Monday, 9:30 a.m.
Williams sat by the window in class, chin resting on his hand, eyes drifting between the lecture and the restless sky outside. The morning was dull, the kind of normal that almost felt suffocating after what he'd been through. His classmates chatted, laughed, and passed notes. For a moment, he could almost pretend he was ordinary again.
But the feeling didn't last.
By the time lectures ended, he was tired and restless. He stepped into the hallway, planning to grab food from the cafeteria, when he heard it.
Wet and Heavy.
A dragging sound—like meat sliding across tile—followed by a low, slopping noise.
Williams froze.
From the shadows of the science wing, something emerged. A hulking frog-like abomination, stitched together from mismatched human parts. Its bloated gut swung with each step, seams bulging with crude, spiraling stitches. Blood slicked its hands, and clamped in its jaws was a severed leg.
It bit down.
Crunch. Gurgle. Rip.
Williams' stomach lurched.
Then came the voice—not sound, but vibration inside his skull:
Eat. Stitch. Heal. Eat. Grow.
The whisper burrowed deep, like maggots crawling under skin.
Williams backed away slowly. Maybe—just maybe it hadn't seen him—
Laughter broke the air.
Three students rounded the corner. Two girls, one boy. They didn't see the creature yet.
Williams' eyes widened in horror. "No. Not now…"
The monster turned. Its tongue shot out—barbed, wet and as wide as a torso. It pierced straight through the boy's chest. His body arched violently, blood spraying across the lockers as the tongue reeled him back as his fading screams echoed in the hallway.
The girls froze, shock breaking into shrill terror.
"Run!!" Williams shouted, but his voice cracked under the weight of panic.
Too late.
The creature lurched forward. One girl tripped, collapsing onto the tiles. The tongue lashed again, wrapping around her waist. Bones cracked like twigs as it crushed her midsection, dragging her into its maw. Her screams cut into wet gurgles as her torso disappeared between its jaws. Legs kicked, then went limp.
The other girl bolted—but the hallway bent.
Williams blinked.
The corridor twisted on itself. Doors repeated. Windows vanished. Every turn led back to where he started. The building itself was wrong, looping.
The girl slammed against a wall, sobbing, trapped in the endless hallway. Her eyes found him—and rage twisted her grief.
"You… you could've helped!! You just ran!! You coward!!"
Her words cut, but there was no time to reply.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
The creature dragged its bloated form toward them, belly scraping the floor, claws tearing grooves into the linoleum.
The girl screamed again as the monster's tongue lashed. It pierced her shoulder, lifting her into the air. She writhed, shrieking until the sound dissolved into choking gasps. The thing slammed her against the floor again and again—bones snapping, blood painting the tiles—before finally swallowing her in halves.
Williams stood frozen, heart hammering.
The hallway smelled of blood, piss, and raw horror. He was alone now.
And still trapped.
His breath shook. His body trembled. But something deep inside—something foreign, something he didn't understand—began to stir.
Heat rose from his chest. A buzzing filled his skull. His fingertips tingled, glowing faintly with a light that wasn't light.
Williams swallowed hard.
"I'm not dying here," he whispered.
The creature rounded the corner, its tongue unfurling, mouth yawning wide.
And the thing inside Williams—whatever it was—answered.