Keep going Akanji thinks, as her little legs carry her from door to door. They’re all locked with red lights as that... what even was it? The thing chasing this little girl. Two dark, black wings jutted from the base of it’s spine. A halo of pure pitch black hovered above it’s head in the dim lights of the cargo hold far behind her. It’s body was nothing but bones, covered in a gross tar that faintly resembled skin. Daddy wasn’t yelling any more, the only sound being the feint thud of it’s steps on the metal of the creaking ship. Clack, clack, go the talons on it’s toes as the beast looks around.

Akanji finally sees her chance, however. A green light at the end of the hallway. She quietly goes for it, being scared and not wanting to see that skull face again. Daddy had told her to play hide and seek, and she knew the best spots to hide on the ship. Some place he could never find her, nobody could. There was only one room left. Little Akanji opened the door to the laboratory, but it wasn’t without noise from her card. The whole ship went quiet. Then, a few seconds later, the thuds started again. They were coming toward her. It had found her.

Akanji quickly moved inside the room, looking around to find anything she could hide with as the door closed behind her. Running around the darkness frantically with only the red emergency lights, she knocks over a beaker and jumps away from the glass with a small yelp. Her little heart starts to beat faster than it ever should, her vision begins to go all blurry and focused. The thuds get louder until they stop at the door and a scraping noise makes her ears start ringing. Akanji has no choice but to climb into the open cupboard under the table, pulling it closed just as the door is ripped open against the will of it’s mechanism with a deafening screech.

Akanji couldn’t stop shaking. Her vision didn’t get better, and her heart seemed to beat even faster, her muscles suddenly frozen as a thud landed right next to her. Her breath froze. The pain in her chest increased, but she could do nothing for a few whole seconds as more thuds walked away from her. Clack, clack, clack. She peers out in fear, gently opening the cabinet to see the creature at the freezer door. It looks like it’s sniffing at something, and she can see clearly the pair of horns on it’s head, a short beak like that of an owl skull with wide and empty sockets. No, they weren’t empty. They were blacked out with several pupils embedded within, all looking separate ways. Little lights of silver, five in each socket, moving around just like many overlapped eyes. 

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The thing didn’t seem to spot her, instead turning around to trapse with clacks into the open fridge. Now was her chance. Calming her racing heart, Akanji had watched daddy set the temperature before. She didn’t know what kelvin meant, but she knew how to find out. Quietly creaking the door open, the creature never turned around. Akanji got out of the cupboard, quietly making her way over to the panel. It was a bit high but a nearby chair would fix that. First, even through the ringing in her ears and stiff, sore body, she had to fight and close the door on it. The handle would auto lock with magnets and seal shut when close enough.

Getting behind the door and focusing on her breathing like daddy had taught her, Akanji began to push the door. It was heavy, and strained her tiny ten year old body, but she was able to get it moving at a snails pace. She could hear the creature’s clacking talons looking through the fridge, and the rustling of plastic as it picked up whatever was in there. But she just focused on pushing it closed. Using whatever force she could muster, and using her whole body like the other nice men had done to push heavy crates around, she had managed to get it close enough for the magnets to start gripping. It became easier to push as they pulled.

And suddenly, the door was sucked closed and gave way, the rubber seals connecting and compressing as the air moved and let out a hiss. She could hear the creature turn around in there and make a sort of low growling, but she couldn’t stop now. Going to grab a chair she pulls one away from the desk and turns around to gasp, what she sees next forever burned into her memory. It was like an owl skull with mandibles, all five of the lights in both eyes focused directly on her. In the dim red light she couldn’t help but freeze as it stared straight into her soul. 

“Be not afraid... I am friend. Open. Let me out,” came it’s deformed speech. Each word was said with someone else’s voice, switching seamlessly between man, woman and child. The creature gulped to clear it’s throat and made an attempted smile with the beak, contorting the bone as if it were play dough. Akanji regained herself and lifted the chair from it’s table, taking it over to the control panel of bright orange and black numbers. Climbing up she could hear it banging on the glass, repeating the final phrase, to let it out. She eventually reaches the button and holds the down key until the number reaches one. Akanji then gets up and goes to look it in the eyes, one more time, finding frost already starting to climb it’s face. The bird was no longer smiling and started banging harder. 

Akanji quietly gulped, leaving the room to go looking for daddy.