The Haunted Town

#12 - Trar'en

"Oh, its you. Fancy you showing up here." Brianna tittered, covering her mouth with her pale hand.
"You forced my hand. I told you to leave the girl alone yet here you are."
"You know that she is a problem, right? Like all the others, we need to eliminate her." She said, pointing in Simone's direction from over her shoulder. Matthew just tilted his head.
"I told you that I will handle her."
"I've always done your dirty work Trar'gen. Always. Why is it that this time I can't get my hands dirty?"
"Because you've been reckless and impatient. You didn't even know about Mathew Brown for three whole years." Matthew said. Simone frowned. What was he saying?
"You were there too, that night. You should've known about him if I didn't." Brianna shot back which made Matthew smile. A sinister smile.
"I did. I waited for you to realize your mistake but you didn't." Matthew's words were sliding out with a lazy glee. Nothing was making sense to Simone. She wanted to run back to her house, to the safety of her closet but when she tried to take a step back, she jerked in surprise. Looking down, she gasped in horror. Shadows were pooling around her and gripping onto her legs.
"And here you are, wearing his face like a trophy after killing him." Brianna laughed mirthlessly which made Simone's skin prickle with fear.

"I had to because you were not capable of recognizing your error from three years ago. I caught him communicating with my friend over there." Now, Matthew looked up at Simone. Even though they were but a few feet apart, Simone could see that his face held no warmth for her.
"All the more reason to get rid of this problem, right here and right now." Brianna intoned, patting Matthew's cheeks as if he were a kid. Almost instantly, Simone felt the shadows crawl up her legs. When she opened her mouth to scream, something cold silenced her.
"I didn't say that you can do that." Matthew said softly. Brianna stilled and turned to face him.
"What did you say?"
"She is not yours to kill, Quinlynn. I really appreciate all the hard work you did to subdue her but I'd like you to hand her over to me."
Simone let out a muffled scream and shook her vigorously but the shadows were holding onto her tightly. She couldn't feel her hands or legs anymore.
"No. Never. I hate it when you keep secrets from me, do things out of ordinary. I know pretty well how it ended the last time." Brianna said, giving him a sweet smile as she walked around him. Matthew just chuckled in response.
"You know you can't fight me, Quinlynn. Give up."
"Never, sweetheart." Brianna whispered into his ear from over his shoulder before her eyes caught Simone's. Simone couldn't breathe and she closed her eyes. Praying desperately. She felt herself being pulled smoothly.

It all happened like a thunder flashing in the sky. One moment Simone was being choked and frozen to death, the next moment she felt herself thrown back. Horrified, she opened her eyes. Shadows were diving to catch her. Behind them, she could see Quinlynn, her face all contorted in concentration. Simone let out a scream. She was going to hit the road beneath her and die. Just like that.
"QUINLYNN!!" Somewhere close to her, Matthew roared. His voice total unhuman. Just before Simone could hit the ground, arms reached out to catch her as smoothly as if she had slipped not threw back into the air some good fifty feet. It was Matthew. He had saved her. Before Simone could comprehend what was going around her, shadows closed in. She thrashed in Matthew's arms but he held her close. His grip was ice cold on her warm skin. When the shadows formed a blanket over them, she struggled to breath. Her lungs screamed at the lack of oxygen. She could not breathe.
"Ma....ma..." She tried to call Matthew but failed. She gave up fighting then and welcome the darkness that clouded her mind.

༼;'༎ຶ ༎ຶ༽༼;'༎ຶ ༎ຶ༽

Cold. She felt something cold around her ankles and around her wrists. Shadows. She snapped open her eyes only to gasp in alarm. She pulled at her arms and legs but they didn't budge. She was tired down with iron chain. On a chair. Thankfully, her mouth wasn't taped. She screamed.
"SOMEONE!!" She called but heard no response. She had no idea how long she cried and screamed before she collapsed back into the chair, tired. Only then she allowed herself to examine the room she was in. It was some kind of basement with a staircase just a foot behind her while a chair and a table adorned corner of the room. In the corner on Simone's right, there was a small bed. So she was locked up. Where? She did not know. With her head heavy and eyelids aching with all the crying and screaming, Simone let herself drift off to sleep.

༼;'༎ຶ ༎ຶ༽༼;'༎ຶ ༎ຶ༽

When Simone came around again, she was lying down on something soft but she still could feel something cold around her one ankle and wrist. She cursed and opened her eyes.
"You're alive." She looked up at Matthew's voice. He was leaning against the table with his hands in his pants' pockets. He looked at ease but officious at the same time. At the sound of his deep voice coming from the mouth of the boy she knew, she shuddered.
"Where am I?" She managed to ask in a whisper, her eyes trained on the roof or what appeared to be. No, it wasn't the roof but the shadows. Shadows all over her head.
"It's the place where we keep the people before killing them off. People who are too troublesome to bet let out in Elmdale." He replied calmly.
"What do you plan on doing with me?"
"As of now, nothing. What I am and what I want, you will need time to be willing to listen to it all. I believe now is not the time." He said, his voice fading away.
"WELL, IT IS TIME YOU MONSTER." Simone shouted, facing the table but he was gone. There was no one. Above her, she shadows moved before going still again.

For the next few days or hours, she could not tell, Simone kept drifting in and out of sleep. Sometimes she saw Matthew but he barely ever said more than a word or two. He had freed her wrist but one of her ankles was still chained to the iron bed. Simone had tried to move it but it didn't even budge. Simone was fed too. She never saw who brought her the meals but she had her ideas. All she saw in the room she was in shadows. Everywhere. They never touched her but seemed to be keeping a watch on her. She had tried talking to them, shouting at them but it barely got a reaction out of them. Then one day, Matthew brought her food tray himself.

"How long are you going to keep me here?" She asked him, eyeing the meat balls and spaghetti on the tray.
"Till you are ready to listen to me and believe me." He replied, his cold deep voice making her shudder. He was scary, no matter how harmless he appeared to be. There was this aura around him which made her feel that he wasn't someone she could mess with.
"Look, you are keeping me locked up here with creepy shadows all around. If you expect me to believe you and trust you then you are mistaken." She shot back, sending bits of her food from her mouthful. A disgusted looked passed over his face before it became passive once more.
"Did you know that we were created with a curse?" Instead of reply, Simone nodded vigorously. "A curse casted for revenge. A curse that doomed the people of Elmdale for eternity." Matthew had started pacing around the table as he talked.
"Who...why would someone do that?" She found herself asking.
"For revenge. Man goes too far for revenge. He is blinded by it and eventually, it destroys him." Matthew was looking up at the shadows now.
"Shadows, are they also result of the curse?"
"No. We are the creatures of darkness, we summoned them to be our eyes and ears." He said, looking down at her from over his shoulder. An amusing smile was playing in his lips but his eyes were calculating, evil. Simone looked away.

"You are not Matthew Brown, are you?" Simone asked, a huge lump forming in her throat once more.
"No, I'm not."
"Then who are you, really?" She whispered, afraid to know the answer. With the way he smiled, her heart went cold.
"Someone you know very well." No, no, it couldn't be.
"Show me your real face." She asked him, closing her eyes and praying desperately. When she opened them, she let out a sob. It was Nathan Woods.

༼•̫͡•༽ ｡･:*:･ﾟ༼•̫͡•༽,｡･:*:･ﾟ༼•̫͡•༽   

Well, well, well. Did you guys expect this? XD