"... Let's check the monitors more," Prudence said, biting her lip. "Maybe we can see where that... thing went. The white one."
I nodded, still unsettled. The console's screens flickered back to life as she tapped through the surveillance tabs on one of the monitors.
We cycled through camera feeds of the house and laboratory: library, main floor, kitchen, upper hallway, various labs, and many other rooms. There was a darkly-lit room with classical artifacts situated in the basement. It caught my eye due to its incongruence with the rest of the architecture.
Then, we found one feed— positioned right outside the room we were currently in.
Prudence flinched. "Okay, that's... that's right here. But the timestamp— look. It says 11:42 PM."
I stared. "That can't be right."
"It's probably around 12:40 now. This is, like... an hour behind. Is the system's just messed up?" Maybe it was just a bug.
She hesitated, then tapped into the same feed again— this time it refreshed. The camera now showed an empty hallway, timestamp flashing 12:45.
We exhaled together.
"... Okay, maybe it lagged."
But then, the timestamp twitched. 12:45. Then 12:49. Then 12:01. Then 11:02. The hallway itself didn't change, but the lighting subtly pulsed in and out, like breathing.
The hallway doors shown on other monitors began opening— closing— opening. Without sound. Like a silent slideshow on fast-forward.
On another— the library. It was fine. Then, the books began rising and glowing scarlet. The whole scene reversed, like someone hit rewind on reality. A few seconds pass.
"... Okay, I think I'm gonna be sick."
I didn't know what to say. I wasn't sure I could speak.
She flipped to the lab entrance again. This time, Prudence gasped.
The pale figure was there again. Standing still.
But this time it was... facing the camera. Head tilted too far, like its neck had no bones. It didn't move, but every few seconds, the screen blinked— once, twice— and it was an inch closer. It was still. But the distance was shrinking.
Blink. Closer. Blink. Closer.
However, after moments of moving distances while maintaining its gaze towards the camera, it makes a sudden veer to the wall to its right, phasing through.
Prudence slammed the monitor shut with a yelp.
"Okay, we're going."
"I agree."
We grabbed our weapons tight in our hands and rushed to the door.
When we opened it, the hallway we came through was somehow longer, like it stretched back into infinity. The lights were dimmer now. Some flickered. And yet... it felt like the exact same corridor.
"I don't remember it being this long," I said.
"Nope," she muttered, voice high-pitched with anxiety. "Nope nope nope."
We ran.
But the end of the hall didn't get closer.
We went through a door to the side. Then another within that room. And another. At some point, they stopped having access boards. Turned wooden of all sorts of colours, no longer steel. Some had blood, or various other mysterious substances. And then— I recognized one of them. It was the weapon storage door, marked with the same heading.
"... What?" Prudence stopped running. "But the weaponry was on the other side of hall— we've only been going forward!"
We stood in front of the weapon room again, breathing hard. We decidedly go in, and we identify the door leading to the hallway, going through it. From there on, we keep running towards the entrance.
A few moments later, a sharp clang echoed from somewhere behind us.
We turned towards the direction we came from.
The pale figure stood far at the other end. Just standing. Again.
And then, without transition— without movement— it was halfway down the hall.
Prudence went into position, trembling. "Okay. Screw this." She points her gun at the horror and shoots. However, the bullets just phase through. "..."
In response, the white monster widens its pitch-black eyes, previously tiny, to the size of a grapefruit's, and blood flows down its mouth onto the floor. To that, Prudence and I head to the room directly next to us. In there, we passed more doors. Then out to the hallway again. Then around a turn I swore shouldn't exist.
"Who built this?" Prudence muttered. "MC Escher on minimum wage?"
I snorted at the absurdity of it all.
Then— the lights above us popped. One by one. Sounding like thin, bony fingers snapping.
The figure was behind us again. No footsteps. Just closing in. We didn't look. We ran.
We ducked into a nearby room- a large steel door marked "Genetic Vault." It had a different air about it, bitingly cold, but also pervasive and sweat-inducing the same way heat was.
Inside— darkness. A red emergency light pulsed from above, slow and irregular, painting the room in flashes.
The moment we entered, the door slammed shut behind us. There were no more doors aside from the entrance.
"Not good," Prudence squeaked as she tried opening it again, to no avail.
I looked around— metal tables, tubes filled with floating things. Nothing useful. No windows. No screens.
The pulse of red lit the silhouette of something large at the far end of the room.
A sound started— soft, almost static. Then a low hum. Like some ancient engine turning. Strangely, it also sounded like breathing.
The red light flashed faster. A blaring alarm starts sounding, although slow and quiet, almost distorted.
I pulled Prudence back. "We need to hide."
Prudence whispers, "... If we die, I'm haunting you."
"... Get in line," I whisper back. "My parents already have dibs."
With nowhere to run, we ducked under a table. However, the silhouette moved. Slowly. One leg— then the other.
Unfortunately, it was conscious.
She clutched my sleeve. I could feel her shaking.
The hum got stronger. The alarms built up in speed and sound. My ears felt like they were popping. My brain drowning. The air got... heavy. Too thick to breathe. Thick in the way blood was compared to water. Like something was wrong with gravity itself.
Suddenly, the room looked different. The walls were stone. The next blink— metal again. Blink— stone. Blink— something else, slimy, grimy, moldy. Something foreign.
I clenched my teeth. It wasn't just time that was wrong here. Space itself was glitching.
The shape lumbered forward— periodically visible under the sporadic red flashes. Clumps of wet, torn black hair clung to its face. Its limbs looked sewn together from multiple torsos of different sexes. A strip of flesh peeled from its chest as it moved, revealing a slick, dark, violet membrane pulsing underneath.
I smelled roses. Faintly. Like a funeral.
Carved onto its core— penetrated deep— was a symbol I'd seen earlier.
A warped spiral, with a pulsing red jewel in its centre.
My breath caught.
I'd seen it once— burned into my memory. However, I can't seem to recall from where.
I didn't say anything. My eyes were locked on the twitching figure.
The light flickered again— and the walls changed. A momentary flash of something even more sickly organic. Ribbed textures. Veins. A heartbeat in the steel.
And lining the room— barely visible shapes. Test subjects? Maybe. But some of them were split open at the torso like dolls. Others... wrong. Heads too long. Eyes in the wrong places. One had no limbs and was still crawling toward the wall.
Somewhere behind the static hum, I swore I could hear wet, guttural laughter.
Feral. Bloody. Alien, profoundly otherworldly.
Then everything went still.
One last red pulse. The figure and everything else were gone.
Silence.
Nothing moved.
We didn't either.
Then, the door unlatched. Opened slowly on its own.
Without speaking, we darted out.
Whatever that thing had been— it didn't follow.
We kept running until we found a small security room, locking ourselves in.
I collapsed into a chair, heart pounding, body slick with sweat.
Prudence stood with her back to the door. "What was that?"
"I don't know," I said.
She was silent for a beat. Then, "We need to get out of here. No matter what."
"We will," I said, but it felt empty.