Hello everyone, Mad Jester here. Just posting a new chapter. I tried my hand at a bit of disturbing writing, and I think I didn't screw it up terribly. Thank you all for your support, I think I will be sticking to this fiction for a while. I as aware of the overwhelming votes in favor of Towards the Light, but my mind doesn't always focus on what I want. So here's A Night of Screams. Please, leave a comment or review, it makes my day.

They laughed and chatted for the rest of the evening. As the evening progressed, their laughter became more and more raucous as they became more and more tired. They also became more and more Myra went home at around 11 pm. Drew nearly had to push her out the door. She wanted to sleep over like when they were kids.

“C’mon Drew! Pwease! Lemme stay over! I’s toooooo tired.” She said as she lay sprawled across his couch. “I’ll sleep here! I won’t make a sound. Pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaseeee.” She let out as a groan.

“Youuuuuuuuuuu need to stop being lazy. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut…. No never mind…. Go home!” Drew said, with his face down in the table.

“Heeeeey Drew? What is that bottle doing on the couch? You’re alcohol intooolerant soooo you cannn’t drink….” Myra seemed to ponder this and then her face came up quickly “WAS IT ANOTHER WOMAN?! HOW COULD YOU?? EVEN THOUGH I WAS ALWAYS THERE FOR YOU!!!!”

Drew sleepily brought his head up.

“Of course it wasn’t me you idiot, YOU drank it!”

“BUT I DON”T DRINK!!! I promises *drunken chuckle*… Only for you though Drew…hehehe” She giggled out drunkenly.

Drew just shook his head and face tabled. Scandalous speculations would run rampant through the media if ever a reporter were to discover that Myra had gone straight to Drew’s apartment. If that happened, Drew could kiss his stainless record good bye. But sending her home would be equally bad. Myra exiting his apartment dead drunk? That would be terrible. She wasn’t in any state to go home by herself.

However, Drew hadn’t kept his stainless record for nothing. He had a plan.

“Upsie-daisy Myra” He said while shouldering his drunken friend.

“Forcing me out? Thasss… real meeaaaan…Or are we going to your bedroom? You naughty boooooyyyy…..” Myra mumbled

“Don’t worry, we’re not going far.” Drew chuckled tiredly as he walked her out the door of his apartment.

Since Myra usually ended up in this state, Drew has rented the apartment across the way just for these occasions. As he stumbled with her leaning on him, he shook his head.

“Gotta look out for each other after all…”

Drew took out the key and opened the door to the apartment and led her inside. There was absolutely no furniture anywhere in the house except for a king sized bed in the middle of the living room, which was the room connected to the front door.

Drew dumped her on the bed and turned to go.

“Drew? I’m hot… Help me get my clothes off will you?” Drew turned around. The light from the hallway partially illuminated Myra’s incredible figure. She had already unbuttoned her shirt, revealing a better view of her sensuous curves. Her face sported a dopey smile and a drunken flush. Most men would take this opportunity to release their carnal desires, but Drew was not most men. He turned around and closed the door. He would not end both of their careers for the sake of a little sensual pleasure. Nor was he going to take advantage of his incapacitated friend, or any incapacitated person. He believed that sex was for a serious relationship like marriage.

“Geez… even though she hides it well, she is really such a child underneath.” His thoughts were interrupted as a huge yawn racked through his body.

Thus he dragged himself off to his bedroom. He locked the door to his apartment and his room and lay in his bed. The soft blue pulsing of his capsule lulled him to sleep.

Drew awoke to a noise. Groggily, he opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling. The capsule was still pulsing its soft blue light. All seemed right with the world.

Then he heard the sound again. A strange ululation rang through the night. It sounded like a child was wailing. Drew was about to write it off as a noisy child until he heard a thump. He sat up straight in his bed and looked around for the origin of the noise.

The door to his bedroom, which he specifically remembered locking was wide open, creaking loudly as it swung open a bit wider. Drew glanced to the right to his clock that was usually on his night stand. However, all that was there was a wall. He looked around the room and realized one unsettling fact. The room he had been sleeping in had been reversed. The bed, the desk, the mirror, the capsule, the nightstand and the clock, everything had been moved.

Drew furrowed his brow and looked over at his clock that was now to his left. It read 6:76, a number that should have been impossible.

Slightly disturbed by the turn of events, Drew dragged himself out of his bed, and stumbled to the door. Before he arrived at the door, he passed his large mirror, which he stopped to examine.

Something that should not have been possible was displayed clearly in the reflective glass. It showed an image of the room and Drew with a discrepancy. Instead of a sof t blue, the capsule was pulsing a sickly, poisonous green light.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Drew examined the mirror closer and discovered another disturbing discrepancy. In the reflection, the burn scar on Drew’s wrist was replaced by a bar code. Drew did a double take at and held up his wrist closer to the mirror to examine it.

The reflection moved to correspond with Drew, lifting its wrist to display the bar code. Above the bars were three simple numbers. 676. Drew’s face frowned… but his reflection didn’t. It grinned instead. Suddenly, the reflection’s other had shot out and grabbed Drew by the wrist. It used its hold to slam Drew bodily against the mirror. The bar coded hand reached out slowly and grabbed Drew’s throat. The reflection was grinning maniacally as it choked the life out of him.

Most people would have completely panicked, consumed by the desire to live. Drew calmly placed his other hand and a foot at the rim of the mirror and simply pushed as hard as he could.

The reflection clung to Drew with inhuman force, but it wasn’t enough. Drew broke free from the murderous grasp of his alter self and fell to the ground. He closed his eyes as he went into a coughing fit.

When he opened his eyes again, he was no longer in his room. His back was leaned against a wall, and he was facing down a long, spacious, white hallway Sitting up, Drew looked around and the well illuminated hallway. There were doors at regular intervals. Above each of the doors was a three digit number. Drew looked to his side and saw that the number above the door to his right was 600.

Drew stood up and started walking down the long hallway and noticed the numbers were ascending.

As he walked, he heard noises. Noises of screaming, giggling, laughing, fighting… All were done in high pitched children’s voices. Accompanying all these was a rhythmic thumping noise. As he was walking by room 634, he heard a thumping against the door. A child sobbing followed by a sickening crunch. Silence reigned, only broken by the constant rhythmic thumping. All the noises stopped after this. Drew thought he saw a bit of red seeping out from under the door, but walked on nonchalantly.

He seemed to walk for eternity. He was wrapped in silence, except for the thumping noise. As he walked, the thumping noise became louder, and louder, like the drum of a warship that promised doom and death. As he walked he counted. 660, 661, 662, 663, 664, 665, 667, 668. Wait… he back tracked and counted again, and saw there was no door 666.

He finally came to the end of the hallway. There was a single door at the end. The number above was 676. The thumping was almost deafening, so much that it was shaking the door. Drew looked at the door, examined it quietly. It was well built, good oak, and held the thumping well.

All of a sudden, the thumping stopped. Drew bent down and put his ear to the door to listen. There was not a sound. Not the sound of footsteps. Not the sounds of chairs scraping. All he could hear was his own breath. Then, he felt something warm drip onto his shoulder.

Drew reeled back surprised and looked up. Despite all the training he had received to maintain his composure, it hadn’t prepared him for the sight before him. Right beside the plaque that read 676, was a dismembered hand nailed to the door frame. On the wrist was a tattooed bar code, and above the bar code were tattooed the numbers 676.

Drew’s eyes seemed glued to the grisly sight. He couldn’t pull his eyes away from the hand, as it dripped its blood onto the pristine white floor.

Drip, drip, drip. That was the only sound that rang through the desolate hallway. The solitary noise of the blood hitting the floor was joined by many more.

Drip, drip, drip. Drew frantically turned around and looked down the hallway. Above each of the other door was nailed a dismembered hand.

Drip, drip, drip. Drew could make out a barcode on each of the hands. The floor was a mess of crimson and white as they bled out onto the floor.

Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, click. The drone of the drops were interrupted by the click of a lock. The click sounded right behind, and a the creak of the door as it opened behind him.

Drew felt a hand on his shoulder. Bracing himself, he turned around. The sight that met his eyes caused him to reel in shock.

“It can’t be…” he said as his eyes got even wider from shock.

Then he awoke.

He sat up and looked around. It was his room, correctly oriented. The room was illuminated by the soft pulsing of the capsule.

Drew looked over at his clock. It simply read 4:56 AM. Drew rubbed his face with his hand, trying to orient himself.

“No way I’m going back to sleep after that…” Drew wondered what he would do till morning came, and was answered by the blue pulsing light of the capsule.

“I guess it couldn’t hurt.” Drew said as he dragged himself out of bed and single mindedly dragged himself to the capsule to connect to Grimm’s World. He was so intent on his return to the land of Fairy tales that he completely missed the bar code that was fading back into his old burn scar. It read 676…

“Connect to Grimm’s World” rang his groggy voice. Then, his vision was filled with light and he returned.