"Fall, not a sound."
"Hmm?"
Marc opened his eyes at the sound of the voice-low, urgent-but the noise from the corridor froze him in place. Heavy steps. A guttural rumble. Danger crept closer, louder with every heartbeat. And yet, the person holding him didn't move, didn't speak again. Just tightened their grip, preventing him from even breathing too loudly.
Growl. Footsteps. Sweat. Fear.
The cycle repeated in his mind like a relentless chant. The sounds grew, then faded-until finally, silence returned. A silence so thick it choked him.
At that moment Marc felt the grip of the hand holding him loosen, finally relaxed. A hoarse and liberating sigh of relief escaped his lips. Still trembling from the fear that had gripped him, he turned slowly into the half-light, his eyes getting used to making out the face of the person whose calm breath was coming to him. He had already guessed who it was. And mixing relief with pent-up anger and a hint of exasperation, the first words that came out of his mouth were:
"You bastard... where the hell have you been?!"
Hugo, with a smile audible in his voice, couldn't help but let out a laugh at the sight of his friend's angry face.
"Oh my, slowly, calm your nerves! Did you not hear what's roaming those halls?" He added, a mocking smile on his lips, savoring the moment.
"Honestly, you should be thanking me for saving your sorry ass."
Marc let out a long sigh, heavy with weariness and stress.
"Yeah, yeah... Thanks, I guess." His voice still trembled.
"But seriously... why today? Why the hell did this have to happen now?"
He lowered his gaze, muttering more to himself than to Hugo.
"To think that after that, I was planning to enjoy my life a little... Good! Spend."
"Anyway" he added louder,
"Have you seen Leo? Or the janitor? Security? Anyone?"
At these words, Hugo froze for a moment, as if time had briefly suspended its course.
"Huh? No. No one. Why?"
He replied, but his voice sounded less confident than he would have liked. His eyebrows had arched without him noticing, drawing a half-surprised, half-worried expression. He felt that he was not going to like the next words that would come out of Marc's mouth. Not at all.
Marc heaved a long sigh, heavy as a lead curtain. He pinched the bridge of his nose, exasperation etched into his features.
"To get out of here, we need the security guard-he's the one who locks all doors and windows remotely. Or the janitor. Only he has the keys to every room. And by the way..." He added with a frown, "Leo went to look for you."
Hugo raised an eyebrow, his arms crossed.
"Okay... but why not just use the windows?"
Marc stopped. His face twisted with disbelief.
"Are you serious? We're on the third floor, Hugo. You jump from here, you're either dead or paralyzed for life."
He pointed toward the nearest window-shuttered, sealed tight.
"And those things are magnetically locked. You think you can break one with your charming personality?"
He paused for a second, his eyes dark, then added, in a dry tone:
"And please, don't come up with another idea like "we just have to go down to the second level" or "we can break the window". Let me refresh your memory about what's going on inside right now."
One of the overhead lights flickered ominously, like it was agreeing with him.
Hugo held up his hands in surrender.
"Ah, okay, okay! I get it, it's okay. No need to make a big deal out of it..."
He stood up, glancing toward the hallway.
"I'll check outside real quick."
Marc said nothing, only watched as Hugo moved to the door, pressed his back to the wall, cracked it open just enough to peek out.
A breath. A pause.
Then Hugo's voice came, low and taut:
"Uh! Marc.... About Leo... I think I found him."
Marc straightened instantly, hope sparking in his chest.
"Seriously?! Where?!"
He darted into the corridor-but there was nothing. No sign of Leo. Just cold air and silence.
"Bah, where is he?" he muttered, trying to sound calm.
"You just missed it. By a small margin." Hugo paused. Then his gaze slowly slid to the dark end of the corridor. There was something strangely heavy about the way in which his eyes clung to it.
"But... There is another problem."
Marc didn't move.
Hugo didn't need to raise his voice.
"There's a monster following him."
Silence fell. Again.
Reality, brutal, fell on Marc. The naked truth. Indeed, it's all well and good to find Leo, but with this thing lurking a few meters away, what were they going to be able to do? How to get out of it? Just trying to approach Leo seemed like a death sentence.
With a lump in his throat, his stomach twisting, but he shook his head forcefully, refusing to give in to panic.
"Shit, this is not the time to hesitate... We have to help him!" He said resolutely. His body reacts before his fear catches up with him. He returns to the direction where Leo had just passed, ready to launch a desperate rescue attempt. But a calm, almost fragile voice held him back at the threshold.
"Wait."
Marc stopped short, surprised. He turned around. Hugo hadn't moved an inch. He stood there, frozen, his gaze absent, fixed somewhere between the shadows and his thoughts.
"Hmm... What's the matter?" Marc asked, perplexed.
Hugo blinked slowly, as if he had just returned from a dream, or a nightmare.
"Oh... it's nothing." He replied, his voice tinged with a strange hesitation.
"It's just an impression, just... maybe a stupid thought... But... I think that thing struggles with corners."
Marc narrowed his eyes.
"...Struggles with corners?"
The words repeated in his mind, then clicked. His eyes lit up.
"Hmm... Okay. That's good to know." He turned to Hugo, looking more lively, more determined. A plan was forming. Thin, risky-but better than nothing.
"Listen, we can always look for the concierge afterwards. Here, we have no choice: we have to take care of Leo first."
A new tension had set in, different this time. It was no longer just fear. It was now-intent.. A slim chance, but a chance nonetheless. And sometimes, it was enough to rekindle a spark of life in the darkness.
Indeed, Marc was certain: the monster had to be stopped. To let him prowl around while they tried to flee? Unthinkable. Even if they managed to escape, there was no guarantee that he wouldn't hunt them down. This thing... It didn't seem to just want to scare them. It was hunting. Slowly, methodically. And since his appearance, a bad feeling had been eating away at his insides. Like an invisible poison that spread in his blood, whispering to him that something irremediable was going to happen. Something that could no longer be repaired.
"So?" asked Hugo, an eyebrow raised, trying to keep a neutral tone.
"How do you plan to do it, exactly? Just to know..."
Marc crossed his arms, a flicker of confidence returning.
"I have my own idea." He replied calmly.
He then leaned over to Hugo, and in a few quick sentences, explained to him the essence of his plan. Hugo's face literally changed before his eyes. First of all, the surprise. Then the confusion. And finally, pure disbelief, marked by wide-eyed eyes like those of a trapped animal.
"It's... It's a very bad idea!" he retorted. "No, it's suicide! Are you crazy?!"
Marc simply shrugged his shoulders, as if his way of cooking pasta had just been criticized.
"Unless you've got something better?"
The casual tone set Hugo off.
"Shit, Marc! Why aren't we moving faster?! Why are we still talking?! And why do I feel like you don't even care about Leo?! We should be panicking right now!"
But Marc? He didn't flinch. Didn't raise his voice.
Instead, he smiled.
"Oh, I care. But don't worry." He glanced down the hallway.
"It's not this 'little beast' that'll kill Leo."
And it wasn't the lie in his voice that scared Hugo-it was the fact that Marc believed it.
*****
In the back of the chemistry lab, hidden inside a metal supply cupboard, Leo held his breath. The cramped enclosure reeked of chemical fumes - chlorine, ammonia, alcohol - mixing with sweat and fear. His fingers clenched around the cold glass of a sulfuric acid bottle. His only weapon.
His only asset. A completely crazy plan: stay hidden, hope that the thing doesn't find him. What if it opened the door... throw acid in it face, blind him, and run. Running like never before... If only his legs would still be able to move.
Sudden! A noise. Not just any one. A roar, muffled and visceral, followed by the metallic screech of a door torn off.
"No?"
The door of the laboratory shattered in a deafening racket, projected across the room like a sheet of paper. It was no longer an entrance: it was a black gap, gaping, threatening, like the mouth of a monster. Because it was. The creature was there. His heavy footsteps echoed through the lab, each like a sledgehammer on the ground. The straw mattresses shook at a simple movement on his part. The glass exploded under his limbs. Léo, on the other hand, remained frozen. Every step brought horror nearer. And with each vibration, he felt the metal of the closet tremble against his back. The shelves creaked. A bottle above his head slipped in. He barely caught up with him, without a sound.
"Not now. Please, not now..." These words echoed in his head.
Then everything stopped. A sudden silence. Thick. Terrible. And even more terrifying than the previous racket. The beast no longer moved. She was there. Just on the other side of the closet. Leo felt it. His presence. Its mass. His breath, barely audible, but there. Leo scarcely dared to turn his head. Through a small crack in the door, he glanced discreetly. A huge shadow, just in front. It is impossible to distinguish a sharp shape - only a misshapen, black, twisted silhouette.
And then... he saw them. Two points of light. Two eyes. Cold. Inhuman. Who seemed to be looking directly at him through the wall. Leo's heart was pounding. A frantic pounding against his chest. He bit his lip so as not to scream.