Run. Just keep running. The creature must get tired at some point. It must. Run, even if you cannot see anything because of tears in your eyes. Run even if your body cannot pump more adrenaline into your veins. It will lose your track. Surely. Soon enough, you will be safe. Safe enough to catch a breath at least. You can hear its roar, few rooms and few corridors behind you. It is not the moment yet. You’re not safe for now, but soon, the thing will find someone else to hunt. I’m sure of it.
…
Everything is so… calm. You didn’t hear its gut-wrenching scream for few hours now. You’ve been running for way too long, way longer than you should have been able to. But fear can make us do things no one would think are possible. You can rest now. You’re safe. Regenerate, before the creature catches your scent again. Regenerate, because you will have to run again. Soon.
…
Elliot woke up. For few seconds, the place around him felt haunting. An old, long forgotten storage: room with barely functioning white lamp, old shelves filled with junk, oil stains on the wall. Air was heavy, making breathing a challenge, but one that feels great to overcome. He was still alive. After inexplicable amount of time, during which even a smallest error could lead to his death, being able to breath without the fear of being heard was the greatest prize he could get. But with every prize in life comes a punishment. Punishment of waking up to reality. Punishment of leaving the dream world, where everything was like the good old times. In those rare dreams, others were with him. Family, friends, strangers, passerby’s, shopkeepers, policemen, random people. They were all there. But, in the real world, they were no more.
Elliot sat, his back against the wall. He was safe. The creature was roaming closer than he liked, but there wasn’t any immediate danger. He could just sit there, without worrying about the present. He was sure of it. The wild rush will start again, but not now. Now was the time to be happy. To remember. Time to remember the times before the hell broke loose. Time to remember travels with friends, without the creatures hunting down every one of them. Time to remember meeting new people, when there still were new people to meet. Time to remember family dinners, when there still was someone to eat the dinner with.
Elliot checked his backpack, hoping to find some food in there. It was as empty as at the previous stop. Despair started to get to him. He needed to eat. Needed to fill his stomach. He has found some food on his way here. But it would slow him down. He couldn’t run with a full stomach. He cannot run with more weight on his back. The choice was no more about dying or surviving but dying from fatigue or by the creature.
A shiver ran through his spine. Whispers. Blinking light. The hunt was over, but the creature was still roaming. It is always somewhere around. Even when he is safe, he remembers the feeling. He remembers the adrenaline of being chased. He needed to go. As far as possible.
He stood up. With his muscles twitching from fatigue, and his body barely recovered, Elliot stood up, grabbing the shelf, looking at the blinking white light. He did one step towards the door at the opposite side of the room. It looked old, rusty and as if someone has already tried to break it from the other side. It was the only way. Another step. Another. And one more. Elliot leaned against the door. “Move. Just move. Please. Get away before it’s too late”. His own words resonated in his head.
Elliot crossed the door. A long, dark corridor. Scratches on the walls. Some blood stains. The path was clear. It only required the strength to follow it. One, slow step after another. The number of steps increased along with the pain in his leg muscles. How long had he been running away? For how long can he keep going?
New room. It was still calm. The hunt hadn’t begun yet.
This place has suffered the most through the End. Happy paintings on the walls. Yellow sun on the ceiling smiling with bloody tears at smashed toys laying on the ground. Broken cribs weren’t as safe as they were supposed to be. Place of safety wasn’t one anymore. In one moment, it was full of laughs and playing children and the next it looked like taken out from a poor horror just to scare him. There were a lot of emotions hanging in the air of the nursery. Happiness, innocence, tragedy, death, violation… but the biggest one was the feeling that something was missing. Something here was forgotten. Something wanted to get through to Elliot but it couldn’t. Something very important was left behind in here. But it wouldn’t stop the creature. There wasn’t time to look for what was supposed to be forgotten.
Next corridor was longer. More scratches. More blood stains on the walls. But also, more light. White light from the long lightbulbs was shy enough to not reveal the end of the corridor, but it allowed Elliot to see his tired face in the puddle of blood here and there.
A classroom. At least, before the End, it was a classroom. Broken desks, bricked up windows, chairs hanging up from the ceiling. The board was intact, with written phrases of discipline and normality all over it. "You need to fit; You need to be the same. You need to do as everyone else; play to the same rhythm. There is no place for those who don’t fit." Elliot stood and thought about it. The idea seemed so absurd now. Fit to who? There was no one in here anymore. Do the same as who? He was left all alone. Only the creature kept following. Its shadows started playing the spectacle on the walls. It was still asleep but will wake up again. It always does.
Next corridor. Blinding light. White tiles, in which Elliot could have seen his tired, terrified, inhuman reflection. Fresh bloodstains covering what he didn’t what to see. Industrial lamps hurting his eyes. It all looked like a trap, he wanted to run the opposite way, but he could not. This was the way to go. Anything else was impossible. Such was life. Elliot could only go ahead. Not a single step back.
An office. Everything was clean. So perfect. So modern. Perfectly ordered work desks. Tidy open space, the smell of good quality coffee. A hanging body in the middle of that perfect room. The smell of rot fitting so perfectly with the feeling of the place. A fabric bag covering the victims face. Its bloody clothes were home to inexplicable hordes of insects and worms, feeding on its tragedy. Elliot couldn’t take his eyes of the tragic figure, it seemed so familiar, he could almost recognize it even if the office was utterly alien to him. He started hearing gossips all around, voices of people who weren’t supposed to be alive anymore. Dozens of eyes observing and judging him- and the victim. Judging them as if the End was their fault. But the whispers didn’t come only from those unreal bystanders.
Elliot wasn’t here alone anymore. Blood freezing in his veins. Adrenaline pumping up again. His body preparing to run for its life like an animal of prey. A new hunt has begun.
The last survivor ran. Thankfully, there was an escape from the office. A labyrinth of corridors, a labyrinth of options. Every turn could lead to a dead end, could end his struggle. But the instinct made Elliot choose the ones that could give him even few more seconds of survival. The creature was close. He could hear its words, its screams, its breath right behind him. The creature could catch up to him, he was sure of it. The beast was playing with him, clearly amused as he was crying his eyes out in fear. The hunt was going on for hours, days, weeks, months. Elliot was running, with the creature being once closer, once further away. The corridors were unending, his struggle as old as time. In short moments, when he was able to look behind him, or around the corner, he could see the elongated limbs of the creature. Never its face, but always parts of it. He was constantly within its grasp. Unnaturally long arms, counted in dozens, could snap his neck at every moment. Creature’s legs could run up to him without any effort. But they didn’t.
Elliot arrived in a room. Empty room. Just one dirty mirror in front of him. Nowhere left to run. He couldn’t see his own face on the soggy glass. But he saw a figure standing behind him. It was standing there. Judging him. It knew. He knew. It was his time. His final hour. With a trembling hand, Elliot wiped the surface to look his nightmare in the eyes.
And the mirror got covered with blood.
……….
Ellie looked at herself in the mirror. She saw a reflection of a tired, bloodied and ragged woman. Since the End, every day was a fight for survival. A struggle to not get found by the creatures. To not get heard, when they hunt you. To run, when they catch your scent. Constant life in fear and hatred of this things. But it will change now. She looked herself in the eyes, through the blood covered mirror. She got a track of one of the young creatures. Too weak to fight her. She will make them suffer as she suffered. Suffer through the loss of a loved one.
She left the mirror room and entered the labyrinth. A labyrinth of corridors, a labyrinth of options. Every turn could lead to a dead end, could end her hunt. But the need for vengeance made her choose the ones that would bring her to her objective. The creature was close. She could hear its whispers, its screams, its cry for help. The creature was unable to ran away. It was trying to get away in panic. Its fear was delightful, it felt great to be on the other side. To not have to run. To be the hunter, not the hunted. She was the threat now. She was a danger to those who were supposed to be the danger. Hunter became hunted. The screams of pain when the creature kept running into walls with impact were the music to her ears.
Ellie entered the office, her eyes scanning the pristine order of the space. Everything was immaculate—too perfect, too deliberate. It felt like a mockery, the creatures must have left it to piss her off. The hanging body in the center felt like a message, not just a tragedy. The smell of rot clashed violently with the clean scent of polished desks and freshly brewed coffee, heightening her sense of unease. The figure’s bloodstained clothing crawled with insects, but Ellie forced herself to examine it closer, looking for any sign of identity or intent hidden in its grotesque state. It looked familiar. It felt like she knew this person, before the hell broke loose. It felt so long ago. Back in those times she knew herself. She screamed out of anger, falling on her knees. It was unjust. Everything that happened to her was unjust. It wasn’t supposed to go on like that. If the god existed, it played with her. It was amused with her suffering. That’s why the young creature must die. For justice to be done.
Her scream alerted the prey. She saw the elongated limbs run away from the office. It won’t get away.
Next corridor. Blinding light. White tiles, in which Ellie could have seen her determined eyes, full of hatred at the monster running away from her. She was walking slowly, through the puddles of fresh blood, concentrated on her prey. She didn’t see the deformed, bloody image of a sadistic, but guilty smile of someone who does know what they need to do, and they take a great pleasure in it. The creature was trapped, and it knew it, while comically running through the tight corridor. It had to die. Ellie knew she was destined to kill it. There was no other choice.
A classroom. At least, before the End, it was a classroom. Broken desks, bricked up windows, chairs hanging up from the ceiling. The board was intact, with written phrases of discipline and normality all over it. "You need to fit; You need to be the same. You need to do as everyone else; play to the same rhythm. There is no place for those who don’t fit." Ellie laughed. The creature tried to scare her with her past life traumas. She was free now. She didn’t need to fit. In that regard, she was grateful to the creatures. She didn’t have to do as she was told anymore. In all this tragedy, she found her liberty in solitude, with her world empty. Only now she could be her true self, without being judged. And the existence of the creature was reminiscent of those times when it wasn’t a case. That’s why it needed to die.
Corridors started to get shorter and darker. Some scratches here, some scratches there. Dimmed light. The creature was clearly running out of ideas how to discourage her from what she is about to do.
A nursery. The creature’s tricks were getting primitive. To play on her pity for kids. Pathetic. Beautifully painted walls were covered with blood. Dolls with their heads ripped off by other kids, who couldn’t understand what she felt back then. Cribs drowned with blood, silent about the horrors and inhuman sins they witnessed. A spear of pain ran through Ellie’s heart. She remembered. She remembered what she didn’t want to remember. She leaned against the wall in spasms of hysteria. It was never meant to be. She wasn’t supposed to suffer like that. No one should ever suffer like that. She understood: it started back then. Creatures were among us before the End. They lurked around since long time. She understood. It all made sense suddenly. Ellie stopped crying. Memories were painful, but it gave her another piece of resolve. Another spark to keep going. She will end it. She will end the creature. At least this one. She will avenge her suffering by ending those who started her ending. She will kill the heart of all her problems.
Long corridor. Completely dark. It surely was some kind of manipulation, even more desperate than before. But shadows couldn’t obscure her resolve.
A storage room. Oil stains on the wall. Shelves filled with junk. Ellie opened it up with a kick. The creature was laying there. On the ground, where its place was. Its inhuman shape was disgusting her. Elongated hands, made to choke and restrain her. Long legs able to catch up to her if she tries to run away. The shape was vaguely humanoid, but it only made looking at it more puke provoking. She couldn’t stand being in the presence of this thing. It was an offense against the nature, against Ellie herself. The worst part was the creature’s face. It looked so much like hers. Like a twin or a mirror reflection. Like her before she became who she is now. Insulting. Its insulting presence needed to be ended. Right now.
………
Run. Just keep running. This creature must get tired at some point. It must. Run, even if you cannot see anything because of tears in your eyes. Run even if your body cannot pump more adrenaline into your veins. It will lose your track. Surely. Soon enough, you will be safe. Safe enough to catch a breath at least. You hear a roar, few rooms and few corridors behind you. It is not the moment yet. You’re not safe for now, but soon, the thing will find someone else to hunt. I’m sure of it.
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1 comment
Wonderful, atmospheric, and seeing the pursuit from both sides. Great stuff. A few errors that could be caught by reading aloud before hitting publish. Hope to read more of your stories.
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