Chapter 37: The Thing in the Walls

The moment Adrian vanished, the room shuddered.

The lights flickered violently. The red emergency glow turned into a chaotic strobe, casting jagged shadows across the lab.

Then—the screeching.

It came from the hallway. Deep. Piercing. Wrong.

Blaze barked wildly, teeth bared. Shadow's fur bristled, her body low to the ground, ready to strike.

Noah gritted his teeth. "Oh, fantastic. As if glowing Adrian wasn't enough—now we've got another freak show coming for us."

Ethan pushed down the rising dread. "We need to move. Now."

Valerie was already scanning the room. "There has to be another exit."

A deafening crash cut through the air—the walls cracked. Something huge slammed against them from the other side.

The structure groaned, dust and debris raining down from the ceiling.

Then, they saw it.

The wall… was breathing.

The Horror Revealed

The entire left side of the lab had warped.

What was once solid concrete pulsed, shifted, bubbled.

And then—it ripped open.

A gaping fissure split through the wall, revealing something beyond it.

Something alive.

Ethan's stomach churned. "What the hell—"

From the darkness, it emerged.

A twisted mass of limbs and sinew, its form constantly shifting. Golden veins pulsed across its grotesque body, the same glow that burned in Adrian's eyes.

But this thing wasn't like Adrian.

It wasn't human anymore.

Its mouth—if it had one—opened, stretching too wide, revealing rows of jagged, shifting teeth.

Then it screamed.

The sound ripped through the lab, vibrating in their skulls. Blaze whimpered, tail between his legs. Shadow hissed, ears pinned back.

The thing lunged.

The Escape

"MOVE!" Ethan shouted.

They scattered as the creature crashed into the room, its shifting limbs splintering metal and glass on impact.

Noah grabbed a chair and hurled it at the thing. It passed through its body—like throwing a rock into a pool of thick, shifting tar.

"Yeah, okay, that was dumb," Noah muttered, backing away fast.

Valerie fired a shot. The bullet hit, but the creature barely reacted—the wound sealing almost instantly, its flesh rippling unnaturally.

"We can't fight this thing!" Olivia yelled.

Ethan's mind raced. "Then we run."

There—a broken vent near the back.

"Through there!" he pointed.

Noah didn't hesitate. "For once, I love your terrible ideas."

One by one, they scrambled into the vent, Blaze and Shadow diving in first.

Ethan was last—just as the creature lunged again.

The twisted mass of limbs slammed into the wall beside him, inches from his leg.

He kicked off the ground, hauling himself into the vent, just as the thing let out another inhuman screech.

Then—darkness.

Trapped in the Maze

The vents stretched ahead, tight and claustrophobic.

The only sounds were their ragged breathing and the faint drip of water echoing somewhere below.

Valerie crawled ahead. "We need to find an exit before that thing figures out where we went."

Noah's voice was tense. "And what if it already knows?"

Silence.

Ethan didn't want to consider that.

Blaze whined softly. Shadow's tail flicked, her ears twitching.

Then—a noise.

A whisper.

Not from behind them.

Not from ahead.

From within the vents.

Ethan's blood ran cold.

"…We're not alone."

And then the vent shook.

Something was crawling toward them.

Fast.