Chapter 16
Loud Again
Lolli-Gag
“Finally, you’re back,” Jethro whispers. He’s not behind me or beside me. He’s everywhere. In my breath. In my bones. In the way my fingers curl like they already know what to do.
“I missed you,” I whisper.
“I didn’t go anywhere.” he chuckles.
The hallway bends, not physically, but I see it differently now.
Every movement is slower—sharper—and every person is outlined with purpose.
The guards rush first, and Jagger hits them like a storm.
Loud. Violent and unstoppable. Killian moves like he’s solving something, and Lucifer and I are jumping around like this is the most exciting adventure to ever be on.
I step forward, noticing Vinny disappeared.
“They’re going to try to stop us,” I whisper.
“Let them.” Jethro grins, and my smile stretches. A guard grabs for me as his hands shake. Good. He knows. Some part of him knows but does it anyway.
“You shouldn’t do that,” I sing as Jethro hums.
“Now!” he orders, and I move, digging my nails into his eyeballs feeling the tips of my fingers sink into his orbs. His grip loosens as he screams.
“I warned you.” I giggle, sinking my pointer fingers into his sockets, curling them, and pulling his eyeballs out.
I flick them off my thumb nail and watch as they fall to the ground, rolling towards his feet.
He continues to scream, making me giggle.
A knife is placed in my hand and my head whips around to see Vinny grinning as he slices the eyeless guard's throat, then brings the blade to his lips, licking the dripping blood.
“I want you inside me next,” I tell him, and he nods.
“More,” Jethro urges as more guards come rushing in but all you hear is metal hitting metal, boots scrambling, blood sloshing, and voices cracking.
I giggle and I don’t stop as the air feels thicker, warmer—alive.
The lights flicker. Red. White. Red. White.
Everything turns into flashes. Moments stitched together.
Then I see her standing against the wall with her arms folded.
Watching. Waiting. Jagger shoves someone back, throwing them down the hallway then slamming his metal rod against another guard's face like he’s playing baseball.
Lucifer whispers something, making a guard freeze midstep, then shoves a knife up his chin.
I watch in fascination as the tip of the blade sticks out the guard's nose dripping with blood.
My eyes shoot to Killian dragging a blade down a bare chest. But then her laugh has me twirling in her direction, and all I see is her—my fucking mother.
“I told you all those years ago—you were worthless. That’s why I put you in the oven.” She laughs. The smell of burnt rubber bands and stale cigarettes hits my nostrils, making me gag.
“It’s not real, honeycomb. She’s not fucking real,” Jethro says, but I ignore him. I see her. I can smell her. I step closer, tilting my head.
“Your imaginary friend telling you lies?” she asks, but I don’t answer her. I just keep walking closer and closer to her.
“Whether you are real or not. You’re fucking dead, Mother!
” I growl, and she laughs. So I lift my blade and charge for her, except the room warps again as a guard stumbles back.
His eyes widen, and I giggle, bringing the blade up and slashing down his face.
He screams but I don’t stop. I keep swinging the knife wildly until he falls to the ground.
I straddle his waist and slam the knife into his throat as Vinny comes to stand above me, lifting his foot, and slamming it against the guards face over and over again until brain matter and blood splashes against me.
I throw my head back and giggle like a maniac, then rip the blade from the man's throat, only for someone to grab me by the arms, pulling me away. But I chuck the knife at Vinny and he sends it right above my head, sinking it into the guard’s eyeball.
He immediately releases me screaming and thrashing.
I giggle and grab the handle of the blade, twisting it, but he slaps me in the face pushing me to the ground.
My head bounces off the floor. My vision blurs, and my stomach twists.
Nausea takes over as the room spins. No! I don’t want to leave. No! No! No!
“Canvas, Canvas,” Killian panics, cupping my face. “Stay with me. Take a deep breath,” he tells me, and I tilt my head, looking into his big blue eyes.
“You know you’re beautiful, right?” I ask, and he shakes his head.
“No, you are,” he says, and I smile. My chest rises then falls as the alarms blare.
“Doesn’t it hurt you?” I ask, but he shakes his head.
“Not right now it doesn’t,” he says, and I giggle. Jethro chuckles as something echoes down the hall like it just crawled out of the wall.
“Do you hear him?” I whisper, but Killian shakes his head.
“Get up, Honeycomb. We aren’t finished,” he orders as I try to stand, but Killian lifts me by my waist, leaning me against the wall.
“I’m good, Killer. Let’s get the hell out of here,” I say, and he smiles. But the hallway stretches in front of us. More doors. More guards, and my smile widens.
“They made a mistake,” I say.
“They made you,” Jethro hums.
“They did,” Killian answers. I step forward and everything in front of me—becomes something to break. They don’t stop coming. They think numbers matter, that noise matters, or that we will tire out. Which might be true, but I laugh anyway.
“You don’t ever learn. Haven’t we gone through this dance already?” I sing.
“They don’t need to. They just need to try,” Jethro hums. I like it when they try.
It makes the game much more exciting. I jump up and down as the hallway pulses with movement.
Boots slam. Blood splatters, and the screams—their screams—fuel me.
Jagger slams a guard right over the head with his metal pipe.
The crunch of the man's skull sends chills down my spine. Killian moves behind him, twisting bones, and shivering with every correction he makes, leaving bodies looking deformed and waiting to be fixed. I giggle, walking up to Lucifer as he continues to whisper. What the fuck does he tell people that have them freezing and forgetting how to exist. It’s fucking weird.
Vinny is the scariest of them all, because you never see him coming.
One second he’s there and the next—gone.
I step forward again, my feet sliding on the sticky floor, but I don’t look down.
I just keep moving forward, to where? I have no idea.
It’s not like we can escape this place. Instead, we just made it our own playground…
a killing ground. My hands feel alive like every movement, every kill just gets easier and easier, like I was always supposed to do this.
“Keep up,” I call over my shoulder, making Jagger laugh.
“Try and stop me.” He grins, snapping a guard's neck and dropping his body at my feet.
I spin as another guard reaches for me but I dance out of his way and climb onto his back.
He thrashes, trying to throw me off, but I dig my nails into his throat, causing him to choke as Killian comes in front of him.
“Press a quarter of an inch higher, Canvas, and apply just a touch more of pressure,” he corrects me, and I listen and do exactly what he says.
The guard falls to his knees, thrashing me wildly as I cut off his air then plug his nose.
“Such a good girl, Canvas,” he praises as butterflies swim in my stomach.
Wrapping my arms around his neck and head, I twist until I feel his bone pop then giggle, climbing off of him.
“Too easy,” I whisper, and Jethro chuckles.
“More,” he urges.
“Yes.” Always yes, but the alarm changes as the pitch drops and the rhythm shifts. I pause, tilting my head.
“Do you hear that?” I whisper, but Jagger doesn’t stop beating a guard's head in with his pole. Killian doesn’t look away from the body I just killed. Lucifer though—he smiles wider, and Vinny—he freezes. He hears it too.
“That’s new,” Jethro says as something hisses. Soft. Wrong. Shit. The vents. Fuck!
“They’re changing the rules,” I sing as a thin mist spills into the hallway. Colorless and silent. Almost invisible.
“Don’t breathe,” Jethro snaps, and I laugh.
“Too late.” It hits fast but not like the drug.
My limbs slow and my fingers twitch as the hallway blurs.
Jagger stumbles, as Killian reaches for the wall, while Lucifer exhales slowly, but Vinny’s eyes snap to mine, and I take a step towards him, or try to.
The floor shakes under me and the hallway tilts.
“Stay up,” Jethro growls.
“I’m trying, don’t you see that,” I whisper, my voice sounding far away. The gas thickens and everything gets heavier, slower, making the noise fade. Not gone, just muted like the building is wrapping us up and pulling us under.
“This isn’t sedation.” Killian coughs.
“They’re weakening us,” Lucifer slurs.
“Smart.” I giggle as my knees buckle. I try to catch myself as Jagger reaches out but misses. Vinny moves in but slowly. Everything is too slow.
“Don't go down,” Jethro says, but his voice is slipping.
“No!” I won’t go quiet again. I won’t. The hallway melts and the lights smear as the wall breathes one last time, and then—nothing holds.
I fall as the floor rushes up to meet me, and my vision flickers.
Shapes around me collapse. Jagger—down. Killian—still.
Lucifer—still smiling as he drops. And Vinny—he’s the last one standing.
He looks at me, really looks at me, like he’s memorizing something, then—he goes down too.
The mist thickens, swallowing everything.
“They didn’t stop you,” Jethro’s voice flickers. “They just paused you,”
My smile twitches. “…not for long,” I breathe as darkness pulls me under, but just before everything disappears—I hear it. Not the alarms, not the guards… ...Something deeper—a voice over the speakers. Calm and cold.
“Phase one failed. Begin containment.”
Then the world goes black.