Page 40 of The Nightmare's Kiss

Dr. Calliope Wright stares up at me with a look of equal parts bewilderment and anger. “You,” she says, somehow managing to sound shaken and furious at the same time. “What have you done?”

As if in response, the minotaur bellows behind me, the deep sound reverberating through the hallway. It’s close. Terrifyingly close. I scramble to my feet and reach down to help Dr. Wright up as well. No matter what’s happened between us, I’m not going to leave her to the mercy of thatthing.

Her face is still calm, but her eyes are wide as she accepts my hand. Once she’s on her feet, she immediately kicks off her heels in preparation to run. “How many of them have you let out?” she asks, only the slightest tremble betraying her fear as the clomping hooves come closer.

“Just the one,” I say, still struggling to catch my breath. “The Minotaur.”

“Fuck,” she says succinctly. “Come with me.”

She takes off. I hesitate for only a moment. I’m not sure I can trust her, but I’mdamnsure the creature behind me will rip me apart given half the chance. So I sprint after Dr. Wright, forcing my already tired body to go a little further.

When I reach the end of the hallway, she’s opening one of the endless doors with her security card. As she steps in and looks back, for one horrifying moment I think she’s going to slam it shut and leave me out here alone. Instead, she holds the door open and impatiently waves me in. I stumble past her and sink to the tile in relief, my breath coming in short, panicky bursts.

I try to ground myself by taking in my surroundings. We’re now locked in a tiny, nondescript office. A metal desk, two chairs, and a clunky, old-school computer in a square room with the same white walls and white tile as the rest of the building.

Dr. Wright shuts and locks the door behind us, and then goes to an intercom on the wall and hits a button. “This is Dr. Wright,” she says. “Still trapped within the building, and we have another security breach. Subject X-9, the Minotaur, last seen approaching my office.”

Just as she finishes, there’s a heavythunkagainst the door. Our heads whip toward it, and I see that the metal is dented.

Dr. Wright swallows and says, in the same terse voice, “X-9 is now just outside my office door.”

She hangs up the intercom, grabs one of the metal chairs from her desk, and wedges it under the door handle. The Minotaur slams against the door again, and she stumbles back, sucking in a breath.

“It just had to be that one,” she mutters.

I scuttle back against the wall and sit there, wrapping my arms around my knees. “Can it be reasoned with?” I ask, though I fear I know the answer.

She sighs. “Absolutely not,” she says wearily. “It’s one of the few that can’t be.”

I bite my lip. I want to ask more, and to find a way to get to Somnus. But right now, I have to worry about my own safety. “What do we do?”

“Hide until the security team takes care of it,” she says. But then she walks over and tucks herself underneath her metal desk, which is not exactly reassuring.

If I stay here and wait for security, I’m screwed. Somnus will be stuck here, and I’ll end up in prison for everything I did today. But what choice do I have? The only way out of here is blocked by a creature that wants to kill us.

The thing slams against the door again. The hinges creak with the strain. I bite back a scream and shut my eyes, wishing again that Somnus were here. If the minotaur gets into this room, we’re fucked. There is no way to escape from here. A dead end.

But a few moments later, I perk up at the muffled sound of gunfire from outside and a roar from the monster, even louder than the bursts of automatic weaponry. The slamming against the door stops. There’s more firing, more bellowing, and then…

Silence.

I look toward Dr. Wright, who is still hiding beneath her desk.

Part of me agrees with the sentiment. But even if something has gone wrong with the security team, even if they haven’t managed to take the minotaur down, it’s possible they managed to lead it elsewhere and give us a chance to escape. We can’t just hide here forever.

“Should we look outside?” I whisper.

For a moment I think she’s just going to keep hiding. But a moment later, Dr. Wright slowly emerges, moving at a crouch toward the doorway. “Keep your mouth shut,” she whispers at me. I nod but sidle up to the door alongside her, desperate for a look myself.

She nudges the chair to the side and eases the dented door open a crack. She peers out.

I catch only slivers of the scene outside: blood splattered across the walls. A still-twitching limb. A spill of guts across the tile.

And somewhere around the bend of the hallway, out of sight, is the horrible, wet sound of chewing between heavy, snorting breaths.

Dr. Wright eases the door shut again. She stands up and presses her back to it, and we stare at each other. Her gaze is as haunted and hunted as I feel.

“What do we do?” I ask, my voice trembling.

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