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The husk of what used to be a man screamed and thrashed as she entered the white-tiled room. Its skin was a sickly pale brown, dark brown eyes blown wide, and the skin by its cheeks torn and bloody.
Ashlyn’s mind brought her back to the room full of these things in test tubes. A patient, she thought. But why is it here?
She’d been reading up on the ASL book she’d requested. Ashlyn decided she might as well, given all the free time she now had. She’d soon be able to communicate with Ben, instead of having to rely on a phone or Aiden as a translator.
That’s when Alex came in and put a strange device over her head. He’d said the facility was trying something new today, the device was there to read her brain waves. More men came in and cuffed her, taking her through the bland facility and now, here.
“Alright, Ms. Banner,” A deep voice said from behind the glass wall. Ashlyn turned and was met with a lab, scientists and staff were working while another man spoke to her. “We want you to try and interact with the infected. Talk to it. Try to touch it. It can’t harm you with the restraints.”
Ashlyn’s gut twisted at the thought of even touching the thing. There was no way they expected her to try that.
“We’ll be keeping an eye on your brainwaves during the process to try and see why the fungus has been affecting you differently.”
“You want me to touch it?” Ash asked incredulously. It– he– the phantom? It jerked in its chains as if daring her to come any closer. Ash flinched, glaring at it before fixing her eyes back on the man behind the glass.
“Why don’t one of you touch it first, since you’re so confident in the restraints?” Her gaze hardened. “Or is there a reason you’re choosing to stay behind that window?”
The man glared back at her, opening his mouth to respond before the door behind him burst open.
Alex, Ashlyn thought in surprise. What’s he doing here?
“What the hell is going on!” Alex boomed. “Why is she in there?”
The man fixed a tired look at him. “You do not have clearance to be in here, Mr. Laurier. Go tend to the other kids.”
Another man with a buzz cut grabbed Alex forcefully as Alex berated the stranger who expected Ashlyn to follow his orders. “This is unethical! She’s just a kid, why are you putting her in such a dangerous position?”
“We do not need to explain ourselves to you. You are acting out of line.” He nodded at the bodyguard manhandling Alex. “Escort him out.”
Alex shoved him away, glaring. “I can escort myself.”
The man sighed, shaking his head and turning to face Ashlyn. “Ms. Banner–”
“And what if I refuse?” Ashlyn interrupted.
He stared at her blankly, crossing his arms smugly. “Then I suppose we’ll have to see if someone else in your little group would be more willing.”
Ashlyn gritted her teeth, she was sure she’d popped a blood vessel at this point. Fuck, she cursed. Her mind immediately went to Aiden, surprising herself. He could take care of himself, but he was reckless. He might just touch the phantom for fun.
And what about Logan? And Taylor? She wasn’t too worried about Ben, he would be fine, but it was still dangerous without a weapon. And Tyler was still injured, even without the wound to prove it. He could still feel the gaping hole in the other dimension.
No. She wouldn’t make them do this in her place because she was too stubborn. They had her cornered.
Ashlyn didn’t do anything for a moment, but she clenched her fists tightly before exhaling a deep breath. She stepped forward, and the phantom screamed and croaked. Its matted black hair was plastered to its forehead with sweat, but it didn’t seem to care.
She stopped just a few feet away from it. Its body was quivering, likely with the desire to rip her to shreds with its teeth.
So they want me to speak with it? Touch it? Ash doubted it would talk back, but that’s what they wanted.
“Hi.” She deadpanned.
The phantom lunged at her, snapping its teeth. The shackles shivered in retaliation. There’s no way those things are strong enough to hold it, she thought.
“I’m not touching it!” Ash spun around, eyeing the man. “This is stupid.”
The man stared her in the eyes, not looking away as he said something to the staff in the chair beside him. Ash’s eyes dodged between him and another man with side-swept black hair as they conversed, too quiet for the mics to amplify.
But there was one thing she could pick up before it happened.
“If she dies, there’s still five others.”
Ash stopped breathing for a second, whipping around just as the shackles clicked and released the phantom. It sprinted, closing the few feet between them with ease, and swung at her.
She dodged to the side, dropping to the ground and kicking the feet from under it. Ash knelt up, “What the hell are you doing?!”
Her eyes caught a familiar face, the girl from the Sorrel Weed House.
It’s her.
‘Ah…I’m so sorry! This is my emergency phone. I have to take this.’
The innocent, sweet face that had offered them a tour of that retched haunted house so kindly. As soon as she left, the first phantom appeared. The moment this whole mess started.
What is she doing here? Why is she with them?
But it wasn’t hard to figure it out. This lady had deceived them. Without her, they would’ve never been thrown into that demonic dimension. They wouldn’t have to be teenagers fighting for their right to live every night. Kids. They were just kids.
From the beginning… elongated claws pierced her face, shoving her down…They meant for this to happen?
Her back slammed into the ground, giant hands covering her face as the phantom towered over her body. It pushed down, down, down.
Ashlyn shoved the claws away, her skin breaking as its nails ripped around her face. All of it?
The phantom noises grew louder, like a chorus reaching its climax, a giant crescendo of screeches. It was as if a whole army of phantoms stood inside the room when there was only two one.
All of it. All of it. All of it.
She was sure Aiden would have been proud as she began to laugh uncontrollably, a toothy smile stretching across her face.
Tyler falling out of the jeep as a giant centipede phantom chased them. Having to find his body pierced through with a tree, his guts twisting around the wood like vines. Taylor’s blood-chilling sobs. Aiden’s bright, never-ceasing smile, tainted with blood as the roof caved in. His skull half crushed and his skin ripped open, blood forever staining his face.
It was all their fault.
The lights began to flicker, the bright, blinding white turned red. The room seemed to shake as the people behind the window began to panic. It felt like the whole building was shaking.
Ashlyn shoved the phantom away, its body suddenly feather light to her as she wrapped her legs around its neck and twisted. The bones broke with a sickening snap, the feeling of it breaking and shifting awkwardly beneath her thighs was satisfying for a split second.
“You have no idea what you’ve done,” she whispered, but she was sure they could all hear her. She could feel her vision tunneling, zeroing in on the rodents that caused all of this. “But you will.” Blood trickled down her face as she grinned.
The room quaked with energy, screams and howls echoing in the room. Phantoms flickered in and out of existence, but for once, they weren’t attacking her. She wasn’t their enemy. She was one of them.
The phantoms began running at the glass, bloody teeth snapping. But before they could lay one black fist on the window, the digital clock above the door in the lab struck twelve.
Ashlyn’s body immediately fell limp, the flickering stopped, and the phantoms were gone. The room was eerily quiet, the people who had stayed instead of running were all trembling with fear.
“Well,” The girl said, “That was interesting.”
—
Aiden woke up with a start.
The feeling was gone. His chest was still heaving, buzzing with activity. Something had happened. Something bad. But to who?
I need to get out of here, he thought.
Unfortunately, that didn’t happen for the next thirty minutes. No amount of banging on the door and trying to fit through the vents helped. But luckily, his dearest cousin and Tyler’s not-boyfriend came along. Oh! And also darling Taylor.
“Aiden, Ash?” Logan asked, creeping the door open.
Aiden barreled into them, squeezing them tightly before grabbing Logan by the shoulders. “What happened?”
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Taylor sighed. “We’ve tried all the rooms, but we can’t find Ashlyn.”
“What do you mean you can’t find Ashlyn,” Aiden’s eye twitched.
“We think they might’ve taken her to another room or one of the labs,” Ben signed.
“What about the half-wit?” Aiden asked, his brain buzzing again at the mention of a missing Ashlyn.
“We left Tyler in his room and locked the door, he’s too injured to move right now,” Logan answered.
“The rest of us were going to look for Ash and try some of the other rooms with the keycards Ben and I found,” Logan said. “I got mine from Alex earlier tonight when I asked–”
Aiden swiped one of the cards in his hands, giving him a quick thanks before running off. They shouted after him about how he was too injured to be moving and that he should stay with Tyler, blah, blah, blah.
Nah. He needed to find Ashlyn.
Something happened, they could all feel it. Just before it hit midnight, Aiden heard these strange noises. They were loud, high-pitched, and it hurt his eardrums. They just kept getting louder, and they didn’t stop until midnight hit.
Aiden turned through another corridor, gripping his knife when he saw a phantom. It turned, opening its mouth as if to scream, and charged toward him.
I’m going to find Ashlyn and figure out what the fuck is going on here. Aiden stabbed the phantom in its head, black liquid squirting everywhere. He smiled as he got up and cleaned his knife, picking another hallway and running again. And these dumb things aren’t going to stop me.
His vision suddenly began to sway, and he almost lost his footing as he turned another corner. Okay, but this head injury might.
—
Ashlyn didn’t know how long she’d sat there, staring at the mangled corpse beneath her. It looked like any other phantom now, but she knew what it was in the human dimension.
Just that. A human.
At least, it was at some point. Still could’ve been. She wouldn’t know.
As of right now, she couldn’t feel the repercussions of what she’d done. She could only feel the sliding of bones in its neck. Maybe this was shock. Yeah, that seemed about right.
I should find a way out of here, she thought vaguely. But her body didn’t move. The cold, tiled floor chilled her skin, traveling up, stealing the warmth from her body.
BANG!
The cracking of the things– mans– neck was still so vivid.
BANG! KICK!
Why had it been so easy? He’d felt weightless, like a feather. His neck twisted too far too quickly, too easily.
BOOM!
A muffled voice. Her name? Why did everything feel so slow, this wasn’t like her. Come on Ash, get up!
One last bang echoed throughout the hollow room, and then a quiet creak. “Ash?”
Aiden.
Slowly, Ashlyn tore her gaze away from the torn neck below her. Her eyes met red across the room and she expected relief to flood through her system, but the sound of the phantom's neck cracking became louder instead.
How easily Aiden’s neck could snap, just like that strangers did. How easily his life had been ended by falling debris. How easily she could’ve never heard that voice again.
A pricking sensation filled her eyes, hot tears combatted the cold of the room as they slipped down her cheeks. Aiden immediately jogged across the room, swaying to the side for a moment before reaching Ashlyn.
He fell to his knees beside her, looking down at the phantom beneath her. “Glad to know you already took care of this guy,” He said, poking its neck. “Really did a number on it, huh?” He smiled before realizing that Ash was crying.
For the first time in months, she was crying in front of him. And man, call Aiden weird or psychotic, but it was a pretty sight. Until his gut twisted at the fact that Ash was shaking. It unmistakably reminded him of the last night in his house, the night he had died.
I don’t like how much she’s shaking. The thought from that moment echoed in his mind.
“Hey,” He lowered his voice. “Come on, what’s going on?”
Carefully, he pried her hands from the phantom's neck. “Did you get hurt? Did you see something?”
“It's human,” Ash croaked, blinking her tears away. Her voice was weak like she hadn’t talked all day. “I mean, it was human.”
Aiden raised his eyebrow, rubbing circles into her hands unconsciously, and eyeing the phantom that was still very much not a human. “Uhm. Nope, still very…uh…phantom-y!”
“No,” Ash finally forced herself off of the corpse and closer to Aiden, looking like she was about to throw up. “They took me here, and there was a patient– the ones that look like the phantoms.”
“Oh,” Aiden said. “Wait, they put you into a room alone with this thing? Without a weapon?”
Ash nodded, explaining everything that happened. As soon as she got to the part about killing the phantom, er, human? Still confusing. She choked, before decidedly throwing up to the side.
Aiden held her hair back without a hint of disgust.
Wiping the last traces of vomit from her mouth, she asked where the others were. “They’re back in the dorm halls,” He explained, cringing when Ash asked why they weren’t here too. “Uh, well, I kind of just took off to find you? And when I did I tried real hard to burst that door open for a good five minutes until I realized I had that key card I swiped from Logan.”
Ash deadpanned him, squinting her eyes. Her whole face screamed are you serious?
Aiden laughed, tapping the side of his head. “To be fair, major head injury.”
Ashlyn seemed to realize that yes, his face was pretty messed up. Instinctively, she grabbed his head softly, tilting it from side to side. “Shit, I forgot about that. You shouldn’t be here! That was seriously stupid of you to come looking for me with a head injury like that.”
Aiden grabbed her wrist, leaning into the touch, giving her the most tired, soft smile that she didn’t know what to do with. “Yeah, I know. What can I say? I couldn’t lose the chance to find you again.”
They stared at each other silently for a moment before Ashlyn coughed and looked away. She knew what he meant, they’d all been separated the last two weeks they’d been here. Sure, Ash was able to look at them from the cameras if Alex let her sometimes, but it still agitated her to be away from them for so long. “Yeah, I get that… but still–”
“Aye, I get it!” Aiden laughed. She could feel his smile tracing her palms- right, she was still holding his face. Maybe she should let go. She really should let go. This wasn’t like her. Not at all.
“We should go back and find the others,” Ashlyn said awkwardly. Aiden hummed in somewhat agreement, but they didn’t move. His body was a welcome warmth compared to the cold of the tiled room.
Silence filled the room again until Aiden stopped giving her that agonizingly soft look so unlike him. A look that was meant for looking at the stars, or that feeling of a warm spring breeze. Not her. Not Ashlyn.
“I missed you guys,” Aiden said, finally looking away and resting his forehead on her shoulder. Ashlyn felt like she could breathe again. And though she knew she wasn’t the best with social cues and reading between the lines, she knew what he meant.
“I missed y’all too,” She said. I missed you too, is what her tone gave away, but her words didn’t. Judging by the way Aiden snaked his arms around her, he knew what she really wanted to say.
Suddenly, Ashlyn’s ears tingled with the familiar sound of phantoms. What a way to ruin the moment, right?
Ashlyn shot up, glaring at the door in anticipation. Aiden followed soon after, albeit a little wobbly. She looked around for a weapon and grabbed Aiden’s knife from his thigh strap. He began to protest until Ashlyn gave him a look and he shut right up.
He was in no condition to be fighting with a head injury like that. His face was still bruised heavily around his cheek and eye area, and he wasn’t bleeding anymore by any means. But that didn’t mean his body was okay now.
Ashlyn crouched down when she heard the pitter-patter of feet running towards the door, and Aiden clenched his fists. What he was planning to do? She had no idea, he wasn’t exactly the strongest of the group.
Her heart raced as the black figure appeared in the doorway, crouching to fit through the open space. It hissed, twitching its head as it examined them.
“Come on,” Ashlyn said lowly. If she could take that phantom from before on without a weapon and win, she could do this.
The phantom screeched as it began running toward them, but not a moment later, a gunshot resounded inside the room. It slumped before collapsing to the floor.
Aiden and Ashlyn blinked as Logan appeared in the doorway, his gun still aimed at the phantom. His face held a look of malice, so unfamiliar to the sweet, shy boy Ash met at the beginning of the year. But it quickly dissipated when he looked up and met their eyes.
“Ash! Aiden!”
Ashlyn dropped the knife and ran to Logan, swinging her arms around him. “Logan! Where are the others?”
“Taylor went back to look after Tyler, Ben is searching the other rooms in the dorm hall,” He smiled, hugging her back. “I ran after Aiden since he sped off as soon as he got the chance,” Logan cocked an eyebrow as Aiden looked away guiltily, scratching his neck.
“Haha, yeah, sorry Logan,” Aiden said.
Ashlyn let Logan go and sighed at Aiden. “We’re all okay now, that’s the important thing. Let’s go meet back up with the others.”
Logan and Aiden nodded. They followed after Logan as they trekked through the dark halls, his gun raised and at the ready. Ashlyn made him walk in the middle since he was still injured.
“Oh, come on! I’m not that hurt, I’m not a baby, Ash!”
“You sure act like one sometimes, now stay where I can see you.”
“Boo,” He groaned.
—
It’s been two hours since they all met up again. Taylor wouldn’t let Ash go for a solid half an hour when she saw her. Aiden, of course, joined in. There were tears, a lot of them.
After Ashlyn had explained what happened when they took her to the lab, she suggested that they take tonight off. They’d all been through a lot these past two weeks, and honestly, she just wanted to bask in their presence for a while before having to discuss a plan to get out of this place.
And apparently, that day off consisted of a group cuddle session as they all tried to get in some much-needed sleep.
Ash thought she’d feel bothered by the smothering of bodies as she always did, but she found herself eager to fall into place with the rest of them. She had missed this feeling.
And for the first time in a long time, as everyone curled their bodies and found a place around her, she felt safe. Her eyes began to drift close, she felt Aiden put his arm around her waist. Somehow, each time they fell asleep together, his arm always settled there. Like that’s where it belonged, like right beside her was where he belonged.
If you asked Ashlyn if she felt otherwise, she wouldn’t hesitate to say no. She’d pushed it away, protested against how that feeling of an empty space beside her she’d gotten used to for all her life, felt just right when Aiden filled it. But she didn’t fight it anymore.
As Ashlyn returned his affection, pushing her body closer to Aiden as her hair entangled with his, she breathed a sigh of contentment.
Maybe by his side, is where she belonged too.