The Monolith: Chapter Fourteen

The room was empty and that made them all smile. No food this time, not even supplies of any kind. It was just an empty room with no door. They room was small so that when they all lied down, their feet touched. That didn’t matter because the exhaustion took over and they all fell deep into the souls of their minds to rest.

There were no dreams, just a voice that repeated, "One Wish." The voice got louder and when they were awake they noticed the room had grown larger.

"I can't do this anymore."

Everyone was crouched around a single body. It was Simone, and there in the room now ten times the size as it was before was a dead body with the name of Simone.

"Jack! I can't do this anymore," Marina's voice wasn't as pleasant as he had remembered. Her hand was in his, yet he felt nothing. There was no heat, nor any kind of coldness. Perhaps outside he would have even felt a pulse but here like everything else, it felt dead.

Mendy get up like clockwork and began checking the walls. The other rocked slowly where they sat. Tegan talked to herself, touching the pool of blood where Simone's arm bleed out.

"No door. No way out." Mendy's ramblings began to dig into the others. They were tired, hungry and had seen too much already. There was death in the air, swarming around them, dancing in their hair and crawling up there skin. They could smell it, taste it and could not stop thinking about it. No one wanted to move, except Mendy. "There's got to be something."

They just stared at each other slowly breaking down.

"My arm itches."

"Gloria, stop scratching," Marina said.

"I can't."

They watched the time tick by as Gloria clawed at her arm. "Please, just stop."

"I can't."

Brandi stood up, fast like a burnt piece of toast shooting out of a toaster. She walked, with no direction, her pale skin looked even paler than usual and then she stopped at the wall, lightly tapping her head against it.

"STOP!" Jack breathed hard. "This is not how it ends."

They all stopped and stared at the boy who looked almost as mad as them; but there was something different, a spark of hope. "Everyone, let's get up,” he said slowly, calmly, ”and check around." They did, following his instructions except for Brandi who stood over Simone's body. "Come on," she said, tapping on Simone’s shoulder.

They touched the walls, flat, smooth nothing there except one door that they were already aware of. It was the door they had entered and that thought floated into Jack’s head. "That's it."

"No it isn't. That's the same door we had entered," Mendy said, the tone in her voice, angry, full of something she couldn't pin. She could hear the voice of someone desperate, someone who had almost given up, a voice that wasn’t hers, couldn’t have been hers.

Jack held Marina's hand as he walked forward, between. "That door, that isn't the door we entered. This whole room changed. Hell, we changed. That door, is the entrance to the next room."

"No!" the sound was loud, almost mind shattering, Jack's eyes hurt, he could feel the temptation of tears but only fear came. They walked, hand in hand through the door. The others followed except two. Mendy and Brandi stayed, Brandi refusing to leave without Simone.

***

“Death awaits thee!”

“Die you hamsters!

“God, looks down on you. He sees your greed, your desperation. He sees no salvation in you, he sees no chance of redemption for you are just cattle, a flock of sheep to ignorant to see the truth, God's light.”

A reporter interrupts the scene, “Again, we can see the same protest from the self claimed prophet Elijah Greene and his followers. And even with security keeping them away from The Monoltih, they are voicing their hate as loud as they can.”