NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 4 – In The Storage Room
I thought of myself as a realist.
The supernatural just seemed like a load of shit to me.
Ghosts, urban legends, demons, or monsters…
I thought such things were man-made concepts to invoke a feeling of fear for entertainment.
Those who seek supernatural experiences are usually driven by their innate desire to deviate from the normal.
Perhaps it was to add a bit of spice in their mundane life.
To me, such people seemed childish and insane.
If they told me that monsters existed, I would’ve told them to screw off and stay away from me.
But…
Right now…
I started to understand the sensation that such people were addicted to.
For the second time in my life, I could feel my blood boiling.
And my heartbeat ringing all the way to my ears.
This time, it wasn’t due to feelings of fake love for an introverted girl who had cheated on me…
Was this the excitement they were looking for?
No…
This was fear.
The fear of dying to something so grotesque and horrifying…
I didn’t want to fathom what would happen to me.
The tall man spread his two arms out wide.
Then erupting from his back, 6 more arms came into view.
His pumpkin-like face horrendously became disfigured.
Starting from his mouth, the skin on his face horrifically stretched and tore apart.
His grin was now a wide jaw, spanning all the way to his neck.
Inside, his tongue stretched and split off into 4 directions.
The 4 tongues dangled outside of his mouth.
I tightened my grip on the crash bar.
What the hell… Am I looking at right now?
We both stared at each other for a few seconds. Sparing each other never a single blink.
Soon… The single light bulb, emitting the only light in the storage room, began to sway back and forth.
Swish… Swish… Swish…
Click!
It flickered once.
The girl’s body was gone.
Click!
It flickered again.
The table was no longer in front of the man.
Now there were no obstacles in the monster’s way.
Swish… Swish… Swish…
Click!
As electricity breathed life into the bulb for the last time.
Everything went dark.
…
Dud…
Dududududududu Dududududududu-!
I could hear the monster running towards me.
Fuck!
I threw myself into the darkness, away from the emergency exit.
The monster smashed into the emergency door…
Sparks from the door’s halogen lights were emitted for the last time.
Dimly lighting the monster’s face.
It was smiling.
Then both the monster and door vanished into the darkness, just like the broken ceiling lights.
Fuck… I can’t see shit!
My phone’s flashlight function-
No wait, what if that thing sees it and comes towards me.
Can it see me in the dark?
No…
It would’ve lunged towards me by now…
Then why did it break the lights?!
Wait…
Is it playing with me..?
Don’t fuck with me!
…
I was surrounded by pure darkness.
Everything was silent, except for my breathing.
I’m scared.
What the fuck do I do?!
…
T-There’s no other way… I’ve gotta risk it, otherwise I can’t navigate my way out of here!
I took out my phone and flashed my light into the darkness.
But the situation became even stranger.
Was the storage room always this long?!
The ceiling remained unchanged.
But the storage room itself was now as wide as an ikea aisle.
I couldn’t see the walls.
There were too many shelving racks overlapping one another.
”I
SEE
YOU..!”
I could see the monster clinging onto the ceiling like a goddamn spider.
Crawling towards the aisle I was in, it dropped down and started sprinting towards me.
It was propelling its body with both its legs and lower arms to gain acceleration.
Shit!
I started sprinting in-between and through the shelves.
Occasionally, I thrashed down the racks behind me.
I spared no second to look back.
At this point, I was unsure of where I was going.
It felt like a mouse chase in an enclosed maze… But with racks surrounding us, filled with convenience store supplies.
I-I’m running out of breath… Shit..!
If I get too exhausted it’ll catch up to me.
And then it'll... To me...
Think! Think! Think!
What do I do?!
Right now, the light was giving away my location.
Even if I turn it off, it’ll just check the area where it last saw the light.
I have an idea but…
Damn it, this is the only thing I can do!
I’ve got no alternative!
I postured my body and then threw my phone, with the light still on, as far as possible.
Then I ran in the opposite direction.
And stood still.
…
Darkness… Again.
From the direction towards the phone, I could hear the monster’s frustrated cries.
“Around here… Somewhere…!
Where are you..? WHERE ARE YOU!?”
I sat down and muffled my intense breathing.
At this point there was nothing I could do.
No light source, no plan, and no exit in sight.
Will I starve to death before that thing finds me..?
Fuck…