"Okay, okay, okay, okay!" Lynnette repeatedly and breathlessly said inside her head as she laid upon
the floor. "Okay, Lynn, you need to pull your damn self together and think. Apparently, Cloyse was right
about his fairy dust, so what we need to do is find some way or another to break free, because I can
hear both of those fuckers inside this building now!"
With as much energy, will and hope as she could collect, Lynnette tried so hard to move at least one
finger on her right hand, but no matter what it would not budge. She tried again and again but to no
avail whatsoever.
"Okay, okay, at least Isaiah has stopped crying." She panted. "Now, if I could somehow just open at
least one eye, I could see what he was up to."Her eyes were wide open, but the sight in them was
black.
She had no clue as how to even begin with regaining at least one tiny glimpse of light. She could hear
the boy moving about in the room, babbling and apparently playing with something that in her ears
sounded like a heavy piece of steel.
"Baby...be...quiet." She struggled so hard to utter.
Just trying to push out one word felt like trying to strain mud through a peephole; Lynnette's vocal cords
were actually beginning to hurt to the point where she wanted to give up speaking and focus solely on
her limbs.
"Okay, girl, you have to concentrate. Think about what you want to do and just do it, because I can now
smell smoke and it smells like it's near."
She fought with the resiliency of a titan, attempting to move one finger or two after another, but yet and
still, nothing would act. Lynnette wanted to cry, but even something as simple as tears would not form
inside her eyes.
"Mama," Isaiah blurted out real loud.
The shock of hearing him yell should have sent a wave of fear down her entire body, but Lynnette could
feel nothing physically. She wanted to tell him to be quiet, or better yet, close his mouth with her own
hand.
"Please...stop." Lynnette grunted in a monotone fashion.
She listened as Isaiah romped about the room before the growls of the beasts from a far distance came
into earshot.
"Isaiah...shut...up." She began to bleed from the mouth.
Lynnette had experienced helplessness before, from the night in the bathroom with Isaac, from being
upstairs with Arthur, but at that juncture, lying on the floor and not being able to at least see her son,
the feeling of powerlessness was the ugliest and most soul crushing bit of ungodliness she had ever
tasted. It was not only frightful, but also demeaning.
Just as Lynnette gave thought to another attempt at moving, something began to rattle at the door. She
could tell that it was behind the door for the simple fact that she could hear the doorknob twist from side
to side.
Out of instinct, Lynnette's eyes opened wide. She could hear Isaiah walk towards the door and pound
against it. There wasn't a single bone or nerve inside her body that didn't want to wake up and scream
at that moment.
"Don't...Isaiah."
After about a few seconds the door swung open. Lynnette could hear footsteps stomp inside the
apartment before the door slammed shut.
"Bernice, where the fuck are you," a man's loud, stern voice shouted.
Lynnette's eyeballs rolled about in their respective sockets in the hopes that they would mercifully come
back to life.
"I...I was in the kitchen cooking your supper." A woman timidly answered.
The smell of the room unexpectedly changed from an old must to that of the aroma of food, frying
chicken to be exact.
"Bitch, I told your ass to meet me downstairs around five o'clock! Where the fuck were you?" The man
stomped his heavy foot on the floor.
"I...I must've lost track of time, honey." The lady stuttered about.
"Fuck that honey shit, bring your ass here!"
Lynnette could hear the two scuffle about on the floor, but for the life of her she couldn't hear a
mumbling word from Isaiah. She couldn't figure out just what on earth was happening, and just knowing
that her child was right in the middle of the melee only made her want to fight all the harder.
"God...please...help...me." She groaned."Okay, God, you've sat back and watched me and my son go
through all of this, now, I am asking you! I'm begging you, fucking help us! I am asking for your help!
Please, fucking help me!"
Lynnette bore down as hard as she could, straining nearly every muscle inside her stationary body.
Just listening to the man scream and toss his lady from one end of the room to the other only caused
Lynnette's ire to increase to a level that she never imagined it could reach.
"Okay, Lynn, just focus." She breathlessly gasped. "Just focus on it and it will happen! Focus on one
finger; it doesn't matter which one, just one!"
She thought of moving just one finger, but all that seemed to do was propel even more blood from out
of her mouth from the straining.
"Fuck that, I'm gonna blow your black ass away!" The man in the room roared with blustery rage.
"Get up, get up, get up, get up, get up, get up, get up, get up, get up, get up, get up!" She hollered over
and over again in her head as astonishingly loud as she could.
"Please, Woody, don't shoot me!" The woman begged the man.
"Get the fuck up, bitch!"
Right then, like someone or something had struck her over the face, her right index finger suddenly
budged. Lynnette's eyes opened as wide as they could while she kept on trying to move. She was
finding that the more she kept on pushing, the more feeling began flooding back into her body, like a
slow trickle from a drain.
"Don't stop, just keeping going!"
Her one finger began stretching in and out before she realized that the other fingers on her right hand
could do the same. Before long, her entire right arm became mobile, so much so that she began
pounding on the floor.
"Come...here, Isaiah." She spoke more fluidly.
"Bang, bang, bang!" she heard him scream out.
"Isaiah, come here!" Her muffled voice started to clear up.
Lynnette's entire body at that stage began to take on an exuberant surge of energy. No, she didn't have
the strength to just leap to her feet like a cat, but just being able to operate her own limbs made her feel
as though she had risen from the grave.
Lynnette managed to roll over onto her stomach before a glimmer of light flickered in her left eye like
someone was flashing a candle in front of her.She waved her hands in front of her face before feeling
Isaiah touch her forehead. Lynnette immediately grabbed her child and held on to him.
The more the man yelled the more her vision was gradually coming back to her.After about four
minutes what Lynnette could see in front of her was fog with shapes within it. It was certainly a lot
better than what she had been seeing earlier. Standing above both her and Isaiah was a large man,
and a cowering woman's silhouette. The man had his gun pointed directly at the woman's face before
he pulled the trigger and fired, causing her face to explode upon contact.
Lynnette screamed out in fright, which in turn caused the two beasts downstairs to roar. Before
Lynnette could even react, she watched as both the man that was standing with his gun and the
woman lying dead on the floor vanished right before her very eyes. The gun that the evil man was
holding simply dropped to the floor.
"Bang, bang, bang!" Isaiah pointed his finger and shouted.
"Hush, baby," Lynnette covered his mouth while scooting across the floor towards another room within
the apartment.
Still too weak to get to her own feet Lynnette carried Isaiah in her arms while listening to something big
gallop up each step and floor. She never once lost sight of the fact that they were still animals and that
their sense of hearing and smell was unmatched. She realized that not only did her screaming attract
them, but all the sweat and blood that she had secreted was layered all over the sixth floor.
"Oh, God," her teeth chattered.
From one corner of the dark, murky room to the other she searched and scanned before her eyes
caught sight of a ventilation shaft within one of the walls. The black, steel grate covering was hanging
loosely off its hinges. Lynnette crawled over and inspected the square hole before shoving Isaiah
inside.
From there she climbed inside herself and took the grate.Drug abuse and lack of food were the
reasons Lynnette could fit nearly perfectly inside the vent. It was tight and snug and moving was
halfway impossible, but both her and her son were still inside.
As she struggled to fit the grating onto its hinges she could hear one of the beasts come upon the sixth
floor. Instead of fidgeting with the grate Lynnette covered Isaiah's mouth as tight as she could and laid
down perfectly still inside the soot filled vent.
Outside the apartment door she could hear it growl and plod around before the door itself burst into
pieces. She saw just one of the demons come in; where the other could have been was another
mystery.The thing skulked and roared about each room before coming to a complete stop in the middle
of the living room floor where it both sniffed and licked up the blood that Lynnette had bled just
moments earlier. From there, it crept about until it managed to sniff out both mother and son in the
vent.
Lynnette watched as its fur appeared before its snout did. She began to slide backwards before the
beast ripped the grating right off the wall and reached inside with its massive paw after the two. It
roared and snarled at them like an enraged, rabid animal that couldn't attack its prey.Isaiah cried while
Lynnette kept pushing further and further backwards until her feet hit something solid.
She looked back to see another grating. She furiously kicked at the covering until it broke completely
off. Lynnette slid out of the vent saturated in nothing but black soot from head to toe. She then
attempted to get to her feet only to have them both give way, sending her collapsing to the floor.
She wanted to get angry, but she brushed it aside and used a window pane to propel herself upwards
before reaching down and picking up Isaiah. She limped towards the door and ever so carefully and
quietly opened it.
"Now, I need you to be very, very quiet." She whispered softly into Isaiah's face before creeping out into
the hallway, making sure to keep her eyes open for the other lurking beast.
As they passed by the apartment, they could hear the demon inside continue to rampage about, still
trying in earnest to reach its food.
Lynnette tip-toed down the hallway until she came to the stairs, the second she reached the first step
she could right away hear the other snarling.With the stealth of a mouse, Lynnette snuck over and
peeked down the flight of stairs to see it lurking about the first floor lobby between the moonlight's
beams like it was waiting on her.
But above and all around, something was burning. Parts of the ceiling were beginning to crumble into
ash right above Lynnette and Isaiah's heads. The stench of smoke began filling the sixth floor, and all
Lynnette could do was look down at the creature that had no idea that they were watching it from
above.
Lynnette kept her sons' mouth covered as she turned and tip-toed in the opposite direction down
the
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