Chapter Text
The lab fills my nose with chemical fumes, and a cheerful cadence I know anywhere interrupts my classmates' chatter. It is the voice that’s been following me around since middle school.
“Look at this, Jongseob-ah!” Shota says, bursting through the door of our college lab.
He quickly slips into the open seat next to me, while my focus remains on my beaker, pouring in some sodium phosphate. I can feel his eyes burning holes into the side of my head.
“Jongseob, look what I found while I was visiting home!”
“Hold on, I’m working on my dissertation.” I mutter under my breath, deeply focusing on getting the measurements just right.
His foot is tapping on the wood of the lab table, clearly wanting my attention now. I try to ignore it while turning on a bunsen burner close by. The chatter of the other students in the lab helps me drown out his fidgeting. Outside of my peripheral vision, I see him holding a rock about the size of a bottle cap. He moves his hand closer to my face, trying to get me to look at it.
“Cool.” I state.
My attention only flickers to it for a moment. I note the red plant life speckled across its small surface. A dissatisfied hum leaves Shota’s mouth, and before I could even ask him to calm down for a second-ba-dump! The small rock sinks to the bottom of my beaker, and the red spots fizzle in the solution, turning it a light pink. I slowly turn to look at him and see the mischievous smile on his face. His smile causes his eyes to turn into little brown half-moons. I take a deep breath to steady myself before speaking.
“Shota, you can’t just-!” The sound of shattering glass to my right, cuts my words short.
We both snap our necks to the source of the sound and we see ‘it’. The students near the window are scattering away screaming from an enormous monster, so tall its body has to hunch over to avoid pressing against the ceiling. Its pale, ghostly blue eyes are almost pulled back by its large, pointed ears. Its skin stretches over a vaguely human-like face. As the creature lets out a low hiss, its lower jaw seems to detach. The two halves of its jaw pull apart, connected only by a shimmering, translucent membrane that stretches like wet silk. The creature's massive, upward-curving tusks move outward, transforming its mouth into a wide, serrated tunnel.
The air around my head seems to vibrate. A high-frequency thrum punches through my skull. Whatever sound it lets out makes my vision flicker into gray-scaled static. A cold pressure pushes forward in my head, and I bring my hands to my temples. A primal instinct screams "run" as every hair on my body rises. Before I even have the chance, Shota pushes me to the floor as the monster lunges. I look up to see him using one of the lab chairs as a shield, then the monster forces him to the floor.
Lab equipment cords tangle on the chair's leg, and when Shota is tackled, my beaker and bunsen burner fall to the floor close to him. The monster's elongated pointer finger scratches Shota’s arm. He reaches for the, still on, bunsen burner and shoves it into the creature's mouth. It immediately pulls away, making a whimpering sound. Just as quickly as the monster had appeared, it dashes away with unnatural speed through the broken window. I hurry over to Shota as the last of the other students rush out of the room.
“Holy shit! Are you alright?”
“No, my arm feels like it's on fire!” he says while gripping his right sweater sleeve.
His eyes are squeezing shut in pain, while I coax his hand away from the wound. Blood and the solution from my project soak the area. I look around frantically for a moment before grabbing him by his okay arm and quickly leading him to the sink to rinse the area. I turn the faucet to cold and pull his sleeve up carefully, then move his forearm under the running water. It hisses as it hits his skin.
“What the hell was that thing?” I whisper mainly to myself.
“Jongseob, are you okay? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“No, I’m fine, but I think you’re going to need stitches.” I say while looking more intently at the scratch.
I shift closer to him and feel his body heat even from several inches away. It isn’t just a scratch, but a large gash covering almost the entire length of his forearm. I watch the water run over it, but something’s wrong. Steam curls off his skin. I turned on the cold water, right? My gaze flips up to the tap, and the handle cranked all the way to the right. My stomach curls in on itself similarly. It's not the water that’s hot. It's him. I turn to face Shota, who is staring intensely at me.
“What’s wrong?” Tilting his head, he still speaks in a warm and gentle voice. But the warmth of his left eye is gone. In its place is that same ghostly blue. The colour that doesn’t belong to the living, like moonlight through a frosty glass window.
I take a step back as that same urge to “run” washes over me. Again I look at his arm and see the wound has closed up. Just as I’m about to point it out, more screaming breaks through the tense moment. Through the windows in the door to the lab, I can see people running past while turning their heads. A girl in the group trips outside the door, and another monster pins her down with its feet on her arms. I heard snapping, then screams from her. The creature leans down and brings its almost human-like hands to her cheek, its needle-like digit pushing into the flesh. A brown blur pushes past me. Before I can say his name, Shota rams the door with his shoulder. The door’s hinges give out as the momentum carries it into the creature's side, the force throwing the monster into the adjacent room to the lab.
“Come on!” He crouches down to grab the girl and pulls one of her mangled arms around the back of his neck, pulling her to her feet. She mumbles a thank you as I run over to the two. The sound of furniture being thrown around brings back the urgency of the situation we are in.
“The others went this way!” I say while taking the lead in front of Shota and the girl.
They are running behind me silently, except for the sound of her panicked breathing. I don’t turn around when the footsteps and clicking sound of something chasing us reach my ears. I already know in my core what it is. Rounding a corner, ducking into the nearest classroom, only then do I turn around at the door just as Shota and the girl enter. I shut the door behind us just enough to obscure us from view. My heart’s thumping in my head as the monster kept running down the hall past us. Once I can no longer hear it, I look over at the two. The girl hanging her head, she must be unconscious.
“Lay her down.” I move to help Shota get her onto her back.
“Her arms are completely crushed…” Shota’s voice is shaky as he reaches a hand out to wipe the sweat from her brow.
“Shota, don’t!” Snapping, I grip his wrist.
I point to the mark on her face, blood running down her right cheek, just where the monster had pierced her skin. Her face was draining of colour as my heart was hammering in my chest. The ticking of the clock is the only thing I hear. The rise and fall of her chest nearly stops while I watch her arms spasm. There is a sound like wet gravel grinding against itself, the bones knitting back into alignment.
“What the hell?”
Just as everything seems to calm down, her skin starts to stretch around her growing bones. It bubbles and swells, and all I and Shota can do is watch in horror.