Jack knocks while holding the bag full of things we collected, “ahhhh I’m dying ahhhh.” He says while shoving me playfully, trying to get me to join in. I don't.
Leo opens the door while brushing his teeth, his jaw opens upon seeing me, “holy shit you look straight from Carrie, you slaughter a pig down there?”
Jack looks me over, “she did a good job, hey Alice go to the door to the left, there's a shower, oh I also collected you some clothes.” He reaches into the bag and throws some random clothes at me, some too big, some too small. I hold them carefully to not dirty them too much and walk into the door to the left.
I feel sick. I feel wounded. I feel sinful. I open the door, this looks like a normal apartment from the early 2000s, did Leo open this door? I walk straight into the shower and take my stupid dress off, the shower is the only place here that was clean, the rest was dirty and worn through.
I turn the hot water on, letting it steam up, i walk in and feel the burning on my skin, pigmentation turning red. I just let it flow down my body, leaning my face up and feeling every trickle. I run my hands through my hair, i make sure to keep my eyes closed to not see how red I'm making this place.
I stay blind as I reach for a bar of soap, letting the soapy water go into my mouth and eyes. I purposefully open my eyes to let the soapy water run down into them, its like I have to clean everything, even my vision after what I saw.
Around 40 minutes pass and I step out. The shower is covered in blood but i cant seem to push myself to clean it, I put on whatever clothes jack got me, they all seem old fashioned, but I find drawstring sweatpants and a tank top, I have no replacement bra or underwear which is annoying. Its not like it matters anyway.
I step out into the hallway, for a moment i just stare down at the green wall. This is my life now. I walk over to the room Leo and Jack are in and try to open it, its locked. I feel a sense of terror. What if they locked me out? Oh god. Did they betray me?
“Guys! Let me in please? Please?”
That thought process was slowly laid to rest after Leo opens it up, letting me in, Jack is sitting on the couch all excited, “we have booze!” he swings a bottle of clear liquid around, “you took your damn time, I was about to drink this bottle alone.”
“I... I don't drink, sorry.”
Jack seems almost offended, “you some alcoholic?”
Leo walks by me and grabs 3 glasses, “trust us, it'll be better to drink, we don't live in that old world anymore.”
I almost say something like ‘but I have work tomorrow.’ but realise that doesn't make a single bit of sense. I walk over to the couch and sit in the middle, between Jack and Leo.
Jack smiles as he pours the liquid into each glass, filling it to the brim on each one, “this is a reward, to our fresh little baby hunter.”
Leo and Jack pick up their glasses, waiting for me to follow, my shaking hand grabs it and spills a little as I put it to my mouth, I gulp it down as it burns, welcoming the pain. I could only make it halfway through the glass before taking a breath. At least alcohol tastes like alcohol.
“Where’d you find this?” I ask coughing a bit.
Leo looks all smug, “I fermented it out of potatoes, vodka.” Taking another sip he looks over to jack, “hey about those plants from 294, do you really want them moved up?”
“Yeah dude, it’ll make the air quality better, thats what makes 294 so easy to breathe in... well sometimes.”
Leo seems to notice I’m confused, “oh right, yeah 294 has alot of greenery, rather than the apartment complex these floors look like, that floor looks more like a... uh, not sure really, an office maybe?”
“Yep, a lot of plants there.”
Leo continues, “the sprinklers on 294 activate every day and let the plants stay alive, it also washes those pesky webs away and makes face spiders less likely to live there, although some figured out, they could web up the sprinklers and destroy them.”
We all seem to drink at the same time, Jack nudges me, whispering into my ear, “Leo is in exposition mode, he is very passionate about this stuff.” And snickers.
Leo continues, “you may be wondering, ‘why don't we just live down there?’ well that's pretty simple, the mold gets crazy dangerous down there, think about it, water and carpet.”
Jack lays back with a groan, “oh my god shut upppppp. Nobody carrreeeeesssss.”
Leo ignores him and opens up his notebook, showing a detailed sketch of the 294th floor layout from stairwell F. It looks like some areas are reddened out as ‘contagious zones.’
“Contagious?”
“Mold gets all crazy in your lungs, makes you sick. Not sick enough to die but has made me and Jack out of commission a couple of times.” He sips his vodka like its cherry juice, “need a refill?” I can tell Leo is getting slightly drunk with his words slurring. Jack is now on the floor groaning.
He refills both of our glasses, “Jack, get up you look stupid.”
“I don't, I'm mysterious and alooof.” He gets up and drinks the rest of the glass, “lets go to 294 now!”
Leo chucks the packed-up poker cards at him, “you'll die dumbass.”
“awww would you miss me?” Jack slumps over and falls onto Leo’s lap, I move to the side and lay on the arm rest. “Would Leo miss me?”
“Yes idiot.”
“Awwww, ill drink to that.” He grabs the entire bottle and takes a swig, hanging of his shoulder, “loooove you.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“We have a guest...”
Jack looks over and moves to sit down on couch instead of on his lap, “Aliiicceee my friend, you wanna gooooo to 942… no, 294...”
I take another sip of my now refilled glass, trying to forget about the day and this awkward situation I'm in, “no...?”
“Silly silly Ally... can I cally you Ally? A...leeeee.” He moves off the couch and rests his head on the table.
“Sure...”
Leo just scooches over and rubs Jack’s back, “sorry about him, lightweight...” he says while also slurring his words, somehow keeping a proper sitting stance. “You feeling okay?”
I lay back, the room spinning around me, I cant tell if its because I'm drunk or if the room is actually spinning for some unknown reason, its weird how either is possible. “I'm fine. But... everything feels pointless.”
“Ah, pointless. I get that... you'll feel more pointlessness after you die... sorry never mind, shitty thing to bring up...”
Jack snores, half his body now on the table, Leo picks him up by the armpits, “find a purpose, have little goals... uhm... that's all I can really say as advice...”
My mind is so out of place that I decide to ask something personal and out of place, “are you two dating or what...?”
“We aren't.”
“You should...”
“Its complicated, basically... yes we are, but he doesn't like labels, you know, different times... goodnight...” he drags Leo into the bedroom and closes the door, leaving me alone yet again. I feel an overwhelming sense of loneliness, like everything is over, like I was diagnosed with a terminal illness.
Is that another day? 2 days in here... rather than feeling scared I'm more just feeling, empty. Like there's no point, if there's no death after death then this is actually just it. This is it.
This is it, i spent my entire life unhappy and now I'm here, in this hell. This is it.
I finish the bottle of vodka, hearing the giggles from the bedroom, there's nothing left, there is nothing left to be excited about. This is it.
This is it. I get up from the couch and make my way to the exit, I open it up and walk through, strolling through the halls aimlessly, the lights blurry. This is it.
Anything could pop out and kill me, anything, maybe I want that, maybe I want what's after death. Maybe they are wrong, or maybe this is it.
I turn a corner, ill be lost soon enough, maybe ill starve, maybe ill be eaten alive, but the alternative is living here, living in this world, looking at these hallways every day. Maybe I need to die to return back to my world. Or maybe this is it.
I realise that if I die ill never see them ever again, but then again what's even the point? They don't need me, nobody does. I find a stairway, walking up, stumbling a bit as I reach door 299. I open it and see the black sky again, its so grainy, this is the roof. This is it.
I just walk, walking and walking, barefoot on the newly set concrete, I should go inside, but none of this feels real, especially with how drunk I am right now, if this is it, I don't want to exist. This can’t be it.
I give up, and scream. “HELLLOOOOOOOO! I'm aliceee!” waiting for a few moments. In my ear, loud as it can be I hear a "hellloooooooo. I'm aliceee” back, a figure is in the distance, the dark fog making it difficult to see, its human like.
“Kill me please, I'm begging you. Send me back home.”
“Kill me please, I'm begging you. Send me back home.”
It takes a step forward, its leg looks broken into 4 parts, it goes in, then out, then in again, then out with the foot.
“Send, you, home.”
“thatsss it! Thank you!”
The voice is being whispered into my eardrum, I smile as I see its body, bony and proportionally wrong, I'm about to be killed hahah, its over, this is it. This is it.
It takes another step, beginning to speed up, suddenly I'm shot back into my body, oh fuck, I'm about to die. My feet slam into the floor as I sprint back to the stairwell.
“I'm, home.” I hear, its scorchingly loud in my ear, it knocks me off balance and I scrape my foot on the concrete, quickly I get back up and run and run. This cant be it. It can't.
I eventually get the stairwell door open and run down, I'm safe right? I fall down the stairs and land at the bottom, hitting my head harshly. I see a hand creep into the doorway. I forgot to close the door like a god damn idiot. It’s foot appears and then the body, the face slowly looks directly at me down the stairs, the head tilting, it has no jaw, just eyes and a nose. Its grey, like its made of bone. I slide off the ground and go to floor 297, hoping it'll stop following me.
“ALLLIIIICEEEEE” runs through my brain, knocking me over physically, I slam my body through the door and onto the green wall, running as fast as I can.
“IM HERE, ALICE.” knocks me over again, I fall to the floor and watch the creature slam through the stairway door, its body tilting almost at 90 degrees while its misshapen legs stomp towards me, running like a gorilla.
Ill be dead in seconds, I run into a marked door and slam it shut, locking it. I take a couple breaths in and out, hoping its over. “Alice... I'm. Here.” Its hand slams through the door, it reaches for the doorknob, I run into the bathroom and hide, locking it too.
The creak of a door opens up, I hear soft steps around the apartment, then the bathroom door being opened, I thought I had locked it but apparently not. Or maybe the lock was broken.
The door opens fully, its face creeping towards mine, I hear a faint whisper “beg...” in my voice.
“Please... please don't kill me...” my voice wavering.
It replies back, overly exaggerated and almost sarcastically, “Please. Please don't kill meeeee.”
My head leans slightly to the side, the pure white eyes in front of me not even seeming real, like I'm watching a show.
“Beg...” the jaw that I thought was missing opens up from beneath the nose, the skin from the philtrum to the neck opens up to reveal a mouth like a crocodile, its teeth being completely human.
“I... I don't want to die... let me live, please... I beg of you.”
“I. I don't want to die. let me live, please. I beg of you.”
Its hand grabs my wrist and puts it in its mouth, “Beg...”
Its mouth slowly closes and hurts my arm just slightly, making sure I can't rip it away.
“Please...”
“Pleaaaaseeeeee.” It chomps harder till blood trickles down its mouth. It hurts, it hurts. I'm really about to die aren't I?
“STOP IT, OKAY, IM SORRY, IM SORRY, DONT KILL ME, IM BEGGING.” I try to bow somehow, but in this position its almost impossible.
“stoooop it. Okayyy. Im soooorry. im sorrrryyyy. Dont kiiiillll me. Im beggginng” Its voice sounds disturbed and on the edge of laughing.
My arm breaks with a sickening crunch, “AHHHHHH, HELP ME, HELP ME PLEASE, HELP.”
“ahhhhhhhh, heeeelp me. Heeeeeeelp meeeeeee. Pleaseeeee. Heeeelp.”
I try to force my head into its mouth so it kills me, but its hand pushes me back, it begins to slowly walk back with my arm in its mouth, dragging me across the carpet. It takes me out into the hallway, my arm bending in unnatural ways. If I wasn't super drunk right now id be in a lot more pain.
I recognise the hallways, the monsters movements seem meaningful. I see it, the room Leo and Jack live in, it slams its hand into the door, not able to break through. Letting go of my arm and pushing me face first into the door.
“Beg.”
Tears start flowing down my face, “HELP, JACK, LEO, PLEASE, THERES AN ECHOIST, HELP ME, PLEASE.”
The monster doesn't copy me this time, waiting for a response. I hear someone walking to the door, then a small thud, “sorry Alice.” Leo’s voice comes through, very faintly on the other side.
“OPEN THE DOOR, PLEASE.” I wail and cry, “PLEASE IM GOING TO DIE.”
“I'm sorry... I enjoyed our time together...”
“LEO, LET ME THE FUCK IN NOW.”
The creature bangs on the door, Leo responds softly, “please don't hate me, stay safe okay? Bite your tongue, you'll bleed out.”
“IM GOING TO DIE LEO, LET ME IN. PLEASE, PLEASE.” My voice runs coarse, i can barely breathe.
“I'm so sorry Alice. Why’d you have to be so stupid?”
I hear another thud. “Hey ally.” Jack says, “we cant open the door, surely you understand, just... I don't know...” his voice slurs but comes through strongly.
The monster picks me up, slamming me into the door, “PLEASE.” I feel my leg break, “HELP HELP HELP HELP” I get slammed again, my neck loses its grip to my head and falls to my shoulder weirdly.
The rooftop. I feel my feet placed soundly on the floor, my dress back on, all the pain gone, all the intoxication gone.
I died.