The Strangest Thing : Upside Down Chronicles

Pt.1 "Cracked Mask", Ch.1 "Number Eleven"

Something woke up. Inside its room, once again. But something was off. Power was out. The thing got out of its bed, tripped and fell on the ground. It heard a thunderous noise that gave it an insane headache. He was calling. Dark memories were coming to its mind, but suddenly something knocked on the door, making it come back to reality.

The thing got up, alarmed. The door collapsed leaving a thin ray of light entering the room. Three little creatures were standing in front of it, certainly demodogs. One of them had a yellow mark on the back. The thing recognized him. "Dart" . It recalled his name.

The demodogs started going down the hall but the thing wasn't too sure about going out of its room. It feared its collar would give an electrical shock. It made one hesitative step, then two. Still no shock.

It carried on walking when a foul odor invaded the hallway. As the thing held its nose, disgusted, it discovered tons of dead bodies laying on the floor. What had just happened? Who did this? Cautiously stepping in between the decaying corpses, it continued its search for an eventual exit.

Further ahead a staircase appeared, leading to the upper floor. Going upstairs, it started to hear distant voices. The thing hid behind a wall. Three shadows came into view. One was sitting against the wall facing the other two. It realized the one sitting was severely injured. That was scientist Owens. It felt no pity, that man did so many horrendous experiments on the thing. Next to him, a young girl about the same age as the thing and an older man.

It eavesdropped their conversation. It couldn't understand most of their talking but ultimately figured they had to close "The Gate". Confused at first, the thing then started to envision flashing red lights surrounded by strange viscous lianas. That's probably what they were referring to : The Gate.

It knew it had to help them, the vision of this portal alone was sending shivers down its spine. It began walking towards the group but immediately took a step back. The thing feared they wouldn't trust it. But it discerned a familiar spark in the girl's eyes, something that gave it confidence to take the leap.

It got out of its hiding spot, the two strangers startled at the sight of this abomination. Instinctively, the girl lifted her hand to attack the presupposed enemy. The thing felt the air vibrate, but nothing more. Frightened, the girl quickly stepped back.

- What the-?! The older man brandished his gun pointing the thing.

- Don't shoot! screamed Owens.

It couldn't believe it, the scientist Owens was defending it?

-What does that mean? Are you on those monsters' side now? Don't you see Eleven's powers didn't have any effect on it?

The girl named Eleven glanced at the thing, terrified.

-That...thing...isn't exactly what you think. It might eventually attack you, but only if you consider it as a threat.

- Pfff..."might eventually"? Mumbled the stranger.

The thing dipped its head as a thank to the injured scientist. The man was still pointing the beast with his weapon in a threatening manner. Eleven approached the monster, surprising it in the process.

- He's right, look at its face, it seems...different. It looks more...human.

The man's jaw dropped after he took a closer look at the thing's face. He hasn't payed any attention to it before Eleven's observation.

- Dear God...what kind of experiments have you done again...?

- I know...it's one of the worst mistakes we had ever made but...that mistake can also help us fix the others of its kind. Trust me, I know what I'm saying. Affirmed the injured man, heavily breathing. Now please hurry up, we don't have much time.

- Hum...pff...fine... let's go then. But DO NOT stab us in the back, ok?

The thing accepted the deal. It knew that a serious danger was awaiting, hidden in the dark.

The group adventured through the hallways. The man and the girl from the outside tried to not cross the path of potentially nearby demodogs. The creature wasn't scared of them, yet it still had to be wary.

Arrived in a room full of computers, the thing noticed pieces of broken glass all over the ground. They must have belonged where a window opening separated the room from a place with tons of creepers and demodogs. The Gate should no longer be too far.

The thing began to hear a crackling noise. In the corner of its eye, it saw panicked demodogs entering sinuous tunnels digged through the vines to flee. When suddenly, it felt a pain strike and burn it from the inside. It couldn't help itself to fall on knees.

The evil gnawing the thing cooled down, but its headache would get worse the closer they would get to him.

-Hang in there, dirty creature. The man gave it a hand to stand back up.

Even though the thing didn't like the way the man had called it, it accepted his help.

Receiving a call, the man took a walkie-talkie out of his pocket. The thing would recognize the voice of the person sending them a message, yet couldn't remember to whom it belonged. They followed the anonymous messenger's instructions and walked in the unlit area to keep going.

They climbed on a metallic platform slowly dropping down into the rift. The further it descended, the brighter the red light would glow. The elevator stopped right in front of their target. Eleven took a step forward, now facing The Gate. The man gave her a worried glance, the girl replied with a confident nod. There was no turning back, they had reached the point of no return. She was very brave, thought the thing. Eleven lifted both of her arms towards the strange glow, The Gate then started to close itself.

Demodogs came down of the cables holding the platform, circling around the group. The man fired at the beasts, one of them got shot. When taken down, the monsters would share their pain with the thing. It had a very strong bond with those creatures, but it had one with Eleven as well. Reason why it should absolutely defend her. Also because she was being nice to the thing, countrary to him. It tried as best as it could to protect its new friends during the battle. The thing fought the demodogs with all its strenght.

-Eleven!

After pushing a demodog out of the elevator, the thing turned around, alerted by the man's scream. A cloud of black fog spread out of The Gate. It was him. He was there. Right there. He was willing to attack Eleven. The thing wanted to help her, but got immediatly paralysed. The girl weakened. Starting to panic, it put a lot of effort on trying to move. The thing would slightly budge with difficult. Fighting against the pressure, it progressed steadily. Finally reaching Eleven, it put its hand on her shoulder. Giving her its energy before collapsing. At the same time, the dust cloud went back to where it came from as Eleven began to levitate.

The hand the thing had put on Eleven's shoulder was instantly transformed. Its skin was shedded to molt. Turning into a pale beige color, slowly spreading across its body.

He made a last, desesperate roar. The Gate has closed. Eleven was about to collapse onto the floor, but the man caught her in his arms at the moment she fell. That was the last thing the strangest thing saw before it passed out.