Shadows of the Asylum

The Thing in the Walls

Max's heart raced as the whispers grew louder, their voices swirling in the suffocating dark. His body trembled, and cold sweat dripped down his forehead. He stumbled backward, eyes frantically searching the room. The walls seemed to pulse with a life of their own, the shadows deepening with each passing second, drawing him in like a nightmare made flesh.

"No, no, no..." Max muttered under his breath, trying to hold onto his sanity. His hands shook as he reached for his flashlight, which lay abandoned in the corner. He fumbled to turn it back on, the beam flickering, barely illuminating the sickening scene before him.

Tom, Ella, and Lucy were still there, standing motionless. Their faces were contorted in agony, their eyes hollowed out, as if they were no longer alive, but merely vessels for something else. They seemed to shift, twitching every so often, as if their bodies were fighting to regain control. But it wasn't them. Not anymore.

Max forced himself to look away, forcing himself to focus on the now-terrifying silence that had overtaken the basement. The low growl he had heard earlier was closer now, reverberating through the walls like a deep, guttural hum. His breath hitched as the air seemed to grow heavier, each inhale harder than the last.

Something moved in the shadows. A shifting, slithering shape, twisting and coiling like a thing made of darkness. It was large, impossibly large, and its presence stretched across the basement, more vast than the confines of the room. It was in the walls, in the floors, in the very foundation of the building.

Max felt his stomach churn, his instincts screaming at him to run, but he couldn't move. His feet were glued to the spot, as though the building itself had claimed him, locking him in place. He wanted to scream, to fight, but his voice was stuck in his throat.

Then, the thing in the walls stirred. The shadows rippled and split open, revealing the true horror hiding beneath. A massive, dark shape-smooth and featureless, yet brimming with an undeniable malice-emerged. It was like a living nightmare, a void made flesh, its form constantly shifting, its edges never quite defined. It was everywhere and nowhere at once.

Max stumbled back, his mind racing. What is that thing?

A voice, cold and deep, rumbled from the shadows. "You should never have come. We were waiting for you."

Max's flashlight flickered again, and in the dim light, he saw it-the thing was made of eyes. Countless eyes, all staring at him with an unblinking gaze, hidden within the shifting blackness. The eyes were the only constant feature in its form, eyes that seemed to reach deep into his soul, tearing through his thoughts and fears.

"Who are you?" Max forced the words out, his voice cracking.

"I am nothing," the voice replied, its tone mocking. "I am everything. I am the hunger. The fear. The void that devours all."

Max's stomach twisted. It's not real. It can't be real.

The thing reached out, its form extending toward him like liquid darkness, fingers of shadow curling around the space, filling the air with a chilling pressure. The walls seemed to close in, tightening around Max as if the building itself was alive, suffocating him. His chest tightened, and he felt the world around him spinning. The room was shrinking, becoming smaller, tighter, as the thing from the walls drew closer.

He couldn't breathe. He couldn't think. His body was paralyzed, frozen by the oppressive weight of the creature's presence.

Then, from the corner of his eye, Max saw something move. The figures of Tom, Ella, and Lucy were no longer standing still. Their bodies were twitching violently, as if they were being puppeteered by unseen strings. Their mouths opened wide, and Max could hear the familiar sound of their voices, distorted, warped, as if they were speaking through a veil of horror.

"Max," Tom's voice came out in a garbled, twisted cry. "You... you don't understand. It... it's already inside you. It's already in your mind."

Ella's voice followed, cracked and broken, "You can't escape. No one ever escapes. We're... all... it."

Max's blood ran cold. His mind struggled to comprehend what they were saying, but he knew, deep down, that it was true. The thing was inside him-inside all of them, now. It had always been there, lurking beneath the surface. Waiting for the right moment to take hold.

"No," Max whispered desperately, shaking his head. "I won't let it happen. I won't let you take me."

But it was already too late.

The creature's tendrils of darkness reached for him, wrapping around his arms and legs, pulling him toward it. The walls groaned and creaked as if they were alive, bending, warping to trap him. The ground beneath him seemed to shift and twist, and Max felt himself being dragged down, deeper and deeper, into the heart of the hospital's nightmare.

As he struggled, his mind flashing back to that night, to the moment when he had run for his life, when he had escaped the clutches of this place. He had thought he had made it out. He had thought he had won.

But the truth was, the hospital was never abandoned. The thing inside it had been waiting, waiting for someone-anyone-to come close enough, to let their fear seep in, to open the door.

And now, Max understood. The hospital wasn't just a building. It was a prison. It was a living, breathing entity, and it had been alive all along.

As the darkness closed around him, Max could feel it-the thing inside him. It was there, in his chest, growing, feeding, pulling him deeper into itself. The others were gone now, lost forever. But Max... Max was becoming part of it, too.

His screams were swallowed by the deep, endless silence of the walls.

Hours later, the hospital was still. The silence hung thick in the air, the building waiting patiently, its hunger sated-for now.

Max was gone.

The shadows of the hospital stretched long and dark, waiting for the next soul to wander too close.

Because the hunger never ends. And neither does the thing in the walls.