Chapter 6

Linda couldn't hear anything from outside and it made her terrified. She was hyperventilating and could hear the sound of her heartbeat when she placed her hand on her chest. What has happened to James? Is he hurt? Should she go to him? All these questions came crashing like a horrible wind on a boat into her mind.

No! No! He made the choice not her! To get involved in a business that wasn't his!

"Why? Why is all this happening?!" What made her more terrified was the abnormality of the whole situation. Like James screamed earlier it could be a cannibal. But when did cannibals become this aggressive? From the stories she heard about them, they operated in the dark and only attacked people that were moving alone to deserted areas... Nothing made sense at all...

Well, all she had to do was just wait... The time was 5:01 am and in a few minutes/hours it'll be bright outside and maybe, hopefully, things will get sorted out.

As she was trying to calm her mind down several bangs came on the door. Immediately she heard it she stood up from the sofa. Who was it? Was it the cannibals? Did they come for her already?

Her legs were shaking causing her to be rooted at that spot.

But what if it was James? He could be in danger since he was banging on the door!

Amid the confusion, she spotted the hole in the door. She could just use it to see the other side of the door. But to do that she had to get to the door and she was too scared to walk.

"Linda!!! " The lady had joined in to call her name!!! James was trying to shake off the fear that was coming from every angle; the fear of being squashed by a huge disgusting giant and an even greater fear that Linda would keep to her word.

The giant was crushing the walls as it passed through making some of the walls crumble and leaving the rooms exposed. When this happened people in those rooms started to scream.

That was when the door to his room was opened. Without thinking twice he rushed in with the lady and locked the door behind him. But before he got into the room his eyes caught a glimpse of something disturbing; something stranger and weirder than the giant gooey human.

"Did you see that?" He asked the lady but she was bent over and panting.

He had caught a glimpse of those three people he had tried to warn as they passed beneath the legs of the giant. But when the screams were heard they turned and ran into the exposed room.

"What was that ?" he murmured to himself. His senses were slowly coming back to him and he was trying to make meaning out of the absurdity that was just displayed. The giant didn't do anything to them. Or maybe he didn't notice them? Like the giant didn't notice him at first until he punched and punched.

But the way those three ran toward the giant it almost seemed as if they were running toward him and the lady.

All these questions had no answers in his mind; he was completely clueless. But for a minute all of them disappeared leaving only one question.

"What is wrong with you Linda? Why didn't you open the door? " He screamed at Linda who somehow was looking even worse than he was. Her face was pale and she stood staring into the room fixated on nothing in particular. She leaned on the wall like she couldn't stand on her own.

A few moments of delay felt like hours to James. He felt disappointed and angry that she would even hesitate for that long.

"I can't believe you did this," James said in a low tone totally devoid of anger and filled with disappointment.

After a while, Linda seemed to find her voice again and a little energy to speak. "What do you mean by that? I warned you not to go out there!! How's it my fault that you're foolish and don't know when to stand back?! You still don't want to see life as it is !!! Actions have consequences !"

"You're the one too afraid to do anything! It's better to be foolish than to be a coward!"

"You people should please shut up! Nobody is foolish or cowardly here! We all survived that craziness and that's all that matters !" the lady spoke when she finally stood up straight.

James and Linda were too busy exchanging unkind words to notice.

"Uh..." James said as he stared at the lady with so many questions written over his face. Then slowly he dragged Linda from where she was leaning on the wall.

"What? " the lady asked wondering why they were staring at her like she had poop smeared over her face. "Why are you looking at me like that? Is it this slimy liquid all over my body? Look you got it on you! The crazy huge guy got us covered in it"

But they were still taking steps backward.

"James..." Linda said slowly. Somehow her mind had completely forgotten about the terror it had experienced a few seconds ago and was wondering about the lady in front of her. "Why is her face like that? "

"Why is my face like what?"

"Why is your face like that?" James asked the lady.

" Like what?" The lady was starting to get irritated. They were making her scared by the way that they behaved.

But what they saw wasn't normal, especially to James who just came from a similarly terrifying-looking person.

She was almost like the giant except that she wasn't a giant who looked like life was sucked out of him.

The lady's pupils were getting lighter as if someone poured bleach into them and slowly removed the color from them. Her black pupils were losing their colors and somethings crawled underneath the skin of her face... It looked like irregular bulging lines that grew bigger and bigger with seconds. Her face was starting to look thin like the belly of the giant.

"You don't look like... Just check it out in the toilet mirror" Linda was looking over James' shoulder as she spoke to the lady.

In the mind of the lady, she totally understood what happened. She saw something similar happen to one of her colleagues. But somehow she hoped they were talking about the gooey liquid being on her face. But deep down in her guts, she knew hope was far away from her. This was proven when she looked at herself in the mirror.

She took a breath of despair immediately after she saw her reflection and felt like her world was closing in on her.

"Kedukwanu ife by ife a ? (What is this?)" She asked herself as the vessels of her face bulged and danced around like they were trying to jump out of her face. She was also slowly losing her sight and the little of herself she saw was disheartening.

Her eyes were pale blue and she saw the vessels of her arms and legs bulging and dancing around in a similar way that they did in her face. She was glad she wore long sleeves and long trousers. That way she could easily convince those two that she was okay and that there was nothing wrong with her.

"Oh," She said when she came out of the toilet. They were still standing the way they were before she went to the toilet "It's a reaction," She said pausing to look at their expressions. Even the girl didn't look like she was buying the lie. "An allergy... I get it whenever I get stressed out and afraid ."

Linda had no idea what was going on with the lady but the lady was starting to smell funky and she didn't like the smell so she just took steps backward as far as James' grip on her hand could let her.

"It's okay. " James said not believing what she said. But he couldn't disbelieve it either. He didn't know what was happening but he did know that she looked awfully similar to the giant. What did that mean? Was she part of whatever the craziness was happening? All these questions never seemed to end. He was wishing he just stayed at home. He was sure Linda would never go anywhere with him again. He would never go out with him if he took himself to that kind of place ...

"Ugh," he grumbled out loud. Why was he thinking about whether Linda would go out with him again or not when they haven't come out of this?

The lady sat down on the floor next to the door. She was looking even worse with every passing second. They couldn't get themselves to invite her to the sofa. Even though it was just an "allergy " they wanted to put a large distance from her.

Soon she started to murmur to herself. These murmurs turned slowly into loud audible words...

"Why are you guys running away? Am I some kind of contagious infection ?" She yelled. The lady could barely see and the little she could see was all blurry. She was so cold and shivered like she was lost in a desert at night.

"Why is it so cold?" she said as her jaw shook and caused her teeth to bump against each other. "Can you please turn off that damn A.C.? "

Linda was wondering why she was behaving like that... Was that the effect of the allergy? Did it completely reverse her personality from kind to obnoxious?

"Okay," Linda said as she walked towards the switch. It was near the door.

"Let me do it," James said as he held her forearm to keep her from going.

"Dude! Don't be weird!" She said as she forcefully removed her forearm from his grip.

He couldn't say anything because she was already moving towards the switch.

She felt bad because of the way they sat awkwardly almost at the edge of the sofa, a huge distance away from the lady. The allergy must've been the cause of the nasty odor emanating from her body. But nobody deserved to be treated that way...

She turned off the switch which was just like a light bulb switch to turn and find the lady standing behind her with her mouth open and drool dripping out of her mouth.

"Uhm... I've switched it off," she said half hoping that the lady didn't notice that she startled her. The lady was coming closer to her that she was so tempted to pinch her nostrils close with her fingers. What a nauseating odor!

"Why didn't you open the door on time you crazy girl? ! " she screamed and pounced on her.

Before Linda could even get out of the way she found herself on the floor trying to defend herself from the lady. She completely forgot about the odor she gave and held her arms trying to hold the aggressive lady from reaching for her.

"What is wrong with you?" Linda screamed and nearly got the drool from the lady's mouth into hers. Linda's strengthened upper limbs were getting into flexed positions as the force from the aggressive lady grew wilder and stronger. The lady didn't seem to throw punches like anyone who wanted to fight. Instead, she was aiming to bite any part of her body that she could reach...

"Why does everyone want to bite other people today? What's wrong with everyone?"

The lady was fine moments ago but then she was behaving like the cannibal they saw outside a few minutes ago.