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Sense of impending doom
Waking up in a familiar yet alien world

Waking up in a familiar yet alien world

I woke up in a tall multistorey building (with at least 80 floors) and noticed that my body was not entirely human. I was a short humanoid monster, probably 150-160cm in height. I was sitting in a lift lobby which was very large, at least 30m by 30m. There were humanoid creatures standing around in the lobby that I was sitting on the floor of, around 60-70 of them by a quick glance. A few of these were very tall, pale, bald, slender, with bony hands, though as I recall they did not have visible fangs. I’ll call them vampires from here onwards for lack of better description. “The feds will arrive soon” one of the humanoid monsters said – I didn’t see which one. Some of them looked unnerved by the pronouncement whilst the tall humanoids remained calm. “Don’t forget that we can’t bite humans”, one of the vampires warned everyone about the vampires’ critical weakness, and the entire group began moving to take the lift to go down to the basement.

I surmised that the “feds” were some kind of governmental organization that was against the group of monsters that I was currently in. I figured that if the group considered me as a member, as they did not interrogate me about my origins or even pay attention to me in any way, then I should perhaps do my part and lure the “feds” to the floor upstairs to buy the rest of the group more time for battle prep. I told this to a few of my fellow short humanoid monsters and they agreed, and thus we took the lift to the top of the building whilst everyone else went to the basement presumably to discuss battle plans.

We waited in the top floor lobby and soon enough (not more than around 15-20 minutes) two feds - men (humans) who wore black suits over SWAT-style body armor without any headgear – entered the lobby, one of them holding a pistol in one hand whilst the other fed held an assault rifle with both hands. The two of them walked in our direction and asked us if we knew where the other monsters were. We shook our heads. One of them pointed a pistol at my head and asked the other fed if we should be killed. The other one said no without explanation and then they left and took the lift down. I was frozen stiff and had sweat dripping down the back of my neck from the fear.

After about 5 minutes a vampire came up and asked us if the feds had come to this floor. We nodded. The vampire smiled and put its hand on my head and began to squeeze. I felt powerless to do anything against it. I could imagine my head being crushed by the pressure exerted by its vicelike grip shortly. Then the vampire smiled again and took its hand off my head and left to take lift down without saying anything. I had no idea what it meant by that silent smile at the end.

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After about 10-15 minutes the two feds that came earlier came back up again, this time without asking us anything. I was alone by myself near the lift - I had forgotten whether or not there was another monster in the lobby at this time. The two feds talked among themselves by the lift, one of them mentioned “I wonder why they don’t bite us?”, looking perplexed. Without thinking I blurted out “they can’t bite humans”. The two feds immediately stopped talking and and an unnatural calm instantly came over their faces. Then they nodded at each other and then went down the lift. At that moment I knew I fucked up. I felt instant regret and deep down knew that I had made a serious – perhaps lethal – mistake.

After another 15-20 minutes a different vampire came up and put its hand on my head, saying “you told them”. I felt like my head was about to explode. The vampire looked like it suffered minor injuries so it’s obvious that the group must have suffered heavy casualties during the battle but somehow managed to prevail in the end – had I bet on the wrong horse and was about to pay the ultimate price? Perhaps the reason for the serious casualties was due to me telling the agents about the vampires’ inability to bite humans – I could feel my heart racing as I expected it to crush my head as punishment but the vampire smiled again and took its hand off my head, turned and left for the lift. My heart raced as I contemplated the possibility of the vampire simply leaving me alone, but that hope was unfairly quashed when as soon as it reached the lift it turned around and pointed its finger at my chest. I instinctively raised my right hand to block the path from his finger to my chest and felt something enter the edge of my hand. The edge of my hand immediately turned a pale green color resembling zombie flesh and this discoloration rapidly began to spread at a rate of what I estimated was around 1cm per minute. The part that turned zombie felt numb and lost all sensation. The vampire told me spitefully with a stern expression “This is the price you pay. Don’t bother hoping, there is no cure. You will die an agonizing death within a few days”. Then the vampire took the lift down.

By this time there were a few humanoid monsters on my lobby – most of them had bandages wrapped around their wounds – it would appear that the casualties were heavy indeed, since the number in my lobby was only about 6 or 7, which would imply that most of the 60-70 monsters were wiped out. I had some hope that, since the spread of discoloration was relatively slow, that I might find a cure within a few days. I held out some hope that the vampire was wrong, even though deep down I knew this was merely childish wishful thinking given how powerful the vampire was. I asked around for a cure and was met with only head shakes. One of the humanoid monsters told me that the vampire poisoned me with the zombifying poison which is the killing of the soul. He told me that since my soul was already killed at the moment the zombifying poison entered my body there was nothing anybody could do to delay my turning into a zombie and that it was only a matter of time...

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