Page 68 of Immersed
“We need to go,”he said, rising to his feet.“Now.”
The grinding was getting louder, accompanied by what sounded like metal scraping against concrete. Whatever was moving through the building’s hidden systems was big.
Asher extended his hand to help Levi up, and without thinking, Levi took it.
“Stay behind me,”Asher said, moving toward the door.“I’ll keep you safe.”
They slipped out of the maintenance room and back into the corridor system. The grinding sounds were coming from multiple directions now, as if the building’s hidden systems were converging on their location.
“This way,”Asher whispered, choosing a passage that led away from the loudest noises.
They ran through the flickering light, Asher’s hand still holding Levi’s, guiding him through the maze of concrete corridors. Each turn brought new sounds—grinding gears, sliding walls, the whisper of metal on metal.
But even as they fled through the nightmare of the sanitarium’s hidden halls, part of him wanted to stop running. Part of him wanted to grab Asher’s face and kiss him until the terror and loneliness stopped.
What the hell is wrong with me?
23
The Boiler Level
Justkeeprunning,hetoldhimself.Don’t think about what’s chasing us.
But as they approached a sharp corner, his foot caught on something—a loose section of metal grating. He went down hard, sliding across the ground and ending up sprawled on his side just as they rounded the bend.
His line of sight cut directly around the corner.
Oh God.
The thing that had once been human was a nightmare of medical experimentation gone wrong. Its limbs had been grotesquely elongated, joints replaced with crude mechanical hinges that clicked and ground with each movement. The hospital gown clung in tatters, revealing skin that had been flayed and restitched, a patchwork of flesh held together with surgical staples that rusted and partially torn free.
Where its face should have been was a gaping cavity filled with twisted metal—some sort of breathing apparatus and voice boxes that had been surgically implanted and left to rot. Every breath was a symphony of horror: a wet, grinding wheeze as air forced its waythrough decomposing tissue, the metallic click of broken mechanisms, and underneath it all, a sound like someone drowning in their own blood.
Wheeze-click-gurgle. Wheeze-click-gurgle.
It couldn’t walk—its legs had been removed, left only with raw stumps that leaked dark fluid. Instead, it hauled itself forward with arms that ended in exposed bone where fingernails used to be. Each desperate grab at the ground left chunks of rotting flesh and yellowed bone fragments, painting dark trails of decay behind it.
When it saw Levi, the thing’s head snapped up with mechanical precision. The wheezing, gasping sounds intensified, and it began moving faster, hauling itself forward with horrifying determination.
No. No no no.
“J-Jesus Christ,”Levi whispered, scrambling to his feet and sprinting in the opposite direction, panic overriding all rational thought. He didn’t care about navigation or strategy—he just needed to get away from that thing and its awful, broken breathing.
Like something out of one of Ethan’s worst horror games. The kind where the monster design was too fucked up, even for him.
Behind him, he heard Asher shout his name, but he couldn’t stop. His legs carried him through the corridors at a dead run, following whatever path opened in front of him.
The dragging sound was getting closer—not just scraping now, but the wetslap-tear-slapof raw flesh being dragged across concrete. And underneath it, that horrible breathing pattern repeating endlessly.
More sounds joined the chorus. Multiple creatures, their broken voices creating a symphony of mechanical death rattles. The wet slapping of exposed bone against stone. The ping of surgical instruments dragging behind them like grotesque wind chimes.
I could just stop,he thought desperately.Sit down and wait for it to kill me. Start over, avoid this whole nightmare.
The idea was so tempting that he began to slow down, his exhausted legs ready to give up. Death would be a relief compared to more running around in the dark.
But just as he was about to collapse, arms wrapped around him from behind, lifting him clean off his feet. Asher’s voice was in his ear, “This way.”
Asher carried him like he weighed nothing as he kicked open a door marked “Boiler Room - High Temperature”and ducked inside, slamming it shut behind them.
