Thump...
The incessant pounding was what woke Asan. His head was ringing terribly, and his breath had been knocked out of him. His heart, like a car engine, was racing under the influence of adrenaline in his blood, while a faint ringing filled his ears.
"What... What happened?" Asan barely opened his eyes and said. His voice was incredibly weak, and everything was blurry. Overcoming the deafening pain throughout his body, comparable to being hit by a car, he managed to sit up. Slowly bringing his hands to his eyes, he rubbed them fiercely, greedily inhaling air that seemed to be lacking.
"How... Did I end up on the floor?" Confusion was written all over Asan's face as he looked around the place where he found himself after passing out.
"Right... I blacked out when they... Agh!" The guy started to recall how he suddenly grabbed his head in the worst migraine attack.
But even so, he didn't forget why exactly he had lost consciousness.
The moment he tapped on the first sign he saw, his brain exploded in pain. His entire body suddenly became heavy, and his eyes filled with blood. He felt as if he were being broken from the inside, as if hundreds of thousands of needles were stitching his muscles together, reassembling and sewing them anew. Veins all over his body swelled up and seemed ready to burst under their own pressure. He remembered that he couldn't even scream because the pain was so intense that he could only breathe wildly and endure it, wishing for it to end sooner. Fortunately, his body couldn't withstand such overload, and consciousness faded.
"Where... Where's Laszlo?" the guy said after wiping his eyes.
He remembered how his friend was convulsing on the couch, just like him.
Glancing around the room quickly, he saw his companion lying in the same spot as before. His chest was slowly rising and falling, giving the boy confidence that Laszlo was alive. This somewhat calmed Asan, but then his attention shifted to something else.
Thump...
The noise that had woken him up continued. It could be heard through the wall, as if something heavy was being hit against it every few seconds.
"I need... I need to wake up..."
When Asan tried to stand, a new wave of pain dropped him back onto the cold floor. The room was cold overall, due to the open window through which those two ribbons had flown in, piercing him and his friend. But much worse was the smell. The wind brought a nauseating odor from outside, and Asan feared even imagining what could have created it. Overcoming himself, he managed to turn his head towards the window to see that the sky had changed.
For the entire previous month, the sky had been completely black, which is why he kept tripping over small pebbles while outside, burying his nose in the ground. But now it had taken on a bloody crimson hue. The clouds were gone, but there was no sign of the moon or sun. And yet, despite this, the room filled with an ominous red light.
He was distracted from staring at the terrifying sky by a sound coming from somewhere on the couch. Laslzo was waking up.
"Ah... What the... crap... Ah..." His friend croaked, slowly opening his eyes. His face immediately contorted in pain. Ashan could only watch, as he himself was experiencing something similar.
"Aah... Ashan? Are you... here?" Laslzo strained to say, his eyes frantically searching the room for his friend.
"Yeah... I'm here... You still alive over there?"
"Yeah... Haha... Seems like I'm just a bit sick..."
"Temperature 37… Ngha-h… Can't be, damn it…" Laszlo continued speaking in fragments, starting to wipe his face.
"If your awful sense of humor is still intact… then you must be alive… Mmmgh, my body hurts…" Asan blurted out after another attempt to stand up.
In the end, he managed to get up and somehow maintain his balance. The ringing in his ears slowly faded, making way for the thumping coming from the adjacent room.
"What… What exactly happened? It feels like I was put through a meat grinder…"
With great difficulty moving his legs, the boy managed to reach the couch and sit down next to Laszlo. His breathing gradually stabilized, and his heartbeat slowly returned to normal.
"Be damned if I know… I remember looking at the sky and getting hypnotized by it. Then a hurricane dropped from there, out of which these… ribbons flew. And after that… you know the rest yourself."
"Don't even mention it… remembering it makes me sick."
For several minutes, both of them were silent, trying to come to their senses. Laszlo needed a bit more time since he woke up a little later than Asan. If the light had properly illuminated their faces, one could have easily thought that sitting on the couch were two living corpses, who not only looked terrible but also groaned as soon as they moved.
Thump…
"What the hell is that banging?! My head's about to explode... and there's still banging. It won't be long before I go crazy, damn it..." Laszlo said irritably, his eyebrows furrowed deeply. It was evident that for some reason, he found it harder to endure all this pain.
"Maybe… There too… This-uh… The same thing happened to them as to us? Who lived there… At all?" Asan mumbled to himself, staring at the wall from which the thumps were coming.
"I don't give a fuck… I don't care who was there, but if this doesn't stop, I'll punch him right now.
"Wakes people up after a heavy workday, no shame, no conscience!" Laszlo said in his usual humorous manner.
This calmed Asan, but it couldn't last long. He still needed to understand what was happening right now. Had this happened only to them, or had it affected the entire European Community? Or maybe... the whole world?
"So... what should we do? Should we wait for rescuers or the police? Who usually handles such incidents?" Asan said, slowly stretching his hands, clenching and unclenching his fists.
"If this happened not just to us, I doubt anyone will come... by the way... you were saving up for her for two months, right?" Laszlo said, grinning mischievously and pointing at Asan.
In horror, Asan looked down and saw that his shirt was torn. He must have ripped it during an episode of unbearable pain. He remembered how scorching heat spread from head to toe.
"Mm-hmm... well, what can you do, no big deal, I'll just patch it up," Asan replied with a light smile, quickly calming down. Of course, he was sad about losing such an expensive item, but right now there were more important problems.
"Now let's get serious... I think we need to at least go outside and check out the situation. Or figure out who the fuck keeps banging on the door. Ronnie should be home. We need to check if he's still alive in there." Laszlo said, slowly getting to his feet. It was clear that this was quite a struggle for him.
"He's a big guy, he should be fine, but I guess you're right." Asan responded, also slowly getting to his feet.
Soon they both stood in front of the dilapidated wooden door. After exchanging a couple of glances, Asan opened the door and saw how the bulb illuminating the landing flickered rapidly. Swallowing hard, he stepped forward.
There was a door on each side of the corridor. The landing itself was narrow, but there was no problem for two people to squeeze through. First of all, they decided to check out the room to their right, from which the banging noise was coming.
"Hey, you bunch of idiots, open up!" Laszlo pounded his fist on the door brazenly.
Asan stood silently next to him, scanning the landing when he suddenly thought he saw something beneath them.
"Good morning! Open up! If you don't do it, I'll kick in your door and then I'll beat your face in! Tsk." Laszlo continued to bang furiously on the door. He looked clearly irritated.
Asan, however, did not hear this, but instead tried to make out in the flickering light what sticky substance was beneath them. Realization slowly dawned on him, and this made him feel hot. Asan once again wanted to be back in his own room, in relative safety.
Get away from that damned door and the damned dried-up stain on the floor.
"Hey, Laszlo, stop it! " Asan whispered, trying to distract Laszlo. A consuming fear was spreading through his heart like a wildfire.
"Get lost, Asan, I'm about to show him what happens when you wake me up in a bad mood!" Laszlo waved him off, continuing to bang on the doors.
Shuffling sounds began coming from behind the wall. Unlike Laszlo, who was ready to explode with anger, Asan wanted to run... as far and as fast as possible.
"Laszlo, damn you, stop being an idiot! Look at the floor, isn't that a— " Asan started, but was interrupted by a scream. A scream coming from behind the wall.
Laszlo shuddered involuntarily and took a step back. He understood what Asan meant the moment he looked down and saw the dried bloodstain seeping out from under the door.
The door began to be pounded on violently from the other side, with such force that it seemed like it would come off its hinges at any moment. Now both of them understood they needed to leave, and leave as quickly as possible.
"Assan, let's get down to Ronnie, RIGHT NOW!" Laszlo shouted, and both of them shot down the stairs like bullets.
Assan still felt excruciating pain all over his body, but a new surge of adrenaline somewhat dulled it. Now he was only thinking about not tripping and rolling down the stairs. The stairs themselves were made of metal and clearly needed repair. Assan feared them greatly, as they had always been shaky, and he always walked them as slowly and carefully as possible. But this time there was no choice.
Neither of the guys noticed how they had descended three floors. Both could hear the door of the cursed room still being battered upon, and the screams from inside could be heard throughout the entire hallway.
Panting, Asan leaned his back against the wall and tried to even out his breathing. Suddenly, a rather reasonable question popped into his head: what exactly had they been so scared of? Could it be that the howl had affected them both so strongly...
But the answer came quickly to mind. That howl couldn't have come from a human; no creature he knew could produce such a piercing, soul-shaking howl.
"We must have arrived... This is Ronnie's room," Laszlo said, having caught his breath in such a short period of time.
Asan was often surprised by the fact that despite smoking, Laszlo was far more resilient than most people.
"Just open it already... I don't want to stay here for long..." Asan said, approaching the door. Laszlo nervously tugged at the handle, and they both quickly slipped inside the room, where Ronnie was supposed to be...
Or so they thought.