It all ended very quickly. One moment Oscar was over me, split open and raining down worms that immediately began tunneling into the meat of me, clouding and twisting my thoughts with every thrusting bite they took. Then there was a loud bang, followed by several more, as the Oscar-thing staggered back and began to let out a terrible squeal of rage. I couldn’t move beyond shifting my head slightly, but it was enough for me to see Jeff Spires come into view, gun held high as he unloaded more rounds into the monster. He was hurting it, but not enough. It was still standing, and as he emptied the clip, it began lurching toward him.

That’s when the ceiling came down above it, a small swarm of brown figures falling with the chunks of earth and rotten flesh and landing on Oscar. They immediately began tearing into him, and this had a more profound effect than any bullets had. His scream became one of fear and pain as he flailed around, clawing and pounding at the creatures as they ripped him apart. One by one, they began to fall, but Oscar fell as well.

That was when Jeff stepped forward again and began striking him with the axe. Two blows, and his head was gone. But he didn’t stop there. He continued to chop at the body even as the three remaining rat-things came over to me, one of them showing a horrific face not hidden by a strange rat mask like the others wore. I was scared of these things too, but less so after all I had seen. And then the unmasked one spoke to me in an almost musical voice.

“Jack, you are at a precipice. We are not going to hurt you. We are going to try to save you, if you can be saved. If not, you’ll have to be destroyed so you don’t become like Oscar. If that happens, it will be done humanely and quickly. Do you understand?”

I was already feeling some control returning to my body, and I weighed the creature’s words carefully. I wanted to do the selfish thing. Refuse. Argue. Try to escape or fight. But I knew it wasn’t the right thing. It was the thing the dark part of myself wanted, encouraged by the wicked things that were eating their way toward my heart. I needed to be fixed or killed before I got worse. Before I became like him.

Oscar had one thing right though. My job wasn’t worth my life. But more than that, my life wasn’t worth my soul.

I nodded and laid my head back on the soggy ground beneath me. A moment later, I felt three sets of small, cold hands on my arm and face. At first I thought it was going to kill me. The worms, halted on their journeys into me, began to thrash and bite, and for the first time I found my voice to scream in pain. I distantly noticed that the sounds of Jeff dismantling Oscar’s body had stopped and I heard him ask if I was going to be okay. There was only silence as a reply.