I stared straight ahead into empty space. The world around me became nothing but a blur, a dream, a nightmare. I was vaguely aware of something moving around me, vaguely aware of the sound of footsteps nearby. The footsteps came closer and closer until their source stood directly behind me.

Then, I did something that I am ashamed to admit.

I gave up.

I gave up all hope to fight and struggle. I stopped moving, I stopped living at that moment. I waited for the reaper's blade to slice my neck and take me away from this cursed world. I waited and waited for death, but instead I felt its hand gently clamp down on my shoulder. Its grasp reminded me of the time I broke a picture frame when I was carelessly playing around the house as a kid and my father had grabbed me by the shoulder, just like this, before gently admonishing me. I felt its head move next to my own, heard its breathing right next to my ear, like a chain smoker who had just swallowed a bowl of razor blades.

Then, gently, not forcefully, it lifted me up onto my feet and nudged me onward. I didn't dare look back at its face. I couldn't look back. I didn't dare to reject its directions as I was slowly walked into the hallway. I could visualize those sharp and uneven teeth behind me, ready to sink into my neck at any moment, ready to tear my head off of my shoulders and swallow it whole.

At any moment it could kill me and there was nothing I could do about it. I was completely, utterly, hopeless. Nobody would come to save me, I couldn't even save myself. At any moment, that creature could squeeze with its clawed hand and tear into my flesh and kill me. Or maybe it would do what it did to Jessica and her co-workers, tear me apart while I was still alive and toy with me. Maybe it would do to me what it had done to the old couple. I shuddered, I didn't want that. I would rather die than become nothing but a meat shield for this unholy abomination. Surprisingly, I felt a spark of defiance rise up in my chest...

I would die before I let this creature transform me into one of those things! I wouldn't accept a fate like that! I started to turn towards it, ready to strike it and escape!

But before I could even fully glance back at it, my eyes locked with its own. I saw its grin widen. All of my defiance, all of my strength drained from me in that one small instant. My shoulders drooped and I lowered my head to look down at the floor. I let out a barely audible squeak. The creature inhaled sharply in quick succession, and it took me a moment to realize that it was laughing. Laughing at me, and mocking me.

Jared was going to die, its laughter seemed to convey, you are going to die and your son... Aaron! My God, I had completely forgotten about my own son! I was hit with a new wave of dread. I thought I had reached the absolute depths of despair, but as it turns out there was a trench at the bottom of the seas of hopelessness that went on even deeper down into the abyss, into depths farther than anything I could have thought possible. The creature slowly started leading me down the stairs and I tried to protest, tried to shake my head, but I was a puppet being pulled by the strings of the grinning and mocking puppet master behind me.

I now realized why it hadn't killed me yet. It was leading me to the basement, then it would make me show it where Aaron was. This monstrosity was more than a creature, more than a cruel beast. It was an intelligence. An intelligence that knew only how to kill, torture and mock, to cause pain of the flesh and of the soul. It was the absolute antithesis of life and all that is good, it was a sadist, through and through. It led me on a funeral march down the stairs, into the hall on the first floor, all the way to the stairs leading to the basement. I heard the bells that had chimed at my father's funeral ringing in my head.

I always had a feeling that Aaron, Jessica and I wouldn't live very long, even before this storm. But I never would have guessed it would have been this soon, especially for poor Aaron. I never would have guessed that everyone's lives would have been snatched away so suddenly. I started to cry, and the sadist "laughed" rapidly again, trying to mimic human laughter but sounding more like choking than anything. Its claws sunk into my shoulder slightly as it brought me down the first step of the staircase to the basement. I let out a squeak of pain that died halfway and the sadist's laughter increased in pace until it was one monotonous hum.

I took a second step, a third, a fourth.

If I sacrificed myself, if I screamed out to Aaron and tried to throw the creature down the stairs with me, if I tried to struggle with it for a moment, would that give Aaron enough time to run and escape?

Maybe.

Would he be able to survive on his own?

No. He wouldn't be able to go on if both his mother and his father were gone.

I was being forcefully marched towards a tragic dead end, barrelling towards a wall at full speed without any brakes. Whether I fought or accepted death, both Aaron and I would end up dead. Jared and I thought that without the meat shields, the sadist would be significantly weaker, but it was just as strong without them. I think the only reason we had survived as long as we did was because we were so arrogant. But arrogance eventually leads to ruin. It was beyond anything an individual human could defeat. The creature feigned pushing me down the rest of the stairs, and caught me with its other hand. I soiled my pants. I pissed and shit in my own pants right then and there.

I let out another sob, the creature pushed me onward, its laughter growing in my ears. Four more steps were left. Four, three, two, one.

My foot touched the basement floor. Then, I was pushed into the basement, and both of the creature's hands squeezed like a vice on my shoulders. I felt blood trickle down from where it held me, covering both of my arms in it. I cried and sobbed and coughed and spat. Then, the sadist stopped in the middle of the room. It brought its horrific face in front of mine, looking at me expectantly with its sunken eyes. I knew what it wanted, it wanted me to show it where Aaron was, so it could torture both of us side by side. I vomited onto the floor. A long dry tongue extended from the sadist's mouth, and to my disgust, it lapped the vomit up, laughing as it did so. My entire body started convulsing, my legs nearly collapsed.

What... What do I do? Oh God, what do I do? Could I show him the wrong spot, try and turn the tables on him? What could I do? Could I lock his attention on the wrong spot, then scream out to Aaron and tell him to run? He wouldn't escape. What was even possible? What could I do? Maybe I could kill Aaron myself, strangle him to death before the sadist could stop me, save him from the torture that waited for us. What, oh what, what, what could I even do?

Before I even realized it, I was standing in front of the little cubby where I had hidden Aaron. I could feel the sadist's grin widen behind me. It slowly scraped its claws gently down from my shoulder to my right hand, digging shallow cuts into my skin on its way down. It brought its hand right over my own, and guided it towards the knob of the door to the cubby. I tried to say no, but nothing even came out of my throat. The sadist moved my hand closer. "No," I managed to whisper. My hand touched the knob. "No." I said. My hand was forced to turn the knob, "No!" I yelled out. The sadist inhaled repeatedly, laughing at me. "No! Aaron, I'm sorry! Aaron!" The creature used my hand to violently swing open the door. I saw Aaron staring at me, then the sadist, his eyes widening. I saw two tears stream down from his eyes, saw his mouth open to scream but not a noise came out. I heard my heart ready to hammer out of my chest, I felt the sadist's hands pull off of me. Then I saw it move, ready to lunge at my son.

I shut my eyes so hard that it hurt. I prepared for the end of everything I had ever known, and to enter into a new world of pure pain and suffering.