Short Story: Condemned Orpan - The Stalls by James Paradie

SS Note: Alright, finally the second coming of Condemned Orphan! Yes, I can sense your excitement right now! You're not fooling me! I'm very happy with the response I got from the first excerpt from it and decided to give you more. Sorry it took me awhile, but I do work on tons of other projects that take up a lot of my time. Enjoy! 

This story is rated M for Mature Audiences

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       The doorknob begins to turn and Aidan doesn’t have much time to decide to stand and fight or escape. He chooses to escape, because he doesn’t know what he would do anyway. He goes through the heating vent, which is wide enough for him, and comes to the other side, which is where the bathroom stalls are. He see’s blood coming from the end of the vent and looks like someone was dragged out the door. He looks to see if the coast is clear, but there is barely any visible light in the room, because the light fixture on the roof has been smashed somehow and is hanging from the wire.

          He doesn’t see anything and decides it’s okay to get out of the vent. There’s a sink in front of him and a stall to his right. He hears something breathing heavy right next to the door of the small bathroom. He cautiously tries to avoid it but the door bursts open, and on the other side is an orphan with his eyes wide and his hands stretched. It reaches for Aidan, but grabs for the sink and hangs on. He sees that the unnamed orphan’s legs are gone and this long, thin, rotten flesh creature is inside of him.

          Aidan kicks the dead orphan in the face as the creature lets go and sinks back into the toilet. Aidan breathes heavy with tears coming down his face.

          He stutters in fear, “Jesus Christ, what the fuck is going on? What was that thing?”

          He looks and see’s disemboweled legs right in front of the toilet. He imagines the scared orphan trying to find refuge there, but only found a painful death. One question in his mind is, Will that be me next?

          The door to the bathroom opens as Aidan is prepared to either fight or to die. His mental image is of one of those possessed nun’s coming in to rip his face off. But it’s not that. Its …

          “Tim?”

          Tim rushes over to Aidan and hugs him like a scared child. “Oh my God, Aidan! It’s you!”

          “Calm down. What is going on out there?”

          “I told you, Aidan. I told you that Dexter was right.”

          “Yes, I met Dexter.”

          “See! Why the hell couldn’t you believe me the first time?”

          “Shh! Because at the time I didn’t believe in ghosts.”

          “Well, do you now? You stubborn prick.”

          Tim is obviously scared and when he gets scared – he gets kind of mean with his words.

          “Okay, you made your point. Something awfully wrong is going on here and me and you have to leave. Now.”

          “It’s not that easy.”

          “Why?”

          “Because these bastards are everywhere. There in the halls, upstairs, under the floors, in the damn sewers for fuck sakes!”

          Aidan grabs him by the collar. “If you don’t stop talking loudly, I’m going to headbutt your teeth down your throat. Got it?”

          “Yeah,” he says rather quickly.

          “Now the main entrance is only downstairs. The stairs are maybe fifty feet from here. We can make it.”

          “I think you just jinxed us.”

          “What?”

          “By saying something like that. You don’t say it’s rather easy, because this is not going to be easy, Aidan.”

          “Look, my big friend. We stick together, we’ll be fine.”

          Moaning comes from outside the door. They must talk in whispers now.

          “What’s outside the door when you came here?”

          “Nothing. There’s a nun just a few doors away from here. Maybe it’s her.”

Tim starts to weep.

          Aidan puts his arm around his shoulder. “Look, let’s find something we can hit her with.”

          “You can’t hit a nun, you ninny! That’s like some unwritten rule bound by God himself.”

          “Tim, whatever sense of humanity that they had left is long gone now. Whatever it is that is here sucked it out of them. They’re not shells of their former selves, but something entirely different.”

          Tim gets down on his hands and knees; he shuts off a valve under the sink. Then he simply pounds his fist down onto the pipe and it comes undone, dropping to the floor.

          Tim gets up and holds the pipe in his hands with a smirk. However, Aidan is not smirking.

          “What?” Tim asks.

          “How’d you know that was loose?”

          “It’s where Smoky hides his weed.”

          “I hope we find some of them. They can’t all be dead.”  

          “I don’t know, Aidan. Things are not looking too bright.”

          Aidan knows this is true. “Come on.”

          Aidan heads for the door and cracks it open just enough to peek outside.