Phobias

by Ryan Horvath

  There was also a microphone built into the glasses, and Miedo had it hooked up to several loudspeakers around the residence that was soon no longer going to be his, or anyone’s, for that matter.

  He said two words which he knew would bellow louder than the thunder as he saw his football player captive get to his feet and the detective and Mr. Star bring Heather near. “Checkmate, assholes.”

  He looked down at the device attached to his wrist and watched it count down the remaining seconds.

  ~*~0~0~*~

  “Checkmate, assholes,” Holly heard from a massive speaker hanging over the monitors that she hadn’t noticed. She jumped back in fright as if the monitors themselves had shouted at her. A sense of unavoidable doom washed over her as the numbers on the screen worked their way down.

  “We have to get out of here!” she shrieked, grabbing at the two young football players’ arms when they were close to her. She scanned the poorly-lit space looking for a door or window they could flee from. Sweat formed on her brow and her heart sank into the deepest part of her stomach. Her fear was starting to creep in around her vision as she was certain she saw scuttling multi-legged creatures emerging from the shadowy corners of the room.

  Another flash of lightning revealed a door about fifteen yards away, and above it was a window, so she guessed the door had to lead outside. When the lightning quit, Holly noticed a number of small blinking red lights and knew just how dangerous of a place they were in. This place wasn’t going to just blow up.

  It was going to be obliterated.

  She dug her fingers into the wrist of one of the young men; she didn’t know which one and didn’t want to look back to find out. She pulled him and started to run for the door. She felt him resist for a second, and slow them down, but then he was with her.

  ~*~0~0~*~

  “Checkmate, assholes,” Calvin heard the voice shout from what seemed like every corner of the room. He recognized the voice and it made hairs stand up all over his bare skin.

  His doctor. His own fucking psychiatrist was the one who brought him here. His doctor, who was supposed to be oath-bound to help people get and stay healthy, was the one who had been taking Calvin’s mother’s hard-earned money and setting up this place and this scene. His doctor, who was privy to all of Calvin’s fears, was the man who exploited those fears and kept Calvin a prisoner of darkness and dreams; who used Calvin like a puppet to commit the most savage violation of another human being. The dream drugs were Dr. Andrews’s idea and prescription and Calvin suddenly realized the doctor used the pills to earn Calvin’s trust and then to break him.

  When the voice on the speakers stopped, Calvin heard a woman he didn’t know shrieking, and then a man he also didn’t know began bellowing to someone behind them. Calvin stole a glance in that direction and saw two other strange men in the distance. One was helping the girl Calvin had been forced on. He didn’t need to hear anything from Walt to know they were all in dire trouble.

  Calvin felt the strange woman clamp her hand around his wrist and pull him, but she was easy to resist.

  “Walt?” Calvin said to his friend. “What the fuck?”

  Walt shouted back at Calvin and he didn’t resist the woman any more. They were running together. At first Calvin had no idea where they were going but, in a brilliant flash of lightning, he saw a door ahead.

  ~*~0~0~*~

  “Checkmate, assholes,” Walt heard the voice echo around his head. From all around he saw small blinking red lights and knew they weren’t just in trouble; they were in deep shit.

  Walt saw the seconds counting down on the monitor were now in the thirties. He had almost no prayer of finding his mom, but that didn’t mean he could give up.

  Calvin shouted something at him. Walt knew this must be scaring the hell out of his best friend. But he didn’t hear what Calvin said.

  “I gotta find my mom!” Walt shouted. “Go with Holly. She’s a friend. Get the fuck out of here!” He saw angry blinking red lights in his peripheral vision and added, “This place is going to blow!”

  Walt turned from his friend and instantly slammed into Terry. “Fuck!” he spat. “I gotta go find my mom!” echoing what he’d shouted to Calvin. And, suddenly, he heard Terry apologize before the detective punched Walt square in the cheek, stunning him and causing him to fall back into someone’s arms. Walt heard Terry shout to whoever caught him that he would go after his mom and for them to get out now.

  Walt fought to resist and hot tears poured from his eyes. He was able to see it was Chad who was dragging him away. And Chad’s grip was firm. Walt remembered thinking, just a few moments before they entered this death trap, that taking Chad’s phone from him would be child’s play. But Walt no longer believed that. Chad Dean was as strong as an ox. If Walt wasn’t stunned by the punch, he might have broken free but, even though he struggled, Chad wouldn’t let him go.

  ~*~0~0~*~

  “Checkmate, assholes,” Chad heard after he bellowed his warning to Terry. The voice on the speaker belonged to his and his late wife’s psychiatrist. They’d been right all along.

  Chad didn’t know what to do next but he did know alcohol was the farthest thing from his mind. He’d been trying so hard, since that awful night when his phobias were born, to find eternal peace in an alcohol bottle and, when he saw Holly point out the countdown on the screen, he wanted nothing more than to live out the rest of his life clean and sober.

  Chad saw Holly and Walt flee and, in a flash of lightning, saw the door where they were headed. He heard Walt shout about his mother and turn and then saw Terry punch the kid as hard as he could. Walt slammed hard as he fell into Chad’s arms. Chad felt sweat race down his face and back as he grunted against the unexpected burden. He guessed the kid would have a promising future as a pro linebacker if he grew much more in college.

  “Terry? What the fuck?” Chad hollered and grunted as he adjusted to Walt’s bulk.

  Terry fired back an explanation and Chad instantly agreed. He nodded and pulled Walt away and toward the door Holly and Calvin were already at.

  Chad silently wished Terry luck. Holly and Calvin hadn’t been able to get the door open and, since Calvin had no clothes or shoes, he couldn’t kick at the heavy-looking door without risking a few broken bones in his foot.

  But Chad had shoes on. And he had strength, determination, and sobriety that mixed with adrenaline and the will to live. He passed Walt onto the support of Calvin

  With a heavy foot, he joined Holly in kicking at the door.

  ~*~0~0~*~

  “Checkmate, assholes,” Heather heard the hateful voice boom in her ears causing her to squeal and flail her now free arms.

  The sheer loudness of the voice rang like a tuning fork endlessly in her ears and sent vibrations through her body. She broke free of Tim, a man she loathed but the man who had just saved her, and ran from him into the unknown shadows.

  He yelled after her, but the combination of his voice and the thunder escalated her fear and she continued to flee and wail. She stopped when she reached a metal shelf and fell to her knees in front of it, cowering and trapped by her phobias.

  On the underside of the shelf above her, a red light blinked.

  ~*~0~0~*~

  “Checkmate, assholes,” Tim heard the monster say over speakers that he couldn’t see. And suddenly Heather tore away from him. She screeched and ran.

  “Heather!” Tim shouted. He chanced a look in the other direction and saw where the medical examiner and Calvin Vale were headed. There was a way out over there and he just had to get Heather to freedom.

  But Heather was going the wrong way.

  Tim raced after her, shouting her name.

  He found her crouched in front of an empty shelf. He tried to grab her, but she scratched at him, drawing blood and making him withdraw with a hiss and fall back on his hands and rear end. When he did, he saw the blinking red light above Heather.

  At least fifteen seconds had passed since he last
saw the countdown. Then, it had read thirty-two seconds.

  Seventeen seconds left. At the most.

  He looked back at the others.

  The detective disappeared, but the ex-cop was kicking at the door while the medical examiner helped him. The naked football player supported his friend.

  There was no way Tim could get Heather and himself out in time.

  He fell to his knees beside her and whispered.

  “I love you, Heather. I’m so sorry. So sorry. So sorry. So…” And he was cut off.

  ~*~0~0~*~

  “Checkmate, assholes,” Terry heard the voice say.

  Everyone sprang into motion around him. Even if he knew where to take everyone, he had no prayer of corralling them all. Heather and Tim were already running in a different direction. Holly was dragging Calvin away but Walt slammed right into Terry. Walt said he had to get his mother, but Terry knew that was a nearly impossible task. But the look in the boy’s eyes said he would not be swayed, and Terry knew what he had to do.

  “I’m sorry, kid,” he said. He gathered all the strength he had, knowing it would take just about everything he could muster to subdue Walt, and punched the kid hard in the face. Terry winced as he felt one of the bones in his middle finger snap against the kid’s face, but Walt went down. And Chad was right there for Walt to fall into.

  Chad looked at Terry with confusion and questioned him.

  “The kid never would have given up looking for him mom. It’s my job to protect and serve. I’ll go after her. Get them out of here, Chad. Now,” Terry explained and ordered.

  Chad didn’t hesitate and, though Walt struggled against him, Chad held onto the kid and dragged him away.

  Terry turned and was on the move. He had no idea where to find Walt’s mother but he wasn’t going to stop. He absorbed that need from Walt. And it didn’t take him long to find her. She was in a room nearby, strapped to a chair. Terry yanked off her blindfold and saw the confusion and fear in her eyes. Terry knew he didn’t have much time. Ten, maybe fifteen seconds at the most, and he prayed there was another door in this room. He quickly pulled a pocket knife out and cut her free of the restraints on her upper body. He knelt down and set to work on what was around her ankles.

  A blinking red light caught his eye and he gulped. A small brick of plastic explosive was under the seat of the chair.

  “Oh, fuck,” Terry gasped.

  Two seconds later, and Terry’s own phobia was born. Pyrophobia.

  It all seemed like slow motion to Terry as the plastic explosive under Walt’s mother blew up. Flames slowly worked their way from the source of the spark outward and engulfed Terry. Brilliant reds, yellows, oranges, and golds danced around Terry as he felt his flesh begin to sear. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he felt his left lower leg come free followed by his right hand, then the entire right leg. He couldn’t look down at himself as the flames burrowed across his corneas and let themselves into his mouth and nostrils. They caressed him as if they were a familiar mother and Terry tried to return to the fetal position.

  But what appeared to happen in slow motion to Terry, actually happened fast, and the flames consumed both Walt’s mother and Terry before the explosion lost even a fraction of its force.

  ~*~0~0~*~

  “C’mon, you mother fucker!” Holly bellowed as she and Chad applied one last kick. Both of them were nearly out of strength, but the door finally broke free. Holly couldn’t believe she was seeing the outdoors at first, but the wind from the storm found her skin and she was in motion and ran through the door, into the storm. She chanced one quick look behind her and saw Calvin pull Walt through the door. Chad emerged a second later, shouting for them all to run for the hills.

  Then the building behind her exploded, and Holly was blown off her feet.

  ~*~0~0~*~

  Miedo heard the amazing explosion and saw the dazzling fireball erupt through thin gaps in the canopy. The ground trembled angrily beneath his feet and he giggled as he worked to keep his footing.

  Through his special glasses, he saw only a static screen, and he switched the glasses off.

  They were all dead now. The detective, the drunk, Mr. Star, the football player, the wild card and his mother, the medical examiner, and the little slut who had started it all.

  Miedo was very pleased.

  He smiled smugly and let himself out of the gate that he re-opened remotely after the last person came through it.

  He slipped into the storm-sodden dawn.

  ~~30~~

  Chad was the last one out and only made it about fifteen yards away before the building exploded. A wall of concussive force slammed into his back and was immediately followed by heat he’d never before experienced. The force knocked him on his chest in the mud and the heat licked his flesh and found him tasty. Chad was on fire. He bellowed in pain and anger.

  But his old training kicked in. He would later, if he lived, thank his new-found sobriety for that. He quickly rolled over onto his back and felt instant relief as the flames that ignited his shirt and the back of his hair were squelched from life by the mud.

  Looking at the sky, he was shocked to see the large fireball and smoke billowing into the air. Milliseconds later, hot debris began pelting him.

  “Fuck!” Chad spat as he moved his hands to shield his face. Something loud crashed next to him. Chad’s ears were ringing from the explosion so he barely heard it, but when he turned his neck to steal a look, he saw it was a sharp-looking unrecognizable piece of twisted smoldering metal. Had it landed a little to the left, Chad would have been impaled. Bits of smoking wood rained down in all directions, and Chad felt one ember burn the webbing between his index and middle fingers. When he tried to shake it free, it slipped through and rested on his cheek, giving him a small brand before he was able to prop up and swat it away.

  “Shit!” he hissed angrily.

  Something else worked its way out of the diminishing explosion. As it flew directly toward him, Chad knew he had no chance of dodging from its path.

  The unknown object slammed into Chad’s head and it was lights out for him. He splatted back in the mud.

  ~*~0~0~*~

  Like Chad, Holly, Walt, and Calvin were also blown off their feet in the wake of the gigantic explosion but the trio managed to make it almost twice as far from the devastation as Chad had.

  As Holly went down, one of her arms went up, and she saw a section of severed pipe fly into her forearm. She felt her ulna fracture as the pipe bounced away, and she yelped in pain.

  Calvin was punched into the mud by the explosion and, even though it was still summertime, the drenched earth was cold, and it chilled his bare skin. He felt splinters of wood shrapnel bore into the flesh of his back left thigh and buttocks.

  Walt felt a large flat chunk of some unknown detritus slam into the center of his back and knock the wind out of him. It knocked him to the ground near his friend. He thought he felt a rib or two snap as the debris fell away from him.

  All three had been deafened to a degree by the cacophony of the explosion but, with each passing second, the ringing in their ears lessened. The storm was dying, but the rain was still working on putting out the fire in what little was left of the smoldering structure.

  ~*~0~0~*~

  “What… what the fuck was that?” Calvin said, getting to his knees. He was very aware of his nudity but he was too confused to care.

  “We didn’t all make it…,” Holly softly said as she stepped beside him. Her face and clothes were streaked with mud and heavy tears hung in her eyes. She cradled her injured forearm.

  “M…m… my m…m… mom w…w…was in there,” Walt said in disbelief as he looked at the wreckage. The stutter and a heavy exhalation of smoky air caused him to wince as his damaged ribcage shifted to a new position. He didn’t need to go charging into the building to find her. No one could have survived.

  “Chad? I thought he was right behind us?” Holly questioned. She started looking around.<
br />
  “Over there,” Calvin said and pointed to a pile of wreckage. He now knew the name of at least one of the men who had appeared at this hellish scene tonight.

  Holly saw the upper two thirds of a man’s body under the heap of debris that Calvin pointed to. The body wasn’t moving. “Oh my God,” she gasped. She looked at the two young friends and added, “Help me.”

  Calvin nodded and helped Walt to his feet while Walt swore at him. When they were both upright, they moved to where Holly already was.

  Holly kneeled down and looked at Chad. There was still a small tendril of smoke coming off his shirt that had apparently caught fire. She could smell burning hair. And Chad had blood on his brow and down around his ear that originated from somewhere beneath his hair line. Holly reached out with her good arm and applied two fingers to Chad’s neck. He was warm, and it had been a while since she’d touched a living person in this area. She found his pulse and sighed with relief. “He’s alive!” she exclaimed. A smile spread across her earth-stained face in spite of everything they’d been through. She started lightly slapping his cheeks. “Chad? Chad?” she asked, between every few slaps.

  “Careful,” Calvin warned. “He took something to his head.”

  “You’re the closest thing we have to a doctor,” Walt said to Holly. He took hold of Chad’s jaw and turned his head so the injury could be better seen. “Take a look,” Walt told her.

  Holly nodded and leaned over, being careful to use as much of her upper arm strength to keep her lower arm close to her. Her break probably wasn’t severe, but it sure as hell didn’t feel all that minor either. She peered at Chad’s injury. It would need stitched, but it wasn’t terrible. Any first year medical student could stitch him up in no time. “Chad?” she said again.

  Chad’s face scrunched and he turned his head back to the way it was before Walt moved it. His eyes fluttered beneath their lids and he groaned. “Are… are… are we dead?” he managed.

  Holly chuckled and shook her head. Without thinking, she leaned down and kissed Chad squarely on the lips. Her injured arm screamed in protest at the sudden shift, so the kiss didn’t last long. “No,” she returned with new tears. “We made it. But the others… the others…” she took a furtive look at Walt, but didn’t need to go on.