WnW 1.7 Say Nothing

Where? Where? Where is it?

My flashlight had gone out when it was knocked out of my hand. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the gunshots, but I couldn’t see the monster. My eyes strained against the dark, trying to see past it, to locate the monster so at least I knew if it was moving. There was a terrible possibility that while I did not know where it was, it knew where I was.

The only source of light now was the man’s dropped phone, creating a circle of light on the ceiling. Should I go for it? My phone was in my backpack, but the man had been wearing it when… I could try to find my flashlight, it was to my right somewhere, but it had probably rolled. Or maybe I should just back away to the exit? If I could just reach the stairs, I could make it out. But were the stairs still behind me? After being tackled, I wasn’t so sure.

I was unable to do any of these things. Fixated to the spot, I trembled, stifling my urge to gulp down air like I was suffocating. Quiet. My ears were ringing. Was I making noise? Was it making noise?

Maybe it was dead. Maybe the gunshots did their job and I had just seen its death throes.

I waited, listening.

There. The light noise of bare feet on concrete. It was moving, but not towards me. It was off to my left somewhere.

Okay. That was good. I forced myself to move, sliding a foot across the ground to the right. There was a benefit of having no shoes on. My socks were quiet on the ground, quieter than even bare feet. I took a few sliding steps, hoping to bump into the flashlight.

No luck. That’s fine, I told myself. I needed to think rationally. The car’s position told me where the exit was. The impact from when the monster had expanded to crush the man had slid the car a little, but I knew I hadn’t moved past it. Which meant that the wall behind me was the wall that had the exit door.

I turned glacially slow and started to take small, sliding steps into the dark. The monster was to my right, I could hear it walking around. Something sharp prodded my foot and I winced, readjusting my step.

Slowly, the dark took on a different shade. I could see the back wall. Hurriedly, I reached it, brushing the wall with my fingers. I looked left and right. Where was the exit? There was a different sound, coming from the right. Footsteps coming down the stairs. Relief flooded through me. Chase would be here any second. I inched in that direction, no longer able to hear the monster.

I could see the door now, still half open. I picked up speed. The sound of footsteps stopped, not getting any closer. 

A faint light shone through the door from a distant source. Illuminating the pale monster, standing there a few feet in front of me. Viscera was smeared across its body. The stench of dried blood reached me a second later. Its loose skin was covered in cracks that reminded me of mud dried in the sun. The skin draped over its body like a thin blanket over a skeleton. There was barely any muscle on its face or limbs, making every bony ridge stand out like alien spines. It locked its gaze on me, eyes lighting up with recognition. Those eyes seemed so human still. Until they started to swell against their sockets.

This time, Chase’s voice served as the ignition.

“Nick?”

I threw myself backwards as the monster exploded, flesh hammering into me. Metal screamed as it was forcefully bent. Concrete cracked. I flew through the stale air, before crashing down, pain flaring across my arm and shoulder. I struggled to breathe for a moment, before it came back to me, causing me to cough. 

The impact hadn’t been like being too close to an inflating bouncy castle, instead, it felt like I’d been hit by a car.

“Nick?” Chase’s voice called out, muffled now. “The doorframe caved in. I’m going to have to go around.”

“No!” I shouted out, picking myself off the ground. Maybe it was his presence, or maybe it was the close shave with death, but I felt stronger. “I’ll meet you on the top floor.”

Chase laughed. “That’s what I like to hear. Race you to the top.”

I ran, heading towards the only light source. There was a faint sucking sound, of flesh retracting, pulling away from the compromised foundations of the building. Then a moment later, the wet slap of feet against concrete.

Of course it could run.

I kept my eyes ahead, as dark pillars loomed into existence that I had to weave around. The car’s silhouette, backlit by the phone, came into view. The footsteps bared down on me. 

I dove to the ground, feeling a fresh wave of pain as I jarred my shoulder, then crawled under the car. Oil was dripping from the bottom, making the ground slick. The smell of the dead man overwhelmed me, causing my eyes to water. His corpse was lying in the dark and I ignored it, focusing on pulling myself towards the phone. Just as my fingers wrapped around it, the car shrieked and the tires left the ground. I rolled as the car flipped. Light played across the stretched body as it grew a third time.

The impact shook the ground as the car came to a halt, flipped onto its roof. The flesh pinned my foot painfully against the ground. Then there was quiet for a moment, the expansion halted. Grotesque flesh hung over my head, full of strange bumps and projections under the skin. Some of them looked like extra limbs or faces. But it didn’t crush me. I had just made it outside the range.

It retracted, slower than when it grew, like a pufferfish after being threatened. My foot was released and I staggered upright, knowing my window of time was short. I was a goner if I stuck around. I ran, holding the light up, scanning for another exit.

Then the flashlight turned off. I nearly crashed into a pillar as I looked at the phone screen, “Face ID not recognized. Phone locked.”

Fuck.

I threw the phone, feeling the twinge in my shoulder, hoping the monster might go for it instead.

Wet footsteps followed me. Haunting me in the darkness.

I collided with a wall, then ran along it, keeping my fingers on it, searching for a door.

The delirious nature of the situation made my mind leap from one unfinished thought to another. Being barefoot in the forest, then suddenly in class, my professor talking about the definition of monster. Coming from latin, monstrum, sharing the same root as demonstrate. To remind, to instruct, to reveal. 

I found the door. Someone had barricaded it with a no parking sign, the kind with a concrete base. There was no time. I hauled the sign back, knowing I couldn’t do more than tip it over. I turned to see the monster just a few feet from me. Its face swelled, malice written clear.

I fell down, curling into a ball. The flesh expanded to end me. The sign dug into it, propped up as a support, with the concrete base pushed into the door. The monster’s body surrounded the space around me. Metal groaned. The sign began to bend and the flesh walls shuddered closer and closer. An engorged eyeball stared at me, a few feet from my face.

My back was pressed to the door. I could feel the pressure getting stronger. Something metal made a popping noise above my head. It’s over for me. I shut my eyes, not wanting to witness this any longer.

Then another popping noise, this time right behind me. A small metal object fell onto my leg. My eyes flew open. It was the hinges of the door, starting to give way. I pressed my feet against the eyeball, causing it to squint, pushing my back against the door. 

“I’ll…” I gasped. “I’ll name you Squish.”

The door fell, the sign finally gave way, and I tumbled backwards.

I sucked fresh air into my lungs. My hand slapped against the first stair and I pushed myself halfway up to grab the railing.

The doorframe was crowded with bloodstained growths, with an eye staring at me, as if it didn’t believe I had escaped again.

“Race you to the top,” I repeated and started to climb.

The squishing sound of the flesh retracting echoed up the stairwell, but I continued without looking back. Each step was harder than the last, but I pushed through my exhaustion. This had to end.

Squish’s footsteps sounded on the stairs below me. It wasn’t running. I could make a bit of distance. I smiled grimly and picked up the pace. My legs burned but I savored the feeling. At least I was moving. At least I was out of that horrible basement.

I made it to the top, pushing open the door. Chase sat on an abandoned flatbed trailer, among tires and chains.

He smiled as I approached. “Nick! How was it?”

I scanned the parkade, a simple idea forming in my mind.

“Don’t leave me in the dark,” Chase said. I could hear the humour in his voice.

“No,” I said, forcing myself to get every word out, breathing hard. “We’re not doing this. I’m not explaining. You help me kill this thing.”

Chase looked disappointed. “How am I supposed to help if I don’t know what we’re dealing with?”

I walked over to the trailer, gauging how heavy it looked. “I just need two things from you. Tie me up and give a well-timed push.”

Chase stared at me, saying nothing. I listened closely, trying to hear Squish approaching.

“Fine,” he said, leaning forward. “I’ll follow your lead.”

—

The links of a long chain that wrapped around my body clinked together. I stood on top of the barrier meant to stop people from falling off the top floor of the parkade, enjoying the wind on my face. There was firelight in the distance, casting flickering shadows across the Old Town. Someone enjoying some light, where there was little. I could see the stars overhead. It seemed like they were shaking a little, like they were scared too. But Sillwood itself didn’t feel so scary to me at this moment. Exposure therapy? I snorted at the thought.

Footsteps came up behind me.

I shut my eyes. It was better if I didn’t look. Less chance of chickening out, or doing something that would get me hurt. Well, get me hurt worse.

“Come get me, Squish,” I called out.

The footsteps ran towards me. I tensed. I couldn’t help it.

There was a brief squelch of flesh expanding and I was knocked off the building. My eyes flew open and my hands curled tightly around the chain. The view of the ground was dizzying as I rushed towards it. Then my descent halted, chain digging into my skin painfully, I swung into the floor below, whacking into the barrier with my heel. I kicked out, catching the barrier, making sure I stayed indoors instead of swinging out again. I heard Squish retract.

A brief moment where they are nothing but a frail, naked person.

I stared at the window.

A shadow passed noiselessly on its way to the ground.

Flesh hit the earth below, providing a twisted but cathartic sound. Squish.

A few moments later, Chase came down the steps to my floor. He laughed as he saw me, dangling from the chain.

“Did it work?” I asked.

Chase came over and started to work on unraveling me from the chain. “Let’s get you out so you can see for yourself.”

Once Chase had freed me, we both peered over the edge. A still body lay below, a dark shadow getting bigger as the blood pooled. It didn’t look human, laying there. The flesh had half expanded again, altering the human proportions. I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Good ol’ gravity,” Chase said. He turned to me. “You’re a true monster hunter, Nick. I can’t believe you would try something like that.”

I rubbed my sore shoulder. “I got hit enough times, I knew the real threat was getting crushed.”

“Logical. You didn’t let your emotions best you, when I wasn’t there.”

Maybe it was praise, but I didn’t feel good. “I’m just glad no one else will get hurt by that thing,” I said, trying to convince myself. I stared down again. What if I turned into that? What would it feel like, to have your body enlarge, things inside you growing and stretching your form into something unrecognizable? 

I voiced my thoughts, “Do you think there’s still a person in there? Like, do they not have control of themselves?”

Chase shrugged. “Who knows? We don’t have any way to change them back.”

“Yeah…” I muttered. Something about it bothered me. Why did Squish look like it hated me so much? Had I been imagining it? Why were these things so intent on killing people?

Chase clucked his tongue. I looked at him. “What?”

“Not who I was hoping would show up,” he said, pointing out.

Off in the distance, there was a pair of bright headlights. It was an armored vehicle, with a spotlight on the top that it was shining down each street as it moved.

“It’s coming this way,” I said in horror.

“It’s HESP,” Chase said. He groaned, scratching his head. “Now I won’t even be able to look at the body.”

“We need to leave!” I said.

I ran towards the stairwell and went down. At the first landing, I stopped and turned around. Chase strolled into the stairwell and started to climb upwards.

“What are you doing?!” I hissed.

“Every man for himself,” Chase called out, waving. “We’ll chat later. Don’t get caaaaught.”

I could hear the roar of the vehicle’s engine. Would they be grateful for the help? Or would I be arrested for murder?

I thought of the tall man in the suit, Conrad, looming over me with accusation in his eyes. Then a chilling realization hit me. My phone was still in the basement.