The light continued to flicker, which drew my attention to something on the opposite wall, just a few feet ahead of us where the smell seemed to be the strongest.
“I…I think you were right Mel.”
She edged up closer to me so that she could get a better look.
“No fucking way,” Dion muttered.
“I told you it was shit,” Mel stated matter-of-factly.
“Why do you sound proud?” Dion questioned. “No, who wiped they feces on the wall?”
“Probably a crazy person,” Mel retorted sarcastically.
“Hey,” I interjected before they could start picking at each other. “It says something.”
“So, we’re using shit to spell things now? Okay,” Dion mumbled to himself.
“Piggy…piggy?” I read quietly, not entirely sure that’s what was written. It was hard to make out all the letters since the font wasn’t exactly legible, but I was sure there were two g’s.
“I don’t understand what that would mean,” Mel said with a sigh.
Yeah. I was thrown too.
Maybe it meant nothing. Someone did smear their fecal matter on the wall to write it, after all. Coming to the end of the hall, we took a right to move around the corner.
As we did, something clanged from another room up ahead, followed by what sounded like a hiss of air.
“Someone’s up there,” Mel whispered.
I nodded, continuing to move forward.
Light was spilling out of the room, adding some visibility to the hallway. I went to the right as we drew closer. I didn’t want to draw immediate attention to us by making a spectacle of myself in the doorway. Thankfully, there wasn’t any more shit on the walls.
“Be careful,” Dion warned me.
That wasn’t necessary, but I appreciated the sentiment. I glanced back at him and gave a thumbs up. There was a feeling in my gut that told me whatever was in this room wasn’t anything good. I took a small breath and cautiously peered around the doorframe.
There’s the doctor’s face.
I noticed straight away that the giant of a man dressed in a white coat that was nearly bursting at the seams had turned the stolen flesh into an accessory.
Mr. Wendigo, I presumed.
Half-propped on an examination bed was a girl with long dreadlocks and a glitzy septum piercing.
This had to be Morrigan.
She was knocked out cold with an oxygen mask secured over her mouth and nose. There were two large syringes sticking out of her right arm. As I stood peering in, the man inserted another on the left, causing blood to well up and dribble onto the floor.
He started to turn away and I dipped back around the corner, exhaling as quietly as I could.
“What is it?” Mel tapped my arm and mouthed.
I made a point not to look at Dion.
How did I explain that his girlfriend was currently passed out in a room with a man sporting another guy’s face? Oh, and she had needles of something sticking out of her skinny arms? How did we even get her out of this?
Holding a finger up to signal them to wait, I risked a peek back into the room and saw the man approaching Morrigan with a scalpel.
Shit.
All the progress Dion just made was about to go right down the drain, but I couldn’t not, not tell him.
“I think it’s your girlfriend,” I begrudgingly divulged.
He reared his head back like I’d hit him, hurrying around me and Mel.
“Mo?” he questioned as soon as he reached the doorway.
I saw the second it dawned on him that there was another person in the room.
“Yo, get the fuck away from her!”
He rushed inside without any hesitation. I pushed off the wall and followed in after him. Doing exactly as I expected, he went right for the girl in the chair, disregarding the man with a scalpel now coming for him.
I gave the guy a wide berth, partially circling around so that I was behind him. Before he could turn and face me, I charged forward and jumped onto his back, wrapping my legs around his waist and my arms around his beefy neck.
“Help get her up,” I commanded Mel.
“Fuck her!” she yelled back at me.
“Mel!” I grit out, positioning my forearm under Mr. Wendigo’s chin.
He started spinning, grabbing at my body to dislodge me. This man was freakishly strong. I had a good grip on him, but my muscles weren’t here for the exertion.
Angry, unintelligible babble erupted from his mouth. Without warning, he turned twice more and then dramatically dropped to the floor, performing some screwed up rendition of a death drop.
My back hit the ground, pain reverberated up and down my spine, radiating through my skull to the point my ears rang. It was a small mercy the man didn’t crush me with his body entirely.
That was the only slight reprieve he gave me. I just barely lifted my head when he turned over and grabbed for me. I kicked and managed to strike him in the gut. He grunted, coming back at me with a growl.