The emergency stairs became a tunnel of chaos as we plunged deeper into Yamashiro Institute's underbelly. Jin moved with unnerving calm ahead of me, while panic radiated from the students behind like heat waves. My student council president instincts screamed to take control, but fear had tightened its icy grip around my throat.
"Single file! No pushing!" I commanded, my voice cracking slightly. "Watch your step!"
For a heartbeat, silence fell—a vacuum of sound that raised the hairs on my neck. Then, chaos erupted from above.
Screams pierced the concrete walls, raw and terrified. Footsteps thundered down the stairwell in a frantic rhythm.
"Stay calm!" Professor Nakamura shouted, his voice immediately drowned out by someone yelling about lockdown protocols. Useless. No one was listening to reason anymore.
My breath came in ragged gasps. I pressed against the cold concrete wall, heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. This wasn't just a disaster anymore—this was something else entirely.
Mrs. Yamamoto clutched her hands in prayer, mascara streaking her cheeks like black tears. Mr. Ishikawa's attempt at reassurance—"Please everyone, remain calm"—faltered immediately, his trembling hands sending his tablet clattering down the metal steps. No one even flinched.
I opened my mouth to assert control, to restore order, but a blood-curdling scream ripped through the stairwell before I could speak.
The sound wasn't human anymore—it was something twisted, corrupted, like a voice being torn apart from the inside.
Every student froze mid-step. Twenty pairs of eyes locked on the landing above.
Another scream echoed, then another. Voices intertwined in a symphony of terror—some deep and guttural, others shrill with panic. Names cried out, desperate pleas for help, then just mindless shrieking of pure agony.
Footsteps echoed above us, at first a single person sprinting down the stairs with desperate urgency. But the rhythm was wrong—stumbling, dragging, as if their body no longer obeyed their commands.
WHAM! A body slammed against the wall above us, followed by a choked gasp.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Fists pounded on the stairwell door above. "HELP! PLEASE! SOMEBODY HELP US! OH GOD, PLEASE!"
A first-year's voice, distorted by terror.
"Everyone stay calm," I said, my voice steadier than I felt. "Don't—"
The screams transformed into something beyond comprehension. What started as human cries warped into an animalistic gurgle, wet and choking, as if the speaker was drowning in their own blood. The sound vibrated through my bones, freezing me in place.
The pounding stopped. The screams died.
"We have to help them," whispered Aoi beside me, her wide eyes reflecting the emergency lights. Sweet, innocent Aoi, who volunteered at animal shelters and cried over injured birds, now facing true horror.
"No," I said, my voice lacking its usual authority. "We need to wait—"
Movement flickered above. Through the narrow glass panel in the stairwell door, the security office landing stood empty. No help was coming.
Aoi stood, pale but determined. "There might be survivors. We can't just leave them—"
"SIT DOWN!" I snapped, composure finally shattering. "You will not move until I say—"
A new sound echoed from above—the wet, heavy dragging of something across the concrete steps.
The dragging stopped directly outside the door above us.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Like broken fingers tapping a desperate rhythm.
"Pl...ease," a voice gurgled through the steel, human words distorted by what sounded like a throat filled with blood. "H..elp... m..e... ple..ase..."
Aoi's expression crumpled with pity. "They're hurt. We have to do something—"
"Into the maintenance alcove!" Jin's voice cut through our panic like a blade. "Now! Move!"
He pointed to a narrow service entrance nearly hidden in the stairwell wall. Without hesitation, he shoved it open, revealing darkness crammed with pipes and conduits.
"But what about—" I started.
"There's no time!" Jin snapped, his golden eyes intense. "Whatever that is, it's not human anymore. And it's coming this way."
The dragging sound resumed, closer now. Wet, shuffling footsteps began descending the stairs toward us.
"Into the alcove! Go! Go! Go!" I shouted, pushing students ahead of me.
We scrambled into the cramped maintenance space, pressing against cold pipes as Jin pulled the door nearly shut, leaving only a crack to peer through. My heart hammered against my ribs as I watched through the narrow opening.
The alcove was a claustrophobic nightmare of pipes and conduits, dripping with condensation that soaked our clothes within seconds. Twenty students crammed into a space meant for maybe five at most. The air grew thick with the smell of rust, mildew, and fear—everyone's panicked breathing creating a fog in the narrow space.
"Quiet," Jin whispered, his voice barely audible. "Don't move.."
Aoi pressed against me, her small body trembling violently. I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close despite my own terror. Professor Nakamura stood frozen near the back, his face ashen, while Mr. Ishikawa had collapsed against a pipe, muttering prayers under his breath.
Through the narrow crack, I watched as the figure appeared on the landing above, silhouetted against the emergency lighting. It moved with a jerky, unnatural gait, limbs bent at impossible angles. As it turned toward our hiding spot, I caught a full glimpse of what used to be a human being.
The skin was stretched tight over a skeletal frame, pale and waxy like old parchment. The eyes were milky white, vacant of any humanity, yet somehow still tracking movement with predatory focus. Blood dripped from a mouth twisted into a permanent snarl, revealing teeth sharpened to points. The fingers were elongated, ending in yellowed claws that scraped against the metal stairs with each shuffling step.
It paused, tilting its head as if sniffing the air. A low, guttural growl rumbled in its chest—a sound that vibrated through the concrete and into our bones.
Then slowly, deliberately, it began descending the stairs toward us.
Each step was a study in horror—the foot twisted at an impossible angle, the knee bending backward, the entire body moving with a puppet-like jerkiness that defied natural biology. Dark stains covered what remained of its clothes, and I realized with a sickening lurch that it was blood—probably from its victims.
Aoi stifled a sob beside me, her hand clutching my arm with desperate strength. I wanted to comfort her, to promise everything would be alright, but the words caught in my throat. What could I possibly say? We were trapped in a maintenance alcove with a monster descending the stairs toward us, and no one knew we were here.
The creature reached the landing just outside our hiding spot, mere feet from where we crouched in darkness. It paused again, that horrible head tilting first one way, then another, as if listening for something.
Had it heard us? Did it know we were here?
My heart hammered so loudly I was certain it would hear. The other students' breathing came in ragged gasps that sounded deafening in the silence. Even Jin, who had remained so calm until now, had gone perfectly still, his eyes fixed on the creature through the crack.
The creature took another step closer, then another. It was right outside the maintenance alcove now, so close I could smell the rotting-flesh odor that wafted from it.
This was it. This was how we died. Not in the comfort of our homes, not with loved ones, but in a dark maintenance alcove, torn apart by something that used to be human.
The creature's clawed hand reached toward the door handle of our hiding spot.
For the first time in my life, I had no answers, no plan, no control. We were completely and utterly helpless, trapped in darkness with a monster that used to be human, descending the stairs toward us. And I had no idea if any of us would survive.