The sound came again.
A low skitter. Not quite like footsteps—lighter, sharper. It echoed from the hallway just beyond the kitchen entrance, scraping through the silence like claws on tile.
I froze, the last bits of mutant roach blood still caked under my fingernails.
"Of course something's out there," I muttered, standing slowly. My legs ached, my jaw still sore from the gnawing insanity of moments ago. "Because why not."
I peeked around the corner, pulse in my throat.
The hallway was dim but not quite dark, lit by the eerie blue shimmer of mana still floating lazily through the air. It gave the corridor a dreamlike quality. If I didn't know better, I'd almost call it beautiful.
Then I saw them.
Three massive spiders, each the size of a retriever, crouched in the corridor. Their hairy legs were matted with dust and grime, and their eyes—there had to be at least a dozen per face—gleamed with wet reflections. Disheveled, twitchy, feral. Like someone had taken a normal spider, fed it radioactive steroids, and dropped it into a blender full of nightmares.
They saw me the same moment I saw them.
And they charged.
I turned and bolted.
My breath came fast and raw, each footfall slamming against the tile. The spiders clicked and hissed, their claws scraping against the walls as they galloped after me—faster, faster than they had any right to be.
I didn't even dare look back. "Not today, you hairy—"
Then… silence.
No impact. No claws sinking into my back.
No pain.
I slowed, heart pounding.
The spiders had passed me. All three of them. Rushed right by like I didn't even exist.
I doubled over, wheezing out something between a laugh and a cough. "Okay. Okay, so maybe not everything in here wants to kill me. That's good atleast."
Then I felt it.
Cold.
Water began wrapping around my ankles. I looked down, and my breath caught in my throat.
A steady, shimmering stream was pouring out of the walls. Not from pipes—through the walls. The metal and concrete seemed to sweat liquid, and the water that gathered was rising fast.
"No no no—"
The spiders weren't running from me. They were running from this.
I turned and sprinted the other direction, the way I had come. The corridor forked there—two paths. Only one mattered now.
The room I had first woken up in.
"Please, still be there," I breathed, slipping as I rounded the corner. My shoes slapped against the now-flooded floor, splashing with each step.
I reached the far end of the hall. Rubble blocked the passage—collapsed support beams, shattered screens, a cascade of debris.
Behind it was the room. My room. The only place I knew had four intact walls.
I clawed at the pile, fingers bleeding, nails scraping against jagged metal. The water was up to my knees now, cold and biting. I slipped once, went down hard, and gasped as the flood soaked through my clothes.
"Come on, come on—!"
Finally, the last beam gave way. I stumbled forward and collapsed into the familiar space, gasping. Water surged in behind me like a second monster.
I didn't stop running.
Down the hallway. Past the break room—where we used to huddle during lunch. I remembered Yuki's terrible jokes, and how Jaime always hogged the microwave.
Gone now.
The lab blurred past, glass tanks long since shattered, wires hanging like mechanical vines. I remembered arguing with Dr. Ko about satellite trajectories while eating dried apricots. Her hair always smelled like rosemary. She hated apricots.
Gone, too.
I couldn't tell if the water on my face was from the flood or my own tears. Maybe both.
Then something clicked in my mind—two mounds. Two bodies. Just two.
There'd been more people in that room before.
What if they had survived?
What if they'd been buried, like I had? Trapped, not dead?
My stomach clenched. I'd already ruined everyone's life. I'd launched the fucking black hole. Gotten people killed. Maybe all of humanity.
And if I could save one person now… maybe it would lift some of this unbearable weight crushing my chest.
I skidded to a halt.
Behind me, water surged through the cracked hallway, seeping in through the gap I'd torn in the rubble. It wouldn't be long before this room filled completely. Everything would be buried under water, under silence.
I looked back.
At the labs. The laughter. The people I'd known.
And then I looked forward.
To a ruined world. To something new. Something I didn't understand. Mana. Mutated creatures. Madness.
I stood still for a moment, suspended in decision.
Then whispered, "I'm sorry." as I turned forward, walking away from the memories. From the mistakes. From the people who weren't coming back.
My soaked shoes echoed in the hallway as I left them behind.
But not forgotten.
Just… forgiven.
For now.