JELLYFISH

DOOR 004

[name] felt still, relishing in the cold ground they lay on. The blood that soaked the back of their jumpsuit and hair no longer flowed on the outside of their body, and the cold air that touched their nerves and insides now only filtered against their skin. Although they could still feel the phantom pain of having a chunk of their throat ripped out and losing their jaw, [name] knew they were back in that dark room once again.

They didn't want to get up. If getting up meant living through all that again, going through that hell, just to end up here again due to one small mistake, they wouldn't do it.

"So," that familiar voice reached their ears, "what was it this time?"

[name] didn't answer just yet. They were content in lying there in silence, in the dark, where at least it was safe from all those creatures. As long as they did nothing, nothing would happen.

"Helloooo? You died, right?" This person caused them to frown, "c'mon, just spit it out already."

"I thought you weren't my therapist." [name] blurted, sitting upwards. The light was only five feet away, closer than before. The light swung back, like it was moved, or was hit by something. The person they were speaking to grumbled under their breath.

"You're riiiight, I did say that!" His tongue dripped with sarcasm, "then let's both shut the hell up!"

[name] crossed their arms and laid back down, the floor no longer feeling as comfortable as before, and as much as they wanted to blame it on the unnamed voice, they thought it wouldn't be the best idea as [name] was already pushing some buttons.

"Something came up behind me and ripped out my throat with its teeth." [name] decided to say, brushing off the last remark made about their current predicament.

The voice hummed, "oh? I thought I wasn't your therapist?"

"Well, you said you wanted to know what happened this time, right?" They retorted quickly, sitting back up, then standing. Their body felt lighter, and they rubbed their throat and their jaw, feeling the familiar bumps and groves against their fingers. Everything was there. They were fine.

He seemed to completely brush off their comment and hummed. The sound of moving papers filled the still air before a familiar file was tossed on the table in front of them, "mm... Yeah... Watch your back next time, alright?"

Like before, the majority of the file inside was redacted with a big, black box. However, some of the text was readable, and the pictures were somewhat discernable. The pictures were heavily pixelated, but not in a way that they couldn't see what was going on within the images. There was that creature, armless, but still humanoid in shape. In the left image, [name] could make out its figure in the process of walking, and in the right, they spotted it in the process of stepping out of the wall. Wall Dwellers. That's what they were called.

"This is crazy," [name] muttered to themselves, pulling the document closer, but a clawed hand shot out, hooking on the corner of the file, which forced them to pause and then release the document. Their heart pounded hard against their chest, hands reaching up to their jaw once more.

"And you're just as crazy," the voice commented, pulling the file into the darkness, just out of [name]'s view. Their eyes couldn't peer into the shadows, nor could they make out any sort of outline no matter how hard they tried.

[name] stared downwards at the desk, eyes narrowing at each item that sat on it. A few DNA samples, USBs beside them, and a dark laptop, which was probably dead or inaccessible. They tried powering it on anyway, but that yielded nothing, their figure reflecting the dim screen.

A small creak echoed in the dark room, and they turned their gaze upward. Those eerie, blue eyes no longer floated there, and the light above swung in the windless air.