Fetch the Ghoul

AN: Well, here is the next chapter and all I have typed up for Ghoul. And between work, my little sisters visiting, mounted archery, and horse training its gonna be interesting getting some writing done. And the pinched nerve in my right elbow is acting up again. Like the outside of my arm goes numb and its a WTF!?  Kinda thing. So. Um. Yea, the next chapter for HIMTDGOMD is gonna be up some time tonight too. Even though I got no reviews for the last chapter >_> *sigh* Enjoy!

 

Toreth studied the door, hands on his hips. He ignored the throbbing in his wrists, the ache in his right shoulder.

                “I wonder if they still have my shirt. I liked that shirt,” he said to the metal. The door ignored him. He was a little disappointed. What ever they pumped him with made inanimate objects talk to him. It made the waiting fun. Or it had.

                “Hey chains, you guys know how to get out of here?” He asked, but the chains too, were silent. He’d hoped that some bit of the drug remained.

                “Well fuck.”

 

Apparently there were five other files of Toreth. Each time he was captured, some idiot made a new file instead of just adding to the previous one. And it made Lumani a little uneasy to see that they caught the ghoul five times, but never for very long. And it seemed that the body count had rose with each escape. He skimmed the pages, but kept going back to the first one, dated almost ten years before. The picture actually was what drew his attention.

                Toreth was almost deathly skinny, and Lumani could count the ribs. The hollows of his cheek bones stuck out and reminded Lumani of a skull. The grin he flashed at the camera belaid his rough treatment. An arm stuck out from the right side of the frame and had a hold of Toreth’s then longish hair. His neck muscles looked strained, but that grin actually touched Toreth’s eyes.

                Lumani pulled the picture from the file and leaned back in his computer chair. The only real information that he pulled from the files was that Toreth had been a child soldier, used in the coca fields down in Texas. That was when he was fourteen or so, then he disappeared for four years and showed up later to steal some information that the file didn’t explain. Many paragraphs were blacked out. And the folders grew progressively thinner to the last one, which was only a few sheets of paper.

                Lumani sighed and opened up a new document on his computer. Hopefully going through all the files would jar something loose he could use.

 

Two hours later Lumani balanced a paper plate with a sandwich and a bottle of water in the other hand. He doubted Chris had fed the ghoul, and dangerous terrorist or not, the man had to be fed. The elevator ride down was just as stimulating as before, but this time  when it dinged open Chris wasn’t there to greet him.

                “Chris?” Lumani called out into the corridor. His hesitant voice bounced back to him

                “Damn it,” Lumani stepped out into the dimly lit hall, and the elevator shut behind him. “Chris?” He tried again, but still no sign of the man. The logical side, the side that had gotten him as far as he had, told him to radio in for help. He needed a guard’s pass code and clearance to get back in the elevator.

                But the other side, the fucking cat curiosity, said, “Hey, lets explore!” He reached for the radio at his hip when thunder rumbled down the hall. Lumani went still. It happened again. But the second time it didn’t sound like thunder. More like a body impacting against metal.

                Boots slipping against the slick concrete Lumani bolted down the hallway. His shoulder slammed into the corner as he turned it, his boots loosing traction. A brief thought of how easy it must be to hose the blood off the floors passed through his head.

                His eyes fell on the slumped body. Right against the ghoul’s door. Lumani’s knees cracked against the floor and he rolled the body on its back, already knowing who it was. The sightless blue eyes staring at the ceiling confirmed it. Chris.

                “Fuck,” Lumani breathed, testing Chris’ pulse. The skin was already cool to the touch. Lumani grabbed his radio, and hit the button just as that goddamned door shook in its frame. The radio dropped from his fingers and cracked against the pavement.

                Lumani’s panting almost hurt his ears in the silence.

                “Hey,” a muffled voice came from behind the door. Lumani stared at it with a “what the fuck?” expression.

                “HEY!”