I sucked in a deep breath, and the sharp odor of fuel burned down the back of my throat.
It jolted me to action.
'Quick!' I yelled hoarsely. 'And take off your shoes.'
We'd been in far too much of a hurry, and our soles were already soaked.
Kicking off my own, I leaped to the other side of the room.
Aron did the same, his lighter already in hand.
I watched in horror as the darkness outside the window across from us shifted.
It wasn't just the dark of the night anymore.
It was already here.
Click.
The lighter failed.
Click. Click.
The glass bulged inwards.
Click.
Aron threw the lighter across the room.
It flew in a low arc and clattered onto the fuel-drenched floor.
At the same time, the glass shattered inwards.
The mass of unending, suffocating darkness rushed into the office.
WHOOSH!
Powerful flames roared to life just a few feet in front of me, even as the darkness started spilling in from the sides.
Both forces thundered and boomed in tandem.
I was thrown to the far wall by the sheer force of it all.
My skin burned from the terrible heat, and the hairs on my arms curled and singed. I couldn't even keep my eyes open anymore. I heard Aron yell something from somewhere to my right.
At the same time, the darkness pressed down on me like a physical weight. My limbs wouldn't move anymore. I couldn't even breathe.
My ribs creaked and strained as my chest started to cave inwards.
Then, everything went black.
And all I could feel was pain, and the final, panicking fluxes of a dying mind.
…
…I was dying.
I almost felt like laughing.
I'd never imagined my final moments would look like this.
I was dying.
…
But… at least…
At least, it meant that I could finally see her -
The pressure around my body abruptly disappeared.
All my senses returned to me as I collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.
Freezing air rushed into my lungs.
No heat. No smell of smoke.
Everything was still dark.
I was surrounded by an expanse of pulsating shadows, with no end in sight.
But I could move again.
Quickly, I scrambled to my feet and took a defensive stance.
The mass of darkness moved faster. But it wasn't touching me anymore. It was shifting, rushing past me.
And then, all of a sudden, the shadows parted.
And I was left standing in the dark, in a completely different place.
What the hell?
Still panting slightly, I quickly took in my new surroundings.
I was in a narrow cubicle of some sort.
Smooth, laminate walls.
Tiled floor.
A drain to one side.
Metal piping.
…And a showerhead above me.
'Fuck…'
Why the fuck was I in the last shower stall!?
Immediately, I threw all my weight against the door, trying to get it to open.
It wouldn't budge.
I tried again and again. Then, I heard a soft squeak as the shower knob turn by itself in the dark.
Hissss…
Horrified, I looked up at the showerhead. The fixture was jolting and shuddering in the dark.
Hundreds of tiny grey things were emerging from it.
The creatures looked like small, deformed frogs, with bloated bodies, no eyes, and large, gaping mouths full of tiny, sharp teeth.
They dropped down, spilling out at a relentless pace and almost instantly falling onto every available surface within the stall. Including my own body from the top-down.
'Ugh! No! NO!'
Covering my head with one arm, I tried using the other to swipe them off.
I tried squashing them against the walls.
I even tried turning off the shower.
Nothings worked.
Within moments, almost every inch of me was covered by these creatures.
I could feel their icy, moist bodies sticking to my skin.
I could see thousands of tiny, sharp teeth glinting in the dark.
And yet…
…
They didn't tear into my flesh.
???
Almost without thinking, I stopped moving.
The moment I did, all the creatures turned their eerie, sightless faces towards me.
As one, they opened their gaping mouths wider.
And then, they spoke in unison.
'What caused us?'
There was a disturbing, buzzing quality to their voices. The sound made my ears itch.
What… caused us?
What did they mean by that?
Was I supposed to recount the whole plot right now? Talk about how the Director summoned some horrible curse to bring his grandson back to life -
Before I could think anymore, the creatures spoke again with the same voice.
'What caused us?'
Then, I saw them move their gaping mouths lower.
I could feel tiny, stinging pinpricks all over as hundreds of sharp teeth grazed my skin in unison.
A few of them were already drooling in anticipation.
Shit.
Uh…
'What caused –'
'Eli!' I exclaimed. 'Eli's fate.'
The creatures froze in place.
'E-Eli was bullied… hurt… in the last shower stall,' I added quickly. 'The boiling water burned him terribly, and that was the incident that broke the camel's back. He killed himself soon after that happened.'
'This particular part of the curse latched onto Eli's pain. That's what caused you.'
The creatures suddenly crumbled and disintegrated into grey dust, and once again, the shadows swept in from all sides.
In the dark, I could see past events play out in front of me, as though from a projector.
I saw a delicate-featured boy being cornered by a group of other teenagers. The leader leaned in and said, 'Your little girlfriend keeps your umbrella in her room. Did you think I wouldn't find out?'
The first guy shook his head. 'It's not mine. She's not my girlfriend, Mark. She's a teacher,' he said quickly.
SLAP!
'Did I allow you to speak?' Mark growled. He then took a step back, and swept his hair off his forehead.
'Fuck!' he yelled. 'I already said I had my eye on that bitch! I told everyone! And to think that you… You!'
He leaned in again. 'Is it this damn face?' he asked, grabbing Eli tightly by the jaw.
The scene cut to four or five guys in the communal showers.
One of them stepped out of the last stall, leaving the water running. Within moments, it was steaming.
'N-no! Please!' Eli was being held by two others. I saw some familiar faces from amongst the NPCs in class. The guy who slept in the upper bunk across from me was also there.
'Please! I swear it's not like that! Ask her! She'll tell you it's not like that!'
Mark smiled. 'Oh? It isn't? Then, should I just beat you up like I usually do?'
Eli shut his eyes.
After a moment, he nodded.
'Please –' he whispered.
'No chance,' Mark interjected.
He nodded at the two guys holding him up.
'Throw him in.'
'No!'
Eli was thrown bodily into the last shower.
'Ugh!'
He immediately scrambled up and tried to reach for the knob, only to be kicked down by another guy.
'Aaaargh! It burns!' he cried, trying to get to the knob again.
Every time he tried, he was repeatedly kicked down and back under the stream of running water by one of the guys.
Mark sat by the row of sinks and watched with an almost bored look on his face.
Eventually, Eli stopped trying.
He lay curled up on the floor, whimpering. The steaming water drenched his writhing body, and soaked into his clothes and hair.
Finally, Mark stood up and walked over to the last stall.
He looked down at the sobbing boy.
Then, he shut the door.
'If that fucker doesn't get up soon, there won't be any hot water left for tonight,' he sniggered.
After a moment, he turned to one of the guys and added, 'Don't let him go running around and kicking up a fuss again. Make sure he doesn't leave the dorms. It's just a few burns. I don't wanna trouble my grandfather with this shit again.'
The scene changed again to the inside of a dorm room.
Of the four beds in this room, only one had a mattress on it.
The door was shut, and a shirtless Eli was leaning against the wall by it, wheezing slightly.
His eyes were half-lidded, and he looked terribly unwell.
All the visible skin on his face and torso was red and swollen with blisters.
Faint streaks of red on the wall behind him indicated broken skin.
Despite his terrible injuries, and despite how painful it must've been, there was no one around to help take care of him.
He was all alone, confined to his room, and with no way to contact anyone on the outside.
The boy sluggishly looked up with a dull look on his face.
His gaze was fixed on the slowly rotating ceiling fan.
The scene faded to black, and once again, the darkness was rushing past me.
I sighed.
I was pretty sure I'd just witnessed the exact moment that poor kid had made up his mind to end his life.
Then, suddenly, the shadows parted again.
I was sitting in my bed on the upper bunk.
And the gigantic, shadowy creature that appeared after lights-out was looming over me, its monstrous head bent low.
Mere inches from my face.