Descent

Descent: Prologue

The detective slowly entered the corridor, one arm holding his gun and the other holding a flashlight, it's light being the only thing illuminating the corridor. 

His nostrils were invaded by a putrid smell that was completely indescribable, forcing him to step out of the room, trying his best not to vomit up his food from earlier. 

Gathering himself, taking a deep breath he went back into the corridor and continued down, he noted that there was a constant drip. 

The corridor itself was damp, with tables and other various pieces of furniture in ruins lying around him, causing him to move at a slowed rate. He would occasionally hear the crack of shattered glass underneath his boots. 

After what felt like forever he saw a light further on. 

Not rushing, trying not to make much noise, the putrid smell growing worse with each step. 

He felt his ear's pulsate as his heart pumped blood around his system violently, his breathing coming out at a short rapid pace. 

And then he turned the corner. 

Everything froze as he saw... saw this thing propped up on a table, with a life support machine beside it, with tubes pushed through this things skin. 

Now, the detective could no longer hold back his food. 

Gathering himself he walked back into the room and looked around, noticing that there was a folder beside the thing. 

He walked over, putting his gun away, pulling out white latex gloves and sliding them on. Opening the folder, he saw there was a page with a man's picture, his driver's license and a note stuck to it. 

The note stood out, it had a yellowish tint to the paper, with red ink used to write on it, and the ink spelled out: 

"THAT IS HIM NOW" 

The detective's hand went to his face, while his eyes turned to the thing. the man. 

He saw it now, the shape of the torso with the head. The eyes were covered with bandages, the mouth sewn shut, with no hair on the face at all. He saw the ears were cut off and dry blood covering where they should be. 

The limbs had been cut cleanly off and cauterized. 

And the most sickening thing was, the man was still alive. 

*** 

The detective sat in his car, watching as forensics struggled to find anything about the killer, the killer who had become notorious over the last month or so. 

He lit a cigarette and watched as his partner came over to his car, tapping on his window as she stood outside. 

He listened the the slight screech of the glass as it rubbed against the the rubber lining it whilst it came down. 

"Do you think it was him again?" his partner asked, her eyes held down by bags under her eyes. She had been suffering from nightmares, as they all have. 

"It fits him, no?" His voice a low drone, taking a drag from his cigarette. 

She sighed and rubbed her temples. 

"What the f*** is going on lately? Why can't we have normal crime for once?" her voice carried weight as it drifted through the air. 

He turned away to watch the man being rushed out to the ambulance, finishing off his cigarette and tossing it out the window. 

"Maybe someone hates us" 

*** 

The man's was named Jeffery Oduio. He was the head of a small but rising business, he had a wife and a child on the way. 

He was considered by most, a regular, if not, a little quirky of a man. Little did they know what kind of monster was hidden beneath that thin layer of quirkiness. 

The man was a pedophile, having paid off higher up people to let him loose on multiple occasions. 

But being a pedophile wasn't enough for Jeffery, this man wasn't satisfied with just taking the innocence of people who could barely understand the real world, but he liked to torture them, he enjoyed the power it gave him, he loved the thrill of slowly choking the life from a child. 

So, I took away all his power, all his senses, everything. 

This thing  didn't deserve to simply die. He deserved to live in pure agony for whatever miserable years he had left, which I may have cut in half. I started with his tongue, slicing it out, making sure he couldn't speak no more. 

I pulled each tooth to make sure that he would never be capable of speaking again. 

After this, I moved to his limbs. I sawed every limb off, taking my time, making sure he would not bleed out, feeding him baby foods, usually force feeding him. Once he had no limbs, I cauterized the wounds and the areas around the stumps I had made. 

Once I had done this, I allowed him to heal and nursed him ever so slightly for a week. 

I then took his hearing by destroying his ear drums, then his eye sight by taking both eyes from his skull. 

The man was alive, trapped within his body, which would be his cell. 

The only sense he would have is touch, but I didn't have enough time to take that away. 

***

Standing up from his journal, the tall man looked into the mirror, into his blue, empty eyes, looking down and seeing his mask. 

The mask was made from burlap, with stitching that went over the eyes, in an x shape, and the same stitching over the mouth area, doing multiple x's forming a grotesque smile. He hated this mask but it was necessary.