Panic Room

Part five; the second

That last chapter was a little bit spooky, but I love it so much.

Wednesday; 1998; The panic room; Luna; 19:20

Luna screamed and ran to the white wall. She hammered on it with her fists until she heard a metallic thud and a hole appeared to her right. She ran through it, and was instantly grabbed by a pair of strong hands and tied up. She was placed on a chair and turned to face Morfran. He was standing a few yards away, looking at her. He spoke softly, but Luna caught every word. "So, Luna, how did you like your first taste of the panic room?" Luna opened her mouth but closed it again. So. That's what it was called. The panic room. Luna thought that it was fitting considering what she had just witnessed. Luna sighed and talked to Morfran in a voice barley above a whisper. "What was in there? Where did I go? How does it work? Please!" Morfran looked at her, then turned and began to speak.

"Many years ago, when I was sitting in my, what should we say, office, I got to thinking. Doing what I did, I had many enemies. I had to find a secure way of holding them. I created a room that projects your worst fears into a sort of dream reality. You are not truly experiencing it, but sort of imagine that you are. Understand?"

"No!" Luna cried and held up her hands for Morfran to see. "if it was inside my head, how do you explain this?" Morfran leaned close to Luna and stared at her dirty fingernails. He stepped back, obviously confused. "Perhaps. Curious. Very curious. Maybe..."

"What? What's curious?"

"Maybe, maybe you did move. Maybe the reality is becoming too strong..." Luna lowered her hands, shaking, remembering what the thing in the room had said to her. 'Have a dance with death.' She had almost had to dance with death, but she had gotten away. Barely, that was true, but she had still escaped. Luna sighed as Morfran walked away and said something indistinct to three men standing not far from her. One of them hurried away and came back a short while later, dragging somebody behind him. He was hooded and cloaked, and tried to resist the pull, but could not. He was brought in front of Luna and had his hood ripped off by Morfran. The boy had sandy hair and blue eyes flecked with green. He looked at Luna with sorrow in those beautiful eyes as her mouth dropped open. "You?" She said in disbelief and he nodded sadly. Morfran made a movement and grabbed the boy's arms, pinning them behind his back and pulling a knife from somewhere inside his cloak. Luna screamed, as did the boy, and together they moved, but neither got away. Morfran tightened his grip and Luna rocked on her chair, still bound and tied. The boy stopped struggling, only when Morfran pushed the tip of the blade into the base of the boy's throat. It was light, but a drop of blood appeared and dripped down his neck and out of sight. Morfran turned to Luna and she saw the lamp-like eyes watching her intently. "Do you know who this Luna?" Morfran asked and Luna snarled back at him.

"Let him go Morfran. Let him go and..." She faltered on the last word.

"And what Luna? Are you really willing to do something for me in exchange for the life of a boy that you barely know? Oh yes Luna, I know that you ran into him at school. I know that you only saw him as a tall, handsome stranger. There one moment and gone the next. But what you didn't realise is that you did know him. And he knew you. From long ago Luna, do you remember?" Luna shook her head in disbelief. But it was impossible. He was dead.

"But was he?" Morfran asked and Luna jerked her head. It was as if he had read her mind. "Did he really die Luna? You weren't there. There's no way of knowing for sure." The boy struggled harder against Morfran's grip and the knife was pushed deeper into his throat.

"Michael. Why don't you explain to our young friend here what really happened that night in Australia?" Luna gasped and stared at the boy in a whole new light. Michael? It couldn't be! He had died. Hadn't he? "I... I thought... but the sake... your parents... Michael?" he nodded again and she shook her head, not daring to believe it.

"I can explain everything Luna." Michael said, and continued at her look. "That night in Australia did happen. A snake crawled into my tent, but it didn't bite me. It wasn't a normal snake. It was a sort of,"

"animatronic. "Luna finished the sentence for him.

"Exactly. It was like an animatronic. It called me. I don't know how, but it was calling my name. Like whispering it. It left the tent, still calling my name, and I followed it. Once we were far enough away from the tent, it transformed into a man. Not like a bibbity-bobbity-boo transformation, like a growth. It kind of formed a man and he took me away. He took me to an old tree, and he pushed a branch or something and the whole thing tipped back. We walked for a really long time, and eventually we came out here.

"He explained about S.N.A.K.E, that stands for Silence, Nialisim, Acceptance, Keepers of Eternity, and told me that I needed to stay here. He told me that he knew that I was in close contact with you, and that someday, we must try to recruit you. Luna, that snake that you saw, that was me. I am so sorry, I was trying to warn you. Look."

Michael started to twist and shake and suddenly, he started to shrink. He grew smaller and flatter and lengthened, until he represented the snake that Luna had seen the other day. She cried out and several things happened at once. Michael made a mad dash for the door and Luna screamed. Morfran slammed his foot down on Michael's back and it broke with a sickening crunch. Luna screamed and blood squirted from the break in the bone. Morfran smiled at Luna and she realised for the first time how evil he really was. "Michael!" She screamed and he began to transform again. It was worse that when he was a snake however. 

His neck had been broken and so had his back. 

Blood was pouring down and it covered his entire body. He shivered in agony and gave Luna one last sad look.

 "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you sooner Luna." He said softly. "If I had, you wouldn't be in this position. I tried to come to you at school but Clair. She...She's in S.N.A.K.E, Luna. She's a part of the agency. She saw me on the bus and took your glasses to stop you seeing me. She tripped you because I was walking to meet you and when I came to tell you who I was, she was there. She was behind you. You didn't see her, but I did. She...She was standing there, slowly shaking her head. Her cronies, they're genuinely horrible but Clair. Clair's...Evil. She's completely evil Luna. She's crazy. I...I'm sorry that I let her intimidate me. I should have said something. I...I'm so sorry Luna. I love you. I've missed you more than anybody all these years away. Please forgive me! Just...Just find it in your heart to do that and I can die knowing I was forgiven." 

Those where that last words that Michael Phillips ever spoke. As he took his last, wheezing breath and dropped his head to the floor, Luna sobbed harder than ever. "I forgive you Michael. Of course I forgive you. I love you too. There wasn't a day that I didn't think of you, of how much I wished you were there with me." Luna's sobs redoubled as she stared at his lifeless corpse. Not only had she have to come to peace with him dying once but she had to witness his death again. Luna closed her eyes as she felt strong hands grab her from behind and drag her away, and she didn't even move as she heard the metal door open and felt the hands grab her again and throw her in, the thunk of the closing door echoing for as long as she could hear.