One

For some reason, Hayley's phone went off in an alarm, despite it having the earphones plugged; because of that, the officers noticed. They went to Hayley and took her phone, and they smashed against the ground.

Joey was outraged and confronted the duo, but the one of the officers simply kicked him back to his seat. Cindy was about to rise too, but the other officer didn’t have much kindness… He simply pointed his rifle at her head.

“One more mistake like that and both of you are meat for them. They just want that! They just want to be known!”  One of the officers said. He was an imposing man of dark skin and black hair.

His partner, a pale-skinned man of brown hair and beard, simply stood silent by his side. He seemed quite fidgety, and all he did was being back-up for his fellow officer. I also noticed something… While the first officer had a name tag, Lt. A. Shane, the second didn’t have anything. He noticed my staring, and quickly motioned his gun, shielding his reaction behind Lieutenant Shane´s threat.

There was something wrong with that guy… But I couldn’t see what. Something about him didn’t quite seem right. He was very pale… and his uniform was rather messy, with some parts of it being very tattered and ripped open, a complete contrast to Shane’s immaculate outfit. I was about to make a comment, but I felt a terrible stare… So powerful, and… and horrible… My mind froze… I forgot about making the comment… I don’t even remember what it was about.

We were all very uncomfortable… The silence was very unnerving. Save for an occasional weak meow from Oscar, nobody dared to make a sound. The poor pussycat didn’t look well; it was very lethargic and barely reacted to Louise’s attentions…

After five hours of long travel, according to Joey’s watch, we disembarked. It was a peculiar zone... A small town, but it didn’t feel quite British. Perhaps it was a Welsh zone? I don’t know… But I am positive we aren’t in England any more.

The officers escorted us through the small town. It wasn’t even a town, but rather an assortment of buildings spread through an open field. We stopped in front of one of those buildings. One big hangar with big metallic double doors. The white officer went to open the doors, but they didn’t budge. He shook them, kicked them… They weren’t opening.

Lieutenant Shane went to help him. The two battled for some time, until the doors suddenly swung open after a violent kick from the mysterious agent… Inside the hangar, there were a lot of crates and containers… and a little set of stairways going downwards.

The unnamed officer looked at them quizzically, before proceeding. Once down… what we saw was amazing…

It was a town underground, a pretty big town, probably extending kilometers. Save for the metallic streets and roof and the lack of a sun, this place could pass for a neighbourhood. There was a decent illumination system, mainly streetlights and huge lamps hanging from the roof.

Lieutenant Shane turned to the group, and spoke in his deep, threatening voice. “This will be temporal. Try to not get too comfortable. Any weird behaviour…” He cocked his gun and adjusted the cartridge.

Immediately, the six of us went looking for a good flat, one far from the entrance of the town. There were many rows of houses, all looking exactly the same. The southernmost rows seemed a bit different; they had a blue and purple paintjob, and happened to strike a good impression on Cindy and Hayley.

We picked two adjacent houses, just in case. Strangely, a sudden weariness brought down Hayley and Anderson, discouraging them from going further into the place. We were feeling quite energetic. We were exploring our new house… A bit basic, two rooms, a kitchen, two bathrooms… And the décor certainly made Cindy retch.

“Who the hell taught Feng Shui to these guys? Even a donkey can see that this pattern stinks!”

I didn’t pay much attention to her ramblings; I was focused on her phone.  It was buzzing with tweets, messages and whatnot. If these guys hate information spreading… why do they have free Wi-Fi? I looked, she had a voicemail.

“TROY HAS BEEN BREACHED.”

It was the voice from the Chemist Shop. I was shocked. I heard a noise, some things falling to the ground… Cindy was frozen on her tracks, and a jar's broken pieces were lying on the ground. I turned off the phone immediately after hearing that abominable voice.

It took us some time before we could recover from the scare. It was helped by some soft whispering… a small, gentle noise that slowly took the worries away…

“There’s no need to be afraid.”

It was a soft noise, barely audible. What we could hear, was very relaxing, it was a sweet voice appealing to our tiredness. I suddenly began marching towards my bed… Cindy did too, as weariness began taking its toll on our bodies.

“You don’t have to be afraid.”

We felt very sleepy, our march suddenly became a tired, shambling gait. Had not the wish to meet our beds been keeping us awake, we might as well be sleeping on the floor. But we went on, reaching for our room. We saw our bed, waiting for us…

“Nothing has been real… all wa-“

The whispering stopped. And with it, that marvelous feeling vanished. In my dazed state, I saw something moving on my bed. It was dark and I couldn’t see it… but it was there. I swear…

“Run. Run. RUN!!”

I was confused. I was still sleepy… but then I heard most horrible of noises… Like metal scratching a blackboard mixed with the screech of a woman. I looked at the bed. There was a man, his shadowed outline indicating he was crouched on our mattress. Where his head should be, two horrific yellow orbs flickered…

“Run… NOW!”

The lights were suddenly on, revealing a monstrous figure. It was… so malformed… so horrible… That chalk white skin… Those metallic claws…

The creature pounced at us. It jumped from the bed to me, landing squarely in my chest. The air rushed out of me as I felt to the ground.  The beast then focused on Cindy, pinning her to the floor the same way it did with me.

It dragged her close to me, and stood on top of us. My heart was pumping hard, and the creature liked it. It smiled, flashing needle-like black teeth… I tried to move out of its way, breath was slowly returning to me… But it stomped our stomachs, disabling us again. It lowered its head, so we could hear the horrific plan he had for us.

“Best meal… ages.”

It then raised both of his claws, and was about to bring them down, when a loud sound invaded the room. The smell of gunpowder came to us… And the creature was recoiling. We turned to see the unnamed officer shooting down the monster.

The monster hissed at the man, before a shot went through his mouth. It began retching, spitting a black foul blood. I think it was shocked to see it, and it was about to recede...But it noticed that Cindy was still close to it.

He is raising his claw... God...

NO!!!

.....

.....

The beast vanished. It simply disappeared… No smoke, no light… It was there, and in a minute, it wasn’t. I was too shocked… I was still… trying to comprehend what I saw…. But Cindy... God.... No... Why?