Hell's Reign (Patrick Stump/Fall Out Boy Fanfiction)

Chapter 2 - Apocalypse

                  

The next morning came slowly, and Victoria was reluctant to wake up. She didn't know it yet, but she had every reason to be so. She sat up in bed slowly. The room was still dark, because the curtains were drawn, but a sliver of light lined the floor beneath them. Tori climbed lethargically from bed and grabbed her phone and her bag, heading for the bathroom. She turned the light on and turned her phone on. It was nearly ten in the morning already; So much for making it to school. She sent a quick text to Jess, asking if she was awake yet, and then climbed into the shower.

            When she got out and wrapped a towel around her head, she grabbed her phone to see that Jess hadn't replied yet. Rolling her eyes, she got dressed and did her hair, pulling it into a pony tail when she was done anyways. Then, with a sigh, she threw her bag over her shoulder and pushed the dresser away from the door. She wondered briefly why she had been so nervous last night, but quickly shook it off and walked out into the sunlight.

            The morning was warm already, and as she squinted in the morning light, she looked around with a sense of foreboding. There was no one; Not a person in sight. The parking lot was empty now, and through the window of the little lobby, she could see that it was empty as well. Still, she brushed it off as nothing and turned towards Annabelle's door, which was next to her own. She knocked and waited a moment, but then noticed with a chill that the door was already open. Not only that, but it looked as though it had been forced open. The lock had been stripped from the wood, and the frame of the door was scratched up. Nervously, Tori gave the door a gentle shove and it creaked open to reveal a ransacked motel room. The bedsheets were lying half on the floor, a lamp was turned over, and the end table had been broken right off of its legs. What horrified Tori most, however, was none of this. It was the dark stain on the navy blue rug, and the complete absence of her friend.

            "A-Anna?" She whispered, as if she might just come walking out of the bathroom, like nothing was wrong. "Annabelle?" Of course, there was no answer. Tori backed out of the room nervously, standing on the doorstep and glancing towards Jess's room beside her. That door had been forced open too. Heading back into Annabelle's room, Tori bent down and pulled one of the loose and splintered table legs from what was left of the end table. She held it tightly in one hand, her mind reeling over the fact that she even felt it necessary to have a weapon.

            Hesitantly, she stepped back out into the light and shuffled toward Jess's door. She froze halfway there when she heard a noise coming from inside the room. It didn't sound like the intruder she had been expecting, but like an animal. A low growling noise, followed by the sound of something being dragged over the carpet. Tori stood paralyzed for a long moment, then reached out slowly and pressed three fingers against the door. It fell open slowly and silently, not creaking as Annabelle's door had, and Tori was thankful for that because when she leaned around the corner to see into the room, she nearly screamed.

            The sight she found in Jess's room made her stomach churn and she nearly brought up whatever food was left in her system from dinner the night before. She did gag, her hand covering her mouth as she reeled back from the doorway, but she couldn't look away. In the middle of the floor, lying in a pool of her own blood, was Jess. She was dead, there was no question about it, but that wasn't even the worst of it. It was Annabelle, who was very much still alive, and was crouched over her friend with her lips to her neck. Except, it wasn't Annabelle at all. It was an animal, in Annabelle's form, and it wasn't just her lips to Jess's neck. It was teeth, and tongue, and saliva. And she was ripping the flesh clean from Jess's neck, growling and slurping as she gnawed and chewed on the stringy, veiny chunk of human being that she had in her mouth.