Short story:
His high-pitched throaty cackle was the only thing that rang solid in my head. It sounded almost painful.
Everything about that afternoon felt hazy and dream-like. The way we moved, the way we talked, even the way I breathed; slow and steady, felt like my brain was still trying to process everything after a long nap. Not being able to tell what’s real and what’s not.
Then, that throaty laugh was cut off by an ear-splitting beeping noise jutting towards us from the long, narrow hallway outside the little room we’d locked ourselves in. That had clearly startled everyone, because after a short, still pause everyone broke into laughter. There were five of us, sliding to the floor pressed up against the wall, getting teary-eyed from laughing though nobody knew exactly what at.
Suddenly, the lights went out. And just like everything else, it took me a moment to realize that I couldn’t see anything anymore. Still, the laughter clouded the cramped space and I felt myself almost involuntarily reach my arms out to feel around me.
Then my eyes caught onto a line of steamy, neon green light and it slowly registered that it was light seeping from the hallway. In a voice I hardly recognized as mine, I yelled “Outside! Lights are outside!” through the laughter.
There was a muffled click before we poured out the narrow door.
Fresh air cooled my skin, for at this point I hadn’t even realized that I was baking I there. At the end of the stretched hallway, I noticed a fog like matter slithering through the gaping exit door, and it didn’t take long before the air was hacked by coughs and raspy breaths. The smell, it was unlike anything I’d ever smelled; like a mixture of heat and a sharp tinge of ethanol. I coughed and gasped till I fell to my knees, eyes blurry with tears.
Just as I did, I was struck by a sudden alarmed movement around me. I looked to see everyone sprinting madly through the hall on the left. Instinctively, I tried to get up and follow them, but was brought back down by another violent coughing fit. Alone, I sat still for a while with tears now streaming down my cheeks, trying to steady my quivering breath.
I then spotted a movement ahead of me, down the exit hallway.
Almost like a zap through me body, the dooming feeling of making a run for it got me to my feet and I found myself running down the same left hall, wavering and colliding with the wall multiple times as I went on.
Everything now seemed to fade in and out, blending with the smoke. The only thing that stayed piercing was the fuzzy, neon green lights.
Without warning, my foot slipped and all I could feel was the dull pain that seemed to pulse through every muscle in my body. There was an uncomfortable warmth of wetness that seeped through my clothes, pasting the fabric to my skin. I laboriously sat up and looked down at my palms. They were covered by a shiny layer of black liquid, further down I could see it patching on my once pastel green skirt that looked a sharp white in the light. The black liquid on the floor stretched forward down the hall in thick streaks until it was obscured in the smog.
All my senses started to feel numbed and what remained was my hazy sight. I felt my chest contract painfully and convulsively, barely recognizing that I was having yet another coughing fit. Desperately, I crawled forward, my insides intoxicated with the urge to get away from the place for I suddenly had the feeling of being followed. Chased by something.
I turned a corner, but it was yet another long, green hallway, air thick with smock. My mouth wide open. I was yelling, crying but I couldn’t hear the sound of my shrieking, nor the stream of hot tears down my face. All I could feel was the looming approach of something close behind me. Something brimming with blood lust. The fear had me shivering with hysteria, I could no longer bear it. I shot up and sprinted down the hallway, my feet thudding on the floor till my shoes flew off, leaving them raw and throbbing.
All of a sudden I felt my body plough into something stiff right ahead, but it opened outward and I fell on cold, hard ground. A chilly breeze pattered my drenched face and soothed my sweaty scalp. My senses slowly lit back up, and accompanying a pang of pain all over was the sound of cars up ahead. I looked up. Vehicles thrashed through the puddles on the asphalt on the highway right in front of me. The warm-wet feeling on my clothes had now turned icy cold and I felt myself shivering on the open, wet ground.
All around me, everything happened steadily and calmly and I realized that the afternoon outside was just as I had left it when I’d walked into the Dual Delirium building.
