Cultist

Chapter 23, The End

WARNING: this chapter contains a lot of violence and mention of blood so just be aware of that before you start reading it! Enjoy!

(Daniel's POV)

I was not prepared for what I saw in that room. It was the room with the tubes that filled with blood, the dreaded Warm Bath. But I assumed it would be me in there, I assumed Simon would stuff me in one and maybe this time not drain the blood before I suffocated. No. This was much much worse.

I didn't know where to begin really, there were 2 glass tubes on either side of the room, they were hooked up to the pipes that pumped the blood in but a computer base and a lock sealing up a stand with a big red button on the left of both of them. The room had lights only on the two tubes, and then inside the tubes were already 2 people.

To my right, David.

To my left, Max.

"I'll tell you how this works. I would have liked you to just kill both of them but I don't think we are there yet. So, I have a key. This key will unlock either buttons that you can push to stop the tubes from filling all the way up with blood. When you use that key for a button, the keyhole will heat up and the key will melt inside of it causing the key to be stuck and unusable. You have 5 minutes, because I'm feeling generous, to choice which button you will push and which life you will save." Simon said, he opened my palm, placed the key in the middle and closed my fingers around it.

"If you don't push a button within 5 minutes the key holes will close and both of them will perish by choking on blood. So I suggest you get to it." Simon continued, he turned around and walked out of the door, shutting it and locking it behind him. I heard the click and I saw a bit timer start, 5 minutes counting down from the moment the door was locked. I rushed up to the tubes and flung my head between them. David was pounding on the glass, his eyes bursting with tears while Max stood slumped over, looking unconscious.

"Max! David! No no no! This can't be real! No! I didn't want you two to get wrapped up in this! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" I shouted, David placed his hand on the glass tube and stared at me.

"Daniel, I know this wasn't your plan, I know you didn't want this. But what is important right now is that you save Max." David spoke, I could just barely make out his voice from the outside of the thick tube. I looked at him, my vision blurry as I continued to cry.

"What? But David!" David shushed me, not letting me finish. He placed his hands on the glass and I placed mine on the other side of them. I couldn't feel his touch, it made me angry and hurt.

"You have to save Max. There is no possible way we can all get out of this. You need to open his tube, please." David said again, I cried harder. I didn't want David to die, but I couldn't let Max die either. Max and I didn't see eye to eye on anything and he was even the one who outed me in the first place, but Max was a kid and he didn't deserve this. David didn't either. This whole thing was just fucked up. I wanted to save them both, but if what Simon said was true, I couldn't.

"It's ok Daniel. I will be ok." David told me, smiling weakly as he did. Tears still flooding his eyes. I shook my head at him and desperately tried to hold his hand through the dreaded glass of the Warm Bath. I couldn't feel his touch and I wanted to, one last time. This was it. I didn't want to let David go, not like his. David had nothing to do with Zeemuug or my cult or anything. His only crime was falling in love with me, and now he was going to drown in blood because of it. This was all my fault, a great, amazing, innocent man was going to die at my hands.

I couldn't live without David, I wouldn't be able to function without him. His awkward quotes to his cheery attitude, all of him changed my life for the better, and all I did was make his life worse, leading him straight to his untimely death. The clock beeped as it counted down, it now showed 4 minutes remaining. I banged on the glass of David's tube trying so hard to crack it open and get him out, but nothing happened.