挖坑完结篇，等BH填平
"Tyler?"
Empty eye sockets scarred his face. So he, too, had been duped and kidnapped, and they had already started the dissection that I was to finish. The cruel alien scientists stopped in the corridor and observed as I entered the lab.
On a stand near Tyler's cot, a number of items were arranged: some bloodied, recently removed bandages, a small damp sponge floating in a bowl of the glowing green liquid that was their preservative, and a set of the long thin blades they used as scalpels. I could feel the alien presence in my mind. They wanted to know if I had it in me to dissect one of my own.
"Erin?"
"Shhhhh." I picked up the sponge in one hand and dabbed at Tyler's scarred eye-sockets. The whirling emotions returned, and I could sense the creatures struggling against them.
The moment was mine. Seizing the longest scalpel, I jerked the blade against one of his restraints, slicing through the leather-like fabric with a quick, sure cut. Tyler felt the binding slip away, and he lifted his hand to his face in surprise. The pair of aliens in the corridor rushed in as I sliced through the restraints on Tyler's other arm, and then those holding his legs. "Over here!" I yelled, throwing myself at the nearest charging creature, leading with the scalpel. At once, the fierce man was on the thing, a rush of fists and head butts and adrenalin, and the creature was quickly reduced to a broken, huddled mess on the floor. The other monster fumbled with one of the strange mist-emitting devices that the things kept as a precaution in every lab, trying to aim it at Tyler, and I jumped onto the beast's back, yelling Tyler's name. The thing flailed, dropping the weapon, and I fell off, but Tyler was there, tackling and wrestling it to the ground. Even blind, his martial instincts made short work of the monstrous scientist.
A moment later, he pulled himself off of the corpse, and I came to his side and took his hand in my own as I led him to his feet. "Are there any more of them?" he asked.
"I don't think so, but we should try to get out of here. There are...other things."
"I need to get my eyes, they still...work. They're in some kind of warehouse." I knew the place, and knew that these monsters preserved every organ from every dissection they made.
"Follow me." Leading Tyler with his hand in my own, I ran down the corridor. We came to the warehouse, immense and staggering. Each aisle was stacked high with jars holding a different type of preserved organ: hearts, livers, kidneys, ears, brains, and oh yes, eyes.
As we started down this aisle, hundreds if not thousands of pairs of disembodied eyeballs turned at once within their jars to regard us. I shivered, wondering what had happened to all the bodies. Tyler paused, his mouth dropping open, first in confusion and then in a wretched smile. I realized that his eyes had just spotted his body. He let go of my hand and pushed ahead awkwardly between the shelves, hands held in front of himself for balance and bearing. His vision guided him from afar. I followed, a few feet behind.
Tyler stopped and turned to one of the shelves. His arms reached toward one of the jars above his head, and I watched the demented reunion between the man's body and his sight. He lifted the jar from the shelf and cradled it in his arms lovingly, protectively, the way a man would hold a newborn. "Let's go," he said, and then, reluctantly, extended the jar to me. "You should carry it. If we meet any more of them, I'll need my arms free. Hold it in a way that I can see."
Thus we left the labs beneath the Cave on the Hill. Slowly, we navigated the twisting passages of the cavern and eventually emerged into the bright light of dawn. How long we had been prisoners, I did not know, but it seemed like an eternity since I had last seen the sun.
Outside the cave, he turned to me, reaching for the jar. Not a word of relief, apology, or even gratitude. I thrust my hand into the liquid, and wrapped my fingers around one of his eyeballs. "Not another step." I squeezed, just a little. He felt it, and stopped. "That's good. We need to come to a little understanding..."
And now we are together, bound by a contract that is far stronger than anything the O'Bannions and the strange scientists could devise.
Tyler Scindere has my heart. But I have his eyes.
