His ID card read Cody. His legs were trapped under a pile of rubble. When he noticed Terrence, he shrank back, wheezing. “I’m not going to hurt you,” Terrence said gently, kneeling down to inspect the rubble. “Are you hurt?”

“They left me. How could they have left me?”

By ‘they’, Terrence assumed that Cody was talking about whoever had been working with him at the time of the breach. Unsure of how to answer that question, he decided to change the subject to something that wouldn’t potentially upset him more. “I’m going to get you out of there, okay? You’re doing fine.”

“How could they have left me?” he kept repeating. “How could they have—” Cody screamed.

Terrence almost dropped the rock on him, so startled he was by the sudden outburst. The injured man, completely hysterical, sat bolt upright and screamed. Terrence followed his line of vision and nearly dropped the rock a second time.

Across the room, there was a corpse. At least, there was half of a corpse. Its entire upper body was invisible, crushed beneath a pile of rubble. But that wasn’t what the man was screaming at. His gaze was focused on something behind the figure, a dark, hazy, vaguely bird-like creature. The shadow bird didn’t seem to have legs. Instead, it seemed to move by pushing wisps of its amorphous lower half out and pulling the rest of itself along. It wobbled and lurched its way over to the body and dipped its long beak into one of the legs. The corpse twitched, and its outline grew hazy. In a moment, it had disappeared, joining the body of the giant bird as just another wisp of unruly shadow. Then the creature turned to them.

Terrence threw off the rock and pulled Cody upright. His pants were ragged and his legs were covered in scratches, but he seemed to break out of his daze enough to push himself up. Clutching Terrence’s arm for support, he half hopped, half ran out of the room. Neither of them looked back to see if the bird had decided to follow them. “In here!” someone shouted, and the pair listened.

The closet was tiny and crowded. Considering the fact that it already held four people, Terrence was surprised that he and Cody were able to stuff themselves in there. But as cramped as it was, at least it was momentarily safe. “He’s hurt,” Terrence panted, easing his companion down. “I don’t know how badly, though.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” one of the people nodded. He wiped his glasses and knelt down next to the injured man. While he administered to his wounds, another person, a man with a crooked nose and lots of freckles, studied Terrence with a glare. Terrence glanced at him warily.

“Why did you let them in?” the freckled man growled at one of his companions. He met eyes with Terrence. “What are you doing here?”

Terrence blinked, surprised. “Hiding, just like you.”

The freckled man’s eyes narrowed. “There’s a monster out there that’s been chasing us, and you’ve just led it right here.” He glanced down at the injured man. “I’d say you better correct that mistake.”

Terrence, also glancing down, stepped back. “So you’re throwing us out?”

The freckled guy sneered. He leaned forward and made a fist. “I’ll say we are. And if anyone here wants to let in another stranger, maybe they’d prefer give up their spot in here and be monster chow instead.”

“Victor, please.” Another man put his arm on the angry man’s shoulder. “We don’t need more violence.” The freckled guy stepped back, still glaring, and the peacemaker sighed. He looked tired and old, old enough to have seen better days. Rubbing his forehead, he returned to the wall to lean against it, and from his pocket he produced a flask that he took a long drink from. After that, he closed his eyes and took several slow, deep breaths.

The freckled man wasn’t done, though. Pushing past a woman who looked particularly jittery, he leered at Terrence. “It’s us or you,” he snarled. His crooked nose had a notch in it, Terrence noticed. He wondered if it had been cut one time and had never fully healed from it.

Victor turned to his companions and raised his arms. “Are you just gonna stand around or are you going to help me? Would you rather be thrown out there instead?” He grabbed the man with glasses by the collar and shook him, and the injured man screamed. The rest of the people glanced at one another in discomfort. “They’re dead men anyway! Get them out!”

Terrence looked at each member of the little group. The jittery woman’s eyes danced, alternating between her two fidgeting hands. The man with glasses, happy to have been let go, dropped his gaze and scuttled away from the bewildered Cody. The elderly man simply closed his eyes and took a long, deep drink from his flask. “Get out,” Victor sneered. “Whatever’s out there will go after you and leave us be. Get out of here.”

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Victor advanced a step. Terrence put his arms up, ready to defend himself, and swallowed hard. “Okay, okay, I’m going. But if we start fighting, every monster within five floors is going to hear it,” he warned. Quickly, he glanced at the rest of the people. They were all either staring on melancholically or averting their eyes. No one came to his rescue.

The freckled man threw a punch. Terrence dodged it. He hesitated for a moment, knowing that it couldn’t end well for either of them. Then his fist sprang and crunched hard against the crooked nose.

Victor staggered backwards, clutching his face. “Bastard!” he screamed, and then he was charging. With nowhere else to go, Terrence flung the door to the closet open and sprinted out. Victor started to give chase, but the man with glasses seized his hand and yanked him in the opposite direction. The rest of the people, except for Cody, flew out to follow them. None of them looked back.

There was a good reason for this, because back, there was a monster. Specifically, it was Blink. Terrence sprinted down the hallway just as the other people turned the corner. When Terrence made it to the corner, Blink was blocking the way. Terrence wheeled around and darted back, almost tripping over a crack in the floor. He ran for a while, and once again, out of nowhere, Blink cut off his escape.

After a few more close calls, Terrence was running out of energy. It was obvious that he was worse off than a mouse trapped in a maze that a cat knew well. He couldn’t win this. The next time he was cut off by Blink, Terrence stopped and looked up. “Hey again, Blink. Funny how we keep running into each other, eh?”

Something squeezed tightly around his chest. The monster flowed around him, and Terrence felt his feet lift off the ground. Blink floated serenely, and now that he was closer, Terrence realized that the monster was not a cloud of mist as he’d originally thought, but a tangle of misty, drifting, etherial chains. There was no clear head, and it was impossible to tell what to focus on. “Well?” Blink’s voice hissed inside his mind.

“Hey, I’m just trying to be pleasant,” Terrence shrugged. His heart rate didn’t quite get the ‘cool and calm’ memo, but he tried to smile amiably.

“You travel in poor company, if your comrades consider you to be bait,” Blink replied in a monotonous voice that once again seemed to be directly inside of Terrence’s head. There was a crash in the direction that the four people had run, and then a couple of screams that went on for just a little too long. Abruptly, they stopped. “You will not have suffered alone.”

A few moments passed in dread and silence. After a little while, Blink flipped Terrence upside down. The man’s shirt was tucked in, but his face started to flush red as blood rushed to his head. “I am going to kill you,” Blink stated.

“You know, you’re the third person who’s told me that today. The funny thing is, I’m still alive.”

Floating ethereally, Blink seemed unamused. “You speak far more than a creature of your intelligence should.”

“Whoops, sorry about that. Next time, I’ll get myself locked up and used as a battery, like a creature of intelligence obviously should.”

“I find you mildly annoying, and I am considering ripping your legs off,” Blink said cooly. “In any case, I would have presently regained enough power to break free of your wretched little facility. Being trapped here was only a minor setback.”

Terrence shrugged. “Sure. Makes enough sense to me.”

Very slightly, the misty chains wavered. Blink was back to normal in an instant, however, and it stated, “I grow tired of this inane banter. Evidently, I should not have expected much from a lesser creature.”

Terrence rolled his eyes. “Hey, don’t stop insulting me now. I wouldn’t want you to forget how superior you are.”

The chains swirled erratically. Terrence swayed where he was held. “Do not test my patience,” Blink cautioned. “The quality of your last few moments is dependent entirely on me. I am a patient being. I could keep you in a small space and watch you starve, or I could crush you the same way that you might crush a mite.”

“And all this benefits you how? Oh wow! I just stepped on a mite. I must be so great—ah!” Terrence felt his insides twist and he cried out in pain. “Hey I’m so powerful and great and I can’t take an insult—argh!”

“I am unamused by your attempts at mocking me,” Blink finished in a nearly flat tone, waiting for Terrence to stop breathing hard. “Are you deranged? Why do you try to insult me?”

Terrence was finding it very difficult to think. He also had a massive headache from being held upside down, and he was still reeling from all the telepathy. “Why…do you think? Aren’t you supposed to be all smart or something?” He rolled his eyes in annoyance and tried to catch his breath, letting a groan escape as his stomach threatened to evict its contents. “You’re going to kill me regardless of what I do or say. Why the heck should I be nice about it?”

Blink remained unreadable. After a moment, it set Terrence down. “You speak truthfully. I cannot hold that in disrespect,” it said. It drifted back slightly. “Very well then. For that, your fate is in your hands. If you can escape this place, you have earned your freedom. Perhaps we shall meet again.”

Suddenly, they both heard a whirring noise and a creature with dozens of insectoid wings flew up the room, hovering menacingly. It noticed Blink and darted out quickly, evidently deciding that the meal wasn’t worth the fight. “Go. There are other monsters here, and you should not linger.” Blink warned. Terrence wordlessly nodded and stumbled away.

Head still pounding, Terrence went back to the closet, but he found no sign of Cody. Perhaps he’d gotten away. More likely, he hadn’t. With that closure, Terrence resumed his upward trek alone. Onward he climbed, past floors forty and thirty and twenty and ten. The air became clearer. The mood remained heavy. If nothing else, at least he was still alive.