Chapter Text
It happened so fast, Elika wasn’t even sure if it had truly happened.
She had joined Folir in search for the keycard needed to continue within the side room, with Yan standing guard outside in case something happened. The flickering of the lights was ignored, after all the place was abandoned, of course the lights were going to be faulty.
Then she heard the screaming.
It was inhumane, hell, not even resembling any animal she had ever heard, but in the distance. At first, she thought she had imagined it, paranoia getting to her. But then it steadily got louder.
Before she knew it, the sound reached a peak, the room starting to shake. She could faintly hear Yan scream, but it was cut off quickly. Then the sound dissipated, leaving the two shaken.
Her heart seemed to stop when she exited the room, only to find Yan dead on the floor.
Folir was quick to deduce that whatever had just passed through had killed Yan, and suggested the idea of hiding in one of the various lockers scattered about the facility when the thing started to come. It was a flawed plan, as they didn’t even know if the thing would always come screaming, but it was all they had for now.
A few rooms later, the creature rushed past again, both of them finding themselves safe with the iron lockers. While Elika couldn’t see much of it, she was able to catch a glimpse of eyes and fangs, enough to keep her on her toes.
The third time it came, something happened, something very unfortunate.
“I hear the thing coming, get a locker.” Folir instructed, turning to his own locker.
Before Elika could even take another step, there was the sound of clanging, and a surprised yelp from her companion.
She didn’t get to see what took him, only a flash of purple and black pulling him into the locker.
Her feet disobeyed her mind, and she ran to free him. Clawing open the doors, the inky void thing let go of Folir without much struggle. He was slightly battered, but overall in good condition. As he loosely fell into her arms, everything seemed to become irrelevant. For a moment, it was just the two of them. The world paused.
Then, without warning, the screeching had become ever so loud.
She barely got the chance to turn her head to face the beast before everything went black.
~
Her mind was blurry, there was something in front of her. Three glowing eyes, with some sort of lightbulb. It was talking to her, and while she didn’t directly understand the words, the meaning seemed to become imprinted in her mind.
According to the thing in front of her, everytime she died, this was where she would end up.
Her mind was still trying to comprehend the implications of the statement when a file was slid across the desk (Since when was there a desk?) to her.
Most of its contents were blacked out, but there was enough information for her to use, including the name of the beast that had killed her.
Z-283, The Angler.
Everything else went by in a blur, before her consciousness faded again.
~
“Hey, wake up.”
The voice sounded familiar. Elika’s heart fluttered, maybe everything had just been a horrid dream. She was never accused of a horrible crime. She was never brought to an underwater hell.
She never died.
“We’re gonna get there at any minute, better get ready.”
Her heart shattered when she opened her eyes.
Folir was standing in front of her, and they were both in that terrible submarine. Yan was nowhere to be seen, it was just the two of them.
Tears quickly started streaming down her face, the horrible realization that her torture had only just begun dawning upon her.
~
Folir had died, he couldn’t get to a locker, and Elika had no choice but to continue. She hadn’t even gotten the chance to ask if he had gone through the same thing as her. Instead, he had rushed ahead, not bothering to talk at all outside of the “conversation” in the submarine.
It felt so lonely, wandering the facility. The hair on her neck stood up each time the lights flickered, and even when she had gotten into the safety of a locker, her heartbeat only seemed to speed up.
The room she had entered was entirely dark, a giant window showing her a view to the ocean.
Before she could take another step forward, something swam in front of the glass. She looked upon the creature. It was difficult to see its shape, with the darkness of the water, but she could make something out.
Several green eyes, glowing brightly, illuminating the room.
A pressure built in her head the longer she stared at it, yet, Elika only became calmer.
It would bring her home to her family.
It would take her away from this hell.
It brought salvation.
~
“Back so soon?”
She didn’t even realize that she had died, it was so peaceful. Yet, when she read what little of the file she could, her mind turned to disgust. So easily tricked, so easily convinced, no, manipulated into throwing her life away.
“Why didn’t you just look away?” The voice snarked as it took away the file.
She wanted to scream at it, to tell it that she wasn’t at fault, but could only give a scowl as she blacked out.
Another creature to look out for. Z-317, Eyefestation.
~
This time, she was alone from the start.
The loneliness permeated with each step taken, the sound echoing endlessly. She wasn’t exactly paying much attention to what was happening, only looking out for the lights flickering and anything inside the lockers.
She had also found something else, lurking in the dark rooms. Various squid-like creatures, whose faces varied. She had made the mistake of getting too close to one for too long, and it lunged at her.
Even with that small scare, Elika continued on.
The ambient sounds of the facility were tuned out, she could only hear to her own footsteps and heartbeat.
She didn’t hear the faint squelching sound from the previous room.
The door ahead required a keycard, so she quickly got to searching. The room was split into two floors, with a few staircases in each corner. After descending down one of them, she checked the drawers for any research, only managing to find a few files.
She didn’t hear the footsteps behind her.
There was a door to the side, which seemed to lead to another section of the lower floor. With no keycard to be found in this section, she headed through the hall.
She wasn’t even aware of the creature behind her until she got kicked in the ankle, immediately knocking her over.
There was barely any time for her to fully turn around before a white, armless humanoid bit into her neck.
~
“A shame to see it end like this.”
As she looked over the contents of the folder, a sense of horror slowly washed over her.
Those things, called Wall Dwellers, would hide on the walls, waiting for someone to pass by. Once somebody did, it would detach itself, and sneak up on its prey and then go for the kill.
She would have to constantly listen out for footsteps.
“Wasn’t expecting that one, huh?”
~
The next few runs were spent in paranoia, constantly turning back at the slightest of sounds. The lack of anyone accompanying her didn’t help in the slightest.
Most of the time, there was nothing there. However, there was one exception.
It was a dark room, oddly silent. Elika took a moment to search the nearby drawers, when something made her heart stop.
There was some sort of fleshy sound, then, footsteps. Squishy, wet, heavy footsteps.
She rushed to the door, desperately banging at it in hopes that it would open faster. As she rushed through, she took a small moment to look behind her, to which there was a gurgling sound.
Once she stopped, Elika turned around properly. There were a few moments where she was able to see a humanoid figure running off, quickly disappearing into the darkness.
She stayed in that room for a while, paralyzed by the shock.
~
Just a while later, Elika had made it to door 45, the furthest she had ever made it. Just as she was about to go through, the lights flickered.
She decided to just bite the bullet and head into the next room, after all, it would likely take less time to find a locker in there than turning around and risking running directly into the beast.
Luck was on her side, as there was a locker just to her right, which she immediately jumped into.
It should’ve been fine. She’d done it hundreds of times. Why was her heart beating so fast?
In the distance, she heard a horrid sound, nothing like the sound of the Angler she had become so familiar with.
Her heart only kept beating faster, she felt so trapped, she had to get out.
In a panic, she jumped out, only to hear the sound of chains rattling growing closer.
Desperately, she turned back to the locker, trying to force herself to open the door and jump in. Yet, no matter how much she tried to go in, her feet stayed in place. Her heart was pounding, she couldn’t go back in, she couldn’t go back in, she couldn’t go back in-
The monster was only coming closer, yet her mind felt like it was actively fighting against itself.
Get in! I can’t. I’ll die if I don’t. It’s too cramped. Why am I so scared of this? Because it’s dangerous.
Despite her mind screaming at her, she forced herself into the metal coffin locker.
There were a few moments where she was able to see a green shape passing by, which left behind a thick, green smoke.
As soon as she was sure the beast had passed, she leaped out of the locker. She hadn’t even noticed that she was hyperventilating until she started to slow her breathing. Had she really been so terrified by the prospect of hiding in the locker? Was that creature behind her unreasonable panic?
There wasn’t time to ponder, she’d figure it out later, she had to continue on.
~
Only a few rooms later, she witnesses a vent to the side being flung open. The sight was followed by a familiar voice calling out to her.
“Running low on supplies?”
With hesitation, Elika crawled through the vent and into the side room.
At first, it was completely dark. It didn’t last long, however, as something quickly illuminated the room.
In front of her was some sort of aquatic creature, somewhat of a mishmash of a bunch of different species. Its upper body was humanoid, the fish and human features clashing with each other. Blue scales with four-fingered hands, tipped with claws. It had three eyes, two on the right side, which were pure teal. As if to match the asymmetrical nature of its body, it had a smaller, left arm. It had wavy, black hair, to which an angler’s lure, seemingly the light source of the room, was nestled between.
Instead of legs, it had a large tail, which stretched out to the other wall. In general, she was surprised that it could even fit in this relatively small room, as even without the massive tail, it was still pretty large. Attached to its tail were several belts, which held various supplies.
“Welcome, welcome!” It, no, that couldn’t be right, he said. “Don’t be afraid, I’m not going to hurt you, despite what you have seen, heard, and/or been told.”
She watched on in awe, so many questions running through her mind.
“My name is Sebastian, your only friend…~”
He explained that he would be willing to trade some useful items, such as light sources or medical supplies, in exchange for the data and loose assets she would find around the facility. Along with that, he would keep the keycard to the next room in his makeshift shop.
It seemed fair, it’s not like she would even get to keep the data.
So why did she feel so horrible? Was it because it reinforced how alone she was? Would this creature, something that only partly resembled a human, forever be her only comfort?
Her mind started to spiral. What had happened to Folir and Yan? Were they going through the same hell she was? She had only seen the former during one other journey, and even then, she had barely got to talk to him.
She tried to hold back the tears she didn’t even know were forming, before Sebastian brought her out of her thoughts.
“Helloooo? Are you there?” He asked, a mix of annoyance and genuine confusion in his voice.
Elika quickly snapped out of her stupor. “Yeah, sorry.”
For the next few minutes, she surveyed the selection of items, trying to push down her conflicted feelings. Eventually, she ended up buying a flashlight and a few batteries.
Sebastian watched on, wearing a smile that she couldn’t understand.
As she left the room through the vent, keycard in hand, he called out to her.
“Try not to die, yeah?”
Her heart ached for a moment. Could she really trust him? If so, couldn’t she just stay there forever? She could assume that other people with the same mission would pass by, was there a chance that Folir or Yan would pass by?
Despite what her mind and heart were saying, her feet moved forward. Her hands slid the card through the reader. She continued further into the facility, knowing fully well that she was likely to die.
She had to. She was going home, no matter how much of herself she would lose.
