Chapter 18
"Haaa... haaaa..."
Asher was now out in the hallway.
Bang!
He staggered into a closed door, the impact throwing him to the ground.
"Haaa... haaaa..."
His chest heaved violently as he reached out and grabbed the door handle beside him, using it to pull himself back to his feet.
His legs wobbled beneath him.
Panting hard, he slowly turned his head and glanced behind him.
The entire hallway was empty.
Just as he expected.
The fluorescent lights overhead flickered faintly, casting intermittent shadows across the long corridor.
Asher swallowed hard.
His heart was pounding so violently that he could practically hear it inside his ears.
Turning around again, his eyes immediately locked onto the double doors leading outside.
They were only a few meters away.
Freedom.
That was all he needed.
One hand remained firmly pressed against his bleeding neck while the other hung limply at his side.
Every movement sent a sharp sting through his body, but Asher gritted his teeth and forced himself forward.
One step.
Then another.
He began wobbling toward the doors.
With how heavily he was breathing, anyone would have thought he had just run a marathon.
His vision occasionally blurred, and his fingers were becoming slick with his own blood.
But he couldn’t stop.
Not now.
Soon, he reached the doors.
Asher immediately grabbed the handle and pushed.
Nothing.
His brows furrowed.
"Huh?"
He pushed again.
Still nothing.
The door didn’t even budge.
"What the..."
Quickly reaching out with his other hand, Asher grabbed the handle with both hands and threw his entire weight against the doors.
Nothing.
The doors remained completely motionless.
"Wha—?"
"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk."
A familiar voice suddenly came from behind him.
"The door is locked, bro. Security firmly locked it before leaving, so give up."
Every hair on Asher’s body stood on end.
Cold sweat trickled down his back.
His fingers slowly loosened around the door handle.
He didn’t want to turn around.
He already knew who it was.
Slowly, almost reluctantly, Asher craned his neck around.
All the color drained from his face.
Nuel stood on the staircase.
She was staring directly at him.
Her head was tilted slightly to the side while a predatory smile stretched across her face.
Her obsidian eyes reflected the dim hallway lights.
Asher gulped.
"It’s just you and me."
Tak.
Tak.
Tak.
With every syllable, Nuel took another step down the staircase.
Her footsteps echoed throughout the empty hallway.
Asher immediately spun around and began pounding on the doors.
"Is anybody there?! Help me! Someone, please, HELP!"
His voice echoed through the hallway.
But there was no response.
Not even a distant voice.
Not even a single footstep.
"Oh."
Nuel’s amused voice came from behind him.
"But there’s nobody here."
She took another step.
"Who will even help you?"
Asher froze.
His fists remained pressed against the doors.
His mind raced.
’No.’
His breathing became heavier.
’This won’t work.’
He had watched enough horror movies to know exactly how this usually went.
Screaming for help never worked.
Running blindly never worked.
And staying in one place was definitely not an option.
’I need to find a way to escape.’
Asher slowly turned his head and scanned the hallway.
His expression fell.
There was basically nowhere to go.
The only visible paths were the staircase, the laboratory corridor, and the locked exit behind him.
There wasn’t a weapon in sight.
Nothing he could use to defend himself.
Nothing capable of stopping that monster.
’What... what should I do?’
His palms became sweaty.
Nuel finally reached the bottom of the staircase.
"Should I make this easy for you?"
She tilted her head.
"Or should we do it the hard way?"
A crude smile appeared on her face.
Asher’s eyes darted toward the right.
The laboratory.
That path might lead somewhere.
It was his only option.
His muscles tensed.
He was about to move when—
Nuel vanished.
Asher’s pupils contracted.
"What—?"
A gust of wind slammed against his face.
Within the next second, Nuel appeared directly in front of him.
The speed was so unnatural that Asher barely registered her movement.
Actually...
She wasn’t human anymore.
So why was he still surprised?
The entity’s claws suddenly flashed toward his face.
Asher’s heart nearly stopped.
There was no time to dodge.
No time to run.
No time to think.
Instinct took over.
He quickly raised his backpack in front of his face.
The claws struck.
RIIIP!
The backpack was torn apart almost instantly.
Papers exploded into the air, scattering throughout the hallway like a storm of white leaves.
Books dropped heavily onto the floor.
Pens, notebooks, and various items from inside the bag clattered across the tiles.
Asher’s eyes widened.
’My bag!’
But he didn’t have time to mourn its destruction.
He was still alive.
That was all that mattered.
With no other option, Asher hastily grabbed the torn backpack and swung it toward Nuel with every ounce of strength he could muster.
The leather bag smashed into her face.
But that wasn’t all.
The metallic frame attached to the backpack struck directly against her obsidian eye.
BAM!
"Ugh..."
The entity groaned.
Her head jerked sideways as she instinctively shut her eyes.
Asher took the initiative and was about to find another way when his neck was grabbed.
He froze.
He was yanked forward so roughly that he almost felt his breath leave his body.
Then,
Metallic claws wrapped around his neck and slowly, he was being lifted off the ground.
He was struggling—wincing in immense pain as not only was he grabbed in the part where a huge chunk of his flesh was torn, but he was also being strangled alive.
The strength the entity in front of him exerted was too great as he struggled fruitlessly against the hand on his neck.
He tried everything he could possibly do at the moment.
Bang on the arm; slash at the arm with his nails; pinch and even punch.
Yet nothing happened as he could feel his breath slowly leaving his body.
In that dire moment, as he looked deep into the amused eyes of the entity before him; one step away from death, an idea rushed into his mind.
Unhesitatingly, he swung his head forward and almost immediately, he dug his teeth into the arm and bit so hard that his teeth sunk into the decayed flesh.
"Aaaaaargh!"
The pained scream of the entity echoed across the hallways.
So irritating to the ear that it felt like hundreds of needles were being poked into one’s ears.
Asher threw his head back—as far as the grip on his neck allowed him to.
And with him, he pulled out a small chunk of decayed flesh from the wrist area of the hand holding him up.
Nuel was so much enraged and in pain that she hurled Asher away with all her strength.
WAM! Crack! BANG!
With not even a second to rest, Asher felt his body hitting the double doors of the exit.
With the way he was flung, the force cracked the door immensely and almost immediately, the door was blown off its hinges with Asher flying outside with rapid velocity.
The wind slapped his face and back hard.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Asher’s body skipped across the marble pavement so roughly that he could feel stone tearing through his back.
He ricocheted for a few seconds before his body slid to a halt as it hit the school’s personal bus.
"Ack... Kuk... Cough... Cough..."
Asher threw out a few specks of blood before transitioning into desperately gasping for air, which transitioned into a loud coughing fit.
He could be seen grabbing his neck, trying his hardest to suck in as much air as he could to fill his lungs.
His eyes bulged incredulously as he stared at the broken exit with a worried look.
Still gasping, he winced in pain and dragged himself to his feet.
’No. No. I won’t be dying here today. I won’t.’
He turned around, about to dash away.
But before he could even take a single step,
BAM!
Something incredibly heavy crashed into him, sending his whole body flying forward into the bus’ window.
Crash!
Glass shattered as the boy’s body bounced into the seats in the bus.
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