Modern Horror - Angel in the Devil's Shoes (Updated 13 October)

[Puppy Kicker]

I take it that Ryan -isn't- a PC, though?

Careful with the assumptions there, Xeno. Ryan was a PC - but I sometimes like to have my PCs competing. In my current (and more regularly updated) modern campaign I'm actually having a friend from another state run one of the antagonists in the background. Makes for more inventive villains I think.

Anyway, this story hour actually got lost in the life shuffle, but I'll pop some more updates in now that I'm freeing up some time. Look for something soon. Let's just say Ryan has some odd friends...

 

[Puppy Kicker]

Angel in the Devil’s Shoes
Part IV

---​

The voices in his head had eased to mere whispers. Ryan swung the flashlight in front of him as he wandered the stone passageways of the prison. Several corpses of guards had provided him with an only slightly bloody uniform, a pistol, and several clips of ammunition. He wasn't sure why he had felt it was so important to dress up as a guard, but the voices had told him to so he had done it.

Ryan stopped suddenly.

KILL KILL KILL Ryan shook his head. "Be quiet!" he whispered to himself. The voices sunk into the background for a moment. Long enough for Ryan to hear the voices a bit further down the passage. Real voices.

“...they were killed by a 9mm. Now about the zombies…” A man's voice. Zombies? Ryan stepped carefully as he moved closer to the voices.

“Safety’s off on both their guns. You know what I think?” That was a woman's voice. Ryan wiped a stream of drool from his chin. It had been a long time since he'd heard a woman's voice.

“What’s that, bunny?” A different man's voice. Three voices. Three people. KILL KILL EAT Ryan shook his head. Not now. Too many. He could see a window in the passageway wall. Three people were deep in conversation, standing over the bodies of two guards.

---​

“They shot each other.” Sally said.

Both men looked at her, astonished.

"Bullsh**!" Mike exclaimed. "These are the good guys, Sally. At least as good as you can expect in this kind of place."

"The evidence supports her, Mike." Sean said. He was looking more closely at the bullet wounds. "I mean, it looks like they were both firing..."

A heavy footstep in the doorway caused them all to spin towards the door. Mike's gun was instantly trained on the figure standing there. Sillouhetted in the emergency lighting his features were obscured. Both his hands were in the air and a flashlight dangled from one of them. The man was dressed in a guard's uniform and looked like he'd seen better days.

"Don't move, a**hole!" Mike shouted as he took an aggressive step forward. The man froze.

"Don't shoot me." The man looked genuinely terrified.

"Who are you?" Sally asked. Her gun was now pointed at the man as well, parallel to her husband's.

"B..B..Billy. Billy Johnson," the man stuttered. "I... uh... I just started working here and now people are dead and..."

"Turn around, and get on you knees." Mike ordered. The man complied. "With your left hand, slowly set the flashlight down. ... Now lock your hands behind your head."

The guard did as he was told without question. "Please don't shoot me. I've got a wife." The man's voice was choked up, as though he was on the verge of tears. "And a daughter. Please don't kill me."

"We're not going to kill you. Stay still. Now tell us what's going on here." Mike ordered.

The guard explained that he had just started working at the prison and was on guard duty when suddenly people started shooting at each other and acting like zombies.

"There's blood on your shirt." Sally said. "Why?"

"I was trying to help another guard. He was bleeding. I... I couldn't stop the bleeding."

Mike looked at Sean and Sally, then back at the guard. He quietly stepped forward and pulled the pistol from the guard's holster. "Stand up. You're coming with us for now."

The man stood, keeping his back to them. "Where are we going?"

"We need to get out of here," said Sean. "Someplace besides the main entrance. You know of anywhere?"

The man nodded his shaved head. "Sure. I can get us out of here." He started to walk out of the room. "Just follow me. I'll get you where you need to go. Just don't hurt me."

They followed him out of the room, guns drawn but no longer trained on the seemingly innocent guard.

EAT YOU NEED TO EAT. Ryan continued walking down the hallway, trying to ignore the internal voices while answering his new companions' questions. The voices were getting louder. And he was getting hungrier.

---​

 

[Gina]

Ok, just got to the end of what has been written so far....I'm hooked.

Really interesting story!

 

[Redyak]

This is good stuff! As long as you keep it coming, I'll keep reading!

Quick question: when you write up your story hour, do you create the PCs' dialog, or is it actual in-game dialog?

 

[Puppy Kicker]

Quick question: when you write up your story hour, do you create the PCs' dialog, or is it actual in-game dialog?

This story hour is mainly made-up dialogue simply because the game was so long ago. I try to capture the characters, but the dialogue is far from precise. "Tears in Hell" is much closer to verbatim because that's the game we're playing now and I have people writing down memorable quotes and we even recorded the last session on tape.

 

[Rebecca M]

Good story...I'm not at all interested in blood, guts and zombies, but this story is addictive!

 

[Puppy Kicker]

Angel in the Devil’s Shoes
Part V

The four companions wandered the halls of the prison, stepping around the corpses of guards and listening carefully for the sounds of danger. Ryan stayed in the lead, and Mike did not let the 9MM's barrel drop. He and Sean had dropped back while Sally walked almost even with Ryan.

"I don't entirely trust him," he whispered to Sean.

"Neither do I. But I don't know why. A lot of guards are dead, but it's not unreasonable to think that a couple may have survived whatever went on here."

Mike nodded. The barrel was dropped to the floor, but Mike's finger still rested a hair's bredth from the trigger. "He just doesn't look roughed up enough to me. Blood on the shirt, but were's it from?"

"He said trying to help a friend. Could be true."

"Could be...."

---​

Ryan answered Sally's innocuous questions easily, the lies sliding across his silver tongue. Yes, he was married to a lovely woman and his daughter was just going into first grade. They were saving for a bigger house, but the car payments were killing them. The answers seemed to roll into his mind from nowhere. The perfect answer was on his tongue for every question. The voice was, at least for now, making itself useful.

"I know hwo those car payments can be," Sally said. "Sean and I are always struggling with..." She slid to a halt. "What was that?"

Ryan stopped as well, a couple feet in front of Sally. He pretended to listen. "I don't hear anything." He didn't need to. He KNEW. Sean and Mike were on either side of Sally then, listening intently and peering into the darkness.

"Sounds like something shuffling." Mike said. "Could be dangerous."

Sally took two steps forward and shone the flashlight down the passageway. "Or it could be someone needing help." She took another two steps forward, in front of Ryan. "Hello?"

The echo of her voice returned, but there was no other answer.

HUNGRY. HUNGRY. HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPO. "Shut up!" Ryan whispered to the voices.

Sally looked back. "What?"

Ryan shook his head. "Nothing. I'm sorry." A line of drool trickled down his chin. In the dark it went unnoticed.

Sean stepped up to stand next to his wife. "Bunny, I don't think that's someone needing help. Let's back up a bit."

Sally and Sean both stepped backward, flashlights illuminating the hallway in front of the group. Suddenly, an inhuman wail filled the darkness behind them and Mike was thrown forward! His body slammed into Sean, who collapsed under the force of the blow. Sally screamed as she wiped blood from her face and chest. The back of Mike's head was a gooey mess, splattered across Sally and Ryan and dripping down onto Sean's prone form. Sally didn't know if she was screaming at the gore, or at the creature who had created it.

---​

Sean struggled to get out from under Mike's corpse. Sean's pistol had dropped to the floor as he fell, and Mike's weapon was nowhere to be seen. Ryan was unfazed, standing there staring at the monster. Sally couldn't stop screaming and trying to get the blood and brains off of her face.

The creature was human. The creature WAS human. The creature was HUMANS. A gargantuan mangled mass of amputated limbs, joined together like a fleshy cheeseball. Skin peeled from various open wounds and pustules, and bits of clothing were embedded in its form at random intervals. Most horrifying were the faces. Parts of human faces occasionally peeked out from the grotesque amalgam of flesh. In one huge and mishapen hand the creature squeezed the bone fragment that was once the back of Mike's skull. The bone seemed to meld to the creatures body as it advanced.

"Run!" Sean screamed as he finally stumbled from under the corpse's weight and leapt to his feet. He lunged towards Sally and grabbed her by the arm, carrying them both into the darkness of the hallway. Ryan followed, but he stopped just long enough to grab the pistol that had fallen from Mike's hand and slide it into his pants.

Ryan turned as Sally and Sean vanished into the darkness. His gaze fell on the inhuman creature. "They are mine." The creature stepped back, dropping it's head submissively. "They are for MY hunger." Ryan turned and sprinted down the hallway after Sean and Sally.