Hallway

The blood made love to the cold steel floor. Soon, it mingled with different families of DNA.

The dimmed corridor exploded with screams; it was the situation everyone who worked there shoved into the back office drawer of their minds, putting their worries at rest with assurances that they'd obviously watched too many movies, and that the Authority was too organized and prepared to let this nightmare scenario happen.

Yet those screams didn't come from the animal inside them, it came from those mental drawers. It blew open from its place in the back of the office and took control of their ears, mouths, their heads.


Their heads.

It was so easy. Pushing its metal fingers through their bodies was like swiping air. The damned thing swiped left and right with the audacity to indulge. Sounds of ripping and squelching replaced the noisy wails. New parts, different colours, though mostly red, sprang out of them like a surprise. They were like a piñata, the mere notion of having those parts and colours hidden from the non-acting eye of the monster must have meant that they were begging to be revealed. A gift.

Gifts danced down the hallway.

It turned, after smashing into the metal wall forgetting that these strange paths change direction. As it did, its pupils, or whatever they were functionally identical to, dilated, gorging its eyes with the image of even more gifts than it ever saw at once before. It would smile if its physiology allowed it. Though the only thing recognizable as human it had was its face, protruding up and forward from its base, a long neck defined with smooth ridges all the way along, biological wires wrapping around it which were as organized as the creature was ignorant of the weight of its swipes. That face could only ever present itself with a detached, sedated emotion. The only thing about it that was able move was its eyes. It couldn't move its mouth, its cheeks, its jaw. It was forced to express nothing to the outside world, despite the glee that filled its body like blood.

Another wave of swiping ensued, naturally, and the wretched came about a revelation. If it swiped what connected their bodies to their strange screaming domes, they would instantly stop.

Its form was a cacophony of alien body parts. Impossible biological artifacts and organs bushed around the creature, like a copy-paste image editor joke only the devil could have found funny enough to produce. Towards the back end, its uncountable legs roughly resembled the configuration of a grasshopper.

The manifestation of impulse began its experiment on the scientists. It swiped only their necks. One, two, three, the heads flew across the hallway like a mass champagne-popping. Seeing what splew and gushed out of their bottlenecks tasted better than any drink this world had to offer. It sped up, the whole corridor rising in panic to match.

The symphony of death marched forward. These gifts were its choir, and it was the conductor.

It must have been the center of existence. How couldn't it be? Goals and dreams, entire pasts were laid in front. Flesh, inanimate, a complete void was laid behind.

And only 2.53 meters of craggy, yellow-stained, biomechanical hell separated them.


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