Christmas Catalyst

Alice armed herself with her knife as she prepared herself to play the hero. She got up from her bed and tucked herself into her trench coat before she approached the door with cautionary silence. Beside the door hung a calendar. It was midnight on Christmas day; the other children were asleep, their minds occupied with fantastical dreams of the day's festivities. However, unbeknownst to them, someone had cut the telephone lines and sabotaged the electric circuits; the manor was running on backup generators. The horrific rumours that a sadistic killer among the adults was now a shocking reality. Alice pulled out the keycard she pinched from an adult and swiped the lock. The dim red light flickered and then glowed a lime green. She clenched on the door handle, and slowly exited her dorm, trying to steady her breath as she tried her best to ignore the terrifying possibility of being caught.

"Everything is okay. Just stay focused," she whispered to herself. She felt strangely comforted by her blade's bitter-cold steel hilt; the cold numbed her fear slightly. She had gingerly picked up a fruit knife from the drawer, were remembered how her friend Lauren had shown her how to conceal contraband from the adults the day before. The normalness of the memory felt far away and strange as she crept along the hall. Her heart fluttered with fear that each step she took could be her last.

She cautiously left the safety of her room and locked the door behind her. The keypad turned crimson red; she was outside with the killer; there was no turning back now. Alice advanced through the corridors as she took careful steps not to wake the other kids, still locked inside their dorms by a uniform roll of dark oak doors. Arriving at the stairs, she smelled something rotten. "Click", as Alice switched open her flashlight to witness puddles of grotesque mucus of water and blood. She peeked her head out, left and right, to check there was nothing but the dead solitude of the empty hallway. Alice was now confident the killer was near; she took a deep breath and encouraged herself.

"You can do this."She found a set of severed hands, a raw tongue, a gun, and a badge. Unlike the other children, Alice was one of the few who had been treated differently by the previous adults. She had seen blood and bone from the experiments. Despite her gruesome experiences, Alice was unable to control her heart rate, which was pounding in horror as adrenaline rushed through her body. She was now in harm's way, and to die in such a fashion was spine-chilling to imagine.

Alice picked up the pistol and read the identity on the badge. "Deputy Wallace of Emerald Forrest Police Department".

"The first responders must've fallen victim to the killer," Alice thought. In the distance, footsteps began tumbling towards her location. She instantly turned off her flashlight and entered the closet, swiftly shutting the sliding doors. An adult's voice sounded from the footsteps.

"Arrh, help, can someone help? The Doctor has gone mad!"

Alice gently peeked from the gap and saw a wounded servant trying his best to shuffle away from certain death. His hands are missing, and an eye gouged out. The man opened the door and travelled out into the snow carpet courtyard. Alice was about to leave her hiding spot before she spied a cloaked individual approaching the man as if it was a ghost being carried by a malignant mist. The phantom-like figure stabbed the wounded servant before he ripped the butler's tongue and discarded the meat on the white pavement.

A flurry of gunshots echoed across the courtyard. The shots hit their mark; however, the cloaked figure is unchanged by the bullets. It turned around and hovered back inside as it pursued its next victim. With the phantom focused elsewhere, Alice moved in to investigate the corpse. A blood-soaked icicle stabbed right at the man's heart. She uncovered a written note in the silk pocket of the butler's suit. Alice views the paper's contents.

Head to the lobby and go to the tree. You must find a teal blue present with a white ribbon addressed to you, Alice. Inside the box is the code to the panic room. The entrance to the panic room is a red cross marked on this map.

Before Alice could speculate why her name was on the note, she noticed droplets of blood dripping on the paper and her hands. She witnessed a loose bloody hand impaled on a set of icicle teeth protruding from a lipless mouth. Her petite frame remained still as the cloaked figure took off his hood. It was a mixture between a deer and a snowman with an anthropoid appearance. Its body was a collection of limbs sewn together by a loose string onto one obese torso. Its skin was as white as alabaster. The most noticeable oddity was its witch nose growing out of the hole where the nostrils once were as if a crude surgeon had replaced the original nose with a rotten carrot. Alice stared into its black orb eyes and carefully reached for the gun in her pocket while she waited for its next move. A gush of light collided with the creature in the face, resulting in the beast squeaking a Windigo scream. Alice turned to see an officer with a blood-soaked face advancing toward her reloading a flare gun.

"GET BACK INSIDE!" he ordered. Alice tore across the yard, intending to retreat to the safety of the panic room as her newly arrived guardian angel brought her time.

She opened the present and grabbed the code. She hurried to the marked location, a room with a window at the front, a desk on the left and an oil painting of the manor's owner Dr Manfrod Coles. She opened the drawer and pressed the hidden button under its ceiling. The picture slid open like a vault. She entered the panic room and found the place scattered with unconscious bodies of adults, some strung up upside down, others tied to chairs, but all had their eyes gurged out and their hands chopped off. One of the corpses was the manor's head security guard armed with a portable flamethrower.

Alice tried her best to keep her cool as she puked in disgust. Never had she seen such gore displayed in such a way, almost as if the panic room was a butcher's house. Steadily she forced herself to accept the gruesome sight and took steps deeper into the bloody room. Determined to use the flamethrower with obvious intent. Suddenly she felt something hit her head violently before she could acquire the weapon. She fell to the ground, slowly losing consciousness. She saw the Doctor standing over her, armed with a crowbar, his emotionless eyes staring at her through his signature frameless glasses.

Alice awakes to find herself tied to a chair as the Doctor secures her hands behind the chair frame.

The Doctor moved to face his captive, confidently kneeling for his eyes to hers.

"Subject Alice 003, since the administration transferred you to my care, you've been nothing but a nuisance to my work. And now you intend to destroy my passion like the rest of these dimwit clones."

Alice tried her best to endure her head pain as beads of blood slivered down her head wound.

The Doctor smirked sinisterly. "Don't worry. I won't hurt you since you're a child; however, my Christopher is hungry, and your soul shall be a great appetiser."

"Unless you were to die first, Mr Coles", Alice remarked with a fierce grin.

"Say whatever you want. Nothing is going to change your fate. If you just stayed in your dorm like the good girls and boys, your death would be peaceful like theirs. But you can't stop acting like a black sheep, a rotten apple, the hero. Look, what good this attitude of yours has brought you? At least your death will ensure the others will go painlessly. Now, where have I put my needles?" The Doctor turned his back on her as he searched for his drugs, and for the first time in her life, Alice was thankful for the sheer capacity of adults to underestimate children.

Unbeknownst to him, Alice slipped the hidden knife from her left sleeve into her hand. She saw through a rope thread.

She thought to herself as she hurriedly freed herself.

"Yes, you're right, Mr Coles. I would be better if I remained obedient; I may be scared senseless right now, but one I am confident about is my passion to seek and destroy people like you. I may be an odd child, but I won't die today. You will not hurt any orphans; I will ensure you won't harm any of my kind!"

Alice jumped up from the chair without hesitation and stabbed the Doctor in the shoulder. He yelled in pain, dropping the needle of propofol.

The Doctor elbowed Alice to the ground. "Enough with your little tricks, brat!"

He pinned her to the floor with both hands choking her mercilessly. Swiftly Alice acquired the needles and injected the drugs into her attack's jugular. With determination and fury, the Doctor strangles her a second longer before his mind gives in to the drugs.

A familiar voice echoed into the panic room.

"Why won't you die!" Alice left the panic room armed with the flamethrower. She hurried to the courtyard where the officer was backed into a corner, firing one last flare at the creature, who dodged the flaming projectile without much effort. The beast formed an icicle from its frost-like breath as it raised its root-like arms, preparing to grip the blade as it crystallised. As the spell was near completion, a flame wind came in contact with the creature. It reeks of pain and backs off from its target. Alice launches another flaming punch towards the snowman.

She shoots again, but the fire grows weaker before it completely stops. Seeing that its attacker is out of fuel, the creature turns its body into particles and swarms itself toward Alice. Before it could carry out its retribution, another cloud of fire engulfed the misty ghost, forcing it to flee the battlefield in an icy fog.

A group of soldiers appear from the building armed with incendiary weapons.

"The courtyard is clear. Subject Alpha is safe. Thirty-two dead, Seven wounded, and the orphans are secure."

Before Alice could thank them, she was swiftly grabbed and drugged. Alice tried her best to struggle in the man's arms and finally gave in to the injection.

She awakes to see the bright white light on the ceiling. She feels comfortable on a bed with a bandage over her head. Alice attempted to leave the hospital bed but was interrupted by an adult dressed as a researcher who entered the room.

"Take it easy, subject Alice 003. You've suffered a serious head injury. Please rest awhile. The CEO will see you shortly." The researcher tucked Alice back in bed and left the room, locking the door.

She was now alone again in a locked room. Unable to suppress her inpatients, she left her bed and searched for tools to help her escape. She crushed the glass vas using the pillows. She carelessly picked a shard up, accidentally cutting her finger before she swept the mess under the bed and bandaged her wound. She found a few paper clips from the set of papers in the draws, and she bent the clips into a makeshift lock pick. As she attempted to picklock the door, she heard footsteps from what sounded like a set of boots heading towards the door. She swiftly hid her tools under her sleeves as the keypad turned lime green. A middle-aged man dressed in a void black lab coat entered.

"Hello, Alice. My name is Doctor Gelvanhoth. I'm the CEO of the Emerald Institute. It's an honour to meet my little troublemaker."