Located just beyond the southern hills of San Francisco, the San Francisco State Advanced Institute was a place of precision, pressure, and promise. Founded in 2043, the institute had grown from a modest state university into a technological nerve center, known for its cutting-edge research in robotics, mechatronics, and applied sciences. For students like Marc, Léo, and Hugo, it had become less a place of learning and more a battlefield of deadlines, caffeine, and sleepless ambition.
In the improvised mechatronics laboratory, three individuals stood in front of a screen. The artificial light of the neon lights cast a clinical glow on computer screens, revealing complex patterns and lines of code. Next to it, specialized tools, half-assembled circuit boards, bare wires and robotic prototypes lay among the cold cups of coffee and crumpled snack wrappers on the benches. The air was heavy with fatigue and the lingering smell of heated electronics and sweat. Léo and Marc were glued to their keyboards, their faces marked by fatigue and their eyes a little empty. The last lines of code scrolled across the screen. It was the very last effort for their graduation project in mechatronics, a task that had eaten months of their lives.
"Good," Leo said in a weary breath, stretching with a moan that cracked every vertebra, as if the weight of the project was finally gone.
"What should we do now? We're almost done with this project... (A deep sigh, almost a groan of relief) I can see the end of the tunnel. I even think... that I see heaven, guys."
Rubbing his red eyes, Marc let out a barely audible sigh of relief
"Yes, yes... Everything is good on my side. Just this last series of tests to validate, to finalize this damn program... and after... "He drops his hands, his gaze lost for a moment"... We will finally be able to go home. Thank God. "
Looking at the screen, then at the technical mess surrounding them, Leo let a hint of melancholy appear in his voice, sketching a forced smile.
"I'm going to miss all that... The sleepless nights, the infamous food, the permanent stress... He sighs, shaking his head, as if to chase away this incongruous thought.
"No, actually, not really. But guys, still... it was something. "
In an almost provocative burst of energy that contrasts violently with their exhaustion, Hugo suddenly appeared behind them, a big smile stretching on his lips, almost a challenge.
"Ah! Leo! My good old Leo! If for you, staying at work all evening until you become an archaeological relic, is fun! Please leave me out of this. I didn't sign up for unpaid overtime and dark circles under my knees! Well, see you more... My limit has been largely reached."
Looking up from his screen, Marc let a mixture of amusement and slight exasperation appear on his tired face.
"Hey! Where are you going like this, little flower? We're not done yet! "
With a wink, already half turned towards the door, Hugo replied with a mischievous air.
"Do you know the toilets? It's a great invention for mortals like me, it's used to..."
He laughs softly, a laugh that resonates in the silent room "Well, I admit that the idea of sneaking away, of letting you marinate alone in your juice until morning, crossed my mind. But the most important thing..." He pauses dramatically, a finger pointing at them with an air of false authority, his eyes sparkling
"... you better have finished everything when I return!" I don't want to find you here at dawn, snoring on your keyboards! Got it?!"
Shocked by Hugo's audacity, Léo frowned with fatigue and amusement, but above all with growing annoyance.
"No, but do you think you're the boss or what?! We did it all here! We're exhausted!"
Marc, a smirk reflecting the mischief in tired eyes, observing the scene with a certain irony
"Bah... Technically, he's the boss, perhaps? The quiet strength of power."
Leo let out an exasperated growl, gently punching his desk with his fist, his patience reaching its limit.
"Ah, fuck! It's okay, I can't take it anymore! I feel like I'm going to blow up right now! Okay, listen, Marc, we'll finish this quickly. Very quickly. And then I go back. I reached my limit with this nonsense. Every second more is torture! I swear, absolute torture!"
Hugo disappears, a last light laugh echoing in the corridor, leaving Marc and Leo with their tiredness, their annoyance, and the promise of an imminent end. The atmosphere is both heavy with exhaustion and light with shared humour, a precarious calm before the night takes an unexpected turn.
******
"He still hasn't come back. What is he still making?" looking up from his screen, Marc notices that more than thirty minutes had already passed since Hugo's departure.
"Do you think he's really gone? Maybe you should check it out? I'll stay here to finalize"
Leo, no longer able to hide his frustration, could not help but let it show. "Arrr! Are you serious?! Are you sure it's going to be okay for you if I go?"
Noticing what Leo was referring to in the question, Marc let a small smile appear before answering it.
"Don't worry. It's just a few lines of code to tweak, you'll be fine. Don't wait for me, go get it, so that we can finish it once and for all."
Hearing the answer from Marc, Leo couldn't help but think about the past with a thoughtful smile
"He's always been like that, well he's the type to always get by on his own only as a team." Letting out a sigh, he turned and went in search of Hugo.
Minutes passed since Leo had slipped away. Suddenly, the air became heavier, strangely silent... Then, as if pulled from the depths of darkness, a shadow slowly began to loom in the hallway. Feeling the presence, Marc stiffened, his heart having almost missed a beat as he looked up at the window trying to perceive what was behind it.
"Guys, where are you? Hmmm ???"
He approached the glass cautiously, his eyes riveted on the darkness beyond, trying to distinguish the slightest shape, the slightest movement. His nerves were strained to bursting. Suddenly, in a terrifying brilliance, an image was distorted: a mass of absolute black, monstrous and rapid, emerged from nothingness and swooped down on him without warning!
"Ah !!!"
With a dazzling reflex, Marc threw himself to his right, dodging the mass of shadow that fell on the window in a crash of exploded glass throwing him back by the blast that followed. He collapsed, struggling desperately to catch his breath, still in shock from what had just passed. But as his eyes swept across space, his gaze froze on beneath the cause of his shock. His entire body stiffened, struck with icy stupor as he became fully aware of the horror that lay before him. No scream, no sound, not even a murmur of terror escaped from his petrified throat.
The creature, the very source of his stupor and paralyzing dread, seemed to have come straight out of a nightmare, a vision of pure horror defying understanding. Then, without the slightest conscious hesitation, he concentrated all his energy, all his strength in his legs.
Driven by a primal and irrepressible survival instinct, he rushed to the door. Rushing in a desperate race, ripping the ground from his feet. He reached the threshold a fraction of a second before the creature pounced on him. With a disorderly leap, he walked through the door, while behind him, with a deafening crash, he heard the beast smashing through, demolishing the wall he had just fled with a roar of destruction. He didn't waste a second. Driven by urgency and an unbridled survival instinct, he rushed to the ground floor where the front door of the building is located, the only way out leading to the end of this nightmare... But an icy thought hit him hard: The heavy outer doors were locked every night. And his friends... his friends... they were still there, trapped with him in this now deadly enclosure. Casting a quick, almost panicked glance behind him to make sure the beast wasn't already hot on his heels, he abruptly changed direction. His new objective: the concierge's office, located on the ground floor, a slim hope in this night of horror.
At every step, his mind was assailed by anguish and gnawing questions: where could the others be? By the greatest of misfortunes, had they ever crossed the path of the creature?
"They still haven't come back... The reason... This monster? If so, then it would mean that...! No! No, you shouldn't think about it. They're just quietly chatting somewhere, yes, that's it, that's bound to be it. All I have to do is find them, warn them of what's going on, and then... »
A dull rumble, a threatening vibration, was suddenly heard on the other side of the corridor. The sound, brutal, cut short the train of his thoughts. His breath caught in his throat, frozen with fear. Then, after a moment of stupefaction, he resumed his frantic race towards the elevator, his head overwhelmed by a flood of panicked terror:
"No, if he ever catches up with me... What's going to happen to me?! And the others? My family? I haven't even lived yet! I'm still so young, why me! »
In a barely audible breath, Marc tried without hesitation to keep his calm.
"Shit... That's not possible... tell me it's a..." dream! » "
Just as this word came out of his mouth, a hand grabbed him by the arm and pulled him into the room next door. Paralyzing him for a short moment, regaining his senses, he was about to retaliate when another hand landed on his mouth preventing him from making the slightest noise
"Fall, not a sound."
"Hmm?"
Marc's eyes parted at the sound of the voice, but the noises coming from the corridor prevented him from looking for any more answers, feeling the danger approaching while his interlocutor still held him in his arms preventing him from making the slightest sound, the sound getting closer and closer, fear invading him with each rumble that resounded in the corridor to the point where he almost forgot to breathe. When the only thoughts that came to his mind were "what to do?" This thought repeated itself over and over again in his mind over and over again, growl, footsteps, sweat, fear, again, growl, steps, sweat, fear, this cycle repeated itself until the sounds moved away to no longer be heard.