“Come on, Vicky, we have to move,” Brendan frantically said. He was seated against the far wall as he held onto a completely invisible Vicky. “If we stay here we’re going to go down with this side of the building when it gives out.”
His arms shifted around. “No! Someone’ll come!” Vicky’s voice whimpered.
“Vicky, I know you’re scared, but we can’t stay here,” Brendan said as he pushed both himself and Vicky off the wall. “I wasn’t being pessimistic before. This part of the building will collapse. Soon.”
“What? How do you know that?” Vicky asked, her voice panicked.
“I can just feel it. It’s swaying too much… I’ll explain later, let’s just go.” Brendan quickly stood; grabbing what felt like Vicky’s wrist and helped her up as well. “Go wait by the door,” he then instructed. After he felt her leave his hand, Brendan hurriedly picked up Vicky’s and his smartphones from off the floor, then went for his backpack underneath his bed. He pulled it out, grabbed his laptop from off his bed and slid it into the protected, laptop slot of the bag. He also put the phones in the front most pocket. That should be all the important stuff, right? Brendan thought as he quickly looked around for anything else. He then looked back into his bag, gave a nod, and zipped it up.
“Okay, let’s move,” he said as he swung the bag onto his back. Brendan quickly walked over to the door, but unexpectedly bumped into something.
“Hey!” Vicky exclaimed, and she suddenly became translucent.
“Oh, sorry, didn’t see you…” Brendan’s words trailed off as he realised his sentence was more literal than it was supposed to be, and a little insensitive. And so, he ignored the whole situation, cleared his throat and moved on to opening the door. But once opened, it revealed nothing but half of a hallway floor and a straight drop to a pile of rubble on the ground. Brendan and Vicky could see the college building from where they stood.
“Holy shit…” Vicky automatically muttered and reverted back to being transparent.
Brendan tightened his grip on the door knob. He already knew that this side of the building was gone. He had felt it crumble away during the aftershock. However, seeing nothing but the rest of the campus through his door instead of another door really cemented the situation in his mind. His heart began to beat a little faster, but he took in a deep breath to calm himself. Brendan then peered past his door, looked down both sides, then retreated back inside. “Okay…” He exhaled before walking closer to the edge of the doorframe.
“W-what are you doing?”
“We have to get down somehow. The other end of the hallway is still intact… Somewhat, and the stairs are that way,” he explained as he pivoted around the left side of the doorframe and used the remnants of the hallway floor as a ledge to stand on, facing the wall. He motioned to Vicky to come closer and grab his hand.
“Be sure to face the wall,” he said.
Once he felt her latch on, he helped her around the doorframe then placed his hand on where he believed her back to be. As soon as he felt they were both secure, he led the way as they shimmied across the ledge.
Having his hand on Vicky’s back, Brendan could feel Vicky’s rapid heartrate and entire body rattle with fear. He wanted to tell her not to look down, but he knew that’d only make her want to. “Just do as I—Wait, do you feel that?”
“F-feel what?” Vicky’s voice whimpered again.
Brendan could feel the subtle vibrations on his free hand through the wall, but they weren’t constant. There was a pattern to it. “That—“
The creature’s bellow resonated through the night air, scaring Vicky and startling Brendan. But while Vicky heard it at a distance, to Brendan it sounded much closer.
“W-what the fuck was that?” Vicky’s voice asked, in shock.
Brendan shook his head. “I dunno, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t good and I’d rather we not stand here to find out. Come on…”
He then continued to lead the way until they reached the end of the hallway that had the intact floor. Brendan stepped off the ledge followed by Vicky, whose outline began to show again once her feet touched solid flooring. However, before they could make their way to the stairwell, the duo abruptly turned towards the sound of violent, metallic crashes followed by cries and screams.
“Brendan… I don’t like this…” Vicky nervously said as she began to fade again.
Brendan looked stunned and unsettled. “Y-yeah…” He then felt Vicky grab his wrist and pull him towards the stairwell.
Chapter 6 will continue...
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