How Annoying

Chapter 10: Nightmares ( 1 )

Holaaaaaaaa
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"What-"

The stomping halted and began running faster than before.

F*ck it's caught onto us.

I continue to pull along Leo as I run towards the guns on the floor. The footsteps began to get louder and louder.

THUMP THUMP THU-

"Don't you dare look behind and stay down"

I push Leo to the ground and dive for the gun. My back hits the wall and I face the creature. It opens its mouth displaying its sharp teeth stained with blood.

"SKREECHHH"

It starts to interlock its hands together reaching for my face. The hands started to blend and morph together creating a pitch black mesh.

It presses closer, the inky mesh of its hands now undulating like liquid, expanding and contracting as if alive. A creeping cold radiates from it, and the very air feels dense, heavy, making it hard to breathe. My pulse pounds in my ears, the only sound left as the world beyond this thing fades into muffled silence.

It's as though I'm watching through thick glass, reality becoming distorted and distant. The blackness spreads like ink in water, swallowing the light and warping the edges of my vision. It hovers over my face, pulsating, the void growing nearer.

There's no escape, only the cold, endless dark
All sounds faded like there was a filter between me and reality. I could barely hear my own breath, let alone the roar of the highway tunnel surrounding me.

"—ACON! DEACON!" The voice came from somewhere, pulling me back.

BANG BANG

My body moved on instinct, the shots fired before I even registered holding a gun. I blinked, and suddenly the creature was on the ground in front of me, its massive, grotesque form collapsing onto my lap. I could feel the dying heat of it seeping through my jeans, fading with every second, until only the cold of death remained.

My hand trembled, the gun still gripped tightly, but I hadn't felt the recoil, hadn't aimed, hadn't even thought. I blinked again, trying to piece together what just happened.

The tunnel echoed with silence now, broken only by the sound of the creature's last laboured breath. Its weight pinned me down, but my muscles were relaxed, as if I'd done this a thousand times before. I stared down at the gun in my hand, confused.

What was that? How did I even—

I swallowed hard, my throat dry. My heart should've been pounding, but I felt strangely calm, like the panic couldn't reach me. My body knew what to do, even if my mind didn't. I lifted my hand slowly, staring at my steady grip on the gun. It was perfect—professional, precise. It didn't make sense.

I should be terrified. I should be shaking. But I wasn't.

I let out a breath, looking down at the creature. It was dead—no doubt about that. I didn't know how I had done it, but something deep within me did.

Leo scrambled toward me, his hands gripping my arm. "Are you okay? Hey, are you listening?"
I shoved him off, pushing myself up. My mind was a fog, my body running on instinct, but I was still here. Still breathing. The creature wasn't. Its body lay twisted in front of me, still faintly twitching.

Without thinking, I raised the rifle and aimed. BANG. The tunnel shook with the sound. I fired again. BANG. BANG. Over and over, until I was sure it wasn't getting back up.

That's when I saw it—the skin. Not its own. The layers were thick, fused together like some grotesque armour. The bullets had torn it apart, but I knew what I was looking at: it had used the skin of another one of its own. The thing had been smart enough to adapt. Layla had noticed, of course.

She had stood over the first creature earlier, silent, examining the exposed muscle where its skin had been ripped away. We waited for her to say something, some explanation, but instead, she looked at us—no, at me—and said, "Run." No context, no plan. Just that single word.

And then she ran. Not for safety. No, she ran to see what I'd do. She wanted to see if I'd follow, panic like the others, maybe even break under the pressure. Testing me, like she always did, but never saying it out loud. Cold, calculating, like a game to her. Like it was all part of some bigger experiment.

I didn't bite.

Instead of mindlessly running, I took down the creature. While she bolted, already moving on, I stayed to finish what needed to be done. And now, here we were, Leo staring at me, waiting for some kind of answer, but all I could think about was Layla.

Crazy b*tch.

I stared at the creature's mangled body, the patchwork of stolen skin, the reminder that we weren't dealing with mindless beasts anymore. They were evolving. Learning from us. And all the while, Layla was playing her own game, pushing my buttons.

I lowered the rifle, my hands still steady.
I laughed, a low, unsettling sound that echoed in the stillness of the tunnel. The situation was absurd, really. Layla thought she was in control, to see if I'd break or follow her like some dog. She thought she'd push me over the edge.

I laughed. Softly at first, then louder. She wanted a reaction from me, something predictable. Panic, fear, anything.

But instead of panic, she got something much worse. Rage.

It was boiling now, right under the surface, burning slow and steady. She didn't just miscalculate; she unleashed something she couldn't control. She wanted to see what I'd do? Fine. I'd show her. I didn't need my memories to know the kind of man I was. The part of me that handled people like Layla was surfacing, and it wasn't pretty.

I started to laugh again, louder this time, the sound bouncing off the tunnel walls. Leo stepped back, his eyes wide, watching me like I was some kind of stranger. I didn't understand it. Didn't care, really. My mind was on Layla now. She thought she could mess with me and get away with it. She wouldn't know it, but she was in my sights now. The calm, easy-going Deacon was slipping away, but I didn't notice that.

I couldn't stop grinning, the thoughts spinning faster in my head. It was almost funny.
I kept smiling to myself, lost in thought. Leo's footsteps shuffled beside me, and when I glanced at him, I saw it—fear in his eyes. His hand trembled slightly, and he took a step back, as if something about me had startled him. I frowned, not understanding why he looked so spooked.

"Relax," I muttered. "It's over."

"Let's go," I said, turning away from him and heading deeper into the tunnel. I walked steadily, my pace calm, my posture relaxed, trying to project the easy going demeanour I had always had.

As I moved further into the tunnel, I focused on putting one foot in front of the other, pretending that everything was fine, even as the storm of anger brewed within me. I tightly grip the gun in my hand.

She messed with the wrong person. *spark*

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Blue light flickers above his head

Memory override- delet?&£(&@!):/

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Hey..... how yall doing?

I'm posting this chapter because I'm going to disappear until December, uni has me busy.

Anyways I keep writing authors notes to no one lol.