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Kevin had one foot in the well-lit locker room and one in the dim corridor. The lights had blown earlier today, during day practice, and maintenance was 'on it'.
He squinted against the darkness, staring along the corridor. He could've sworn he'd seen movement. Neil was accounted for, since Kevin had only just turned away from him in the locker room, so it might have been Andrew, if he wasn't too stubborn to leave his seat in the stands once he'd gotten comfy.
"Ready?" Neil asked, carrying his helmet under his arm. Kevin looked at him, shaking himself back into focus.
"Yes. Lets go."
Practice was normal, with Kevin and Neil running drills solo and then trying to score past each other. Both of them tried to persuade Andrew into joining them, but they were firmly ignored.
Afterward, Kevin pried off his helmet, following Neil away from the court.
"Are you going to stay there all night?" Neil yelled over to Andrew, still sat in his seat.
"You two take so long to get changed that I might as well not bother leaving before morning practice."
Kevin rolled his eyes at his dramatics. "If you don't meet us at the locker room by the time we're done, I'm locking you in here."
"And who would drive you home?"
Kevin and Neil fumbled their way along the dark corridor, hands on the wall and counting their steps. If the walk was any less familiar, they might've gotten lost. Neil went in first, swinging the door open, and Kevin caught it.
The sudden change in brightness made him blink, and before he could follow Neil into the room, something once again caught his eye from the end of the corridor. Some kind of quick movement, accompanied by a strange scuffing sound.
"Andrew?" Kevin called out, wondering when he could've passed them. But there was no reply, and no further movement. The back of Kevin's neck prickled. He shut the locker room door behind him.
"Is Andrew out there?" Neil asked, most of his exy gear laying on the bench already.
"Either that or we have a rat problem."
Kevin shed his gloves and arm guards and the rest of his gear, trying not to think about the pitch black on the other side of the door. He wasn't afraid of the dark. It had been a constant in the Nest, and there were more tangible things to fear.
Still, humans had been wary of it since the first threat had learned to hide there, and Kevin wasn't immune.
Something cracked against the floor, and Kevin spun around to look at Neil, expecting to find he'd dropped his helmet, only to see him staring at Kevin instead.
"Was that you?" Neil asked, and Kevin shook his head.
Everything in the locker room was accounted for - Protective gear either on the bench or in a locker, shoes firmly on their feet. Kevin looked around, trying to identify the sound, before it came again, a startling bang.
Although, upon hearing it again, it didn't sound much like someone dropping a helmet. Kevin eyes strayed to the door, realising that it sounded much more like...
Another bang, and Kevin grabbed Neil's arm, pulling him further back into the room. It sounded like something hard hitting the ground, repeatedly, as if it were moving.
"What the fuck." Neil hissed, shoulders so tense it looked painful.
Kevin didn't have any answers for him, only the bare minimum presence of mind required to shove a bench in front of the door. It whacked against the door and the wall, looking hysterically insufficient to keep whatever was out there out.
The door trembled, the heavy thing colliding with it, and it was Neil that grabbed Kevin this time, hauling him into the corner of the room. Kevin felt nearly sick with how much his heart was racing, hands clammy and knees locked.
Again and again the thing hit the door. Neil dug marks into Kevin's skin. Kevin stared at the door, unblinking, and thought about who'd find their bodies at morning practice.
Then it stopped. Kevin heard the scuffing sound from before, until he didn't, leaving them in silence.
Kevin wanted to be relieved that it had gone, but his heart hadn't gotten the memo, still tearing itself out of his chest, and for good reason. He ran forward, hauling the bench out of the way.
Neil was shoving the door open just as soon as it was clear, bolting into the corridor. He would've realised just as soon as Kevin had, that things that made strange sounds and attacked doors didn't just leave because they felt nice. If the thing had left them alone, it would only be because there was easier prey, someone not barricaded in a room.
Kevin followed the sound of Neil's footsteps, blood roaring in his ears. He didn't know where Andrew was. He might've still been in the stands, or he might've made his way toward the locker room, or gone to the lounge. But Neil was faster than the thing, he had to be, and he'd find him.
Some distance down the corridor, Kevin noticed something wasn't right.
He could still hear Neil running, but... Kevin listened closely, and realised that every few steps were a bit too similar to eachother, as if the sound were playing on repeat.
Was the corridor normally this long?
Kevin tried to take a breath, trying to place where he was, but he couldn't see anything, because it was dark, it was too fucking dark-
In front of him, or perhaps behind him, there was a slow, horrible, scuffing sound.
Kevin's lungs hurt from how hard it was to breathe. Had the thing passed Neil? Had it gone around, taking the other corridor?
Or worse, had it never left at all? Had Neil and Kevin run past it as they left, exposing their backs when it was too dark to even watch them?
The scuffing got louder, closer, as something heavy dragged itself along. Kevin tried to back away, but he could hardly tell what direction it was coming from, and what if he walked straight into it?
At some point, the sound of Neil's footsteps had faded away, and Kevin wasn't sure if it was better or worse that he was alone.
A bang echoed out, so close that Kevin jumped in shock, tripping backwards onto the ground. His wrists yelled in pain at the impact, but that hardly mattered, since Kevin could feel a presence directly in front of him, heavy, oppressive, terrifying, and-
Kevin felt numb all over, strength fleeing his limbs, and he collapsed onto his side, unconscious.