Shudders: Retribution

Chapter 1 - The Awakening

Blood and Violence Warning ⚠️
———————————————————————————

*Drip*

*Drip*

*Drip*

Eyes slowly opened up and had to adjust to the world around. It felt like she was waking up after years of sleeping...

(Y/N)'s body felt stiff all over. Even breathing made her chest groan. The slight bend of her fingers ached. She took in a deep breath as her eyes fully opened after adjusting and she saw her reflection in green murky water. Her reflection?

Taking a closer look at the dark water she noticed there was blood caked up just at her hairline. It trickled down to her chin and dripped into the water below. She gasped and tried moving her limbs but felt something like ropes wrapped tightly around them. Not only that, she was hanging over the murky water. She looked and saw that they were loose wires from a tall ceiling above keeping her suspended.

The wires gripped tightly around her exposed arms that were slightly covered in black blood. Black blood that was on her arms.

'Demon blood?!' She thought. She didn't feel injured and it couldn't be hers.

The midday sky shone through and lit up the small area she was in. There were escalators and old signs from stores long ago. Mannequins and deteriorated items floating along the water. She was... in a mall? How did she even get here?

"You think she ran over here?"

(Y/N) froze up at the sudden voice that echoed through the large halls. There was the sound of legs swishing through water further away so they must not be close.

Her head started to ache as some memories before came rushing back. She remembered running from demons. The same demons who attacked her community. Everything in between was a blur but she knows that she was in danger now.

Biting it back her groans, she pulled against the wires. She focused on staying quiet and rotating her right arm to slip through them. Down one of the halls she could see a figure in her peripheral vision.

From the sight of them, she yelped and jerked her arm out of the wires but the loss of support made the wires flip her over and yank her other arm roughly. She almost screamed from the pain but held it back.

They must've heard the wires snapping because they were starting to get closer.

They were going to find her. They were going to take her back.

Luckily the wires holding her legs became loose and she was able to kick the cords away while she yanked her arm free. Panic beginning to rise and the need to become quiet lessening.

Her left leg became free and slammed down into the water. The splash from it alerted the nearby demons to her presence and she could hear them now running toward her. Unbeknownst to her, there was also someone else in the mall watching her and the demons who have now spotted her.

The unknown demon spotted a metal sign on the ground next to their feet and picked it up.

(Y/N) managed to get her other leg free as her eyes caught sight of two demons rushing over toward her. They were wearing human-like skulls as masks and wore tattered black sheets that were just thrown over their bodies for clothing.

When her arm felt like it was now becoming loose as the bruises left by the wires began to slip out, something small and metal came flying through the air toward her that she didn't notice until it cut the remaining wires holding her hostage and she went falling into the water.