The Wrath of Jeremy (15 page)

Michael saw Victor’s eyes and followed their
path to the vent, fear coming to his mind. He became nervous,
trying to get Victor’s green eyes off the vent lid. “No, you don’t
need a cross in order to pray.” Michael stopped his words and
waited for a reaction from Victor. Meanwhile, Gabriel noticed and
felt something rush against his legs. When he reached down to see
what it was, he felt fur—it was a fat rat, with poisonous teeth.
Gabriel heard taps of other rats coming down the tunnel, heading
straight for him and Jeremy. His hand covered his mouth, trying not
to scream in horror. He tapped Jeremy’s arm lightly, but with a
fast rhythm, and Jeremy turned to face him, also feeling a furry
object rubbing against his leg as well. Through the darkness,
Jeremy also knew what it was. Knowing they couldn’t escape any
other way, Jeremy also covered his own mouth, trying not to scream.
The big fat rat rubbed on Gabriel, and another rubbed on Jeremy,
and they both heard others coming toward them, hearing their
reverberations, the echoes, while they stared at the big, fat man,
Victor, who still stood soundless.

“I think you’re lying to me,” Victor said to
Michael, looking up at the vent more intimately. He observed the
bed was messed up a bit, with the mattress in a crooked, twisted
position. Also, he perceived scratch marks on the ground, leading
from where the vent hung, all the way to where the bed was now.
“Don’t you think it’s a little too late to be rearranging your
furniture?” Victor pushed Michael out of his way, and grabbed a
hold of the bed’s frame, dragging it over to where the vent hung,
and putting it up on its side. He embarked on the mission of
climbing it, stepping on the springs, bending them because of his
weight, while Jeremy looked directly at him, the vent allowing him
to be camouflaged. Jeremy turned to look at Gabriel through the
darkness, and then turned to look at Michael and Victor.

Victor reached a point where his face was up
to the vent and gawking at it. Jeremy felt and smelled his
rotten-egg breath that filled his mind with torture and
consternation. Jeremy saw the image of Victor getting even closer
to his face, with Michael seeking to think up something to say. The
rat on Jeremy and the one on Gabriel walked past them, as well as
the other rats they heard down the tunnel. Five, six, even ten rats
passed over their bodies, while they prayed they wouldn’t scream. A
small drop of sweat ran down Jeremy’s face, past his lips and
plummeted toward the vent, passing through the horizontal lines and
exiting into Michael’s room, dropping directly on Victor’s mouth.
Victor didn’t notice it, yet as he tasted the salt from Jeremy’s
sweat it made him even more curious as to what lay behind the vent
cover. Rapidly, Victor began to pull on the vent lid, and that’s
when Michael dashed over to the bed and pushed it, allowing Victor
to plummet to the ground, pulling off the vent lid with his grip,
and collapsing to the floor with the lid on him. The big black
rats, seven of them, all fell from the vent, plummeting directly on
Victor’s stomach, while the other rats hung from the vent, pulling
themselves up by the fear of falling. Jeremy and Gabriel moved down
the tunnel a bit and stopped, waiting for words to be said, to know
what was happening.

Victor got up in an angry fashion, shouting,
“Boy, I was waiting for you to do something like this, I guess you
have to go to the shock room now!” He grabbed Michael’s right hand
and slapped him across the face, and Michael’s blood shot through
his nostrils and landed on one of the walls of his room. Victor
picked up Michael’s body and dragged it out of the room like a rag
doll, stretching both Michael’s arms and not caring how much it
hurt Michael.

Jeremy heard Gabriel’s tears through the
darkness of the vent, so he turned around, directed his voice at
Gabriel and asked, “Where is he taking him?”

“To the shock room.” Jeremy noticed lights
down more on the tunnel’s wall, recognizing that each of them
detailed vents from rooms with lights in them. So Jeremy and
Gabriel began to travel through the dark tunnel of the vents and
tried desperately to get back to their rooms before anyone
discovered they were missing. As soon as they both reached
Gabriel’s vent, Gabriel looked through it and saw his own room.
Still crying from knowing what Victor was about to do to Michael,
Gabriel looked back at Jeremy, who saw Gabriel’s tears through the
light of his room. Unspoken words were given, both understanding
they faced reactions of responsibility. They both knew they
couldn’t help Michael, it was too late; only because if they did,
Michael would get beaten or shocked even more, and they would also
feel the physical pain. That’s when Gabriel turned to face his
room’s vent, and before he could climb through it, he heard a
shout. Two green eyes gawked at Gabriel through the vent, eyes
belonging to Victor’s plump image. Sinister breath was felt by
Gabriel, unknown evil was sensed against his flesh, as Victor
ripped off the vent cover and saw both Gabriel and Jeremy staring
at them with an evil glare, and smiling to them, as if he was going
to have fun torturing them. Gabriel screamed, hearing Victor yell
out, “Come here, you little bastards!” Gabriel and Jeremy crawled
in a rapid motion through the tunnel, not knowing where they were
going, not realizing they were trapped.

Victor jumped down the ladder-like bed that
belonged to Gabriel, in order to climb up to the vent in Gabriel’s
room. Once he jumped down, there stood Curtis, holding Michael’s
limp body, with his nose still gushing blood. “Curtis, take this
one to the shock room, I’ll be there in a little bit,” Victor said
to Curtis. He slapped Michael across the face again, and then
Curtis dragged Michael’s beat-up body out of Gabriel’s room. Victor
climbed up the bed again and tore the vent lid off its hinges
completely, trying to compress his big body through its hole.

Curtis dragged Michael’s body back to
Gabriel’s room and stared at Victor, watching him attempt to
squeeze through the small vent hole. “Listen, there’s no way you’re
going to catch them, you’re too big. Since I’m the doctor, I’ll get
them. You take Michael to the shock room; I’ll be there in a little
bit. Also, turn off all the cameras in the rooms and hallways, and
destroy the tapes from today, I don’t want Mary to see any of
this,” demanded Curtis. Victor jumped off Gabriel’s bed and Curtis
got up into the vent instead, beginning to search for Jeremy and
Gabriel, with the only light being sporadic, coming from the rooms
in Grewsal.

Victor dragged Michael out of the room, and
Curtis searched, feeling the heat from the vent passageway, as the
tunnel turned from hot to hotter, smoldering his naked hands almost
every time they touched the hot metal. Curtis realized that someone
had turned the heat back on, but instead of going back, he
continued his search. He figured out that their ventilation system
was like one big, confusing labyrinth, so he was paranoid, not
wanting to get lost. Curtis started to crawl faster and faster,
listening for Gabriel’s and Jeremy’s breaths as they ricocheted
throughout the tunnel. “I know who you are,” yelled Curtis, his
voice reaching Jeremy and Gabriel. “I know what your mission is,
you little shits!” he added, causing Gabriel to look at Jeremy with
fear engraved on his face.

“What is he talking about?” Gabriel
questioned.

Jeremy looked around the tunnel, in search of
a way out or a way in, while he answered Gabriel with, “Listen to
me, Gabriel, we have to get out of this place now, we can’t wait
till tonight. Do you know where that shock room is from here?”

“No, I don’t know where anything is!” Gabriel
screamed with tears in his eyes, both hearing Curtis’s crawling
getting closer and louder. “Is he gonna kill us?” The heat suddenly
went on even more, filling the tunnel with swelteringly hot blowing
air.

Through the heat, Jeremy saw Gabriel’s tears
even more, and answered, “I don’t know what’s going on, Gabriel,
all I know is he didn’t crawl into this tunnel for nothing. Listen,
don’t worry, I won’t let him hurt us, it’s gonna be okay, man!”
Gabriel’s tears slowed, and Jeremy smiled as he added, “So, let’s
get out of here!”

Gabriel grinned at Jeremy, so he wiped his
tears away and laughed out, “Alright, Double-O Nuts!” They
commenced crawling through the burrow of the tunnel again, feeling
their sweat from the heat dripping from their faces more and more,
saturating the tunnel floor, with their flesh on their hands
beginning to sizzle. They crawled for ten minutes in search of a
way out, panicking through the heat and immense pain that their
skin felt. They were desperate, knowing if they didn’t get out
soon, they would die from the heat, lying there to die and have no
one to come and find them. Not seeing a vent lid for a while now,
they wondered what part of Grewsal they were in, not understanding
what part wouldn’t have vent lids. Then suddenly they came across a
vent lid that had Michael’s voice within it and they both looked
through it, first breathing in the cool air that soothed their
lungs for a bit. When they finally paid attention to the image
behind the vent, they saw Michael’s sweaty face and nervous body
attached to a board, with tears of blood in his eyes. Victor just
got finished with attaching six wires to him, one wire on each of
his hands, one on each foot and one on both sides of his head.

“Mary is gonna be back very soon, and she’s
going to see what you’ve done to me,” Michael cried out in a
desperate attempt to make Victor release him. Victor went up to a
box in the middle of the room, that held all the buttons for the
electricity to flow into the wires, and laughed at Michael.

“No she’s not, she’s not coming back till
tomorrow. You see, she’s in New York right now getting the other
little shit to bring here. But her plane can’t take off because of
heavy fog, she called me earlier on and told me!” Victor’s
explanation had malevolence to its rhythm, and Michael noticed that
Victor’s abuse and actions were much deeper than just hitting
Michael and making him bleed. Then Victor turned on the shock
machine and watched Michael’s body shudder vigorously, with blood
from his nose welling out more. He took his hand off the button and
watched Michael’s eyes enlarge with dismay, the fear of Victor
pushing the button again.

“What other little shit, what the hell are
you talking about?” Michael yelled, and his body finally stopped
twitching.

“You see if I told you, then that means
you’ll have a better chance at completing the mission. I’m not
going to allow you to do that!” Victor turned on the shock machine
again.

“What mission?” Michael screamed, feeling his
body quivering even more, due to the elevated voltage being pumped
into him.

Victor stopped the machine once again and
leisurely walked over to a table that was on the right side of the
room. He opened up a drawer that was in the table and pulled out a
gun, holding it up in the air, wanting Michael to see it and fear
it. Victor walked over to Michael’s twitching body as Jeremy and
Gabriel watched with trepidation, misery, horror in their eyes and
in their thoughts, still gasping for cool air through the vent, and
still gaping at Victor, waiting impatiently to see what he was
going to do next. Victor tore off Michael’s red, striped shirt and
allowed his chest to be revealed. On Michael’s chest was a mark
that resembled an angel’s wing, like a birthmark, only it seemed
like more of a burn mark. Jeremy and Gabriel looked at the mark,
widened their horrified sight and felt their own chests. “I have
the same scar,” Gabriel whispered.

“I had the same scar, too, but I had it
removed when I was seven,” Jeremy also spoke.

Victor placed the gun directly on the winged
scar and pulled back the trigger. “Maybe this will help you
understand what I’m talking about!” Jeremy and Gabriel watched with
tears forming in both of their eyes, yearning to help Michael,
wanting to feel the cool air as well, since they were almost frying
in the vent. Silence and panic, rage and terror both spoke in
Jeremy, Gabriel and especially Michael, watching as Victor slowly
pulled the trigger on the gun. Then Victor shot Michael in the
chest. Jeremy yelled after Gabriel put his hand over his mouth,
knowing that Victor would try to kill them as well if he knew they
were in the room behind the vent. The tears began falling out of
both of them as they watched the blood gushing out from Michael’s
chest.

Michael yelled, seeing Victor laughing, but
his mind was confused as to why he would be so evil. “What are you
yelling about?” Victor questioned before Jeremy and Michael tried
desperately to open the vent lid.

But suddenly Jeremy felt a grip on his legs.
He turned around slowly, thinking it was a rat or something, when
unexpectedly he saw Curtis in his view. Curtis grabbed both of
their legs with the blood pouring out even more from Michael’s
chest. Curtis opened the vent and pushed Jeremy and Michael through
it; they fell to the ground where Michael’s blood lay. Curtis
jumped through the vent, grabbed the both of them, and walked up to
Victor. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t the other two shits,” Victor
shouted. Jeremy and Gabriel perceived that Michael was starting to
go into deep shock.

“Help him, he’s going to die,” yelled
Gabriel.

Victor smacked Gabriel across the face and
laughed, “Just watch!” Victor pointed to Michael’s chest and they
watched as the wound began to seal and heal itself up. Michael
suddenly came out of shock, looked at his chest and discovered the
wound had vanished.

Confusion came over Michael, Gabriel and
Jeremy, not knowing or understanding what just happened. As they
stood in bafflement, Curtis walked up to Victor, smiled, and then
punched him in the face, saying, “Why the hell did you shoot him,
Peter? Jastian told us specifically what to do, and this wasn’t a
part of the plan!”