Suddenly, in the peripheral of my eye, I saw the darkness shift. A giant chill went up my spine as two circular voids of black, darker than the nothingness that surrounded them, peered through. Just from first glance, I knew it was back, but something was different—largely different. Its brown flowing figure moved forward, making its entirety visible.

This is the first time I got a good look at the creature. Its form shifting and undulating, Its body, an assemblage of swirling grains, giving off a never-ending sound of roaring sand, and its eyes, deep voids within the sandy mass, gleamed with an unnatural darkness that seemed to devour all light.

In the very first encounter, the creature was just the size of a regular person, maybe slightly larger, but now... it's as if a mountain walked.

As my heart sank further, bombarded by the fear and despair that haunted me in this moment, the creature's gigantic hands stretched towards me, casting elongated shadows that overpowered the remaining light in our crumbling office. I wasn't supposed to be scared, I had made up my mind that no matter what, nothing would be worse than the feeling of losing all my friends, but this... this was beyond reality. As the creature grabbed hold of the sandglass that encased me, my surroundings grew even darker. Some of the office lamps began to crumble as well, cutting off my remaining lights one by one. I could feel my breaths growing shorter. The creature stared at me through the glass, its carving for a mouth in a crescent smile. As I turned my head, looking anywhere else to escape the dread of seeing the creature, finally, it sunk in that escape was futile.

"Time's up," the creature's deep voice echoed through the barren expanse, a dissonant roar of grinding sand, resonating with a malevolence that defied comprehension. I could feel that it was both trying to frighten and mock me at the same time—and it was working.

Paralyzed, I could feel the fear coursing through my veins. Each syllable, each letter it spoke—I could feel my insides twitch, my heart beating louder in response.

I wanted to say something back, to not just stand here and crumble away without trying anything, but every time I saw those deep black eyes, I saw the abyss staring back at me as if they were voids that swallowed all my hope and exhaled despair back into me.

"B-But... we finished the project, right?" I argued, my voice sheepish in comparison to the creature's. "W-Why is this s-still happening to us? W-Why did my friends die for nothing?"

The creature responded in the worst possible way. It laughed.

The office shook in response to each sound, comparable to an earthquake. The sand on the floor shifted around, slipping through the holes and falling to the bottom platform.

I could feel my mind slowly slipping away. The remaining hope I had left was close to none. This creature... was it just toying with us this whole time? Treating us like dolls in a dollhouse? No matter what it was, I couldn't get angry. I was too clouded with despair to feel anything else.

"Friends?" the creature uttered.

"M-My friends..." I muttered, taken back by what it had said. "What about them?"

It didn't respond. Instead, it stared at me silently, its crescent smile growing larger.

As I sat there confused while slowly turning into sand, memories began to flood my mind.

When everything was once peaceful, though our moments together were not that abundant, the fun we had together was unmatched. Every moment, every banter, every word exchanged with each and every one of them, I felt as though I wanted those moments to last longer, and I eagerly wished for it to continue when we came to work the next day. One memory stood out vividly. I can never forget that time we shared a meal under the noisy roof of the cafeteria, though one of you wasn't there, it was still one of the best memories I had with you all. Despite the awkwardness of first meetings, I felt like I was sharing a meal with my siblings, a happy family bantering as they shared a meal. Even when this tragedy hadn't happened yet, when we were just grinding away in the first few hours of doing this project, I still had fun. In the midst of our wearied eyes and burdened minds, there were still moments that I'll forever cherish. With you all, it was no longer just a company building, it became my second home.

"Friends?"

I could hear the creature's remark again in my mind.

Why would he say that all of a sudden? Was he doubting our bonds? I admit, I do like each and every one of them, but I'm not too sure if they could say the same thing about one another.

I continued to ponder and slowly, I came to a haunting realization.

Maybe... our friendship isn't real. Forget about all the surface-level things, did I really know anything about them? Their family, their friends outside work, their favorite food, their hobbies—anything?

Raf may seem like the jokester and we all roll our eyes around him whenever he does dumb stuff but did we ever find the reason why he was like that? We may have laughed at some of his jokes and sighed at his complaints and idiotic tendencies but is that really all there is to him?

Whenever we had trouble with something, Gabrielle was always there, but has anyone helped him out with something in return? Even just in the form of a juice can? He is the smartest and the hardest worker out of all of us but did we even ask what his dreams were? What's his motivation for becoming so knowledgeable? Was this company his goal in the first place?

Alex, I may have labeled you as a creep in our first encounter, and I'm sorry for that. I know how much you adored Laura, even to the point of sacrificing yourself for her, but I never knew why you fell for her in the first place. When Laura's out of the equation, there is barely anything I know about you. Did I ever try to get to know you better? Or did I immediately assume that we were already friends from a mutual connection with Laura?

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My feelings are still not clear when it comes to Laura but I don't even know her thoughts about romance. With her pushing away Alex's advances, I thought that she was trying to avoid relationships, but was that really true? I do find her attractive, but if I list off her beauty and allure, is there anything else about her that I find interesting? Or was my infatuation for her just because of the things my eyes could see?

Nila, you may be the least talkative of the bunch, but to me, you were shining the brightest. I really respect you for trying to be more social and trying to fit in, but did I ever ask why? Were you doing it to become a better person? Or was there a different motivation for it?

The creature was right, we weren't really friends, just some strangers who got along a bit better than the rest. I want to know them better, to share information that is beyond the surface level, and to truly have a deep relationship. But I can't do that anymore. They're all gone.

Even with their deaths, did I even cry for them? Did I ever think that this would be a huge loss in my life? Even if we were running away from the creature or whatnot, did I even struggle to stand up and walk away from their remains? I may have mourned some of them, but that's just the common reaction when seeing a corpse, right? Were my feelings truly real, or just a facade brought upon by the heat of the moment?

"Were we really... friends?" I muttered, my head hanging low.

The creature laughed once again, chuckling, shaking the building with each breath. Its laughter grew louder, laughing at the sorry excuse for a person that I was. Seconds passed with the creature's loud cackles, but in my head, everything was completely silent.

I sat there with my body completely still, memories of them still running through my mind. All the happy moments, all the terrifying moments, the feelings we felt along the way... they were all real, right? I couldn't decide, with me accomplishing nothing and failing them all, it wasn't for me to decide, but now that everyone is gone, no one would be able to answer it.

I raised my head, my face completely void of expression. "Just answer me this... why did you have to torment us with this impossible task? If you wanted to kill us, you could have just done it quickly and be over with it."

The creature ceased its laughter. Its crescent smile turned, the ends now pointing down. It tilted its gigantic head and put up a confused expression.

"Impossible? No. You had a chance."

"Chance? Do you mean that measly time limit? Yes, we did overcome that but why... Why did Laura still die?" I said. I wanted to be angry, to shout these words to the creature, but my voice remained flat the entire time. Memories of us working flashed in my mind. "All of us worked hard. We didn't even get a single minute of sleep. We conceptualized it... planned it... programmed it... saved it... and-"

"And?" the creature exclaimed, its smile now returned.

All of a sudden, I realized what had gone wrong. The one crucial step that could have saved us from our fate.

My sweat grew colder and my eyebrows raised beyond their normal limit. I felt as though I had lost consciousness for a second.

"I-I didn't... send the file..."

"Correct!"

In a regular company, a project wouldn't be deemed as complete as long as the manager hasn't seen or approved it. We had saved the file but it's only on my computer. We still needed to transfer it to our manager. But that would have been impossible given the time... wait... no, we could have done it. We just needed to paste it into the company folder. It would have only taken ten—no, five seconds. If only we had realized it while waiting for the file to save. We could have still made it, we definitely could. But, this would mean that…

"If I had sent the file and actually completed the project, would you have brought everyone back?"

The creature remained silent but as I gazed into the abyss of its eyes, I already knew the answer.

"So this is all my fault..."

I turned my head down one last time, admitting defeat. All thoughts of the project were now out of my head. I didn't want to think about it anymore. All I know is that we failed and it's all my fault. The only thing that I could think about now is regret. Regret for being stupid, regret for being useless, regret for failing my friends, regret for being the one to live the longest, and regret for signing up for this company.

"Just end it all," I whispered in despair, looking down at my crumbling body. My lower half was completely gone, the crumbling now moved up to my lower abdomen.

"What a disappointment," the creature sighed. I could sense the condescending tone in its deep voice, but that didn't matter to me anymore. Faint shifting noises came from the monster. "Look here and listen," the creature commanded.

With nothing to do but to await my slow demise, I obeyed it, raising my head to face the formless face of the creature. But I was mistaken, it wasn't formless anymore. Instead of its featureless face, voids for eyes, and carving for a mouth, it now had a face. A face that we were all very familiar with. Those kind eyes and chubby cheeks, there was no mistaking it... Mr Robert, our manager.

"Good to see you face to face one last time Williams," the creature said, its voice exactly like the manager's. I still have doubts whether it was really him or not.

The creature's face then began to shift. Its white skin fell off piece by piece, turning back to sand as they fell off, while its eyes and other features sank back into its body. It was now back to its usual form.

Its crescent smile moved, mouthing words that only I could hear. Every sentence, every word, every letter—I listened to them all down to the very last sound. My mind couldn't believe what it was saying, it was absurd, but somehow, it made sense. As it uttered its final message, a thought clicked in my mind.

I froze for a moment. "So that's how it is."

I began to chuckle, then, it turned into laughter, gradually growing louder and deranged. The echoes reverberated within the confines of the sandglass, filling it with my dying voice.

The crumbling grew faster, slowly eating away at my being. My hands and my stomach were now gone, reduced to useless sand. It now traveled up to my arms, shoulders, and chest, all the while the creature looked at me with a smile. Nothing mattered anymore. All I could do was laugh. My neck had crumbled completely, leaving me as a severed head on top of a heap of sand. Finally, my face crumbled, starting from the sides. I could feel my brain fading away, slowly losing the ability to think, my eyes were now gone, unable to see nothing but complete darkness, my mouth crumbled away next, ceasing my laughter, and then…

Everything turned to sand.

Not a single impurity was left.

"In the end, all your efforts, your sacrifices, your time... will all fade away... and become as useless and insignificant as sand."

The sand slowly trickled through the sandglass.

Everything was now at the bottom.

There was no way to tell which was which.

"You are out of time."

The creature faded into the darkness.

All that was left was silence.