The Escape
I had run so hard I had completely lost my breath. “Damn it— leave me alone!” I yelled, gasping for air.
I practically threw myself over the yellow line that marked the safe floor. When I hit the ground, I lay there like a corpse for a while. Then I turned my head. The dark, damp corridor that reeked of blood was empty.
I had escaped the killer.
This time…
Yes, I’m talking to myself. I’ve gone insane. This place, this stupid place, drove me insane. I guess I should start from the beginning. At least from the part I can remember…
I opened my eyes in an abandoned building, surrounded by a group of anxious people who remembered nothing. Just like me. At first, we were many. Maybe a hundred? I’m not sure, but definitely not a small number.
We were trapped between moss-covered stone walls, something like a dungeon, probably the basement. Then an old, crackling speaker started talking to us. Let me try to remember.
“Welcome to the Escape, everyone! I appreciate your excitement and your patience! First, let me explain the Escape. It’s a rather cliché, oops, ‘simple’ horror action game. You are inside a five-story building. The security level of each floor corresponds to its number. The floor you are currently on is Floor 0, the safest zone. Yes, you heard that right. The Hunter you must avoid cannot access this floor! Survive, find the exit, and win! Good luck!”
After the idiot speaker gave its orders, half of the group didn’t take it seriously. But I was a coward. So I hid like a mole and never left Floor 0, the only completely safe place.
None of us ever saw the first half of the group again. But we listened to their screams for days.
We formed teams. I’m part of one of them. We marked Floor 0 as our base. We searched for the exit together and returned to Floor 0 at night to rest and sleep.
So far, here’s what we know:
This damn building is completely underground. There are no windows. We survive on potatoes and canned tuna left on Floor 0 so we don’t starve to death. The water tastes horrible. Wait… I need to mention something important.
So far, we’ve only explored Floors 1 and 2. While doing that, 6 people out of my original 11-member team died. There is a killer in the building. The speaker called it the Hunter, so that’s what we call it. No one has ever seen it and lived long enough to tell.
Except me.
Today was my patrol day. And it was the day we opened the damn third floor. I mean… I hope I was luckier in the part of my life I don’t remember. Though, considering I’m here, probably not.
I saw him.
The Hunter.
Let me start from the beginning.
I had stepped onto the third floor. My first impression, it was disgusting. By far the worst-smelling floor. Under the flickering weak lights, I first saw the wall.
Red. Wet.
All the walls were covered in blood. And piles of corpses everywhere.
If my stomach hadn’t been empty, I would have thrown up. Instead, I forced myself to keep walking. Clearly, the third floor was the Hunter’s graveyard. Seeing a few familiar faces, I had to fight the urge to cry.
I had to stay quiet.
I didn’t get far. I guess my only luck is that my eyes are sharp. Because I saw him from meters away. Next to the corpses. He was crouching. Chewing something.
I’m a coward, yes. But I don’t get terrified easily.
But I swear…
The kind of fear I felt…
I couldn’t move for a moment. My breath stopped.
He was at least two meters tall. Huge. His eyes were pitch black, sharp. His black hair fell messily over his forehead. He wore black pants, and his upper body was completely bare, muscular, covered in dark tattoos. His skin was pale.
A long scar ran from under his eye down his neck. Another cut stretched from the corner of his lip upward, like a Joker smile. Blood dripped from his lips.
If he didn’t look so insane… I would have said he was handsome.
Blood dripped from the knife in his hand. When he saw me from a distance, he stood up. Swallowed the piece of flesh in his mouth. Then slowly lowered his chin. His pitch-black, demonic eyes locked onto my weak body.
And he smiled.
The kind of smile that sends boiling water down your spine.
When he started running at me like a madman, I screamed. I ran in terror. Even as I ran out of breath, even as I cried—I ran.
He was chasing me, laughing like a lunatic.
If he wanted, he could have caught me already. He was at least two meters tall. But he was playing with me. He knew I would never make it to Floor 0.
When we reached Floor 1, he must have gotten bored.
He closed the distance.
I didn’t look back. I was about to give up when I saw Evan. One of my teammates.
“RUN!”
I screamed at the top of my lungs. He hadn’t seen the Hunter. The lights in the corridor had completely gone out.
“B-behind me! R-run!” I shouted.
But he ran toward me instead.
I didn’t stop.
By the time he was behind me, he had finally seen the Hunter.
But he froze.
Didn’t move.
“EVAN, MOVE!” I screamed while running.
Too late.
The Hunter snapped his neck in a second.
Lifted him up and threw his body. It landed right at my feet. Horror hit me all over again.
He had thrown my 90-kilogram friend like a plastic toy.
That’s when I saw the line of Floor 0.
And you know the rest…
I jumped over the line. That’s how I survived.
But now that I’m retelling it…
I remember something.
When I looked at that corridor after collapsing… I thought he was gone.
But no.
He was there.
His shadow.
In the darkness.
He stood there for a while.
Watching me.
Like a predator locking onto its prey.
Those black eyes burned every part of me into memory. Then he turned and disappeared.
I had seen the Hunter.
And survived.
As the only player who had seen him and lived to tell it,
I could say this now.
Winning this game was impossible.
Impossible.
