101 Ways to Skin a Hoodie

Chapter 6

I don't know how long we've been walking. It feels like hours, but we are in the dark with no way to measure time at all, so my perception could be completely off. Either way, it's been a while, as every so often we stop to take breaks once the ache in our feet becomes unbearable. It was around the third break that the paranoia started to kick in that this hallway may be endless. We've been going for who knows how long with no sign of any exit. What if it's a massive circle? What if we can only get out by taking one of the branching paths? If that's the case which path is the correct one?

Worries such as these circle around in my head until the fifth break, when we hear something that definitely isn't a creaky old piece of plumbing. Aruetta and I spring to our feet. This place isn't dark like the void was, with the last remnants of the light from the entry room long gone we can no longer see anything at all. Aruetta fumbles over to me, and I grab her hand. The cold metal is no different from the wall that I slide my hand along to get my bearings.

After a few paces my hand slips around a corner, and I know that I've found one of the branching hallways in case we need to slip into it at a moments notice. Aruetta starts to say something and I snap my fingers at her, indicating for her to be quiet. We stand in complete silence, listening. A minute passes. Just as I am about to tell Aruetta that we can start moving again another noise emanates from down the hall.

The only way that I can perceive the noise is that it's dry. In the distance scaly skin grates against the metal walls, and claws of bone rend into the floor. The skin on my back stands up in an attempt to make me look bigger in the face of the oncoming predator. Alas, my body is no longer coated in fur, and all this accomplishes is making me look terrified, in case whatever is moving down the hall can see in the dark.

I don't think it can though, as it still seems to be looking for us, even though we've been standing here, hearts racing for quite some time now. But wait, that would mean that it's not one of the aliens that we're aware of, since if they can smell souls then we'd be long gone by now. I suppose we could be wrong about that hypothesis, but I don't think we are judging from all the information we've gathered up to this point.

So we have no idea what it is.

More slithering in the dark. Aruetta is staying completely silent, and I think that the loudest noise around us is my beating heart. The noise keeps moving towards us. I'm about to break into a run out of sheer panic, but Aruetta's grip on my arm keeps me locked in place.

It's almost on us now, and I squeeze her hand. Aruetta makes the first move. She lets go of me, and as I'm about to call out I hear the sound of metal sliding against metal, followed by her arm whistling through the air. A second later a metallic piece of some sort, probably a finger, dings down the hallway behind us. I wait with bated breath and... the dry mass starts to move away from us.

I let out a sigh and grab back on to Aruetta's arm. I pull her down one of the side halls and we start to walk down it with a brisk pace, my unoccupied hand sliding against the wall to keep my balance. As a force of habit I glance over my shoulder, but there's nothing for me to see in the dark. I strain my ears instead. Nothing.

"Nice going. What-" I'm cut off by a guttural moan in the distance behind us. My skin, which had almost returned to being smooth again, stood up all at once, and my teeth grit against themselves. "Run."

We break into a sprint down the hall, no time to wonder if there's even any point now that we've split off from the main hallway. My instincts are telling me to flee, with the help of some auditory cues. The dry mass that was once sliding through the dark is not rumbling down the thin hall behind us, some sort of appendages slamming into the walls and floor, something grating into the metal along with them.