The System Can’t See Me

The water outside the crawlspace stopped sounding empty.

Kai heard it before Nia did. The shallow run at the mouth changed under another weight. Not a splash. Something careful stepping where the floor was already wet.

Nia's fingers tightened over the Archive copy.

"Kai."

He kept his cheek against the wall. "I heard it."

The next sound came closer. A hard point touched the floor beyond the lip, then dragged through the blue water with a soft, pebbled scrape.

Nia looked toward the entrance.

Kai could not turn far enough to see past her legs. He saw the blue reflection break across the concrete, then a dark shape pass through it. Too low for a person. Too steady to be loose pipe or falling debris.

The thing stopped just outside the mouth.

For several breaths, nothing moved.

Nia had her cheek against the concrete now, eyes fixed on the reflection at the lip. The Archive copy made a stiff shape beneath her chin and collarbone. She held it high with her forearm, keeping the blood-marked corner clear of the water while the other hand hovered near her ankle without touching it.

Kai could feel the water cool against the back of his calf. His own torn heel rested in it. He kept both legs still. The lunch box pressed his shoulder into the wall; the blue-bound wrist beneath his ribs made a separate, cold weight he could not reach. There was nothing in the crawlspace he could pick up without making more noise.

Then a hooked forelimb slid over the threshold.

Its shell was wet-black under the water film. The joints folded the wrong way, each one closing in a separate beat. A row of small red points shifted beneath the plates near the wrist, bright for an instant and gone again as the limb turned.

Nia held still.

The hook pressed into the grit beside her left foot.

Kai felt the tremor through the floor. His right wrist shifted beneath his ribs. Cold pressure dragged along his side. He had no hand free to correct it, and no room to reach back without moving the lunch box on his shoulder.

The limb lifted.

Its hook tapped the crawlspace lip once.

Nia's breath caught.

The sound was barely there. The creature's head came down out of sight, close enough that Kai could hear moisture move under the plates at its jaw.

Nia's left foot was half under the creature's reach. The heel had bled through the grit before the water came in. Now the pale skin at the edge of the cut looked gray beneath the thin blue film. Her ankle had nowhere to go except toward Kai's knees or deeper into the hook's path.

"Don't move your foot," he said.

"It's in the water."

"I know."

The hook swept forward.

Nia pulled her foot back on instinct. Her ankle hit the wall. The creature's hook caught the edge of her heel instead of the floor.

She made a sharp, swallowed sound.

Kai tried to move his good knee toward his chest.

The lunch box bit into his shoulder. He went still before it could scrape, then tried again with less force. His damaged left hand pushed at his thigh with the back of two fingers. The motion barely changed the angle of his leg.

It was enough for Nia to see what he meant.

She tucked the Archive copy higher beneath her chin and rolled her hip toward him. Her forward knee pressed harder into the wall. The red pipe caught her shoulder and held it down, but she brought her left calf across the narrow space Kai had made.

The creature's hook followed the movement.

It scraped over the wet concrete and caught the torn edge of Nia's jeans just above her ankle.

Nia stopped breathing.

Kai could see the line of her body through the back of his jacket: shoulder pinned under the pipe, hip against his lower back, one leg still half in the mouth. If the hook pulled, it would take her sideways into the water. There was nowhere for him to brace except the box and the wall.

Her fingers had gone white where they held the sleeve. The hook did not have the copy, but a hard pull would tear it from under her chin or drag her jacket over the wet floor. Kai could not get an arm around her. His right arm was trapped under him, and his left hand would not close.

"Nia," he said.

She did not look at him.

The hook tightened on the denim.

Kai drove his good knee inward.

Pain went through the bad ankle and up his leg. The box scraped against his shoulder, a short plastic groan that made every muscle in him lock. His right wrist slipped farther beneath his ribs. He felt the blue band press hard enough to bruise from the inside.

Nia used the space before it closed.

She pulled her calf free.

The jeans tore at the ankle. The hook dragged a shallow line across her skin, then lost its hold. Her foot came over Kai's bent legs and landed against the inside wall.

Nia did not try to stand on it. She folded the leg in until her shin lay along Kai's calves, keeping the raw heel above the runoff. The position forced her hip harder into his back. Kai felt her flinch when the red pipe took more of her shoulder, but she kept the Archive copy pinned under her chin and did not loosen her hold.

The creature struck where her heel had been.

Its hook punched into the floor hard enough to chip concrete. Blue water jumped over Kai's calf and ran beneath Nia's other knee.

Nia folded the freed leg tight against her body. Her face was pressed to the Archive copy now. One hand held the sleeve under her chin; the other covered the fresh line at her ankle.

Blood threaded between her fingers and thinned in the water at the mouth. Kai watched it spread for a second before he made himself look away. The creature's hook was still close enough to reach her foot again. The only difference was that it would have to climb farther into the crawlspace to do it.

"Are you cut?" Kai asked.

"Not deep."

Her voice had gone flat with effort.

The hook came out of the floor with a wet crackle of grit.

Kai held his breath too long and knew it. His ribs started to shake beneath the weight of the lunch box. He let out air slowly through his nose. A cough would bring the creature's head through the mouth.

The thing pushed farther in.

Its narrow skull appeared under the red pipe. Plates overlapped from its neck to the ridge of its head, slick with runoff. Four red pinpricks shifted under the shell where eyes should have been. Its jaw opened in two pieces around pale needle teeth.

The lunch box stopped it.

The creature put one forelimb against the yellow plastic and leaned.

Kai felt the pressure travel through the box into his shoulder.

The plastic did not move far. It only settled harder against his collarbone. He bit the inside of his cheek until he tasted blood.

The tooth marks left pale dents in the yellow corner. One small flake of plastic dropped into the water below. Kai felt the bite through his shoulder more than he heard it. The box held, but the edge against his collarbone narrowed to a sharper point.

Nia's fingers tightened on the copy.

The creature opened its jaw wider.

Its teeth closed on the corner of the lunch box.

The sound was small. Plastic creaked. The blue light under the cracked lid wavered across Kai's chest and the wall.

The creature worried at the box once, testing the edge with its teeth. Then it stopped and lifted its head.

Kai could not see the full shape of it, only the red points under the plates and the wet line of its mouth. The thing held still long enough for the water to settle around its forelimb.

Its jaw closed with a soft click. Not the hard sound of a bite. A small closing noise, almost careful. Kai heard Nia breathe through her nose behind him. He heard water run over chipped concrete and the faint scrape of the creature shifting its weight outside the mouth.

The creature did not force the box again. It lowered its head instead, red points moving under the plates as it faced the space between Kai's legs and Nia's folded calf. The low crawlspace kept most of its body out, but the head and one forelimb were enough to take the entrance from them.

Nia shifted her ankle a fraction. The floor grated beneath her heel.

The creature's head snapped toward the sound.

She froze.

Her ankle was tucked above the water now, but the fresh scrape along it had already darkened the torn cloth. She held the Archive copy tighter against her chest, keeping the marked sleeve turned inward. The movement made the red pipe grind against her shoulder. Kai saw her jaw tighten and knew she was choosing that pain because every other position put her foot closer to the hook.

Kai's bad ankle throbbed where he had forced it. His right wrist lay trapped under his ribs. His left hand was open on the floor, palm torn and useless. The box had become a wall between him and the monster, but it was also on his shoulder, taking every breath from him by degrees.

The creature lowered itself at the mouth.

Its hook rested in the water beside the lip. Its plated head blocked the blue reflection from the sump.

Nia held the Archive copy against her chest and kept her injured foot above the water. Kai kept his shoulder where the box had pinned it, his left palm flat, his right wrist hidden under his ribs.

The creature stayed at the mouth.

Water moved around its hook at the lip. Nia kept her ankle clear of the grit, and Kai held still beneath the box.

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