No-Clipped

Chapter 16: The Train

I sat down beside Michelle, my breathing heavy and a visible look of concern. Placing a hand on her arm, I shake her awake.

"Michelle...Michelle, wake up. Something happened to Albert..."

"...Huh?" She replied, opening her eyes and looking around. Her jaw dropped at what she saw. The two of us slowly walked over to the pile of flesh, blood bubbling on the floor.

     "Albert..." She said quietly, gently picking up the name tag and holding it in her palm with a sigh. Suddenly, her eyebrows narrowed. "Wait a minute..."

     "...What?"

     I gagged as she suddenly knelt down and picked up the edge of the pile of skin.

     "What the hell are you doing?" I muttered, trying not to look away. I felt like I was going to throw up.

     "Wyatt...come look at this."

     "No."

     She grabbed the side of my face and forcefully turned my head, my eyes throwing open. She was holding the flesh....which unraveled looked almost like clothing. There were arms and legs and everything, but it wasn't a body. It was just skin.

     "Can I look away now? This is grossing me out." I said, my eye twitching involuntarily as I looked the skin-suit up and down.

     "Not until we figure out what this is—" She paused. "Oh crap."

     "What?"

     Michelle pulled off her backpack and knelt down, shuffling through the Polaroid photos of entities she had taken. She frantically looked through them before placing a finger on the photo labeled skinstealer...the monster in her photo I had seen back at the playtime palace. The one with the large hands and huge teethy mouth.

"Michelle...w-what do skin stealers do?" I asked quietly, looking at the skin and then back at the photo.

"Well, hence the name, they...steal skin. Yeah. And they wear the flesh of previous victims and mock human speech as a disguise...oh god...how was I so stupid?!"

"Do you think Albert was a skin stealer the entire time?"

"Not was, he IS a skin stealer. And I don't think so, I know. He isn't dead. He was never exactly alive to begin with. He was only treating our wounds and helping us so our skin would heal quickly and we'd have healthy flesh for him to tear off our bodies. Come on. We have to make a run for it and leave the electrical station before we run into him again."

I nod in agreement, my stomach churning at the realization that Albert's intentions were to kill us and he in his legitimate form was somewhere not too far from here. My ankle was in better shape and I was able to walk on my own, but my running still wasn't all that fast. After a couple minutes of running down halls and turning random corners, I stopped to catch my breath, panting as my vision blurred. As soon as I got ahold of myself, Michelle was nowhere in sight.

"Michelle!?" I called out loudly, suddenly covering my mouth as I had forgotten to keep quiet to avoid getting Albert's attention. Unfortunately it was too late as I heard the clanging sound of footsteps on the metal floors behind me...and felt a large bloody hand on my shoulder. I flinched and slowly turned my head around, and there Albert was, his enormous knuckles almost dragging on the ground and dark, thick blood running down his face and neck. His narrow mouth started at the middle of his face and stretched all the way to his chest. I screamed.

     "Wyatt!?" I heard Michelle call back from a distance. I yanked my body away from Albert's grip and broke into a sprint.

     "Michelle! Run!" I said, and after looking back to see Albert running towards us as well, she sprinted alongside me. Running down halls, hopping over machinery, tucking and rolling underneath things, it was just like parkour. Suddenly my foot slipped, and I stumbled forward, quickly catching myself after nearly falling. I thought it was because of my ankle, but looking beside me I saw that Michelle had almost slipped too. I looked at Michelle and then looked down, realizing that we were standing in a puddle of water. I raised an eyebrow and looked above me. A broken pipe attached to the ceiling had bursted, water running and dripping down its side.

     "Wyatt, look." Michelle says, looking at the wall. In the wall there was a broken wire, generating small sparks. I looked at the wire and then down at the puddle.

     "Don't keep running. Just wait for Albert to get closer to us." She says.

     "What?! Why?!"

     "When he steps in the puddle, pull the wire onto it and ZAP. He'll at least be knocked out for enough time to get far away from him. Make sure YOU'RE not in the puddle though."

     I nod in agreement and stand against the wall. Michelle looks around, waiting for Albert to come. Suddenly we spot him in the distance, and he spots us too, sprinting our direction.

     "Okay." Michelle says quietly. "Three, two...onneee—" She gasped and slipped, falling onto her back. Albert was already in the puddle...so I just reacted. I pulled the wire out of the wall and held it into the water, electrocuting Albert. The entity fell and stopped moving.

     "Michelle, I did it—" I trailed off, looking down. Before acting, I hadn't noticed that her hand was in the puddle after she slipped. I panicked, and I wanted to help Michelle but I didn't want Albert to wake up before we had the chance to escape. I took Michelle's arm and draped it over my back, jogging carefully and trying to balance her. I soon came across an escalator, which I took up, leading to what looked like a subway station with a small train on the railroad beside it. It was in slight motion, so I quickly ran up to it and pried open the side doors. I lifted Michelle up onto the floor inside the train before getting in myself and sitting down on the nice, cushioned seats. Worn out from all the running and all the days I went with little sleep, I quickly dozed off as the train picked up speed.

When I woke up, Michelle was awake too trying to get the train doors open. The train was no longer moving, and looking out the windows we appeared to be at another train station. I thought at first maybe we were back in the real world, but I there was no one around and the barren dessert looking landscape stretched out forever. The only thing in sight was the rest of the train track, a few buildings surrounding us, and a large sign labeled CAMPBELLVILLE.