Chapter 50: Random choosing
A New Life, a New Insecurity by CrustedMuffin02
525 4 1
X
Reading Options
Font Size
A- 15px A+
Width
Reset
X
Table of Contents
Loading... please wait.
PreviousNext

Eclipsara pov(first person point of view)  

I must’ve stayed awake longer than I thought.

Long enough to be sure the thing outside had truly left.

Long enough for the quiet to settle back into the room.

Eventually the tension in my body eased just enough that I sat back against the wall again, axe resting across my lap.

The room stayed silent.

The door stayed closed.

And Mira slept through all of it.

Hours passed.

At least it felt like hours.

Then-

A soft rustle from the couch.(A rustle is a very quiet sound made by movement, like fabric shifting.)

I looked over.

Mira shifted under the pillow, blinking slowly as she pushed herself upright.

Her hair was messy from sleep, eyes still heavy.

“…Morning?” she mumbled weakly.

I gave a small half-smile.

“Something like that.”

She stretched carefully, then looked around the room as if remembering where she was.

“…I actually slept.” she said, sounding almost surprised.

“That’s good.” I replied. “You needed it.”

She nodded slowly.

“I feel… better.” she admitted.

For a moment she seemed like her normal self again.

Then her eyes drifted to me.

She frowned slightly.

“…Something’s wrong.”

I blinked. “What?”

“You’re too tense.”

She tilted her head slightly.

“What happened while I was asleep?”

I hesitated.

Then sighed.

“Yeah… about that.”

Her posture straightened immediately.

“What?” 

I leaned my head back against the wall for a moment before answering.

“A few minutes after you fell asleep… I heard something.”

Her posture stiffened.(Posture means the way someone holds their body. Stiffened means the body suddenly became tense or rigid because she felt worried or alert.)

“Something?”

“Laughter.”

Her tail twitched.

“Not normal laughter.” I continued. “Its laugher echoed through the halls. Wrong. Like something pretending to laugh. And something moving outside the door.”

Her face paled slightly.

“It hit the door once. Hard." 

“…Did it try to get in?”

“No.”

I shook my head.

“It didn’t even seem like it knew anyone was here. Just wandering.”

I paused.

“But it’s here.”

Silence filled the room for a moment.

“…So we’re not alone.” she said.

“Nope.”

She exhaled slowly, rubbing her arms.

“Great.”

“Yeah.”

I sat forward and picked up my axe again.

“But,” I added, reaching into my pocket. “I grabbed something from that massacre room.”

I pulled out the key cards and ID tags, letting them clink softly together.(Clink means a small metallic tapping sound when metal objects hit each other. The key cards and tags made a quiet metal sound when they touched.)

Mira leaned closer.

“Access cards?”

“Looks like it.”

Her expression brightened slightly with cautious hope.

“The elevator.” she said.

“Exactly.”

I turned one of the cards over between my fingers.

“The screen said we needed a high-ranking key card to go deeper.”

“So one of those might work.”

“Maybe.”

I slid them back into my pocket.

“But going down that elevator might also be the worst idea we’ve had so far.”

Mira tilted her head.

“Because we still don’t know what this place actually is.”

“Exactly.” I said.

I gestured toward the door.

“There are monsters wandering the halls. Experiment reports about turning people into… whatever they were trying to do.”

I tightened my grip on the axe.

“And we’ve barely explored anything yet.”

Mira nodded slowly.

“So we investigate more first.”

“That’s my vote.”

She stood from the couch, stretching again before straightening her clothes.

“Alright.” she said.

Her voice was steadier now.

Not perfect.

But stronger than before.

I unlocked the heavy door, sliding the bolts back one by one.

Metal clanked softly.(Clanked means a heavier metal sound, like metal parts hitting or sliding together when the bolts were unlocked.)

Before opening it, I paused and looked back at her.

“Ready?”

Mira nodded.

“Ready.”

I pushed the door open slowly.

The white hallway waited outside.

It was quiet.

Too quiet.

Mira and I stepped out slowly, and I shut the reinforced door behind us as gently as possible. The heavy lock clicked back into place with a dull metal sound.

Neither of us spoke at first.

Then Mira leaned closer and whispered.

“…Maybe we shouldn’t scrape the vents anymore.”

I blinked at her.

“You mean the scratch marks?”

She nodded.

“If that thing outside heard the noise, it might have been following it.”

I froze for a moment.

Then I whispered back, a little louder than I meant to-

“Oh come on.”

Mira immediately raised a finger.

“Whisper.”

“Right.” I hissed quietly(To hiss means speaking in a sharp whisper, usually because someone is annoyed or trying to stay quiet). “But that means we’re going to get lost easily!”

She thought for a moment.

Then she nodded toward the ventilation housings along the wall.

“We can still mark them.” she whispered.

I blinked.

“…Really?”

“Only if it’s safe,” she clarified quietly. “If we don’t hear anything nearby. And if we need to leave an area quickly.”

I stared at her for a second.

Then I silently pumped my fist into the air.

“Yes.”

She covered her mouth quickly to stop a small laugh.

“Quiet victory.” she whispered.

“Right. Quiet victory.”

We started walking again.

This time slower.

More careful.

Every step measured.

No scraping metal.

No unnecessary noise.

Just the faint hum of the ventilation fans and our quiet footsteps along the sterile floor.

We passed two intersections.

Then another corridor.

Then-

I stopped.

Mira nearly walked into my back.

“What-?”

I pointed down.

The floor ahead wasn’t clean.

Dark streaks stretched along the tiles.( long thin lines or smears of something.)

Red.

Blood.

But mixed with something else.

Black liquid.

Thick.

Glossy.

It smeared across the floor in uneven drag marks like something injured had passed through here.

My grip tightened on the axe.

“…Well that’s not good.” I whispered.

Mira crouched slightly, studying the trail without touching it.

“It’s fresh I think.” she murmured.

The streaks ran straight down the corridor.

Occasionally splashed against the wall where whatever it was had staggered.

Something big.

Something heavy.

We followed it slowly.

Carefully.

The trail continued for several meters.

Red.

Black.

Red.

Black.

Then-

It stopped.

Just… stopped.

The floor ahead was perfectly clean.

No smear.

No drops.

No marks.

The trail ended like it had simply vanished from existence.

Mira frowned.

“That’s… strange.”

I stepped forward, scanning the walls and ceiling.

“Did it climb something?”

“There's nothing here to climb.”

She looked back at the trail.

Then ahead again.

“It didn’t fade,” she said quietly. “It just ended.”

Like the creature had disappeared.

Or phased.

Neither option made me feel better.

We stood there for a moment.

Then Mira slowly turned toward the other corridor branching left.

“If the creature went this way…”

“…then we go the opposite way.” I finished.

She nodded.

“Exactly.”

I gestured toward the clean corridor behind us.

“Great. Let’s go the direction that doesn’t involve mysterious bleeding monsters.”

Mira didn’t argue.

Together we quietly turned away from the trail.

And moved deeper into the facility.

Slow.

Quiet.

Every step measured.

Thats how we did it.

At the next ventilation unit along the wall, I carefully lifted my axe and dragged the very tip across the metal casing.

Scrt.

Barely a sound.

Just enough to leave a thin scratch.

Mira glanced over her shoulder down the hallway.

Listening.

Nothing followed.

We kept going.

Left turn.

Another fan.

Scrt.

Right turn.

Another mark.

The halls kept repeating themselves-sterile white panels, humming fans, pipes running along the ceiling like metal veins. Every corridor looked like the last one.

Without the marks, we’d already be lost.

After several more turns, something finally broke the pattern.

Another door.

Not huge like the containment chamber we had seen earlier.

But still thick.

Heavy.

Sealed.

Mira and I stopped in front of it.

“…Another lab?” she whispered.

“Hopefully one that isn’t red,” I muttered.

I lowered my axe slightly and pressed the panel with my hand.

The door slid open with a soft hydraulic hiss.(Hydraulic means something powered by liquid pressure, usually oil, to move heavy objects smoothly. The sentence means the heavy door opened using a machine system that pushes it with pressure, making a soft hissing sound.)

We stepped inside.

The room was large.

Much larger than the last few rooms we’d found.

The first thing I noticed were the containers.

Ten of them.

Massive circular cylinders arranged in two rows along the room. (Two rows means two straight lines of objects next to each other. The sentence means five cylinders are in one line and five are in another line beside them.) Each one was tall enough to easily hold a person standing upright. Thick reinforced glass curved around their fronts, while heavy metal housings surrounded the rest of the structures.(Fronts means the side of the container that faces outward where people would look inside. The sentence means the front side of each cylinder has strong curved glass so scientists could see the person inside)(Metal housings means thick metal shells or outer frames that protect or hold the machine together. The sentence means most of the cylinder is covered by strong metal parts that hold the pod and protect it.)

They looked like containment pods.(A pod is a small enclosed chamber or capsule used to hold something inside. In the story it means a sealed container meant to keep a person or creature trapped for experiments.)

Or experiment chambers.

Whatever had been inside them was gone.

All ten stood empty.

Cold.

Inactive.

Mira slowly turned in place, taking in the room.

“…People were put in these,” she whispered.

“Yeah,” I said quietly.

Two large desks stood near the far wall.

Papers covered them-though not neatly. Some were stacked, others scattered across the surface like someone had been going through them in a hurry.

Worse than that-

The floor was littered with shredded documents.

Pages torn apart.

Some ripped straight through the middle.

Others crumpled and tossed aside.

Like someone had deliberately destroyed the information here.

I stepped back to the door and quietly slid it shut.

The seal locked with a soft click.

“Just in case,” I whispered. “If anything’s roaming the halls.”

Mira nodded.

“Good idea.”

Now the room was closed off.

Still.

Quiet.

For the moment, at least, nothing could see us.

I turned toward the desks.

“Let’s see what they were hiding.”

Mira and I moved to the desks carefully.

The papers were scattered everywhere.

Some were still stacked in thin folders.

Others had been ripped apart and tossed across the floor like someone had tried to destroy them in a hurry.

Mira crouched down and began gathering the intact pages.

I knelt beside the desk and started sorting through what remained.

Most of the documents were incomplete.

Pages missing.

Sections torn out.

But a few fragments were still readable.

One sheet near the edge of the desk had a bold header across the top.

Research Log-Project Arbor Integration(Integration means successfully combining two things so they work together. The sentence means the Tree of Life energy could not combine properly with any of the test subjects.)

Subject: Tree of Life Branch-Energy Transfer Study

Objective:
Investigate the possibility of transferring or integrating the energy contained within a severed branch of the Tree of Life into living hosts of varying biological structures.

Status: Ongoing experimentation.

I flipped the page over.

Most of the lower section had been ripped away, but enough remained to read.

Test Subjects by Race Classification:

• Veilborn (Half-Ghost)
• Demon
• Dragonfolk
• Human
• Vampire
• Beastfolk
• Elf

Mira leaned closer to read over my shoulder.

Another paragraph followed beneath it.

Preliminary Hypothesis:
Subjects of the Veilborn and Vampire races were considered the most viable candidates due to their naturally irregular biological and spiritual structures. Their ability to exist partially outside conventional(Conventional means normal or typical. The sentence means Veilborn and vampires were thought to survive the experiment better because their bodies are already unusual.) life-state boundaries suggested a higher tolerance for the branch’s energy signature.

Results:
Integration failure observed in all cases.

I frowned.

“Integration failure?”

Mira picked up another half-torn sheet from the floor.

She carefully smoothed it out.

More notes.

Different handwriting.

Observational Report:

Tree of Life branch energy remains highly unstable outside its original system. Attempted infusion into living hosts results in unpredictable biological collapse.

Common outcomes observed so far include:

• Severe pigmentation changes(Pigmentation means the natural color of skin, eyes, or hair. The sentence means the experiments caused people’s skin or body color to change dramatically.)
• Cellular destabilization(Cellular refers to cells, the tiny building blocks of the body. Destabilization means something becoming unstable or breaking down. The sentence means the person’s body cells started malfunctioning or falling apart.)
• Loss of higher cognitive function
• Phase distortion or partial reality detachment(Phase distortion means a body slipping partly out of normal physical space. Partial reality detachment means the person is not fully connected to the real world anymore. The sentence means their body may partly pass through things or behave like it isn’t fully real.)

Further experimentation required.

Mira slowly lowered the paper.

“…This sounds like the report we saw earlier.” she said quietly.

“The one about the human subject.”

I nodded.

“Yeah.”

Another torn page lay near the base of the desk.

I picked it up and read the surviving lines.

Research Theory (Unverified):

The branch appears to retain a fragment of the original Tree’s life network. When introduced into external organisms, the energy attempts to restructure the host’s biological framework to match its original system.(Organisms means living things such as people, animals, or creatures. External means outside of the original system. The sentence means living beings that are not part of the Tree of Life itself.)

This restructuring process appears incompatible with all tested races so far. It is Unknown why this is happening. (Restructure means to completely reorganize or rebuild something. Biological framework means the body’s natural structure and systems. The sentence means the Tree of Life energy tries to change a person’s body so it works like the Tree’s system instead of a normal body.)

The rest of the page had been shredded.

Mira looked up at the row of empty cylindrical containers.

“…Those must be the chambers they used.”

I followed her gaze.

Ten containers.

Ten experiments.

Maybe more before these.

“Yeah,” I said quietly.

Mira tilted her head slightly.

“But why?”

“That’s the real question.”

She looked back down at the papers.

“Why would they even try combining a Tree of Life branch with living people?”

I leaned against the desk, thinking.

The answer came to me slowly.

“Because they didn’t have it before.”

Mira looked up.

“You mean the branch?”

I nodded.

“When that tree suddenly appeared… everyone wanted a piece of it.”

Researchers.

Scientists.

Entire nations sending people to study it.

Even the newspapers had been full of it.

A miracle appearing where none had existed before.

Of course someone would try to harvest it.

Of course someone would experiment with it.

I looked back at the destroyed papers scattered across the room.

“They must have taken a branch from it.”

Mira frowned.

“And brought it here.”

“Yeah.”

I glanced again at the research notes describing failed integrations.

People injected.

Bodies collapsing.

Mindless creatures created.

“And this is what they tried to do with it.”

Silence settled over the room again.

Ten empty containers stood quietly around us.

Cold.

Waiting.

Mira slowly folded the paper she was holding.

“…They were trying to turn people into something else. But why and what?” 

I tried to think of an anwer, but nothing came up. We needed more information.

I moved away from the desks and toward the containers.

Up close, they were even more unsettling.

Each circular chamber had thick reinforced glass, slightly clouded with residue from whatever fluids or chemicals had once filled them.(Residue means small leftover material that remains after something dries or disappears. The sentence means liquids used in the experiments dried and left stains on the glass.)Metal clamps lined the interior walls, clearly meant to hold someone in place.(Clamps are devices that hold something tightly in place. The sentence means metal restraints inside the pod were meant to lock a person’s body so they could not move.)

Someone standing upright.

Someone alive.

I swallowed and walked slowly past the first row.

Mira stayed near the desk, still looking through the scattered research pages.

“Anything else?” she asked quietly.

“Just these nightmare cylinders.” I muttered.

I leaned closer to one of them.

Scratches.

From the inside.

Thin drag marks where fingernails-or something sharper-had scraped against the glass.

I stepped away from it.

No thanks.

As I circled around the far end of the room, something caught my eye near the corner wall.

A single sheet of paper.

Not on the desk.

Not with the shredded files.

Tucked halfway beneath the metal base of the last container.

Like someone had tried to hide it there.

“…Huh.”

I crouched down and pulled it free.

The paper was creased and slightly worn.

Handwritten.

Messy.

Not like the clean typed reports we’d been reading.

“Mira,” I called quietly. “I found something.”

She walked over and leaned beside me as I started reading.

Personal Note-Not for Records

I am writing this only for myself.

I know no one will read it. I am a low-ranking researcher here, and my thoughts carry no value in the official documentation. Still, I feel the need to record what I am seeing.

The fact that His Majesty the Demon King himself approved this research should be reassuring.

That alone should make me feel proud to be involved.

Instead, it frightens me.

The results we are producing here… I do not think they are what anyone expected.

Rumors circulate among the staff.

Whispers between departments.

They say that there have been successful subjects.

Not here.

Below.

Apparently some of the experiments worked, and those subjects were transferred to the lower level facility. I do not know the details. Scientists of my rank are not given clearance to access the deeper floors.

But the fact that there is another floor below us is worrying enough.

We were already told to prepare for expansion.

Another level of containment.

Another level of experimentation.

I cannot imagine what they are doing down there if this floor is considered the early stage trials.

What we do here is already horrifying.

The screaming.

The transformations.

The failures.

And yet the higher officials say this is only the beginning.

I hear the situation in Daemina is worsening. No one tells us the full truth, but something is clearly going wrong outside these walls.

Perhaps that is why this project exists at all. 

Desperation.

Anything that can be useful for our nations survival.

Still…

If what they are doing below is worse than this floor…

I do not want to see it.

The note ended there.

No signature.

Just a final line scratched into the bottom corner.

I wish I had never accepted this position.

Silence filled the room again.

Mira slowly looked up from the page.

“…Successful subjects.” she murmured.

“Yeah.”

She looked toward the door.

Then toward the ceiling.

“…On a lower floor.”

“The elevator.” I said quietly.

For a moment neither of us spoke.

The weight of the note settled over the room.

Whatever horrors had happened here…

They weren’t the worst ones.

Not according to this.

“If there are answers down there-”

“I don’t want to go down there.” I said immediately.

The words came out faster than I expected.

Even hearing them myself surprised me.

Mira blinked at me.

I looked back at the row of containers.

The restraints.

The shattered reports.

The shredded documents.

“If this is what they were doing up here.” I said slowly. “then whatever’s on the lower floor is worse.”

Mira held the note quietly.

“…Maybe.”

She glanced toward the direction of the elevator.

“But if we want to understand what happened here…”

Her voice softened.

“…we might have to go down.” 

I stared at her.

Then I pointed at her dramatically.

“Oh no.”

She tilted her head slightly.

“Oh no no no no no.”

I started pacing in a small circle, waving my one hand.

“I want you to really think about this, Mira.”

She watched me calmly.

“You vomited at the sight of that massacre earlier,” I continued, pointing toward the hallway like the memory itself lived there. “Remember that? The room full of dead scientists? The blood? The organs? The emotional breakdown?”

Her tail drooped slightly.

“Yes…”

“Which means,” I said, raising my finger, “that if we go down there, we will probably see more of that.”

I leaned closer to her.

“Possibly worse.”

I placed a hand over my heart dramatically.

“So please.”

A pause.

“Please tell me you are a reasonable girl.”

Silence.

Mira looked at me.

Then she said calmly,

“We should probably go down there.”

I froze.

For one second.

Two seconds.

Then-

“FUCK!!!”

My voice echoed loudly across the chamber.

I slapped my hand over my face.

“Why are you like this?!” 

Mira lifted both hands slightly, palms out, the universal gesture of please calm down before you explode.

“Eclipsara,” she said gently. “you are escalating the situation.”

“I am reacting appropriately!” I snapped.

“You are yelling in a secret underground laboratory filled with unknown creatures.”

“I am processing stress!”

“You are stress-processing very loudly.”

I started pacing again.

“This is what I’m talking about!” I said, pointing at her. “You just casually suggest we go to the mysterious lower horror floor like we’re deciding which bakery to visit!”

“There might not be a bakery.”

“That is not the point!”

I ran a hand through my hair.

“No, actually-this is worse. This is worse than the massacre room. Because at least the massacre room was honest.”

Mira blinked.

“Honest?”

“Yes. It clearly said: ‘Hello, welcome, everyone is dead.’”

I pointed dramatically toward the ceiling.

“But down there?” I continued. “Down there is where the successful experiments are!”

She nodded.

“Yes.”

I stared at her.

“You’re saying that like that’s a good thing!”

“They might be able to explain what happened.”

“They might also rip our organs out!”

She opened her mouth.

Closed it.

Opened it again.

“Well-”

“Exactly!”

I pointed triumphantly.

Then Mira gently grabbed my wrist.

“Eclipsara, breathe.”

“I am breathing!”

“You are hyperventilating.”

“I am strategically oxygenating!”

She exhaled slowly.

“Look. We don’t have to decide right now.”

I stopped pacing.

“…We don’t?”

“No. We can explore the rest of this floor first.”

I paused.

That… actually sounded reasonable.

“…Okay,” I admitted slowly. “That’s… a sane suggestion.”

Mira smiled faintly.

“There we go.”

I nodded.

“Yes. Good. Rational thinking. Wonderful development.”

Then-

From somewhere out in the hallway…

A distant sound echoed.

“Hehehehe…”

The laughter drifted through the vents.(moved slowly through the air.)

Thin.

Wrong.

Not normal.

And getting closer.

My entire body went still.

“…Oh.”

Mira’s tail twitched.

“…Was that-”

“Hehehehehe…”

Closer now.

Echoing through the metal corridors.

I slowly turned my head toward the door.

Then I looked back at Mira.

And groaned.

“Look at what you’ve done.”

Mira blinked in pure confusion.

“Huh?!”

I pointed at her accusingly.

“This is your fault.”

“My fault?!”

“You made me shout!”

She stared at me.

“You screamed a profanity at full volume!”

“That was an emotional reaction!”

“You are the one who escalated!”

“You are the one who said we should go to the horror basement!”

“Those things are not connected!”

“They are spiritually connected!”

“Hehehehehe…”

The laughter echoed again.

Much closer now.

Something scraped faintly along metal outside the room.(Scraped means something rough dragged across a surface making a scratching sound. The sentence means the creature outside was dragging part of its body or claws along the metal floor or wall.)

Mira’s tail stiffened.

“…We should probably be quiet now.”

I slowly reached down and picked up my axe.

“Yes.”

Another scrape.

A soft dragging sound across the hallway floor.

I leaned toward the door and whispered,

“If that thing opens this door…”

Mira whispered back,

“…what’s the plan?”

I stared at the door.

“…Panic.”

“…That’s not a plan.”

“It’s the foundation of one.” 

The laughter crept closer through the halls.

“Hehehehehe…”

Something scraped along the floor outside.

Slow.

Heavy.

Like weight being dragged.

Mira and I both slowly turned toward the door.

Another scrape.

Then-

BANG.

The entire metal door shook.

A deep dent appeared in the center of it.

My eyes widened.

“…Oh that thing is strong.”

Mira grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the center of the room.

“Hide.”

“Right. Yes. Hiding is good.”

We both moved quickly but quietly, crouching behind one of the massive circular containers. The thick metal frame and glass cylinder blocked most of our view of the door.

I pulled Mira down beside me.

We held our breath.

Then-

BANG.

The door bent inward further.

Metal screamed as the frame warped.

I leaned slightly to peek around the container.

“Okay,” I whispered. “that door is definitely not winning that fight.”

Mira’s tail drooped.

Outside, something hit the door again.

BANG.

The dent deepened.

Dust fell from the frame.

“…We should leave,” Mira whispered.

“Fantastic suggestion,” I whispered back. “I wish the room had an exit that wasn’t the one being punched.”

Mira glanced around nervously.

Her eyes moved across the wall beside the container.

Then she blinked.

“…Eclipsara.”

“What.”

“There’s a button.”

“What button?”

She pointed to a small metal panel mounted beside the container base.

I stared at it.“…That was not there five seconds ago.”

“Do I press it?”

Outside-

BANG.

The door bent inward further.

Metal shrieked under the strain.

“YES PRESS IT.”

Mira slapped the button.

With a soft mechanical click, the wall panel behind us suddenly split open.

A narrow hidden door slid aside.

Both of us froze for half a second.

“…Oh.”

“…Oh.”

BANG.

The main door nearly ripped off its hinges.(Hinges are the metal joints that attach a door to the frame so it can swing open and closed. The sentence means the creature hit the door so hard it almost tore the door off the frame)

“GO!”

We scrambled through the hidden doorway and slammed the panel shut behind us.

The door sealed with a quiet mechanical lock.

Silence filled the small passageway we had just entered.

We both stood there.

Breathing hard.

Listening.

The banging on the other side continued faintly, muffled by the hidden wall.

But whatever was out there…

It hadn’t followed us.

For a moment, neither of us spoke.

Then Mira looked at me.

I looked at Mira.

And suddenly-

We both started whisper-laughing.

Quiet at first.

Then harder.

Because the entire situation had been so ridiculous.

Mira covered her mouth to keep the sound down.

“You were blaming me,” she whispered through laughter.

“You did start it.” I whispered back.

“You shouted!”

“You said we should go to the horror basement!”

“And then you panicked!”

“You pressed the magic escape button!”

“You yelled first!”

We both tried to stop laughing.

Failed.

And ended up leaning against the wall trying to stay quiet while whisper-giggling like idiots who had just barely avoided getting eaten.

Eventually I wiped a tear from my eye.

“…Okay.”

I picked up my axe again.

“That was actually very funny. And don't worry, I won't do that again.”

Mira nodded, still smiling.

“…A little bit funny.”

From somewhere far behind the sealed wall…

A distant, muffled-

“Hehehehe…”

echoed faintly.

Our smiles faded slightly.

I exhaled slowly.

“…Alright.”

I gestured ahead into the dark passage.

“Let’s keep moving before it finds the other door.”

The hidden passage was narrow.

Dark.

The kind of corridor that clearly wasn’t meant for regular use. The lights were dimmer than the main facility, some flickering weakly overhead. The air smelled older too-like dust and metal that hadn’t been disturbed in a long time.

Mira and I moved quietly through it.

I kept my axe in my right hand, the weight familiar against my palm. The axe rested against my shoulder when I needed a break, and when I walked, I kept it angled forward just in case something jumped out of the dark.

Thankfully, nothing did.

After a few minutes, we reached another door at the end of the passage.

Mira carefully pushed it open.

Both of us leaned out slightly.

Silence.

No laughter.

No dragging sounds.

No monsters waiting outside.

We stepped through.

The hallway beyond was brighter than the passage, though still sterile and empty like the rest of the facility.

But this one was different.

Three doors lined the wall ahead.

One on the left.

One straight ahead.

One on the right.

I stopped in the middle of the hall and stared at them.

“…Well.”

Mira folded her arms.

“Decision time.”

I nodded seriously.

Then I lifted my axe and pointed at the doors one by one.

“Eenie… meenie… miney… mo…”

Mira slowly turned her head toward me.

I kept going.

“Catch a monster by the toe… if he screams then… uh… stab him… throw him… somewhere… bad monster go…”

I pointed again.

“Lefty… righty… spooky door… something something…”

Mira raised an eyebrow.

“…Really?”

“What?” I said defensively. “It’s a guessing method.”

“That is not how the rhyme goes.”

“How would you know? Maybe this is the advanced version.”

She stared at me.

I kept pointing the axe back and forth between the doors.

“Monster eats your liver… no that’s bad… um… scary hallway… stab the ghost…”

Internally, I sighed.

If Val was here he’d understand.

He’d probably play along.

Or he’d dramatically act like the doors were cursed.

Or-

My thoughts suddenly twisted in a direction I did not expect.

What if my shadow had spent time with him while I wasn’t there?

The thought appeared so suddenly it made my stomach twist.

My eldritch shadow.

It could split.

Couldn’t it?

What if it had divided itself into two pieces?

One shadow clinging tightly to Val, wrapping around his arms possessively, pressing against him like it owned him.

Changing its shape.

Taking form.

Holding him close to its body like he belonged to it.

While the other shadow-self sat somewhere nearby, trembling quietly while Val comforted it.

The second one crying in its own strange shadowy way…

Because the other version of itself was taking all of him.

All for itself.

My grip on the axe tightened.

My face went strangely hollow.

“They wouldn’t dare… would they…” I muttered quietly under my breath. "How should I punish them?"

Mira tilted her head slightly.

“…Did you say something?”

I blinked.

The thought vanished as quickly as it had come.

“…What?”

I frowned.

Why had I thought that?

And why had it been so… weirdly specific?

I shook my head.

Must’ve been nothing.

Yeah.

Definitely nothing.

I cleared my throat and raised the axe again with dramatic confidence.

The tip landed on one of the doors.

The right door.

I turned proudly to Mira and gestured toward it like a grand reveal.

“Alright! Behold!!”

I looked at Mira with a smug smile.

“The scientifically selected door.”

She looked at the door.

Then back at me.

“…I am deeply concerned about our decision-making process.”

I grinned.

“Too late.”

I grabbed the handle.

“Right door it is.”

I slowly pushed the door open.

It slid aside with a quiet mechanical hiss.(A mechanical hiss is a soft sound made by machines using air or pressure when something opens.)

Mira and I stepped inside.

And immediately stopped.

The room was enormous.

Rows of cylindrical containment tanks filled the space-twenty of them at least-lined up in two long rows along the walls. Each one was filled with a dark, murky liquid that distorted the shapes inside.(Murky means dark and cloudy so you cannot see clearly through it. The tanks are filled with dirty or dark liquid that hides the creatures inside.)

Shapes that very clearly were not human or anything else.

My eyes slowly widened.

Inside the tanks were creatures.

Black.

Pitch black.

Their skin-or whatever it was-looked slick and unnatural(Slick means smooth and wet-looking, like something covered in oil or slime. The sentence means their skin looked shiny and slippery in an unnatural way.), stretched too tightly over jagged bones(Jagged means sharp and uneven. The sentence means their skin is pulled tight over bones that stick out in rough, unnatural shapes.). Some of them had mouths that split far wider than a normal face should allow, rows of long needle-like teeth pressing against the glass like broken knives.(Needle-like teeth means very thin, long, and sharp teeth like needles. The sentence means their mouths are full of extremely sharp teeth designed for tearing.)

One creature had four arms.

Another had an extra set of legs folded unnaturally beneath its torso like a spider trying to imitate a human shape.(The torso is the main body-chest, stomach, and back-not including the head or limbs. The sentence means the creature’s extra legs are bent strangely under its main body like a spider.)

One of them had a head that bent backward at a sickening angle, its jaw hanging open so wide it looked permanently dislocated.(Dislocated means a bone moved out of its normal joint position. The sentence means its jaw is stretched open so far it looks like the joint is broken or out of place.)

Even suspended in liquid, they looked wrong.

Like bodies that had been forced into shapes they were never meant to hold.

Some twitched slightly.

Some floated limp.

One creature’s fingers dragged slowly along the inside of the glass, long claws scratching faintly against it in tiny, slow movements.

My mouth opened slightly.

“…fuck.”

I mouthed the word silently.

Very slowly.

Then I turned my head to look behind me at Mira.

She had both eyes squeezed shut.

Her lips were pressed tightly together.

Her cheeks were puffed slightly.

And she was smiling in that very specific way people do when they are desperately trying not to laugh.

I stared at her.

“…Mira.”

Her shoulders shook slightly.

“Mira.”

She bit her lip.

I squinted at her.

“…Why are you trying not to laugh?”

She covered her mouth.

Her shoulders shook again.

“That is disrespectful as heck, Mira.”

That made it worse.

She turned slightly away from me, trying to contain it.

But I already knew.

The moment I saw that face, I knew exactly why she was doing it.

Because ten seconds ago I had been standing outside that door acting like I had just made the most brilliant, scientifically sound decision in history.

Behold! The scientifically selected door.

I slowly turned my head back toward the room.

Toward the twenty nightmare creatures floating in glass tanks.

Then back to Mira.

“…You’re laughing because of the door thing.”

She nodded while still trying not to laugh.

I pointed at the monsters.

“Look at them! There are twenty nightmare monsters in jars behind me!”

She nodded again.

Still shaking.

“I would appreciate a little emotional support right now.”

That only made it worse.

Her shoulders shook harder.

I sighed.

“…Fantastic.”

She wheezed quietly behind her hand.

“You said it was the scientifically selected door.” she whispered.

“That was sarcasm!”

“You said it with confidence.”

“I was committing to the bit!”

She finally lost the battle and let out a quiet snort of laughter.

I gestured wildly at the tanks with my axe.

“Yes, Mira, this is very funny.”

A creature inside one of the containers slowly opened its mouth wider, rows of jagged teeth scraping softly against the glass.

I looked at it.

Then back at Mira.

“…Next time you pick the door.”

1