Page 78 of Immersed
“We’re going after him,”Levi insisted.
“No, we’re not.”
Levi took a breath, knowing hewasabout to cross a line he couldn’t uncross. But if hewasright about needing the NPCs, hehadto try something desperate.
“If you ever want to touch me again, and you want me to touch you back,”he began,“we’ll follow them and help.”
Asher went very still. The predatory focus thatwasnever far from the surface sharpened to laser intensity. “What did you say?”
“You heard me.”Levi felt sick, but he forced his voice to stay steady.“You want cooperation instead of just taking what you want? This is what it costs.”
For a moment, Asher just stared at him. Then that slow, satisfied smile spread across his features.
“Deal,”he said immediately, releasing Levi’s wrist.“Let’s go save your friends.”
Oh God, what have I done?
There was no time to regret the offer.
“This way,”Levi said, following the direction they ran.“I can hear—”
He stopped as they rounded the corner.
Jasperwasmaybe twenty feet ahead, frozen in place in the middle of the passage. Maddie stood a few feet behind him, her hand over her mouth in horror. Jasperwasn’talone.
The thing holding him was an amalgamation of flesh and metal, a monstrosity with multiple arms jutting from its torso at impossible angles, each one ending in claws thathadbeen sharpened to razor points. Its facewasa patchwork of different skin tones, held together with crude stitching that wept constant fluid. Where its eyes should have been, clockwork lenses whirred and focused with clicking sounds.
One of its clawed handswasburieddeep in Jasper’s throat, fingers wrapped around his windpipe.
“Help... me...”Jasper gasped, blood frothing from his mouth.
The horror’s clockwork eyes swiveled toward them, then it flexed its claws.
Jasper’s windpipe tore free in a spray of arterial blood. His eyes went wide with shock, then empty, as his body went limp in the monstrosity’s grasp.
“No!” Maddie screamed, but Asher was already pulling them backward.
They turned and sprinted back the way they came, Maddie sobbing as she ran. The passage behind themwasno longer empty. The crawling creatures from beforewerehauling themselves across the ground, their breathing apparatuses wheezing and clicking in horrible harmony.
“This way!”Levi pointed to a side passage thathadn’tbeen there before.
They ran down the new path, strobing lights overhead like a broken heartbeat. Behind them, the sound of pursuit was getting closer—the wet slapping of the crawlers, and something heavier moving with them.
The passage ahead split into three directions. Without time to consult the journal, Levi chose the middle path and—
The floor gave way beneath their feet.
A trap,Levi thought with crystal clarity as he fell.We ran right into a—
28
Mini Game
Levi’seyessnappedopento the familiar sight of concrete walls and the single bare bulb overhead.
The safe room. Hewasback in the safe room.
But how? He pushed himself up from wherehe’dbeen lying on the floor, his mind racing. The last thing he rememberedwasfalling, the floor giving way beneath their feet, and the realization that they ran into a trap.
