Getting Home

Part 18

Hey guys! Just a heads-up, this is a LONG one - the longest one to date, by far. I might come back and split it up, depending on how it works out for you guys. love you! <3

The fire alarm stopped.

But not instantly—it slowly whirred down, like a melting record.

Everything went completely dark, except for the strobe light—it continued fading on and off, making the black mist appear in staccato as it slowly rolled into the room.

The fire sprinklers above suddenly erupted into a torrential downpour.

My hair and clothes were instantly drenched in the river fall of water. I wiped my hair out of my eyes, flinging water out of my face and instantly shivering—it was cold, so cold, I couldn't believe it.

So cold I could barely catch my breath.

The dark, misty cloud continued to swell into the room like a low fog over the floor. I stayed crouched, hugged up against a cubicle wall, slightly peeking my head out around the corner. I peered down the aisle, trying to locate where it was entering the room from...

It was the exit on the far side of the room.

Of course.

As I watched, I noticed something about the entity... something that terrified me.

It wasn't just a cloudy mist anymore.

The rain from the fire sprinklers made a pattern on it as water fell down onto the hazy fog, the rain beading and bouncing off its shiny and smooth black skin, turning the low-hanging mist into a glistening sea of sheening solid, pulsating mass.

It firmly pulsed slowly in-and-out of sync, its thick and solid form undulating and rippling in waves as the water spattered and shined slimily on its back.

Oh shit.

I was going to have to move soon. It continued to sludgily pour into the room... towards the section of cubicles I was hiding in.

Really soon.

Maybe I can sneak across the aisle to that next cubicle section?

Find a way around it?

The mass began to climb the walls—black, gooey tendrils rose up from throbbing, sac-like lumps, oozing their way up the wall like ivy on a trellis. Long, probing, spider-like legs reached and stretched up the wall blindlessly, smearing and spreading and reflecting in the dark rain.

Oh my god...

It was so hard keeping the panic at bay. I tried to keep talking to myself—I truly didn't know what else to do.

You can do it Ava. Just run across the gap to that cubicle.

When? Now?

I don't know.

Suddenly a different voice...

Henry's.

GO!

I darted across the open aisle to the other side, making huge splashes with every stride in the waterlogged carpet. It only took a few seconds to cross the open area—

But I've never felt so vulnerable and exposed and scared in my life than I did in those few seconds.

Okay. I was safe here at the moment. The wall I needed to get to and follow was a little ways up ahead of me—one of those AED heart attack defibrillator thingies hung on the wall, glowing dimly in its red, glass case.