He Walks As My Shadow 4 - The Door Flew Open

Story by Z-JAM-C on SoFurry

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#4 of Chronicles of FinalGamer 16 - My Shadow

As James Campbell struggles to comprehend his coming nightmares, he soon comes face to face with a LIVING nightmare beyond his control. A new danger has arrived both to him and everyone he's met.

Darkstalkers copyrighted to Capcom, FinalGamer to me


One night, after a rather hefty supper from such a small hostel, James laid back on his bed with the intention of an early night's sleep. His search in finding anyone who knew about dimensional portals had turned fruitless, and he was slowly becoming more convinced that nobody else knew in the demonised city. He turned things over in his mind, searching through possible routes and sources for whatever could help him. "Has to be SOME way of getting back home," thought FG aloud. "Just need to think...maybe I can find another city to find more info at...what'd be a good place to start? ...heh, demon Chicago would be fun if I wanted to cocktease myself even more, yeah sure. Well let's see, what city would be good with like, technology or something...wh..wh-wha-AGH! Wh-what the hell-AAAGH!" Suddenly a violent pain grew within his chest and head, a simultaneous tightening of both heart and mind. He could barely speak, or even see from the onset of a most agonising throb that resonated through his being. He almost wanted to throw up, feeling as if he had suffered a heart attack for how tight his chest had become. It was almost as if he was growing something inside of him. He writhed and screamed with blinded agony, rocking the bed slightly as he felt his body undergo a most bizarre metamorphosis. The scissors beside his bed gently glowed a most veiled indigo, barely detectable by mortal eyes as FG's cries turned weaker. Finally he succumbed to the phantom pain, his green eyes closing as he clutched his belly into the foetal position. The next time his eyes opened, they would be pure black. An infinite darkness, the kind that only children would see when faced with a long dark stairway into the basement. Not your normal sort of darkness, but the kind that was entirely composed of the shadows of monsters, hungry for flesh. His teeth were somehow longer and more demonic. A broken roar reverberated from the raptor's throat of a guttural shivering quality, weak yet strangely loud. The raptor gazed upon his own body with an alien look in his changed eyes, feeling the claws and scales with curiosity. He soon smiled wickedly.

At first, the raptor tried to adjust himself. Cricking his neck, loosening the joints with a snapping pop, shivering with an unnatural spasm that made both arms and head twitch insanely. When he spoke once more, it was no longer the young West End London accent of James. Instead, it was the voice of something monstrous. Deep and hoarse, yet unable to control its pitch, flickering between high and low. Its vocal chords pulsated visibly with the awkwardness of an amateur puppeteer. "A-a-a-aaah...f-feels GOOD to wEaR flessssssshhhhh agAIn...a-a-and ssssuch a pOwErfUL boDY!" The body moved stiffly, a little clumsily as if unused to it after such a long time asleep. It walked away from the bed towards the scissors, which seemed to glint with a welcoming light. "S-s-such painnnn it has taKEN to come...f-far...HHHheretic!" The creature clasped his head strongly, its moans like that of a tortured soul, yet laden with malice. It struggled to comprehend its new surroundings, gazing upon the scissors. "The HHHheretic tha-A-A-A-at killed the ScisSOrmAn too. He has...po...TENtial....hhhhHHHHHhhhh and such FU-ry and HATRED! HHHHHAHAHAHA! Ohhhhh YE-ES hewillmakean eeee...xcellent host." He picked up the scissors with relish and began to swing them with a practiced grace. He did not swing them like FG did, but rather with a casual expert manipulation. Almost as if it more than just a weapon to him. Indeed, it didn't even feel like a weapon to him. It more felt like an extension of his own body. "Heh...heh...how did THAT rhYme go agAIn that the chhhhilDREN would sinnnnng-URK!" The raptor suddenly collapsed to the ground, the deep monstrous voice groaning lowly in pain and coughing hard. A harsh black spittle dripped from the mouth before evaporating like a will-o-wisp. "UGHAK! KHA-HAK...ungh. Can't...stayinthisbody...for long...yet...soon I shall-soon I shall take the flessssshhhh. But the boy's spiRIT is too strong...for now." An idea came to the beast as he picked up the scissors and began to slash at the bed with an even unflinching method, carving through the covers to spell out something. His chuckle was like glass scraping across gravel as he finished his little masterpiece. Then he stabbed one of his hands with a claw, opening a nice little wound to let it bleed out onto the bed, small red drops filling up the cut. "I should lea-eaaave the fle-e-e-e-essshhh a message...just a SMA-allllll one...yes...a little...test we shall make for him, and a feast we shall have for us."

Sometime later, FG woke up from the floor, groaning with a spinning head and muscles aching all over. His eyes were bleary as if he woke up from a drunken brawl trying to focus, his scissors now beside him on the floor. "Ugh...my head...wait, my hand...what the hell happened to it?" Checking the cut that had suddenly appeared in his hand, he grabbed the bed to ease himself up, only to find deep slashes within it. He jumped back in surprise. On the bed was written a message, carved into the mattress.

THE DOOR FLEW OPEN AND IN HE RAN THE RED, LONG LEGGED SCISSORMAN

"S-s-s...Scissorman!? Wh-what the fuck, h-h-how did...how does...no...no th-this can't be, just some kind of trick, y-yeah I...h-how the fuck did anyone get in here and do this?" His fear grew stronger, making him quiver and panic as he started to pace back and forth. He decided to heal up his cut first, however it managed to injure itself, by going to the bathroom and cleaning himself up. The cool water over his hand soothed him somewhat as he started to bandage it up gently. Then he heard the door open. With anxiety rising in his chest, he knew he couldn't go and grab his scissors without being spotted, waiting in the bathroom with hands up ready for a fight. No other sounds came for a while however, making him gently head back out into the bedroom. The moment he did, he felt a violent electrical shock to the back of his kidneys. Screaming as he fell with the tortuous electrical current setting his veins on fire, he felt several hands grab him and throw him down on the floor. "That's him," said one voice, "that's the guy." "WH-wh-GET OFF!" "Sorry pal, you shouldn't have crossed yer friend back a few years ago." "Wh-what are you talkin' about?!" "SHUT UP!" Another tazer shock to his back made him scream and whimper with tears out of his eyes, struggling to control himself. But the agony his lower body was suffering, like an electrical fire was burning through his bowels, made him think otherwise. His hands were soon tied up. He had no idea who these men were, but all four of them were human as one of them said: "We got a nice pay from someone who said you had to be...dealt with. He said he had a message for ya." He was brought up against the wall, his head slammed hard against it as he stared at the human before him. He had unusual red eyes and slightly curled black hair, with a sword in one hand. "Who...th-the fuck are you?" "We're demon hunters pal, and you're next." "B-but I'm not a demon!" "Tell it to your god, bitch." One of his friends came closer with the tazer, a powerful-looking silver remote with a current constantly running between its two prongs. It jammed against FG's body, making him scream and twitch violently with a throbbing heart. "A-AAAAAAAAARGH! AAAAAAAAARGH! STOP IT, G-GODDAMMIT!" "Fat chance pal, you're gonna learn what it means not to piss someone off. This is a message from Mister Barrows." "Wh-who the fuck's B-barrows?!" "You tell me!"

The tazer came once more, jamming straight into his side as he screamed with a violating agony, body spasming as the current was unbearable. The men were rather surprised, looking at each other a little curiously. "Didya set the voltage too high on that thing, jesus Zeke." "Wha, naw man it's like 250 volts, this don' kill." "Hah, guess he was right about our friend being such a pussy." The raptor shook with shivering fear, the pain of the electricity coursing through his nanos and disrupting them powerfully making him feel as if he was about to die. His brain was malfunctioning too, struggling to keep itself and the nanos in check as he begged. He would normally have never begged, but he was caught off-guard, trapped with hands behind his back and violent electrical shocks weakening him ever further. He felt as weak as he had been in Silent Hill, except now he wanted to live. "P-please, don't kill me, I'll p-pay anything, t-take all my money I just wanna go home!" "Hahaha, that's cute. No dice. Shock him again." "N-NO, PLEASE NO-AAAAAAAAAA_AAAAAAARGH!_ SOMEBODY, HELP MEEEEE!" "Hah, not gonna happen, made a li'l soundproofing magic in the room so nobody'll hear you die." "D-DIE?!" "Oh yeah, you ain't gonna get out of this alive, not after pissing off ol' Bobby." "I DON'T KNOW ANY BOBBY, PLEASE LET ME GO!" The agony in his chest was unbearable, making him shiver and want to crumple to the floor with sobbing tears. He could take any pain, anything given to him. But the volts were different. They somehow hurt way more than he could ever expect them to. They made his heart beat oddly, his brain convulse, and his nanos spasm into uselessness. He was literally defenceless. With one last electric shock, he suddenly fainted, hearing the last words from the human. "Night night freak." He brought out his sword the moment James fainted, showing no more signs of consciousness before driving his blade deep into the raptor's heart. It buried itself neatly into the wall behind him, impaling FG straight through. Yet the body did not twitch or spasm in death, merely slumping forwards slightly and further impaling himself. The men chuckled cruelly, the killer turning away from his target. "Nice one Herb, you even got him to faint before killin' him." "Yep, just like ol' Barrows wanted. Wonder what he did to piss him off?" "No idea, let's get outta here before anyone sees us." "We'll get out through the window, good thing a fire escape's near this, you wanna grab a bite to eat af-" The other humans all widened their eyes and pointed behind Herb in shock. He turned round, and saw the raptor move.

His hands slowly reached out before him, gently gripping the end of the sword and pulling himself along it. A vile sticky sound of tearing flesh came as he excruciatingly forced the blade further through him, until reaching the hilt itself. The moment the hilt reached his scales, he shoved it through his body and violently out the other side, fully extricating himself from impalement. A large hole remained in the raptor's chest, yet it did not bleed. Herb was horrified, speechless at the sight as the raptor's eyes opened to reveal pure black, his voice deep, breathless and broken. "Wha-at's the matter...scared?" There was barely enough time for the man to scream when the raptor's claws forced through his neck, first one hand and then the other before the throat was torn literally in two, pulled outwards like curtains. The raptor gazing through the hole towards his friends. "Ohhhhh don't worryyyyy....I didn't forGET you boyyyyys...you didwell...followed my...inSTRUCtions to the le-etter." One of them suddenly gasped with a strangled choking of absolute pain, the other two men turning to see their friend suddenly skewered through the heart by a giant pair of scissors. It had somehow appeared out of nowhere, forcefully opening him in two to show the heart itself neatly split, cutting open with an unnatural strength. The other two tried to attack the raptor, swords out as they roared before the creature suddenly vanished. "Over here!" His voice suddenly came from behind them, his claws coming out to slash violently across one of their eyes. One of them was now blinded, screaming as he swung his blade forcing his friend to run and hide. The raptor eagerly disarmed the blinded fool, taking the slashes to his body as if they were harmless flies before grabbing the man's throat and putting him against the wall. "Mister Barrows is verrrrry pleased...TAKES a lot of will to k-kill demons and pretend to be a demon Hu-unter." "W-what are you talkin' about?!" "Fool...you think I wouldntknowyoure just common thugs? Here...is...your reward." The monster eagerly brought out his large fangs and crunched the human's head between them, jaws crushing both cheekbones in what almost looked like a violent kiss as the blinded man struggled to scream inside the raptor's mouth. His struggling turned weaker as his skull started to cave in, losing its bone support as both cheekbones were neatly crushed together, the top of the head from the eyes up falling completely off. All but one of them remained, Zeke with his tazer, hiding under the bed. He shivered silently, trying his best to keep quiet as he saw his friend's feet twitch and die in front of the raptor's toeclaws. "Mmmmm now...wa-asn't there one more? ...oooooh I LOVE-yes playing hide-and-seek." The creature walked back and forth around the bed, looking curiously in every place he could. The bathroom was empty, the wardrobe too. A little ditty came to the creature's lips, a childish little song it hummed before quickly walking out of Zeke's view. He imagined the monster had left the room, but he kept still to be safe nevertheless. Minutes soon passed, with no sound of the creature coming back. Until he saw his own reflection, within a pair of blades that came up alongside him. The crippled voice behind him made him beg for a swift death. "Fou-ouuuuund...youuuuu..." And that was the last he ever heard. He did not even hear his own scream.

The next morning, James woke up back on the bed. a pain in his chest and his head slowly fading away. Thankfully his hand was not hurt like last time, but he did feel his back now rather wet. When he moved, he felt and heard a squishing underneath him. Feeling along the mattress, he realised that it was entirely soaking. "Wha...what the hell's going on? Was it just...was it a dream? ...awww god did I really..." Please tell me I did not fucking wet the bed. Getting up rather irritated and dizzy, he looked down to see that the mattress was actually bleeding. Thick red droplets, from every side of it, like a jam sandwich. "Wha...what the FUCK!?!" In fact, looking around the room when his eyes adjusted enough made him see splatters everywhere in darker corners. It was as if someone had taken a chainsaw to a party in his room. He almost felt sick from seeing so much of it, even after seeing a few movies like this back home. But it was the stench that made him nearly retch. Thick coagulating blood, various organs which all undoubtedly came from the bed itself. "H-holy shit....wh-what the hell hap-" A knock came to the door which startled him. "AH-y-y-yes!?" "Room service!" "WH-UH-WAIT don't come in!" "Sir I need to hand you something as you requested." Going to the door and opening it a crack, he looked nervously at the human bellboy who handed him a small note. "Is everything okay sir?" "Ah y-yeah I...I had an accident in the room." "Oh, well we can get someone to clean it up an-" "NO! No...uhm...it's kind of embarrassing, I uhh...u-um look I have a medical problem just please, lemme clean it up okay?" "As you wish sir. Breakfast is at 9am." "Alright, thanks." Closing the door, he opened the note, which read in a rather blotchy scrawl:

I HOPE YOU ENJOY MY LITTLE GIFT

He looked back towards the bed. James was stricken with fear and confusion now. He had no idea what to do, and he knew that somehow last night was most certainly not a dream. He quickly looked himself over in the bathroom, using a mirror to see the fading burns on his waist. "...fuckin' tazer burns...oh god it did happen. But...WHAT happened? ...oh my god...I'm insane." James sat himself down on the cold tiles of the small bathroom and rocked his knees tenderly. Now he was frightened of a new enemy within himself, but not the kind that was truly there. He briefly checked his eyes, trying to self-diagnose himself shakily in the mirror Did I finally go insane? Did Silent Hill finally get to me all the way inside my fucking head? ...god dammit, this can't be happening, I can't be...I can't be like...this. Why the fuck did I do that?! Why did I...oh GOD how the fuck can I cover this up!?! I need to get outta here! ...I have to leave the city. I have to go now. I need someone to help me, someone who won't turn me away, someone like...yes, her. She'll help me, I know she will. James quickly gathered up his things, taking his scissors, satchel and money with him before making a clean-up job in the bathroom. He scattered various cleaning products around the toilet, thinking it would make people think the bloody mattress happened after his leaving. Making sure he cleaned every piece of evidence of his touching any bloody traces, he headed down and left the hostel. He made his farewell to the proprietor, leaving a very positive comment in the guestbook with his three days having run out, before striding out to make his way along the street. He quickly ducked and weaved through the crowd of people on the streets, trying not to look too panicked until reaching his destination.

A frantic knocking on the orphanage door soon lead Felicia down towards it. "Just a minuuuute!" she said cheerily. She had just finished cleaning herself for the day, putting on her habit before eagerly skipping towards the door. It was quite a sunny day for her, not TOO hot but not too dry either, a perfect day for some fun. But she was going to have a different sort of day the moment she opened the door that morning. Standing before Felicia, in the rays of the morning light looking haggard and frightened, was James. Before she could even gasp, he moaned out: "I...I-i-i need help...p-please...help me..." He soon collapsed onto the pathway. Not unconscious, but merely exhausted with fear dwelling deep inside him, curling up into a foetal position as he started to cry. It was as if the entire world had turned against him to beat him into submission. So far, they were winning. She hurriedly brought him inside, setting him up onto a chair to try and calm him down. "Wha...what happened to you sweetie?" "I...I-i don't know...I don't know what's happening to me, I...I think I'm crazy." "Crazy? Why?" "Because...I just did something horrible and I can't remember anything!" And so James told her everything he could remember, starting back with the unusual nightmare that first came with his horrible spasms. Then last night, the mysterious clawed message on the bed, the hired killers and then waking up on a bloody gut-filled mattress. As much as he did not want to tell her such macabre details, he knew he had to. She was the only one he could trust, somehow. His trust was well-placed. Felicia nodded firmly at hearing his problems, digesting it all before soothing him. "First thing you gotta do James is you gotta calm down. You just relax and we'll think of something." "B-but I...I...what happens if I go crazy again?!" "Then I'll knock ya out! Don' worry, I'm a Darkstalker! We're like legends in this world so it's gonna take more than a crazy li'l dino to stop me!" "R-really? ...you...you can do that?" "Mmhmm! Lissen, why dontcha stay here awhile until I can get some kinda meeting for ya with a friend of mine? I know someone who can handle this a lot better than me, maybe offer ya some hints?" "I...I guess so but...but what about the kids?" "Huh?" "If I...I go crazy again, the kids, they might-" "Oooh no no no, dontcha worry about that I'll make sure nothin' happens." "You...promise?" "Pinkie promise." She brought out her little pinky finger, a fluffy little pawfinger which she neatly wrapped around one of James' claws. He smirked tearfully as he nodded, thankful for such kindness to be given to him. Felicia however had her own worries. She knew there was something strange about the raptor, but she couldn't quite tell what. It was more the way he smelled, a strange scent of an aura she could not quite pinpoint. The feline knew she would need some more experienced friends to assist her, and she made a personal phone call in the afternoon to set up a meeting. James was kept well-secured in a special room, with a few certain precautions made by Felicia just in case as she made her call. "OH, hey there Gene! ...oh I'm great thanks! Uhm...I got a li'l favour to ask, is Miss B in tonight? Great, can ya pass a message to her from me? Tell her that I need to talk to her about someone I found...he has a...aura about him and I want her to check 'im out fer me, tonight if that's okay? ...sure, awesome, thanks Gene, take care!" With a gleeful grin, Felicia now had her night set, and hopefully managed to find a way to help her new guest.