"What was that?" Aaron asked. He knew I didn't know the answer. I think he had a feeling that we would probably find out soon.

"Don't worry about it," I squeezed his hand, "as long as you're with me, we'll make it!"

We ran up the stairs, and passed by the doorway to the second floor. Then, the third floor's doorway. The door had been knocked over, scratch marks completely covering it. We started to run up as fast as we could.

As we passed by the fourth floor's doorway, I heard movement coming from inside. We kept going without even stopping. The screaming sound rang out again, sending chills through my whole body.

After it stopped, I heard a much more understandable sound: a human scream. It came from the third floor. I don't think I've ever had this much adrenaline pumping through me at once; I was in a state of complete and utter fear, panic and determination. My mind was set on one goal: we needed to reach the top floor.

The stairs ended on the fifth floor. But this wasn't the top. Another set of stairs was somewhere on the fifth floor, which lead to the top. There was a bit of a problem though. The door was torn off its hinges, nowhere to be seen, meaning the things had either been in there or were in there right now.

"Aaron," I whispered, "No matter what, do not make a sound. Stay right next to me."

He squeezed my arm, and we stepped through the doorway. I decided to shut off the flashlight so that we wouldn't draw attention. I couldn't see anything except for the green glowing stairwell sign at the very end of the hallway. In between us and the stairway I could barely make out the outline of five pairs of doors.

I took a deep breath, and then we started to tiptoe down the hall.

Though we were moving at what felt like an inch an hour, my heart was beating much, much faster. I felt Aaron's grip tighten on my arm.

...Something could jump out at any moment.

Something could jump out at any moment, and there would be nothing we could do. We had nothing to defend ourselves. Even if I did have a weapon, I don't think we could have done anything. I felt completely helpless and vulnerable; as fragile as a glass vase teetering over a precipice.

When we passed by the second set of doors, I nearly jumped as a shrill sound resounded through the hall. I almost made a run for it with Aaron, but I realized that what I had heard was only the floor squeaking under our feet. I sighed with momentary relief, and we continued our slow sneak through the hallway.

Step by step, we sluggishly made our way past the third set of doors.

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When we started to near the fourth set of doors my fear was realized; I heard a rustling sound coming from the room to our left.

My body was paralyzed with terror for what felt like an hour. Aaron's tugging on my arm slowly brought me back, and I regained control of my muscles one by one. I listened carefully; the rustling seemed to be coming from the back of the room.

I cursed myself for not trying to take a better look at the rooms we had passed already. Knowing their layout would have made it a little easier to sneak by. My own body and instincts fought against me as I started to step towards the doorway. I quietly brought myself up against the wall, and as discreetly as I could manage, peeked my head inside.

From the less than ideal angle that I looked into the room at I could see a faint, flickering light on the other side of a table and in the light.... I saw a shadow on the wall. I couldn't make it out that well, the light was very dim, but from what I could see the shadow almost looked like a person hunched over. But there was something about the way it was positioned.

It was far too hunched over to be a human. The arms were just a little bit too long to look natural. From the head, I could see something jutting out from where its mouth would be. Were those... its teeth? I shuddered as the rustling grew louder, and the shadow moved in rhythm with it. It looked like whatever was in there was looking for something, but what?

I decided to not waste anymore time, and to take action while it was preoccupied. It took a lot of effort, but I finally managed to pry my feet off from the ground and start moving again. Although it was quiet, inside my mind was screaming in pure terror. My body warned me that whatever it was that was in there, I had to avoid it at all cost. Some sort of primal instinct was sounding every warning bell it could in my consciousness.

I felt Aaron shuddering. He hadn't seen what I saw, but there was no way he didn't know that there was something we were trying to avoid and that whatever it was, it was inside of that room. I wanted to comfort him, but I knew I couldn't without risking alerting whatever it was in that room.

As I took my first step, I cringed when my foot made contact with the floor. But I nearly sighed with relief when it hit the ground soundlessly. Behind me, I felt Aaron take his first step.

I was startled by what sounded like a high pitched, fast whistling coming from the room. It didn't follow a specific rhythm or beat, it just droned on at the same note. I thought that the thing had noticed us; I thought we were finished, but when my head snapped in the direction of the noise I saw its shadow still shuffling around behind the table. From the motions of its shadow, however, it almost looked like it was getting ready to move on.

I gently raised my foot in the air, a bit faster this time, and gently brought it down. The whistling grew a bit louder, I saw the shadow slowly rocking from side to side. My mind screamed to me: It could jump up at any moment and notice us! You have to go faster than that! I had to risk it! If we were too slow and it noticed us, it would all be over!

I crouched down, and motioned for Aaron to do the same. We started to accelerate as we crept by the open doorway, and in three swift and silent steps we had made it three quarters across the doorway.

Why did it feel like this was taking longer than eternity? A few more steps and were past the door, leaving whatever lurked in that room behind us.

We started to tiptoe down the hallway at a faster pace, and didn't encounter any more troubles. Our eyes had mostly adjusted to the dark. I looked down at Aaron, and gave him a comforting smile.

Then, I opened the door to the next set of stairs...

and a loud creak reverberated down the entire hallway.