Page 128 of Immersed
“Where’s your psycho boyfriend?” Elliot asked, scanning the room nervously.
“He’s not—” Levi began, then stopped himself. What was Asher, exactly? Tormentor? Ally? Something else entirely? “We got separated. I don’t know where he is.”
“We need to get out of here,” Elliot said, his voice tight with barely controlled panic. “This place, it’s not just haunted or whatever bullshit we thought. It’s alive. It’s hunting us.”
“We can’t leave yet,” Levi replied. “We need the third key.”
“Fuck your keys, man! We’re going to die in here!”
“The keys are how we escape,” Levi insisted. “There’s a central control room. If we can access it, we can shut down the building’s systems. It’s our only chance.”
A distant sound interrupted them—a wet, thumping noise punctuated by a rhythmic clicking. All three froze, eyes darting toward the partially open door.
“One of them is coming,” Jasper whispered, backing away from the entrance. “We need to hide.”
“What? What’s coming?” Levi asked, but Jasper was already pulling him toward the tiered seating area.
“Trust me, you don’t want to find out. Those things—they’re not like the traps. They’re...they were people once.”
The sound grew closer—the unmistakable patter of bare feet on tile, moving with an irregular cadence.
Click-slide-thump.
They crouched behind the lowest tier of seats, breathing shallow and controlled. Levi risked a glance toward the door just as a figure appeared in the entrance.
His stomach dropped.
The shape of it was human, but its proportions were wrong, limbs too long, and its neck bent at an unnatural angle. Its skin stretched taut over elongated bones, giving its face a skull-like appearance except for the mouth, which gaped wide to reveal rows of broken, discolored teeth. It moved with jerking, spider-like motions, head ticking a few degrees with a soft clicking sound with every step. But the worst part was its eyes—still human, still aware, watching with terrible intelligence as it scanned the room.
Those eyes found Levi’s, and the creature’s mouth stretched into what might have been a smile.
“Run,” Jasper breathed. “Now!”
They bolted from their hiding place as the creature let out a wet, gurgling screech. Levi darted for the secondary exit at the back of the observation deck, Jasper and Elliot close behind. The creature moved with terrifying speed, skittering across the floor and leaping onto the walls like an insect.
The corridor beyond the observation deck was narrower, lined with frosted glass windows that cast everything in a diffuse, bluish glow. Levi sprinted ahead, heart pounding against his ribs like it might break through.
Behind him, Elliot screamed. Levi glanced back to see that the creature had pounced on Jasper instead. They tumbled to the floor in a tangle of limbs—too many limbs—as Jasper fought to keep the creature’s snapping jaws from his throat.
“Go!” Jasper shouted. “Just fucking go!”
Elliot scrambled to his feet and raced past Levi, disappearing around a corner. Levi hesitated, watching in horror as Jasper struggled beneath the creature.He won’t come back if it gets him. He’ll disappear forever, too.
“I said go!” Jasper’s voice broke on the words, face contorted with effort.
I’m sorry, Jasper.
Levi backed away, then turned and ran. The wet sounds of struggle faded behind him, replaced by the thunder of his pulse in his ears. The corridor forked and he chose the right branch, following the signs for “Staff Observation.”
He burst through a set of double doors into what appeared to be another, smaller observation area. Unlike the main deck, this one had no tiers, just a single row of chairs facing a large window and a table with a metal tray of scalpels and syringes. The shutters were open, revealing a surgical theater below.
Levi slammed the doors behind him, fumbling with the manual lock. It wouldn’t hold the creature for long, but it might buy him precious seconds.
Movement in his peripheral vision made him spin around. There was another one of those creatures inside, crouched in the corner, watching him with those horrible, aware eyes.
“Fuck,” Levi gasped, backing toward the window. His shoulders hit the cold glass, nowhere left to retreat.
The creature tilted its head with several clicks, almost curious, then began to advance with its jerky, unnatural gait.
