"That's not human," I muttered under my breath, but she was already—ugh, so stubborn—moving toward the door, completely ignoring my warning.
"AOI, NO!"
Her hand lunged for the emergency release, and in that moment, she unleashed whatever horror lurked just beyond that threshold.
With a hiss, the lock clicked open, and the door creaked ajar, just enough for something to slither through.
And then it crawled into view.
What stood before me had once been human. I could still make out fragments of a school uniform, drenched in blood, and its hair—possibly blonde—was matted with the remnants of a grotesque nightmare. But that was just the beginning...
Its left arm grotesquely bent backward at the elbow, the joint shattered, leaving the forearm dangling behind like some twisted mockery of anatomy. Bone jutted out through the skin like jagged shards. The right leg dragged uselessly, the foot turned completely around, forcing it to stumble along on what used to be its ankle.
But the face—oh, the face—was the true terror that shattered whatever remained of my sanity.
The lower jaw was a gruesome sight, torn asunder with its teeth dangling from shredded bits of meat and gristle. That tongue? Black and swollen, grotesquely hanging out of the mangled mouth. And the eyes—milky white, yet somehow they tracked movement, like they had a mind of their own.
The creature's head whipped around to zero in on the nearest target: Yuuto Kurota, the debate team captain who fancied himself destined for law school at Waseda. Its ruined maw yawned open wider than seemed possible, revealing broken teeth and what could only be described as jawbone reshaped into sharp fangs.
Time seemed to stretch, like a rubber band ready to snap. I caught sight of Yuuto's expression, face going pale, eyes widening in shock as his hand instinctively reached out, desperate to fend off the monster.
I tried to scream a warning, but it got stuck in my throat as the thing lunged forward, faster than any human should move.
It collided with Yuuto like a runaway truck, the impact echoing in the corridor as he hit the floor with a sickening thud. Its claws raked across his chest, tearing through fabric and flesh, painting the white walls with splatters of crimson.
The sound of Yuuto's terrified scream pierced my ears as he struggled, our once-confident captain now a desperate prey, as that wretched jaw clamped down on his throat. I could almost hear the crunch of his bones caving in, the wet rending of flesh echoing in my head.
I felt a wave of nausea wash over me. His eyes—their light dimming—while his body continued to twitch in a grotesque ballet of agony, and that creature, that abomination, swallowing with a gulp that was more horrifying than I could bear.
Panic erupted in the room.
Students were hollering, shoving each other in their frantic attempts to escape, their terror palpable. Someone stumbled over a chair and crumpled to the ground with a sickening crack, their skull meeting the unforgiving floor with a grim finality. Others slipped and fell in the spreading pool of blood, the chaos spiraling out of control.
I should have done something to restore order to this madness.
But terror held me in place, my body too paralyzed to act.
I just stood there... frozen in fear as the grotesque creature hunched over Yuuto's twitching form, slowly lifting its head to face me.
A disturbing, wet slurping filled the air, followed by a sickening squelch as torn muscle yielded beneath its weight. A crack echoed, unmistakable, as something dislocated, its spine bending at an unnatural angle as it turned toward me.
Its mouth was a horrifying mass of shredded lips and broken teeth, smeared with a thick paste of flesh and blood. Innards dripped from its chin, plummeting in heavy drops that resonated like a clock—pat-pat-pat—staining the floor beneath.
Its skin was a mottled gray, stretched too taut in places. One cheek was torn open entirely, exposing muscle and tendons that twitched unnervingly, independent of the rest of its ghastly face.
The monster locked its gaze onto mine across the ruined room. I stifled my breath, fighting the urge to blink, scared that even the slightest movement would trigger an attack.
Then, it smiled.
The expression was nightmarish on its disfigured face.
"Sera!" Aoi's voice sliced through the fog of my terror. She hovered by the door, paralyzed, clutching the handle, her face drained of color. "Oh God, Sera, what did I—"
In an instant, the creature shifted its focus to her. Rising from Yuuto's lifeless body, blood still dripped from its claws, its head cocked at a grotesque angle that would surely snap a human neck.
"Aoi, RUN!" My voice broke through the ice, but it was too late.
The creature surged forward like a shadow, zipping across the blood-slick floor with impossible speed. Aoi turned to escape, but her feet slipped, and she fell hard. Her cry was cut off as the monster descended upon her.
Its claws pierced her ribs as easily as paper. Blood erupted in a perfect arc, splattering my face and soaking my blouse. For a heartbeat, I locked eyes with her before the creature's jaws closed around her face.
The sound she made wasn't a scream; it was more of a sigh, like the final expulsion of breath from her lungs.
I watched Aoi Fujita perish.
I stood there and did nothing.
My hands trembled as they rose to my face, and suddenly, I recognized the raw, broken sound of my own screams echoing in the chaos.
The creature turned back to me, its mangled face now smeared with Aoi's blood.
I stumbled back, my legs quaking.
Then... I felt something hard beneath my heel. Looking down, I caught a glint of black and steel poking out from under a toppled storage locker, half-buried beneath papers and shattered glass. Emergency equipment. Someone must have tried to reach it when the chaos began... and failed.
I dropped to my knees, my fingers fumbling to retrieve it. The casing slid free with a reassuring click, revealing something sleek and heavy.
A Stun-Tonfa.
Carbon-alloy body. The kind reserved for riot control by security.
I gripped the handle and twisted. The shaft extended with a low fzzzzk, blue arcs of plasma dancing along the conductive edge as the weapon hummed to life.
My heart thundered louder than the beast's growls. I stepped forward, swinging.
The arc of the tonfa met the side of its head with a crack of thunder, light exploding at the impact point. The creature jolted mid-motion, electricity coursing through its jaw and eye socket.
It crashed into the wall hard enough to leave a dent, but only for a moment—it surged back to me again.
That same horrid smile twisted its features.
I swung again, and again, and again.
Each strike jarred my bones, but the creature kept coming back, that sick smile unrelenting as it reached for me with its blood-drenched claws.
The tonfa slipped from my grasp, slick with blood as I dragged myself backward, leaving a gruesome trail across the polished floor. My designer sneakers squelched in fluids I desperately tried not to contemplate.