Haha.
Really?
I'm going insane.
No. Let's be logical here. I must be tired, and experiencing auditory, and visual hallucinations?
I haven't slept in a while, and I didn't eat much yesterday…
Oh! And I also got stabbed! And drowned!
That's plenty of reason to be hallucinating right now!
This is fine!
Ha…
I'm not stupid enough for this. Who'd believe that catshit explanation?
"Just keep going, get out of here first. I can lose my mind later." Hajun told himself as he descended into the stairwell for the second time. This time, he started with a sprint, keeping his eyes on what he assumed was light from the second floor.
But no matter how far he ran, he couldn't reach it. After several minutes of running at full speed, he stopped, sagging against the railing.
Why? Because the steps weren't falling this time. He had wasted his energy for nothing.
Hajun looked up, at the singular light bulb that lit the winding stairwell. It hung from a long cord, extending up into a pitch darkness to which he saw no end.
The moths had gathered below its faint light, blotting it out into flickering shreds. There were hundreds of them now. Hundreds of eyes.
He closed his eyes, sitting on the stairs and resting his aching legs. The flutter of wings, as the moths danced, then died, falling like a particularly putrid rain, was strangely calming.
Maybe he was strange for thinking that, while being trapped inside what felt like a personal purgatory.
He held out a hand, one that was clawed, and blackened by blood. And into that hand, a moth fell, it's legs twitching.
"What are you? Who's watching me?" Hajun asked it, blinking slowly. He half expected to end up somewhere else, but nothing happened.
And that was fine. At this point he just didn't care.
He swung his legs, humming until boredom got the better of him.
"Sorry." He muttered, before he crushed the moth in his hand.
What he didn't expect was the explosion of dust that hit his face, causing him to cough and jerk back. But for some reason, he didn't let go of the moth.
When he managed to wipe his eyes from the blinding substance, what he saw was a message, hovering in mid air. It was made of dust, fickle and short lived. But he managed to read it.
"Stabilization studies ongoing. Subject #526 suffers decay. The Doctor considers immortality possible still."
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Hajun squinted as the words faded away, then took his eyes to another moth. He caught it and crushed it midair, holding it away from his face until the dust settled.
"Ms. Baker…ate a tuna sandwich? Hah? She stole it?" His nose wrinkled as he read the anticlimactic message. He caught and read a few more, just to be sure, but it only confirmed his suspicions.
The moths were spying on the inhabitants of this building. But the information relayed was fragmented and useless. Even more so when one moth held only one message.
"Intruder seen wandering labs. Not one of ours? And…Pathetic?"
"What? Is this about me?" Hajun felt almost offended as the one he had swatted against the wall slid down and crumbled to dust.
"So they break in here? Whoever they are? For what? Immortality?"
He snorted.
"Hope they get it. Then regret it. They don't know what's coming for them."
"Ha…Nevermind. I feel crazy for believing this." Hajun groaned, then finally stopped pacing around catching moths. Around him was a mess of corpses, the bodies of moths scattered on the steps like leaves.
Must had died before he could read the messages they carried, and he had given up on reading the brief glimpses of information as they burst into dust under his feet.
The smell had grown to a nauseating level, with the dust only adding to the discomfort as he began descending the stairs again.
"Hurk—" Hajun clasped a hand over his mouth, holding back a second round of vomit. Though his stomach was too empty to throw anything up.
So instead, he coughed, and blood spilled from his mouth onto his palm.
The taste of it was revolting.
Deep breath in. Deep breath out.
You're okay. Just breathe.
Breathe.
[ Isn't it quite nice, the taste of blood? No? Haha! Ironic for a vampire, being revolted by the very thing that heals them..!]
The chimera broke through the static to laugh in his face, to ridicule him while he suffered. He was sick of it.
[ You know, I knew a vampire. We were similar creatures, so fast friends we were! Ah but their face…I can't seem to recall…]
"Did I ask?" Hajun hissed, wiping the blood on his pants and continuing on towards the exit he could never reach.
[ No! But who needs a fool's opinion? I know you're bored, you're listening, which means you want to talk, so…let's talk! ]
"Shut up."
[ Let's talk about what you remembered…finally you won't deny our deal! You've been deluding yourself for so long I was starting to think I was the crazy one! ]
[ Come now ■■■, drop the act! Talk to me like you used to! ]
"I didn't remember anything, because there's nothing to remember..!!" Hajun yelled out, his voice repeating back to him until he decided to bump himself into every square inch of wall inside the stairwell.
If he couldn't reach the exit, he would find a different way out.
Or so he justified his insane behaviour. His shoulders hurt, and he could barely breathe the air which stank of rotting flesh, but he continued.
Eventually, he tipped sideways, through the wall that had looked solid until he'd rammed into it.
He tumbled out into the hallway, finding himself on the ground yet again.
He nearly collapsed when he tried to stand up. But he was hopeful. This time, surely, he had made progress.
"Huh?"
"…No."
He stared at that blasted number three, which mocked him as he trembled from exhaustion. He stared at it, then bashed his head against it.
THUD.
"You."
THUD.
"Are."
THUD.
"Two."
THUD.
"Got it?"
Hajun snarled, static ringing in his ears until he couldn't even hear the sound of his skull breaking anymore.
"Whoa— let's not do that…! You're getting blood all over it…" A hand slotted itself in between Hajun's head and the wall, cushioning the next thud into a dull tap.
When he slowly opened his eyes, he saw what he wanted. That bloody number three had become two.
"Ha. Hahaha…!"
He laughed, because it was funny. He laughed, because it hurt like hell.
***
"Goodness…I told that old coot that the security system was too extreme, but did he listen? Of course not." A man with silver hair, mask, and vest sighed as he watched another intruder descend into madness. He took his hand back, wiping off the blood while he waited for the man with the antlers to calm down.
He couldn't quite figure out what mask it was that the guy wore, what with his back to him. For now, he decided that it was just a deer.
"Excuse me? Mr. Deer? I'll have to escort you off the premises now."
The silver wolf cleared his throat when the silence stretched for too long, the eyes of his mask narrowing into slits. He could smell the stench, and see the dust that clung to the man's clothes. To his eyes, this was a threat.
Whether human or spirit, he would dispose of it, as was his job. But there were protocols to this. He couldn't yet, not here.
He wasn't particularly keen on angering the janitor by painting the halls red or black. Tentacles were a struggle to fight. Too slippery.
"Deer? Sir, you can't be here. If anyone else finds you, you're as good as dead, do you understand me?"
"…I'm not your dear." The white deer spoke, the ears of the mask that had flattened against a head of dark, curly hair, standing up.
"What? Oh— certainly not!" Silver wolf's somewhat imposing posture wavered for a moment, the ears of his own mask flattening.
"Oh damn this thing—" He reached up to cover it when he noticed the deer staring. He was never a fan of how these things betrayed his emotions. He was told that it was a lack of skill on his part, but he didn't believe that to be the case.
"Please ignore that! It's got a mind of it's own!" He chuckled awkwardly, waiting for the intruder to get his bearings and then beg for a way out, as they always did. Most couldn't handle the logic of this place, even if they had a mask.
But what his patience rewarded him with was a polite smile. It was unsettling.
When the deer finally straightened out, his eyes traveled upwards to meet theirs. The guy was taller than he had expected.
He suddenly felt awkward.
"Hey, this is the second floor, right?" The man with the deer mask, and most surprisingly, fangs, asked.
It really was unsettling, that smile.
"No…it's the third." He smiled back, although it twitched slightly.
"Haha…but it's not?"
When the fanged deer chuckled, he felt the prickle of goosebumps rise on his arms.
He did not like that.
"Sir. I think I know this building better than an intruder like you."
"Haha…maybe you forgot?" The eyes of the deer mask squinted at him, as the man who owned them jabbed a finger to the plaque on the wall. The one that was still splattered with their blood.
"I really don't think that's the case—" The silver wolf started, then was forced to stop. The strange deer was right, the plaque showed the number two. But he knew for a fact that this was the third floor. That hadn't changed yesterday, nor would it today.
"See? I'm right. So why can't I leave?" The man's head cocked, a slow movement that only unsettled him further.
After a short pause, the eyes of the wolf mask eased up. This deer wasn't any different from the others, just a bit slow, he decided then.
"The architecture of the labs is a bit confusing haha! People get lost pretty often, so I do my part and help out!"
"…Huh."
That was all he got from the guy before silence fell again.
"Alright, well then…I'll lead you to the exit. Please follow close behind me. Or hold onto something of mine. It's your choice. But you should know that if you get lost again, I won't come to find you" Silver Wolf said as he stepped towards the stairwell.
"…Why should I trust you?"
He stopped in his tracks and turned around, staring at the deer mask, and the sharp eyes that stared him down.
"Did I say that you had a better option?" He stood straighter, his hand going to the pistol on his waist.
"Ha. Haha. You didn't." The deer extended a hand, as if offering a hand shake, before those fingers flexed, and claws ripped out from the skin with a sickening tear.
"I learned this in there." He flexed the claws, retracting, then baring them again as he tilted his head toward the stairwell. "Ah. Right, sorry I made a mess. Too many moths."
"Moth…huh?" The wolf mask's ears twitched, before the eyeholes narrowed with a glare directed at the black claws. There were no eyes visible behind them, only darkness.
"Can't make a mess…" He muttered to himself as he held back the urge to shoot. Instead, he unclasped a pair of handcuffs from his belt, slapping them onto those dangerous hands in a movement too fast to see, even with his own eyes.
"Ah?" The Deer blinked, then looked down at his hands.
"It's a safety measure. I'm sure you understand." He smiled in return, then walked off into the stairwell. Somehow, the handcuffs followed after him, tugging the intruder along despite the struggle.
"I really don't!"
"That's fine too." He stopped where dust was strewn over the steps like sand. He could only tell the difference because it caused him to sneeze repeatedly.
"Damn this—" He swore, the mask's ears flattening against his perfectly slicked back hair.
"You said you did this?" He looked over his shoulder, frowning at the culprit who had pressed themselves against the wall as if wanting to merge with it.
"Not all of it…"
The Silver Wolf's gaze followed that of the deer in headlights, landing on the lightbulb that hung there, swaying ever so slightly.
"That's not supposed to be there." He said, then unholstered his pistol. The bulb shattered, the smell of gunpowder lingering as he holstered a firearm that no one saw fire.
Glass showered over then, but he simply walked on, the staircase shrinking to let him exit out into the hallway.
He heard the muffled laughter of a man gone mad as he led the way out of the building's labyrinth, but he didn't look back. There was no need to.
"Oh…Lupin. Go on…." The darkness beyond the security desk grunted noncommittally, the door to the courtyard blinking into existence where there had only been a wall.
"Good night, Mr. Guard." Lupin nodded his head, but startled back when the door suddenly vanished.
"What?? Why??" He whirled to face the empty darkness, which showed no answer. Slowly, a hand emerged from it, its arm extending up to a meter to point a pitch black finger to the deer mask, whose owner flinched back.
"This…is…?"
Lupin jumped to answer, cutting them off. "It's a guest. They got lost, you see. I'm escorting them out."
"No…not guest. It is…Jackalope."
"What?" Lupin blinked, his mouth twitching at the corner. "Jack what? It's just a Deer."
"This one…take to the office. No killing."
Lupin's mouth twisted into a frown as he stared down the darkness, which had no face.
"And…why is that? This Deer— um, Jack…lope is unauthorized, an intruder who you yourself kept from escaping."
"Cerenity…Doctors assistant, called. Doctors…orders, she said."
"Doctors…? A-are you sure??" Lupin startled, looking to the blank state of the exit, then the so-called Jackalope who was staring at him.
There was something threatening about the smile on his face, which was stretched thin.
"Dr. Kim, right? He's my doctor, you see. I was here for a…urgent checkup." The smiling man said, stepping forward and offering up his cuffed hands. There was expectation there, the timidness having evaporated within moments.
"You— you know his name??" Lupin exclaimed, then forced himself to calm down. The handcuffed clicked free, and he clipped them back onto his belt.
"Remember…registrar building, 1314." The Guard said, as their hand retreated back into the darkness behind the security desk. Just as the last finger vanished into shadow, the door reappeared, opening itself automatically.
This building had the only doors that did that. Even if he'd seen it many times, Lupin found it unsettling.
"…Alright then, dear valued guest. Right this way."
"Shut up with the dear…" He heard a faint muttering behind him as the guest in question rubbed at his wrists and followed after him.
If he wanted a response, he would have spoken louder, so Lupin didn't pay it any mind.