i'm not sure just keep going straight this road wasn't here when i was locked up but i has to lead somewhere just keep your eyes peeled my dad replied echoing back vague hints of nervous energy i just sent him wait so you don't

know where this road goes what if a dead ends what choice do we have we're in a cage everything is a dead end my father reminded me in a sobering shot of reality the haze of kicked up debris on the path behind us was soon illuminated by terry's headlights crossing the threshold into the forest [ __ ] i exclaimed what now just just let me think my dad tensely blurted he began to fumble around in the floorboard and retrieve the flashlight rolling around at his feet he clipped It on and off again to make sure

it was still working after its turbulent and unharnessed ride he then looked at me and said pull over over at that hill and let me out then just keep driving until you can find a place to turn around when you do turn off your headlights and circle back when you see me again i want you to park the car back a little ways try not to bring attention to yourself i'm gonna try and lure terry out into the road when he gets out i need you to take my keys and sneak over to the father's

car listen to me as soon as i turn on this flashlight you hit the alarm button on my car and then the gas pedal on the father's hey this is very important we only have one shot at it so i need you to be clear on what we are doing and stay focused you got that wait you're getting out nick i don't have time for this just tell me that you understand yeah i i understand i stammered still unsure what all the components of his quickly contrived plan were ultimately leading to alright good my dad

replied a confirmation relaying his worry as we came up to the top of the hill on your way back you go slow do your best not to be seen Here pull over yeah i will i exhaled somberly as i threw the car into a hard stop my father jumped from the passenger side then leaned back in and in a gravely serious tone he said remember lights off be careful and watch out for the matter daddies the what what's a matter daddy i nervously replied a smug and victoria's grin spread across his face as he looked

at me and coolly replied nothing son with his oddly timed and self-satisfying pun expertly delivered he stepped away from the car and slammed the door shut before sprinting back up to the patch of road we just ascended as he reached the summit of the mound i could see his shadow being cast across the treetops by the uncoming lights of our pursuance vehicle which of yet was still hidden from my view by the path's steep curvature a moment later my father too disappeared on the opposite side of the sloping earth in a praised desperate bid to

outwit its stalking predator somehow though i got the feeling i was more concerned about his looming encounter than he was [ __ ] what the [ __ ] i muttered aloud to myself in a cathartic release of my inward emotions Okay okay calm down nick he'll be okay you'll be okay just find a place to turn around it's all gonna work out i nervously comforted myself as i further increased the gap between myself and the obtrusive incline i was both relieved and distressed to see that terry's rampaging bumper had not yet breached its peak my

mind was racing with the devastating consequences that might occur as a result of the showdown taking place just beyond my line of sight my eyes alternated with palpable apprehension between the rear view mirror and the fast winding trail ahead as i veered differently onward i could see a soulless structure shyly poking out through the pines in the distance its full frame was segmented by an organic tapestry of gnarling trunks and twisting branches as i rounded a long arching crook in the road the trees parted and i found myself staring down the barrel of an uninterrupted

straightaway from my now clear vantage point i could fully see the structure's mass of base i soon recognized the shape held by the imposing edifice to be that of a guard tower however Unlike the brightly lit towers we'd pass than our mad dash to the prison gates this one was noticeably ephodic and seemingly uninhabited by watchful eyes the lawn and gardens surrounding its grimy walls were poorly manicured and infested with unbecoming weeds then painted on its dingy white facade and large faded black and weather-worn letters the reason for the apparent abandonment of the building became

abundantly clear as i read the words tower ate the significance of the now seemingly defunct tower was lost on me in the moment however my concentration was undivided and my resolve to circle back had not wavered my mission was made slightly easier as i noticed the trail looped around the building and back onto itself as instructed i killed the headlights and made my way around to the back of the building with just the faint illumination of a pale silver moon to guide me as i gently careened around the looping path and navigated my way back

to the structure i glanced up and noticed a shattered window on the tower bay above it served as a grizzly reminder that terry Wasn't the only evil currently residing in those woods i couldn't preoccupy myself with that at the moment however after all we wouldn't have to worry about the other monsters lurking in the trees if we didn't first dispatch the one that chased us into them i stealthily crept along the road as silently as the engine would allow and soon found that i had once again arrived at the bottom of the bray as i

began my cautious climb i made the decision about halfway up the face to depart from the carved path and finish the last leg of my drive through the bushy overgrowth on my right i strained my eyes against the opaque blanket of wilderness that i had chosen to make a route of looking for any gaps wide enough for me to squeeze between the untended terrain quickly proved more difficult to traverse than i had anticipated however as my sluggish pace every fallen limb and misplaced boulder formed themselves into worthy adversaries for my inching tires regardless of the

tumultuous passage and though no small amount of perseverance i successfully managed to snake myself up on top of the summit from my elevated position Through narrow slots between the tree trunks i could see my father casually standing directly in the beaming headlights of the reverend's lincoln i parked the car just behind the thick area of thorny brush grabbing the keys from the ignition as i made my way out into the open i realized that up until that moment i had taken for granted the minuscule sense of safety the locked doors of my father's dodge charger

had provided me now with nothing but the cool night air to guard me i felt utterly vulnerable and exceedingly exposed i tiptoed lightly through the thicket overly wary of snapping twigs and crumbling leaves so as to not give away the element of surprise behind my covert encroachment as i reach the fringe of the towering timbers i cowered behind the protective cover graciously afforded to me by a large pine and i proceeded to wait for my opportunity to further advance as i eavesdropped unbeknownst to the possessed fugitive still inside lincoln i heard the motor roar threateningly

in my father's direction as the wheels remained idle my dad quickly assessing the Situation rendered any attempt to run him down futile as he moved further back into the woods shielding himself between two sturdy furs a second later with his master plan thwarted the lincoln's beat-up door swung open and a noticeably livid terry stepped out into the sparsely gravel trail my dad too took a step forward to the margin of the road to meet him though he remained close enough to the trees that a hasty retreat was still an option terry was almost salivating as

his scornful eyes hatefully pierced the shrinking space between he and my father his hands twitched with morbid anticipation for the moment they finally grasped my dad's neck and squeezed the air from his lungs his skin was arriving as he stalked slowly on as if he were infested by an armada of restless worms just beneath the surface david snarled the possessed man as he halted his advance where is my [ __ ] book really terry all this way for your little diary why don't you just tell me my father implored getting an instant rise out of

the demon you don't be coy with me you [ __ ] you Stupid [ __ ] i'm gonna take that book and then i'm gonna rip out your [ __ ] spine hey man i know a great therapist if you need to talk to someone about those anger issues my dad calmly jested you shut your [ __ ] mouth you [ __ ] you stupid [ __ ] where's the [ __ ] book i'm getting tired of your [ __ ] games terry roared in a deeply unsettling growl filling the air and forest around us

with his attention aggressively transfixed on my father who seemed to be enjoying his role antagonizing the enraged man i crawled out from my leafy perch and managed to plant myself between the lincoln's still glowing tail lights on scene now give me the [ __ ] book belted the demon in a hideously low and bone rattle an octave i took the opportunity to slink out from behind the vehicle and surf at side panels making brief eye contact with my father before lunging through into the driver's seat as i did so an unbearable stench of rob penetrated

my revolted nostrils instantly churning my stomach at the same time i felt the back of my shirt and bottom of my jeans begin to moisten in A warm bath of unknown liquid and as i turned to see what i was currently being baptized by prying the uncovered portion of my arms from the sticky leather i found myself gawking at a horrifically gruesome scene in the passenger sea there leaning haphazardly against the dash was father thomas or his body rather i had to cover my mouth and force the vomit attempting to spew out back down with

the sight of him his neck well what was left of it wasn't a clean separation the skin was unevenly torn and mangled as flaps of flesh fluttered in the constant wind expelling out of the vents veins and tendons exploded from the wound holding their own not unlike a snapshot of a firework mitt burst i could tell by the way his limbs still in their awkwardly contorted positions that rigger mortis had already begun to set and i realized that the liquid dampening my clothes the fluid currently baptizing me well it was the priest's blood almost gratefully

i was snapped out of my trance by terry's howling voice david where is the book uh this old thing this old thing my dad knowingly asked as he pulled the folded over diary from his Coat pocket and teasingly held it in the air give it to me you stupid [ __ ] the appearance of the book sending terry a few steps forward before once again stopping in his tracks as my father pulled his zippo from the other pocket flipping it open and igniting it in one fluid motion he mockingly scolded now you'd be a good

boy and you tell me why you want this book so bad and just maybe just maybe i won't burn it you wouldn't dare snark terry seemingly testing my dad's resolve have you any idea what i could do to you look terry bud i've learned it's not a great idea to reward negative behavior but quite frankly your bad attitude is really starting to bum me out and well a dare is a dare and with that my dad took the flaming lighter in his left hand and swiftly pressed it against the parched parcel on his right the

book's dry pages were immediately engulfed in a burning orange hill as my dad tossed it at terry's feet the sight of his beloved diary now charring to ashes before him did not elicit the angered response that i anticipated instead standing there in the midst Of the whirlwind of twirling embers that drifted up into the pines and through the gaping cavity in his chest he let forth the mumbling whimper that would grow into a deafening and sinister cackle you fool you stupid fool you [ __ ] my dad reached behind and from his waistband retrieved his

flashlight interrupting the demon during his berating elation he reflexively thumbed the switch sending blinding beams directly into the beast's size recognizing that this was my cue i shifted the gear stick into drive while simultaneously pressing the panic button on my father's keyring i lurched forward as the earth's wild concealed dodge was sent into a cacophony of blinking lights and jarring sirens as my dad leapt from the path of the barreling lincoln the days terry turned to meet me as we locked eyes in a shared moment of deja vu i kept plowing forward even as the

bumper hit its inversely buckling knees and backwards momentum forced his chest down onto the hood my foot lay heavy on the gas even as we slammed into the unforgiving and rigid bark lining of a thick trunk Of an imposing pine the impact caused a brutally jolting reverse in the flow of kinetic energy carrying us across the trail as the front of the vehicle wrapped and twisted around the base of the tree pinning terry within the mangled shrapnel the unharnessed reverend was launched from the sea is his decapitated remains slammed shoulder first into the dashboard window

the collision sent a seemingly infinite amount of tiny shards shimmering in the moonlight to follow him as he flew towards a barren plot of earth in the distance i did not see him land however as my head smacked against the steering wheel and i became immediately disoriented my dad's muffled voice rang out to me from somewhere in my peripheral as i felt the thick warm liquid running down my face i lifted my head weakly and saw terry still trapped furiously yelling something at me that i couldn't quite make out my neck went limp and my

head once more fell into the steering wheel then as my eyes drifted shut and the whole world went silent my fight left me and i slipped from consciousness Everything was black as the world spun into a nauseating twirl around my listless and catonic body noises congealed and merged reaching me in a vague faint echo as though they travel through a winding and funneling chamber i floated in and out of awareness taking in the events that followed as fleeting and scattered static images in one instance my eyes opened briefly to see my dad opening my door

and dragging me out of the car before i faded out again the next thing i recall was the rough texture of soil and gravel scratching uncomfortably against my back i glance up to see a raving terry hanging upside down from the smoking wreckage and possibly a fix to a dirt ceiling i returned and then re-emerged from my fog once more to a blurry vision of my father running towards me from the direction of the charger carrying with him a small white box he kneeled beside me and seeing the whites of my glossy eyes he tried

speaking to me to gauge my awareness but i was unable to make out his words and he quickly disappeared as i fell back into oblivion i can't say for sure how long my intermittent haze lasted Only that when i eventually began to regain some steady semblance of alertness i was met with a pounding headache that sent shock waves of pain throughout my entire body when i awoke i saw that my dad had propped me up against the stump just off to the side of the trail and was now gathering and unknotting the links of rope

and chain that the father had attempted to bind terry with terry was just beyond my father rendered completely immobile but nevertheless shouting furiously at my dad who just ignored him i'll slit your throat [ __ ] you stupid [ __ ] you like go the demon angrily ranted affixed gruesomely at the waist by the whistling radiator well how about you just be quiet before i grab one of the father's crucifixes and let you play with it again bud my dad casually replied as his concentration remained on untangling a large heap of rope terry quickly quieted

at the mention of the holy object oh that's one way to shut him up i grogly managed as even in my current state i was astounded by my father's calm demeanor in the face of lashing evil oh hey You're up my dad said as he looked back towards me over his shoulder still fiddling with the twisted twine oh you look like [ __ ] i told you not to be messing around with those madder daddies i groaned as a hot throbbing pain shot through me during a staggered attempt to raise my feet hey [ __

] you man after everything that's happened tonight your little dad joke just might be the worst well you're just mad i got you so good you should have seen your face maybe i conceded or maybe i was worried about the demon that was trying to kill us nah couldn't be anyway speaking of the demon how are we supposed to kill it sorry terry now that you've burned the book hey you didn't think i'd burn the book without a back-up plan did you he slightly disappointed by my lack of faith no i well i suppose not

i said as i strained to speak with a hot ache causing me to wince and my furling brow revealing a large bandage on my forehead of course not you aren't as easily fooled as our stupid friend here my father's sarcastic jab did not sit well with the demented convict as he launched himself back into a nasty tirade You let me go you stupid [ __ ] i'll get you for all this you useless [ __ ] my dad reached into the pop trunk pried off a crucifix still taped to the underside of the lid and

flashed it to the raging terry the sight of it calmed him instantly come on tear it's not my fault you fell for the same trick twice well how many times can one demon get hit by a car in one night didn't she learn to look both ways or do they not teach that defensive driving in hell he grunted and looked away almost as if he were embarrassed or ashamed so what's next what's the plan i asked as i hobbled over to a pile of knotted ropes and joined my father and his efforts to unravel them

how are we going to do this without the book my father reached a free hand in his coat pocket and pulled out a crumbled piece of paper waving it before me before putting it back well i kept the most important part i just wanted to see terry's reaction you know figure out if he wanted to use the book or if he just didn't want someone else to use it smart i mumbled as i sat back on the ground my legs beginning to waver beneath me what's Next on the agenda well right now i'm just trying

to get this mess untangled then i'm not sure maybe we should start scouting for that open door to the underground level that father thomas mentioned after that i guess we can work on capturing a flesh crow and luring the beast down there fondly send her old pal terry on a one-way trip back to hell about the underground level what if there was something closer i offered well what do you mean he replied slightly intrigued well just up the trail there's an old guard tower i think it's out of commission its windows are busted and it

looks like it hasn't been very well maintained i don't know if the doors are unlocked or not but maybe we can use the walkie and see if hobbs has a key alright well it's definitely a lot closer let's get the rest of this rope sorted and we'll have a look after a few minutes of meticulous unwinding my dad carefully laid the straightened lengths in the back seat of the charger can you walk okay or do you need me to help he asked motioning to the car yeah i'm all right i can walk i assured okay

then i guess well let's go I'll drive i hobbled up to the passenger side door leaning gingerly on trees for support as i went once inside my father joined me behind the wheel and navigated the car through the brush and back on to the main trail he stopped in front of terry to relay one last antagonizing bar before making a three-point turn to orient us back towards the hump of the road hey terry you uh you hang tighter right bud i don't watch you go wandering off on us terry's and rage screams followed us up

and over the mound where they dissipated into the night sky it's just straight ahead i informed my dad redundantly as the tower was the only destination our current road afforded us a moment later the tall white structure came into view and my dad caught a glimpse of the worn text painted across the exterior walls as he turned to me and said tavares huh well i don't think you mentioned that part yeah well does it really matter at this point now he agreed i guess not he parked just shy of its entrance and walked up to

the thick metal door at its base i joined him a moment later after Awkwardly working my way out of the vehicle and slowly limping behind is it locked i asked yeah he saw it figures well i could grab the walkie and we could see if hobbs can help us out no no i'll grab it you just lean against the wall and try to take some of the weight off your legs i nodded as he briskly paced back to the car and retrieved the walkie then rejoined me near the locked door he flipped it on and

turned the dial to channel three as we'd been instructed abs hey hobbs you there it's david there was an almost reluctant radio silence before a hushed whispery voice responded to our call yeah i'm here is it done is the demon gone we uh well we're still working on that but hey hobbs i need a favor uh oh all right what do you need i'll see if i can help hobbs apprehensively replied you see the doors on the guard towers are they remotely controlled or do we need a key to get in hq controls the doors

which tower do you need opened i could radio in and try to get it unlocked tower eight tower eight oh [ __ ] man nobody uses that tower anymore haven't you heard the Stories about that place well can't you try a different tower nobody's in for it tonight look hobbs i really appreciate the concern i mean i really do but as it stands i currently have a possessed fugitive pinned to a tree by a dead reverend's car and i'll need to transport him to the nearest confined space pretty soon four sounds like well it sounds

like a lovely tower it really does but unfortunately we don't have the luxury of being choosy right now okay okay i understand let me get in touch with hq just give me a minute thanks hobbs my dad replied as we once again went into a brief period of radio silence a moment later there was a loud buzz emanating from the tower door as hobb's voice penetrated the walkie it should be open now he said relaying what my father had already discovered by turning the handle yeah got it thanks again my dad held the door for

me as i used his shoulder as a crutch and wobbled inside the door's hydraulic compression caused it to close rather slowly behind us as we stepped further into the tower then just as i had almost pulled shut hobb's voice once again transmitted from the radio Oh and just remember once the door closes it will automatically lock again hobbes lackadaisically informed us my dad lunged backwards and just in time wedged his fingers in the dwindling gap between the door's edge and its frame did you hear me david i said the door will lock yeah yeah we

heard you thanks he breathlessly retorted as he leaned his back against the door opening it further while shaking his crushed fingers he dropped the walkie to his side then looked at me can you grab something to keep this propped open uh yeah i said as i searched the floor around me here i offered as i sluggishly drudged over his outstretched legs and grabs a rock from the garden just outside the doorway once the door was secured and after a couple of test tugs on the handle we shifted our focus to the winding raw iron staircase

inside the room itself is tall and rectangular the stairs leading upwards as they hugged its perimeter on either side of us at the top of each flight they leveled into a flat walkway that connected one side of the room to the other dim sconces were placed ankle high and closely followed the steps up as they rose from The perfect square portal formed by the angular architecture i could see that there was a single large industrial light still without power hanging from the ceiling above as my father flipped on his flashlight the beam invaded by thick

and restless dust scanning it around us we managed to locate the switch that controlled the large light above ah that's better my dad said unknowingly expressing my exact sentiments i had never fully appreciated the soothing effect of a lit room and thick walls as much as i did in that moment well let's get up to the bay and have a look around you gonna be able to climb these stairs i'll just use the rails i'm fine really i assured him as we climbed up the seemingly infinite and unbearably steep flights however my lower extremities were

consumed by a crippling burning sensation it was a constant struggle to keep myself upright as my knees threatened to buckle with every agonizing step by the time the ascent finally relented and we arrived at the still buzzing bay door i felt as though i'd just run a marathon through the rockies and found myself wheezing and gasping for air well moment of truth my dad said through panted breaths Let's just hope that the creature hasn't made a home of the place he slowly turned the handle and with great trepidation pushed the door open luckily though there

was no sign of the creature through the cascading moonlight spilling into the room through the wall of windows before us glass littered the floor from the shattered pane through which the beast had once forcefully arrived there was a long desk spanning the length of the room just beneath the sills with a retired control panel resting in the middle i grabbed the flipped over chair lying just outside of its former nook and wedged it beneath the handle of the door we just entered through as we took inventory of the room's contents i took note of several

small punctures in the glass adjoining the frames they had the distinctive cylindrical shape of bullet holes on one end of the desk sat a large black toolbox and a half empty bottle of coke i also noticed that adjacent to my father still standing in the doorway was a tall metal cabinet secured by a padlock through a hinged latch hey dad you think we could find something to break that lock I asked my dad pointing to the locker here let me give it a shot as i limped over to the toolbox and ruffled through it for

an object we could leverage with my dad approached the lock and grasped it firmly between both hands he proceeded to apply a constant and massive twisting pressure wrenching the lock against the latch a moment later i heard a loud pop as the metal the latch split affording him enough room to slide off the lock i was reminded of just how strong he truly was his typically docile nature not being an accurate reflection of his ability to accomplish incredibly violent feats of strength when required jesus i said as he tossed the padlock to the floor hey

they don't call me popeye for nothing he quipped while opening the now unfastened door well well well now what do we have here as he slid to the side of the cabinet revealing to me what it held i was more than pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't merely an empty hole along one side hanging from a descending column of small hooks were several pairs of handcuffs on the other side leaning comfortably against the corner was a scoped rifle and a box of complementary ammunition That was resting near its stock between the rifle and the handcuffs

hung two black pistols complete with adorning laser sights and an additional box of ammunition holy [ __ ] i exclaimed as i beheld the beautiful hall of weaponry i mean it sucks for you that felons can't carry guns but i'm all in i joked as the sighted locker's contents had managed to improve my spirits well it's too bad you don't know how to use them he jabbed back as he pulled one of the pistols from its perch and examined it in his hands he then gave me a surmise explanation on how to properly handle it

this little button is the safety make sure that's on until you need to fire he said as he shot me a sarcastic wink this switch right here turns on the laser sight just put the red dot on what you're aiming at pull the trigger well that sounds easy enough i think i can remember that well sit tight for a sec i'm gonna get it back from the car so we can load all this up yeah no problem they should really invest in an elevator as my dad left a room i took the opportunity to further

explore the locker along with the firearms and cuffs there were a couple of cans of what Appeared to be mace a combat knife tucked inside a woven sheath and what looked like an oddly shaped grenade that i discovered to be a flashbang when text printed on the side told me as much there was also a heavy black mag light and a couple of walkies that i was unable to turn on taking the backs off the walkies i saw that they were missing the rectangular batteries that would have powered them tossing them into the locker i

reached for one of the pistols and mined the steps my father had given me in an attempt to become familiar with the mechanic and hopefully avoid fumbling around with the components if god forbid i actually had to use it after fiddling with the unloaded gun for a bit i hobbled over to the toolbox to further examine what it contained it held what you'd expect some sockets and screwdrivers pliers and crescents and a rather large claw hammer among other things my attention was drawn from the box to a door that separated the inside of the bay

to an exterior walkway running the circumference of the building now to my chagrin it was locked but still curious about the walkway i staggered my Way to the shattered window and leaned over and through its frame i could see that from where i stood to the ground below was a solid 40-foot drop i shifted my gaze upwards my chin parallel to the floor and i was met by a sea of swaying pine needles as a light breeze ran through the treetops i looked to my right taking in much of the same and then to my

left we're lying pitifully on the perforated metal walkway was a threadbare and frayed officer's cap i was unsettled by the sight of it and a vivid recollection of how the hole through which i was leaning had come to be as i backed away uneasily into the relative safety of the tower bay i was startled by the sound of footsteps behind caused by my father's reemergence through the propped open doorway jesus christ i gasped you trying to give me a heart attack i didn't even hear you coming up the stairs [ __ ] no i'd prefer

if you didn't have a heart attack right now actually he said passively as his mind remained preoccupied with the mission at hand he dropped a wound bundle of rope from one shoulder and a large duffle from the other he began quickly filling The duffel with the contents of the locker examining each item briefly as he did so you have the other gun he asked when he noticed only one pistol hanging in the cabinet yeah here i replied as i pulled it from my waistband and offered it to him now that's okay you keep it well

actually here let me see it he took the weapon from my outstretched hand and then began to load it with live rounds he slid the full magazine back into the handle then passed it back to me he tossed the mag light and mace into the bag then curiously inspected the flashbang before tossing it in two he attached the combat knife to his belt by a clip on its sheath after sliding its thumb along the rest to test its sharpness as he grabbed the walkies i told him leave them they don't have batteries well i've got

batteries in the console down in the charger now there are those weird rectangle batteries well yeah i've got some in the car why do you have rectangle batteries in your car well you never know he said slyly okay but why do we need three walkies you never know he reiterated Um i suppose well what's the rope for you never know he barbed one last time i mean seriously why the rope the frustration of his vague responses becoming apparent in my voice well i'll need some way to get down right i figure if we could lure

the creature into the stairwell close the doors locking him inside while i could use the rope to shimmy down from the rails on the balcony that's a long way down you sure you want to do that oh believe me once that thing is trapped the rope will look a lot better than the stairs but don't you have to perform the ritual or whatever how are you going to do that without getting eaten in the process it's not really a ritual exactly it's just a series of words and well i could figure i can multitask well

enough to run up the stairs while i read them off i just gotta distract it somehow to keep it from interrupting me and what about terry doesn't he have to be here too i asked becoming annoyed of my own ignorant line of questioning well we'll get to terry in a second tie him up and hang the bastard from the rafters i'm not worried about terry yeah okay but i mean Father thomas tied him up and he managed to get out what happens if he escapes again first off i'm betting i could tie a better knot

than father thomas besides he said as he tapped the blade clipped to his leg it's gonna be hard to untangle himself without any hands oh i see i said as an image of the grizzly act my dad intended to commit ran through my unprepared mind well if and when we get the dislocated spirit back into the creature you have any ideas on how to kill it oh i've got a couple he assured me over at the kennels in the storage closet there's some gas cans or at least there used to be hopefully they still keep

him in there we'll grab those and douse this damn place before we lure the thing this way i'll spout out the incantation and after we transfer the demon back to its rightful body we'll spark the gas and blow him back to hell well that's the rough plan anyway you see it's a work in progress at the moment he admitted he swung the strap of the rifle over his shoulder before moving across the room and plopping the open duffel on the desk beside the toolbox he flipped the case over emptying the Entirety of its contents into

the back i saw that something caught his eye as he reached into the unzipped flap and retrieved the large hammer oh yeah yeah he excitedly relayed as he bounced its weight in his hand and then proceeded to give it a few test swings through the air claw side first he slid the hammer's shaft into the loop of his belt and then turned his attention to me you ready he said as he zipped up the stuffed duffle as i'll ever be i begrudgingly sighed the descent back down to ground level was slightly less awkward wobble than

had been the trip up i made the trek over to the charger and collapsed into the waiting passenger sea as my dad loaded the duffel and the rifle into the trunk out of a combination of skepticism and mild curiosity i nosely opened the center console and almost humorously inside was a vast array of batteries of all different shapes and sizes i quickly latched the lid up as my father appeared through the driver's window let's get this over with he relented we made the short drive up the path and over the hill parking just shy of

the total lincoln as we exited the charger and even through the dissipating fog I could tell that something was off the first hint being the obvious lack of ambient slurs filling the air around us as we arrived in fact terry seemed uncharacteristically calm and abnormally still as i got closer i noticed what i hadn't noticed before as i emerged from my trauma-induced days the final resting place of the priest's headless body he had maintained his stiffened and seated position even after being launched through the dashboard window and a heinous betrayal of defense stration and newton's

first law he now lay for lack of better word face down in the dirt with his rear end up in the air just above the right elbow a broken bone pierced his arm and his left foot was twisted completely contrary to its natural orientation i couldn't look for more than a moment the sight of him being both heartbreak and repulsive i stepped out of the direct path of the charger and allowed the beams of its headlights to pass me as it illuminated terry's shadowy figure instant confusion overtook me he appeared emaciated it was as if

within the half hour or so we'd ransacked the tower he had starved to Death his cheeks were severely sunken and his skin had taken on a sickly grayish hue well i could definitely say that his appearance was an altogether fresh entry into the catalog of horrific visions i had yet been unfortunate enough to behold something about it seemed familiar that's when i remembered what father thomas had passively mentioned back in the hotel room briggs the third inmate he suspected to have been possessed by the demon this well this was exactly how he died however as

i attempted to process the scene i was snapped back into reality as my father's voice engaged the walking hey hobbs when terry escaped did you guys happen to recover a body a guard's body to be specific chill ran through my spine as back through the speaker rang forth the distinctively thick southern drawl of a man i had hoped to forget oh hey dave well i was wondering when you're gonna give me a ring hobbes my dad's somberly implored knowing the answer to his question even as he asked it nah nah i uh well let's just

see i relieved hobbs from his shift no this is oates oh it's but i Thought my dad began before oats interrupted hey listen dave how about you be a good boy and bring me my book hell you do that and i might just let your boy live that sound good to you dave i could tell my dad was considering the offer so i firmly shook my head to inform that i was not on board with the plan well how about you come out here and meet me and take it my dad provoked instead nah i

don't like that idea dave you know hear tell there's monsters in those woods and well i'm sure you've seen my little aaron boy by now and well as you could see i already got what i came for hey but i'll tell you what how about you man up bring me that page you got hiding in your pocket you little sneaky pete you and you could bring it to me down in the old prison wing why don't you just look dave oates responded becoming noticeably irritated well i'd love to sit here and chat but well i

don't want you to be late for our little appointment i'll see you boys down below oats oats my father called out only to be met with static and silence ah damn it he exhaled the frustrated sigh then glanced over to me look You heard him he just wants me there's no reason for both of us to go down there take the car and you get out of here you're kidding right no you're hurt it's for the best listen i'm fine and i'm going one way or the other i emphatically insisted you you're a stubborn [

__ ] you know that yeah i wonder where i got that from i quietly replied we slank away from the wreckage and got back into the still running charger as my father shifted the gear into drive i knew our next step would be at the mouth of the beast i knew too that its hunger would not be satiated until we were firmly within its belly i was bathed in immediate and looming dread a feeling that had become an all too frequent visitor to my frazzled psyche the road back through the forest seemed both incredibly short

and overwhelmingly long eventually though the pines disappeared from my view replaced by a vast and empty field the telford building was once again taunting me through the dashboard window as we traversed the expanse and turned into the concrete driveway we made a sharp right into the prison lawn as We reached the rear of the building as my eyes scanned the walls for the door that would lead us into the labyrinth their attention was quickly drawn to an ominous figure in the distance there near the approaching corner was oats his arms casually crossed as he leaned

against the brick beside an open doorway he shot us a sinister smile and a slow wave and then pried himself from the wall and vanished through its shadowy frame as my dad pulled the charger to a stop perpendicular to the door appeared into the abyss that was the prison's forgotten halls could almost taste the chaos that awaited us inside the chasm and in unnerving anticipation i realized all too clearly what was coming next i knew that as much as i didn't want to all that was left for us to do was enter as we prepared

to meet the rogue officer down in the prison's dark and winding corridors a wry smile came over my dad's face as he placed our duffel of scavenge loot on the trunk you know he said eagerly as shitty as this whole situation is give me a great idea for a cover band Oh i implored knowingly taking the bait and what's that halls and oats he flatly delivered as i half expected to hear a rim shot sound off behind him jesus man that one was worse than the matter daddy's hey what point is there in being a

dad if you can't tell a dad joke every once in a while he said rhetorically yeah well maybe oats will appreciate your humor more than me he declined to respond and instead started to softly hum the chorus of man-eater as he unzipped the stuffed bag with the aforementioned lyrics almost cruelly playing in my head honestly though i asked earnestly are you not scared at all in a moment of complete candor he admitted terrified but there's nothing i could do about it i'm just trying to distract myself distract you too i found as honestly almost reassuring

in an odd way it was good to know that i wasn't the only one afraid the only one that felt vulnerable and encumbered by the weight of the seemingly insurmountable task before us you have A choice though i offered we both do we can just turn around and leave we don't have to do this you have a choice and truth be told i wish you'd take your own advice and get out of here before it's too late but me well i have to see through this so don't forget terry had my address he wrote me

letters just like he did father thomas and i think the demon that was inside him the one still in oats must be able to pull from his host's memories if i leave now if i leave now what would stop him from just showing up in a week killing me in my sleep damn it i saw it forgot about that well i'm not letting you do this alone so you could get that out of your head my dad handed me a flashlight and then went to the car to retrieve some batteries for the spare walkies he

tested them all to make sure they worked turned on to a new private channel so that oats couldn't listen in on any conversations we might end up having the last thing he pulled from the bag before sealing it up was a couple of crucifixes he'd pilfered from the reverend's lincoln a fix to his belt was a humorous amount of gadgetry Yet three walkies a combat knife a hammer a pistol and a crucifix all awkwardly lining his waist over his shoulder was draped the now loaded rifle with spare rounds in his coat pocket the other coat

pocket contained a handheld flashlight and presumably the salvage diary page in addition fastened tightly to his scalp was an led headlamp that he otherwise used for work you got enough stuff i quipped well i sure hope so i can't carry much more you're ridiculous you look like batman i was interrupted by the deer and headlights look of a perplexed guard as he rounded the corner of the prison building as he spotted us and we spotted him there was a brief moment of hesitant reticence as we each search the other for what they intended to do

next i shifted my eyes towards the direction of the open doorway into the prison labyrinth then back to the guard the slight tilting of my head relaying to him that i meant to run as the guard's hand slid slowly down to his holstered weapon without thinking or conferring in words my father and i instinctively made a mad dash across the 40 feet of earth that separated us From the door hey you stop get down now scream the guard in vain as we refused his desperate heating in the midst of our frenzied effort to close the

gap several loud pops rang out from our left i could almost feel the whizzing and splitting of the air passing just behind me i ignored the shearing pain caused by the night's earlier collision currently coursing through my body as i left with all my might and flung myself through the open frame before us my dad quickly dove in behind me as we darted for the nearest cover he unclipped one of the walkies threw it out the entrance doorway as we hunkered inside a small closet just inside the prison stop shooting stop shooting he repeated into

one of the remaining radios until finally a panting voice on the other end responded as a yellow beam lit up the hall outside the closet look put your weapons down and come out i'll take my finger off the trigger the guard wheezed alright my dad obliged i'm going to slide my rifle into the hall and just come out just don't fire we're here to help my dad unstrapped the rifle from his shoulder then slid It out into the spotlight illuminating the floor come on he told me go slow and keep your hands up i nodded

and then he shouted out the door to the guard we're coming out don't shoot keep your hands where i could see them the guard yelled back we exited the closet as instructed our hands up over our heads the officers stood just inside the doorway his weapon drawn and locked firmly in our direction who the [ __ ] are you two and what do you mean you're here to help we're here with father thomas he sent us here too it was my father's turn to be interrupted as the guard's face took on yet another horrified expression

of utter shock but this time it was not because of what he saw but because of what he didn't see because of what i unfortunately did see pierced suddenly through his abdomen was a spiny fleshy barb as he shifted his gaze slowly downward to inspect what had just afflicted him a second barb pierced his throat this caused him to let out a sickening gurgle as he immediately began to choke on his own blood and then as if powered by some pneumatic machine the organ spikes perforated his Entire body with an ungodly speed a moment later

the robotic piercing stopped as the thoroughly punctured guard somehow still remained upright retaining a wavering balance on his feet i could see the fleeting moonlight shining in through the gap that once was his nose be overpowered by the emerging shadow of something large stepping behind him what the f as before he could finish his sentence he began to wobble and his knees gave way as he toppled over face first through the doorway and fell full force onto the unforgiving concrete floor below i watched unflinching as several spindly tendrils gripped the inside of the door's frame

attached to a tall thin creature on the other side it used its calloused limbs to pull itself into the hallway arriving to meet us as might a spider surfacing from its snug nest in the soil once inside it unfurled its gangly body its head and shoulder rising well above the doorway its skin was a rotted brown leathery affair and pulled tightly against its pronounced skeleton its mouth was filled with sharp constantly clattering teeth as if reacting in response to frigid weather They remained unnervingly exposed due to its apparent inability to close its lips if it

even had them i could see that the barbs that had so violently spiked the guard attached somewhere to its back with several fanning out on either side of the creature its extremities were terribly stretched and elongated with its needly fingers hanging low enough to almost drag the ground standing stricken by the sight of the creature the gravity of the situation slowly sank in and i realized we could be next it did not immediately attack us however and in fact did not even seem to mind or even notice our presence as it leaned over and curiously

sniffed the air above the guard's perforated corpse i nervously scanned the room for a way out behind me i spotted that there was a second open doorway and the ambient light allowed me to make out the first few steps of the staircase descending just beyond it i looked at my dad and silently motioned to the stairs his eyes sending back a confirmation that he recognized the passage too he slowly started to back away from the harrowing scene ahead as we did though my father's foot Dragged against the ground and kicked the rifle he previously slid

into the hallway upon hearing the clanking noise the beast whipped its head up and angrily gazed upon its fleeing prey with burning yellow eyes it let out a blood curdling screech as it lurched itself forward stabbing at the air aimlessly with its long articulating skewers before we could react it was scrambling on all fours towards us struggling in place against the slick floor for a moment as its talon-like nails left deep scratches and the concrete it quickly found its momentum however and began to cover incredible distances with each stride wasting no more time we bolted

in the opposite direction for the stairway leading down to the lower level the beast proved too fast though as my dad was ripped violently backwards through the air he screamed as his voice drifted quickly down the hallway i pivoted around to see the creature pulling my dad by the leg towards him along the ground with one of its bar pierced straight through the side of his calf oh [ __ ] what do i do i yelled back shoo creature lifted my dad into the air hanging Him upside down from the leg effortlessly raising him up

until they were staring face to face it deeply inhaled sniffing him as it moved in closer with its chattering teeth for lack of other recourse i pulled the pistol tucked into my jeans flipped off the safety aiming it at the beast knowing there was no use in bargaining i fired two shots in its direction doing my best to avoid hitting my father in the process the bullets penetrated the beast sending it into an enraged tantrum as it howled in agony it started forcefully shaking my dad turning him from the stoically strong man i'd come to

see him as and to nothing more than a helpless ragdoll the creature's jagged appendage began sliding and slicing upwards through my dad's leg easily separating muscle from bone it lifted its tendrils shifting my dad to the side clearing its vision as it released the rumbling growl and walked purposely forward with deadly intent the turbulence of the beast's rattling spines in onward marching sent the contents of my father's pockets and belt hurtling down towards the ground as they fell My dad managed to catch the handle of the large claw hammer he'd taken from the tower i

fired two more shots into the creature not even slowing its pace as it stomped up the hall then as it let out one last screech and entered a final lunge that would close the distance i saw my father's arm swing through the air as he planted the claws of the hammer deep into the creature's eye socket it instantaneously retracted its barb from my father's leg sending him head first onto the concrete floor it brought its hands up to its face as it silently staggered backwards and then all at once it let out a pain cry

and started launching itself into the walls and ceiling and manic chaotic bursts the hammer still lodged in its eye i took the opportunity to corral my father off the ground balancing his weight on my shoulder as he hopped on one leg to the open door behind us we reached the staircase and descended it in a controlled tumble i sat my dad at the base before i quickly ascended the steps once more and pulled the door closed sealing the beast lashing out wildly on the other side I continued to watch it anxiously through the window of

the door eventually it settled down enough to pry the lodge camera free taking its eye with it and dropped it to the floor the creature then blindly scuttled backwards through the frame it had come in through where it left or flew out of my view i couldn't tell where it had gone from my vantage point or whether or not it would come right back i wanted to make a run for our supplies for the rifle but fearing its return i decided to drop it for the time being i instead shifted my attention to my ailing

father are you okay can you walk holy [ __ ] how bad is it bleeding i spewed out as i ran back down to the stairs to my dad yeah i'll be all right but i gotta wrap it it's bleeding pretty good i don't think he hit anything vital though he winced removing his jacket he cut the sleeve with the knife that had miraculously managed to stay clipped to his belt he cut them into long strips then knotted them together at the ends before tightly winding the fabric around his leg that'll slow it but i'm

still losing a steady stream of blood So what do we do hurry he replied flatly he paused to take stock of what supplies remained there was the knife his headlamp one of the walkies thankfully the crumbled incantation in his pocket everything else he'd had including his pistol where for the moment casualties to the creature i managed to retain all i'd smuggled into the prison a walkie a maglite the second pistol as well as a crucifix and a couple pairs of cuffs knowing our adversary and unsure of just how debilitating my father's injury was it didn't

seem like nearly enough nevertheless it would have to do we decided as my dad struggled to his feet and flipped on his headlamp illuminating the path ahead before us stretched a long seemingly endless hallway several doors helmed the walls on either side between multiple intersections fading into an impenetrable congregation of shadows beyond the corridor was pumped full of a thick and musty almost compressed air the entire layer seemed to radiate in an abundant darkness more so than suffer from a lack of light i knew finding our way through the maze would be difficult even if

we weren't struggling to See my only hope that my father still knew his way around after all the years since his release this is supposed to be the same layout as upstairs right you recognize anything i asked uh he groaned yeah i uh i know where we are but that's not going to do us much good if we don't know where oats is [ __ ] that's true well in the meantime maybe we could find medical supplies in the infirmary to fix you up a little better i don't know they barely stalk the one they

use so i doubt it but well i guess it's worth a shot okay well which way would it be better for you to wait here it's the second hall on the right and then the third hall on the right big swinging double doors at the end you can't miss it but i could put some weight on it i think it looks worse than it feels either that or adrenaline is kicking in my father took a few test paces in the form of gingerly bouncing steps then nodded that he was okay to walk reassured by his

ability to navigate and lead the way we headed cautiously onward through the wing as we reached the first corner we quietly hugged the wall and Nervously peered around the turn with no sign of a lurking oats we continued on meticulously repeating the ritual at every open door and break in the walls by god's grace or perhaps sheer luck we made our way to the infirmary without spotting or being spotted by voodoo's new host pushing open the doors revealed a single metal stretcher sitting directly in the middle of the room on one wall was a large

industrial sink splitting two pairs of cabinets both above and below it there were a few larger pieces of medical equipment that would be of no use to us as well as a couple of chairs which my father did make use of i inspected the cabinets further finding that they were sparsely stocked and mostly bare as my father had expected they would be save for a package of small band-aids and a few bottles of rubbing alcohol ah [ __ ] i exclaimed feeling rather dejected i rested my hands on my waist inside and disappointment as i

hung my head when i did so i noticed that on the floor leading out of the room and presumably down the halls was a trail of blood droplets that had leaked from my father's leg now it dawned on me that Until the wound was sealed anywhere we'd gone or might go our path would be unmistakably marked for oats to follow we'd lose all ability to hide and all potential for the element of surprise this isn't going to work i said hating myself for what i knew i have to say next your blood is going to

lead him right to us i think um jesus i think we gotta split up split up what do you mean i mean even if your leg wasn't bleeding it's not practical to catch oats and then get the gas from the kennels and then capture a flesh crow and then lure the creature with it etc etc i mean you get the idea whatever we do we need to do it as fast as possible and well multi-task so what exactly are you suggesting well you know where the kennels are you also think you have an idea where

the flesh crows hide i think [ __ ] i can't believe i'm saying this but i think you should worry about that and i'll stay here and i'll worry about oats his eyes conveyed to me that he was mulling over my proposal as he sat in silence contemplating my impulsive new strategy i expected for him to adamantly shut It down truth be told i was almost hopeful that he would but when he finally looked up at me and to my dismay he begrudgingly agreed yeah you know i hate to admit but you're right damn it

you sure about this i regretfully implored well what choice do we have the way i see it with you injured and our lack of resources having two of us to keep safe is a liability at this point well once i'm out of here if something happens you're on your own i won't be able to make it here in time i know i know but like i said dad what choice do we have he just looked at me with concern and inevitable acceptance in his eyes each hoping to dissuade the other from what he knew we'd

have to do finally he saw it in hesitation and then said alright let's do this walk me back to the stairs we'll go from there he reached out his hand and i helped him from his seat and without further delay we began following the bloody breadcrumbs back to their origin the return trip included the same precautionary checks as before and just as our first trip through the halls did not result in an encounter with the demon when we reached the base of the staircase my Dad took off his headlamp and tossed it to me here

this will be more useful to you than me i imagine yeah thanks i responded as i caught it and began sorting out the straps and make sure your radio is on in case of emergency just keep in mind i won't be buzzing you unless i absolutely have to i don't want to put you in danger but if you need me for anything well don't hesitate to press that button i may not be able to make it in time but i'll do everything in my power to try yeah i i understand before departing he briefed me

on the labyrinth's basic layout pointing out the directions the key rooms such as the room containing the chute to the upper level and where the chapel was just in case he then swapped my handheld flashlight for his combat knife telling me he had another blade back in the charger okay well i guess that's it he said unless you could think of anything else no i think that's all i need well in that case good luck and stay safe see you in a little while yeah yes you too dad he began scaling the stairs but hesitated

halfway up turned to me and said hey nick you know if for whatever reason we don't get to talk again I just wanted to say i'm sorry for not being there for you boys if something happens you tell your brothers that okay i will but i won't have to all right yeah of course and uh i know i never say it you know i'm not really the mushy type but i um i hey love you too pops i replied sensing the sentiment he couldn't quite articulate oh good uh well i'll see you soon then he

climbed the remainder of the steps and disappeared behind their crowning doorway as it closed behind him i slowly turned to face the darkness before me and this time i faced it alone with my father now gone i took a moment to collect myself and ultimately work out a plan of action then muster the courage i'd need to carry it out i sat on the bottom step deciding my first order of business would be to sharpen the end of the hefty wooden crucifix into a spike as i did my hands trembled involuntarily reminding me of how

utterly afraid i was once the cross had a good point on it i holstered it into my waistband just beside the pistol then with a deep inhale and nothing more to stall me i finally turned my attention to the looming corridor ahead My immediate priority was to familiarize myself with the location of the shoot room which from where i stood and as i understood was the third left second right third right first left i knew if things went south it would be wise to have more than one exit to flee towards i shook the wood

shavings from my pants and with an unhealthy amount of reservation nervously put one foot in front of the other the further away from the staircase i stepped the more antsy i became the wall seemed to be narrowing and the path behind me seemed to stretch twice the distance i had traveled i felt claustrophobic and racked with separation anxiety from my dad from the outside from home the prospects of ever returning to which felt unbearably daunting it was as if i was staring up at mount everest from the bottom of the grand canyon nevertheless i pressed

on further into the maze third left second right third right first left i repeated to myself in a whispering redundancy a feeble attempt to distract me from the pounding silence piercing my eardrums every creak every Small rumble sent me into a panicked pause as i tepidly inspect the void the prolonged period of undisturbed solitude came as both a relief and disconcerting worry while i didn't know where oats was exactly i knew he was somewhere in those halls with me lurking searching possibly even toying with me for all i knew he could have been watching or

following me the whole time unfortunately the extended alone time had neither put me at ease nor inspired any bright ideas as to what to do when i finally did encounter him i just prayed that i know what to do when the moment came my mind was wiped of these thoughts however as i made the final first left i could see the filtered light from the floor above spilling out from an open shaft in the ceiling below it was a desk and toppled on the ground beside that was a chair i entered the room to explore

it further shining my headlamp into the sleeping shadows i stared up the chute seeing that running down along its inner walls with thick streams of dried blood in addition to the blood i saw a small piece of ripped cloth stuck to a metal rod jutting out from one side of the shaft about halfway up I was unwillingly reminded of the three inmates who had once fled to these forsaken hallways i remembered all too well what the beast had managed to do to them what it may yet do to me i asked myself genuinely how i

expected to fare better than three hardened criminals truth be told i didn't i looked away from the shoot almost in a wince as i turned my head i spied a little orange book on the ground i recognized it too as the holy artifact that once held the demon at bay it was adam's bible i picked it up dusted it off and stuffed it in my pocket i wasn't sure if it would be as useful to me as it was to adams but thought in the words of tully and my father you never know i stacked

the chair back on top of the desk preparing it for a hasty retreat should i need then with the shoot room located and thoroughly inspected i turned my attention back to finding oates i thought back to the story of the three fugitives in adam's distraction in the chow hall i remembered the story that he was perpendicular to voodoo bob when the pots and pans fell sending the demon to the source of the crash if the details of the story were to be believed I figured the chow hall area should be directly opposite the shoot room

and that would be as good a place as any to search for the demon i found that having a landmark to move towards rather than wandering aimlessly helped me to remain calm and keep my mind on task as i made my way down the hall sure enough i saw the indented tracks along the walls where voodoo had to fight gravity to scale along them i followed the hieroglyphic prince to their inevitable destination until a gory oversight my recollection stopped me where i stood as i rounded the final turn and the open doorway revealing the cafeteria

came into view so did the skeletal remains of a fallen tully just before it and beyond him shrouded in torn in bloody prison garbs was the picked clean marrow of a man once called houston i swiftly pivoted back in the opposite direction my inclinations to achieve the past further dissipating with the sight of the grisly scene needing a break from my magnified sense of trepidation and solitude i grabbed the walkie to see if my dad was having better luck in his endeavors than i was in mine uh hey How's it going out there there was

a brief pause before he answered back slightly shorter breath as if in the midst of a mildly strenuous activity it's uh going okay on my end i just got the gas can from the kennels there's no gas though well well that sucks what's plan b that's alright i'm going to take the garden hose and use it to siphon gas from the father's car just a small setback but doesn't change the plan i found some extra rope in the closet too that might come in handy how are things on your end well so far i feel

like the world's most unfortunate archaeologist to tell you the truth there's no sign of oats yet though archaeologists what do you as my dad spoke from behind me i heard something move um hey i gotta go i told him i'll talk to you soon i clicked off the radio and fastened it back to my belt the sound behind me was getting closer and as it neared it took on the distinct rhythm pattern of footsteps i dared not look as it approached me from the dark before stopping mere meters away i didn't want to know but

i knew that oats finally caught up to me i could hear almost feel his breath on my neck as he let the Moment linger on in horrifying silence i gritted my teeth as i slowly turned to meet my stalker tremors ran through me and my stomach wound into knots as my body twisted with my shifting gaze i took the twirling scenery in modest increments before ripping the agonizing band-aid and whipping myself completely around to face the beast boo he coolly toyed as i staggered backwards to increase the gap between us get back get back i

yelled as i drew the pistol then locked its barrel in its chest ah now come on now he said taking a step forward as a sly grin came across this face now i thought we were friends besides you know as well as i do that little old gun ain't gonna stop me from ripping your throat out hell you can even have mine he unholstered the gun on his side and tossed it at my feet i'd like to use my hands he informed me as he shot me a wink i knew he was right terry had

a hole in his chest the size of a mortar around and that hadn't stopped him thinking i shifted the red dot from his chest to his knee i may not be able to kill you but you're gonna have a hard time keeping up if you can't walk This stopped his advanced as he considered my threat oh you wouldn't do that you want me out of this body after all and if i go what happens to the poor officer inside when he wakes up can you live with the death of an innocent man in your conscious

the implications of his words caught me off guard i hadn't considered what would become of the real oats after all was said and done i knew though that now was not the time to show any sign of weakness so instead with every bit of bravado i could muster i falsely threatened you take another step and we'll find out what i'm comfortable living with after the fact hmm he pondered aloud i don't believe you he said as he started walking confidently towards me i began backing away as i shouted once more in utter futility to stop

him stop i stammered as he marched onward unfazed as i reaffirmed the aim of my gun i don't think i will and i don't think he'll shoot me wanna know what i think well i think you're scared just like that [ __ ] daddy of yours and i think i'm gonna enjoy gripping you apart limb by Limb i had managed to maintain the space between us as i backed away into a four-way intersection he must have read my body language as i stood contemplating my next move as he stopped encroaching and allowed me to stay

planted in the crossing oh you're gonna run aren't you well i can't say i blame you hell i'd run too if i were you question now is left or right now before you make any rash decisions well i should let you know one of these halls is a dead end emphasis on that dead part now you take a minute we've got time he relayed smugly i remain silent unsure of whether or not he was telling the truth but knowing that the rest of my life hung in the balance if he was my entire existence could

now be boiled down to left or right life or death regardless i knew i couldn't waste the chance to at least try in a spontaneous mental coin flip i fired two shots into the floor at his feet and made an irreversible potentially fatal choice to go left i recruited every fiber of my being in a dead sprint down the corridor i did not look back to see whether or not he was following as i prayed for an opportunity to make a second run Finally i saw before me that my prayers were being answered as i

neared another four-way my relief was short-lived however as stepping into the hall behind and sending his voice echoing down his chamber was oats a dreadful chill ran down my spine as he casually and with the tone of amusement yelled out hey bud wrong way [ __ ] i muttered under my breath as i rounded the corner it didn't take long to realize oats was being earnest as i found myself running through an empty cell block i swiftly turn and ran back across the intersection taking notes of oats advancing placement in the perpendicular hall i felt

sick as i was once again surrounded by cell doors i could hear his footsteps make the turn in the crossway and with a lack of other options i darted into an open cell i ran to the back wall and stood with my pistol pointed out through the doorway hey buddy where'd you go he playfully called out as he entered the block i frantically searched the cell for any place to hide or escape i could see that the ceiling was still unfinished and there was a small gap beside the air duct leading into the Cell next

to me on the ground was a tarp and sitting atop it were several gallons of paint if i had more time perhaps i could concoct some kind of escape plan but unfortunately time was not a luxury i now possessed buddy he taunted as i heard a cell door down the hallway slam open and bang violently against the wall i knew i was only delaying the inevitable and so i called out to him i'm down here you twisted [ __ ] oh now that's a good boy makes my job easier a moment later i watched as

his shadow began to creep into the frame before me i checked the safety on the pistol fully aware my hesitation to fire was about to be tested as his footsteps grew louder and he was on the verge of breaching my sight line all of a sudden they stopped i stood in a confused state of suspense but was quickly snapped from it as the cell door swung open into the hallway was forced shut followed by the sound of the turning of gears and automatic latching of locks now i bet you didn't see that coming he quipped

as he stepped in front of the door and peered through its small window what what are you doing just get it over with you coward Now don't you worry about what i'm doing we'll have her fun later don't you worry first though i'm gonna go see how your daddy is feeling after that little dust up y'all had earlier you you saw that well of course i did you dim witted [ __ ] i was just waiting for you two idiots alone luckily you did that for me but why didn't you come after me earlier i've

been alone for a while now what and have you run back outside to your papa again no sir it was only a matter of time before you cornered yourself and well he chuckled as he mockingly looked around the cell here we are but i know he snapped before instantly regaining his composure no more questions when you sit here and you think about what you've done i'll be back in a bit and you can atone wait what i shouted as he disappeared from the frame i knew i had to do something and whatever it was i

had to do it fast i searched the room again with my eyes and patted my body down for some kind of clear epiphany as how to halt his leave as i did i felt a little bible in my pocket i pulled it out and in a desperate half-brained Effort started to rip out pages and crumpled them up in my hand i then grabbed the walkie and turned it to channel 3 hoping oats still had his reaching my arm out of the tray slot in the door and waving the bible pages in the air i pressed

in the radio's button you still looking for this there was no silence following his call as i could hear his feet quickly and heavily stomping back towards my cell i was barely able to retract my arm before his furious eye appeared in the slot you [ __ ] trying to trick me you tricky [ __ ] he snarled i thought at first he saw through my facade until he continued give me that page you stupid [ __ ] he reached his arm through the opening swiping at me wildly give me my [ __ ] page

alright alright i yelled as i stood up and held out the holy text slowly inching it towards his waiting palm now he growled impatiently i turned my palm down above his preparing to drop it as simultaneously in my mind i began to count down three two one i dropped the pages as i gripped the sharpened crucifix in my other hand as the falling text hit his palm so too did the tip of my cross the downward momentum piercing straight through He screamed and unfiltered agony as i threw my entire weight down on his arm forcing

his elbow to buckle backwards against the steel he was reaching through there was a horrendous crunch as everything below the joint hung limp he tried pulling out his arm but the cross stretched too far in either direction to remove without angling it something his dangling arm would not allow in an injury-induced panic he reached in his other hand to maneuver himself free but as he did i yang to upwards with all my might successfully snapping his other elbow for a moment he just screamed as the skin around the crucifix smoked and sizzled the scream soon

died down though as convulsions set in he shook harshly at first rattling against the door but eventually the tremor slowed and finally stopped as he became completely still and catatonic now take it out take it out he weakly pleaded i ignored him though and instead set about exiting the cell i climbed up into the metal cot affixed to the wall and reached up for the top of the brick where there was a small gap to the ceiling My reach was a little shy of the mark however so i hopped to the ground and carefully stacked

the paint buckets on the jutting platform before i made the climb i reached for the tarp and brought it with me shoving it into the crevice before me then i once again tried the ledge of the brick this time managing to grasp it and pull myself up and in i pushed the heap of tarp forward as i crawled further in causing it and myself to come tumbling down into a cell on the other side of the wall as i placed my weight and hand down on what turned out to be just there i fell hard

onto the opposing cot smashing my shoulder and involuntarily grunting in pain i moaned as i rolled off the bunk onto the concrete floor i took a moment to collect myself then hobbled through the door holding my shoulder as i went to deal with the subdued demon in the hallway hey bud he bargained in a lethargic whisper his right arm still trapped in the door why don't you why don't you take this thing out of me well we could call it even yeah i don't think that's gonna happen bud i snarled as i pulled both pairs

of cuffs from my pocket You [ __ ] he meekly began as he tried lunging forward before ultimately falling back against the wall and being overcome by a fit of raspy coughs i still cautious stepped over to the door and worked the cross through the slot his arms fell limp to his side as he hunched over lifelessly i pushed down onto his stomach and pulled his broken limbs behind him cuffing his wrist tightly i grabbed the third pair of cuffs that he himself had on his side and fastened them around his ankles he made no

attempt to fight me as i did so and i was extremely grateful for that with oats shackled i leaned back against the brick and let myself slide down its surface i breathed deeply in and out as i cleared my mind of everything around me when i was sufficiently calm i switched the dial on the walkie back to my dad's station and press the talk button i i have oats i said sounding more exasperated than i intended you got him i knew you would you need any help getting him outside now i'll figure something out how

are things going for you all right well if you sure you got it i uh well i got the gas and doused the tower stairs but But i asked there uh there weren't any flesh crows in the cave and well when i got back to lincoln father thomas his voice trailed off in an unwilling apprehension to deliver the news yeah what about father thomas well his body it was gone so you