No Control (Chris Motionless)

Chapter 46 - The Truth

I made it my first priority to help Chris into clean and dry clothing before I even bothered with taking care of the mess the bathroom was now in. Just like I had thought, Mackenzie had grabbed an oversized Type O Negative shirt of mine that I usually used as a sleep shirt. I held it out to him after he had dried himself off and he took it without a word. I glanced into the other half of my dorm room to find Kenzie wiping the blood spots off of the wood floor with makeup wipes. She was doing her best not to look in here as Chris changed his outfit and I scolded myself for not thinking of shutting the door to save them both from embarrassment. 

As I moved to the door to do just that, I caught sight of the blood stains on the once pristine wipes in Mackenzie's hand and reminded myself that it wasn't that out of the ordinary to forget things like that in such a strange situation as this. There was no proper way to go about something like this and it was clear that the three of us were all on edge at this point. 

"Okay, I'm all done. Now what?" Chris asked, clearly unsure what to do with himself.

"Come on, you should just rest in my bed until the others get here," I murmur as I take his hand to guide him out of the bathroom and away from all the remaining gore that was scattered and smeared around the room. 

His fingers tried to cling to mine as I slipped away from him once he was settled onto my mattress, intent on taking care of my plan. I just needed to see if Kim's theory would work, just to ease my mind, to hush that odd nagging worry. 

As I stepped back into the bathroom, Kenzie offered, "Do you want some help with taking care of the mess in there?"

I shook my head, "Just keep him company and get him a bandaid for his toe. I should be done with this in just a few minutes."

I pushed the door slightly shut, trying not to draw too much attention to myself while doing so. Then I pulled out a lighter from my pants pocket that I had snagged off of Lea's desk that she used for lighting candles when I knew that Chris hadn't been looking. I darted over to the tiny puddle of his blood, knowing that I wouldn't have too long before it would dry up. I didn't have time to hesitate or think about what I had intended. I inhaled sharply through my nose, flicked the lighter, and in a flash, I was given a miniature flame. 

Swallowing thickly I touched the fire to Chris's drop of blood and just like that it ignited like a match to gasoline. The bright orange flame shot up so swiftly and tall that I nearly fell back from my crouched position as I jerked back. Part of me wanted to reach out and touch the little flare just to reassure myself that I wasn't hallucinating. How was this even possible? It wasn't like blood was able to do things like that on its own. 

I rose to my feet, struggling to remain steady as I reached out to some of the blood that had dripped off of Chris's shoes and flicked the lighter once more to touch the fire to it. This blood did nothing, unlike Chris's, which told me two things, the blood he had been covered in hadn't been his own and something otherworldly could be residing inside him. I felt my throat tighten at that, had I really been involved with something that was actually evil this whole time? I resisted the urge to bolt out of the door with Mackenzie in tow, but I didn't know who else I might be putting in danger by doing so. Someone that might not even be a part of this could get hurt.

I reached into my hoodie pocket and gripped the heart-shaped locket wishing that I could just perform the binding ritual right now in the quiet of this bathroom, but there was no more of his blood to spare for it. I peeked through the crack in the door and found that Mackenzie was still searching for Lea's small first-aid kit. Chris seemed to have stopped bleeding at this point, but there was still a thin line of crimson clinging to the sole of his foot. 

My mind began to frantically try to rationalize what I had just seen happen. Maybe the tub had been what had set ablaze? So just to make sure, I held another flame to the side of the bath and stood there staring as all it did was leave a blackish smudge on the porcelain. Another thought popped up in my head, there was still the mark that was supposed to be on his skin. If I found that, it would further prove that Chris was a part of something clearly satanic. Why hadn't I thought to look for it when he was in the bathtub or when he was getting dressed?