A door had been knocked over nearby, it has the footsteps of an echoist. “itttt itttt itttt.” Is quiet in my ears, whispered just barely.
Those creatures are smart, they knew where Jack and Leo were staying and tried to use me as bait, and I left food in the hallway where I'm living like an idiot, I basically setup a flag saying ‘there is a disgusting human being right outside this door,’ this thing is going through the entire hallway.
Depending on what end he started he could be 2 doors away from finding me or 1. I hold my ear to the wall of the bedroom hoping not to hear the next room over, I don't hear anything. I get up and go under the bed, this is the best I could come up with. I'm hoping this thing doesn't know of cliches.
Another loud bang, another door had been broken, it didn't sound like mine. I decide to get out, sliding my knees on the carpet and grabbing a knife, how quickly can I die right now? I hold it to my neck but chicken out at the last moment, going under the bed yet again. I'm so lost.
The sound of the door to the place I'm in ruptures through my ears, the soft sound of its feet walk around is all I can hear, first the kitchen, I hear a pan fall on the floor, then the living room, I hear the couch being lifted, probably to check if I was under it.
Its checking under things. I stay under the bed almost frozen, what do I do? I don't want to die again, but its either die painfully or die on my own terms. I grab the covers of the bed and slide them off to the side, I wrap myself up in them, it was a king-sized bed so the covers easily hides my whole body. I lay beside the bed nearby the curtains, completely wrapped up like a kebab. A tasty tasty kebab.
This reminds me of the times my mom would let me wrap myself in blankets and play ‘caterpillars.’ Such a stupid game, she would chase me as I wiggled across the hard wood floor, id have so many bruises but wouldn't care.
It walks into the bedroom, I'm losing the ability to breathe, the air pocket I gave myself getting increasingly hot, I hear it lift the bed, the pillows falling onto me, perfect. It doesn't seem to notice me somehow. It goes into the bathroom next, destroying the mirror almost instantly. I'd have body dysmorphia if I looked like that too.
Then it leaves, leaves me alone, but surely will come back eventually. It goes into the next room, destroying the door.
I need to run. I unwrap myself and get up, moving almost choreographically through the room into the hallway, it took around 2 minutes to search my room, so I just need to get far enough. I turn left and see a boy, about 4’5 feet in height, small, young, 8? White hair. Is this a monster?
He looks scared, I almost forget about how I need to get out of this hallway, i grab his wrist to bring him with me and he screams “NO.”
Fuck.
“no.” A voice from the room behind me slowly travels outwards.
I let go of the boy almost instantly, he just killed us... no he killed him, he killed him. It's fine, he... he will respawn, right? I take a step back away from him, slowly guiding myself to the turn in the hallway. I watch as the echoist slowly walks out of the room.
“noooo, noooo” it repeats in the boys scared voice. The boy holds his hand in a finger gun position, his scared eyes leaking tears.
“Bang.”
Red, all I see is red, I wipe at my face and it's all sticky, eventually I get a hold on my vision, the entire hallway is splattered with blood, the only clean parts being behind the boy and me, the monster is gone.
The trickling of blood is the only sound I hear, it falling off the walls, the roof, my body, his body. Then slowly other sounds float in, my breathing, the sound of my heartbeat, the squishy sound of me stepping back.
He turns back to me and points his finger gun at me. At least this will be painless. I close my eyes as hard as I can, this person is toying with me, just do it, please just do it, I don’t want to be covered in blood anymore.
I feel arms around me, a weak hug. A very weak hug, so physically weak but killed that thing instantly. I stroke his red painted white hair on impulse, somehow this is scarier than him just killing me.
He steps back for a moment, “Zee.” holding his hand out, I follow his demands, shaking his hand, “Alice.”
“A.” he says softly, “up, down, A, Zee.” He gives a soft smile, almost thrilled at this development of our names being the start and end of the alphabet, at-least that's what I assume he means.
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“Yeah... uhm, are you a monster?”
Why did I ask that? What are you stupid? Stupid stupid stupid.
“Zee!” he takes my hand and walks me, guiding me through the hallways, the blood slowly stops dripping and becomes caked onto my skin. Making my hair crispy.
We make multiple turns until we reach that stupid elevator again, It looks super clean, perfect steel, reflecting my red body back at me.
Zee mimes some movements, he shows him pushing an imaginary button, “beeep.” he shakes a bit “vrrrrmmmmm.” and does a small jump, “beeeep.” then points at the elevator door.
I nod and walk over to the elevator, pressing the only one button to call for it. it opens instantly, the buttons that should show the numbers of every floor aren't there, it only shows floor 298 and 299. I step out, going to those floors would be stupid. Why can't I go down?
“Uhm... what floor did you come from...?”
He tilts his head like he doesn't understand, I point at the digital number on the screen, “floor?”
“Zee... Ro...”
Oh.
“Floor zero? Like... the exit? Why didn't you leave?”
“Up, up up up.” He points, “Up up up.”
Up? “Higher than floor 299?”
He nods, “down,” he gives a thumbs down “up,” he gives a thumbs up.
I think he is confused, there's no floor above 299, floor 299 is just the roof, a flat roof. “Theres no more up...”
“Up. Up up up. up, up. Down: Zee ro.”
I can't follow this, “okay... I need to shower, is that okay?”
He nods and we walk into the closest room, I forgot I am completely naked because i was sleeping, that's not very appropriate, luckily, I actually found clothes my size in the bedroom wardrobe, some fancy striped pants with a belt and a button up shirt. I walk out, seeing that Zee is watching Tv. I quickly run over and smash it.
“No tv.” I say sternly.
He looks mad and points his finger gun at me, I completely mis stepped here, I move back and drop the clothes in my hands, holding them up like I'm facing a crackhead cop with a machine gun.
“Okay... I'm sorry, I was just trying to help... TV's show bad things...”
He tilts his head, still pointing his finger gun at me, “Bad?”
“Yes... TVs are... uhm... down.”
He nods, points the finger gun at the tv, “bang.” the tv explodes, pieces of shrapnel cut my arm and leg, my fresh blood mixes the old blood. I try to stay calm.
“Thank you... I'm going to shower...”
He nods, “Bad Tv.” Expecting me to praise him, I just smile.
“Yes... Bad Tv.” I speak softly and pick up my clothes, walking into the bathroom.
Washing off the blood was irritating, i had to scrub harshly with my hands, scraping my fingernails with my fingernails, there was no body wash in this room so I had to rely on the good and reliable water. I didn't want to leave the kid alone for too long so after 3 minutes I step out and get changed, marks of blood still obviously apparent.
He is sitting on the couch, looking at the black void through the window, I really don't know how to handle this, I'm sure Leo and Jack would have answers, they said everyone was 27, but this kid... is well, a kid.
Does get me thinking though, can you get pregnant here? Everything else seems to happen normally, so who's to say you can't have a kid, maybe kids born here age normally?
I sit beside him, he is still completely soaked in blood, “do you want to shower?”
He looks over, shaking his head. I should take him to my place, I can cook him a meal and stuff, I'm not going to lie, I'm being completely selfish, this boy can kill monsters, i need him with me.
“Hey, I have a nice place I live at... do you want to go there?”
He nods in agreement, getting off the couch and walking to the exit door, i step out and the elevator is gone again, naturally. The halls are easy to traverse, and now the hallway i was living at has been marked by gallons of blood, the red on green gives a festive look that really screams ‘Christmas murder party.’
We walk through the bloodied hallway, the carpet now crusty with blood, i open my door and step in, I'm probably going to have to move all this tomorrow, the door is broken off its hinges, everything else is fairly clean besides the bathroom and bedroom.
“Uh, this is my home.”
He walks over to the plant pot on the dining table, sniffing it softly, “294.”
“Yeah.”
He sits on the couch while I cleanup the bedroom, nothing was too bad there, just some splayed out pillows and sheets, the bed frame was easy to move back and mattress was basically attached to it. Done.
The bathroom had broken shards of glass i just put under the bed, I'm planning to make a bubble bath for this kid, do kids like bubble baths? I think they do, I did. Once all the shards were gone i put almost the entire bottle of body wash into the bath, filling it up with hot water.
“Zee, I have a bubble bath!” I lie, the bath was not bubbly, it was foamy, hopefully he doesn't blow my brains out for this.
I hear small feet walk over, he sees the bath and looks scared.
“Its just a bath... uhm, you can get in with your clothes...”
He doesn't move, staring at the bath, I sigh and put one foot in, “see? It's safe...”
That convinces him slightly, his foot goes in front of the other, stepping onto the tiled floor. I put my other foot in and sink down, ruining my clothes. “Get in, its warm.”
He climbs in with me, falling on top of me, I can hear his heavy breathing and heartbeat, he is really scared. “Thanks... for saving me.”
He nods and lets his body relax, the foamy water turns red, his head rests on my shoulder. I scoop up bath water with my hand and rub his hair with it, it returns to the natural white, almost supernaturally white. I didn't get a close look at his face but his eyes were also white, freckles on his cheeks like blank paint spat onto a canvas.
His breathing slows and he falls asleep, I follow.