Through the Gap

Part Three - The Wife

1

Recognizing my wife on the screen gave me a sudden burst of hope. Now that I knew where she was, I felt like there was hope that we can make it out of this living nightmare. I tore myself away from the screen and headed for the door. Outside the door, the corridor was perfectly safe. I turned right, remembering the way to the metal door and eventually to my garage. Now that my eyes were not hurting, and I wasn't being chased by unnameable terrors, I could finally give the corridor a proper look.

As I thought at first, it was a windowless corridor with a sharp curve. The walls were completely white apart from the horizontal gray strips on both walls about halfway up their height. There were no visible doors, windows, cameras, vents, or anything that would have looked the least bit familiar. I turned back to see where I came from, but I was unable to find the door now that it was fully closed. Personally, I found this all to be a collection of terrible design choices. People would not even know where they were headed if they couldn't even find the door they came through. I was already starting to question myself seconds after I'd left the war room.
Tracing my steps back jolted the terrible memories I had from the fishing shack. I couldn't believe that I had just left the Korean guy there, struggling in the monster's grip. The guilt snuck up on me and sucker-punched my mind from behind. I wish I could have helped, but what was there to do? I had nothing but sheer terror inside me. At least he had a gun. The gun! I sprang into action, picking up the pace.

Said brisk pace, however, broke completely in a matter of seconds when I saw what appeared to be a dark shimmer beyond the curvature of the corridor. Some squinting throughout the next few steps revealed it to be a dark moving shape, contrasted against the white metallic ceiling hanging upside down. The apparition slowly turned its head toward me with a deliberate, yet jerky motion, so disturbing it sent shivers down my spine.

Hanging from the white ceiling just a few short meters away from me, I could clearly see how featureless the large sack of a head was, not unlike a huge black raisin. As in a huge black raisin covered in black eyes of all sizes. Also a small, wrinkly hole towards the bottom, which I mostly knew based on the memories of horror from before.

By sheer instinct, my legs moved me away from the creature without so much as a squeak, but the thing's movements indicated it noticed me, nevertheless. After the first two steps, I froze, which made the creature to stop midway in its reach for further purchase on the ceiling. The way it dug its sharp claws into the metal surface looked clunky and out of place, like it wasn't comfortable moving in such a position. It must have been waiting out of sight. At least it thought it was out of sight, perhaps.

After swiveling its head up and down like it was sniffing the air, it took the next step, scratching the ceiling with its claw. Then, seemingly unable to decide what to do, it stopped again, wobbling its upper body from side to side. I wondered if it could smell. That would mean it should be able to breathe, but back in the war room there was no sign of that. As curious as this observation was, however, I couldn't pursue it further, but risked yet another step backward instead. I had no other choice. I couldn't continue forward, but I didn't dare turn my back against the apparent danger, either.

I weighed my options, deciding whether to risk sprinting forward and under it. If I could just get by it before it realized what happened, I had a good chance of making it to the door, but I remembered how fast it was when it leaped on the police officer before. I decided I needed to turn around at some point and pick up the pace, as the creature had already proven to be so much faster than I was. Maybe it was because of his unfamiliar build that made it so agile. Now, with its legs spread out, its tiny torso looked exactly like the body of a regular house spider. Somehow this made it even creepier.