Chapter 19 Intimidation Check
Intimidation Check
The recreation room’s overhead lights flickered sporadically, casting shifting shadows across the bolted door. Levi pressed his ear against the cold metal, listening for voices from the corridor beyond. The muffled sound of his teammates calling his name made his chest tighten with guilt.
“They’re looking for us,” he said, pulling back from the door.
Asher sat cross-legged on the floor, examining the door’s locking mechanism.
“They won’t find us. These old hospital doors.
.. once they seal, they don’t open again until the building’s electrical systems reset.
” He glanced up at Levi with those unsettling eyes. “We’re stuck here together until then.”
Unless we die first. The thought carried less terror than it should have. Death meant reset. Reset meant another chance.
Levi turned away from the door, scanning the room. Pool table, dusty chairs, and recreational equipment scattered across shelves. The space felt designed to mock—a place meant for leisure that became a prison.
“There has to be another way out,” he muttered, running his hands along the walls. “Hidden passages, maintenance access, something.”
“Looking for secrets?” Asher stood with fluid grace, moving to the opposite wall. “I can help with that.”
Levi kept his distance, maintaining the length of the room between them as they worked. But the space felt smaller with each passing minute, Asher’s presence a constant pressure against his peripheral vision.
“Here,” Asher called softly. “Something’s different about this section.”
Levi approached warily, noting how Asher stepped back to give him space. The gesture felt calculated—a predator demonstrating restraint to lull prey into complacency. But the wall panel Asher indicated did look different, the wood grain slightly off from the surrounding sections.
“It’s got to open somehow.” Levi ran his fingers along the visible seam. “But I don’t see a handle or—”
Asher’s hand moved past his shoulder, fingertips brushing Levi’s knuckles as he pressed on a circular pattern in the woodgrain. The contact lasted only seconds, but it made the hair on the back of Levi’s neck stand on end.
“Sorry,” Asher murmured, not sounding sorry at all. “Had to reach around you.”
The panel swung inward with a soft click, revealing a narrow corridor that disappeared into darkness. Stale air wafted out, carrying the scent of dust and something else—something organic and wrong.
“We’re really going in there?” Levi asked, though he was already pulling out his flashlight.
“Unless you prefer to wait here until morning.” Asher’s voice carried a hint of amusement. “I promise I’ll go first. Shield you from whatever’s lurking in the walls.”
The offer should have been reassuring. Instead, it made Levi’s skin crawl. He remembered other promises, other assurances whispered in moments before violence. But the alternative was spending the night trapped in the rec room, and his instincts screamed that staying still meant death.
“Fine,” Levi said, gesturing toward the opening. “But keep your distance. And your hands to yourself.”
Asher’s smile was barely visible. “Of course. I’ll be a gentleman.”
The maintenance corridor was wide enough for single-file movement, with pipes and electrical conduits running along the walls.
Their footsteps echoed strangely in the confined space, and Levi fought the urge to reach out and touch Asher’s back for reassurance.
The man ahead of him had killed him multiple times.
His proximity should inspire terror, not comfort.
But the darkness pressed in from all sides, and Asher’s solid presence felt like the only stable thing in a world gone mad.
“This doesn’t match the floor plans,” Levi said, consulting his phone’s photos of the hospital schematics. “We should have hit the main corridor by now.”
“This place feels wrong,” Asher replied, his voice floating back through the narrow space. “Like it’s bigger than it should be.”
They emerged into a wider junction with multiple corridors branching off in different directions.
The architectural details didn’t match the rest of the building.
Victorian-era wallpaper peeled from the walls in long strips, and the floor tiles were cracked and stained with substances Levi didn’t want to identify.
Like entering a hidden area that wasn’t supposed to exist, a glitch in the world geometry.
“This wasn’t on any blueprint,” Levi breathed, turning in a slow circle to take in their surroundings.
“No,” Asher agreed, moving closer than their previous distance allowed.
A sound echoed from the darkness ahead—low, resonant, and distinctly inhuman. It seemed to come from everywhere at once, vibrating through the walls and into their bones. Levi’s blood turned to ice water in his veins.
“W-what was that?” he whispered.
Before Asher could answer, the sound came again—closer, more distinct. It was part growl, part mechanical grinding, part something that made Levi’s mind recoil from classification.
Asher’s hand closed around his wrist. “This way. Quickly.”
Levi jerked back instinctively. “Don’t—”
“Now, Levi.” Asher’s voice carried desperate urgency. “It’s coming this way.”
The sound was approaching, accompanied by a dragging noise that suggested something massive moving through the corridors. Levi’s survival instincts overrode his boundary rules, and he let Asher pull him toward a narrow door marked “Supplies”.
The space beyond was a cramped broom closet, barely large enough for one person, let alone two. Asher pulled the door shut behind them just as something huge scraped past in the corridor outside.
Levi’s hand flew to his mouth, stifling a gasp. Behind him, Asher’s arm wrapped around his waist, holding him steady and still until it passed.
The closet’s confines forced them into intimate proximity—Asher’s chest pressed against Levi’s back, his breath warm against Levi’s neck. They remained frozen in place, neither daring to move as the sounds faded into the distance.
“Don’t move,” Asher whispered, his lips brushing the shell of Levi’s ear. “It might come back.”
Minutes stretched endlessly as they stood in darkness, Asher’s arm tightening around his waist. The shared body heat between them turned the closet stifling, increasing Levi’s awareness of each point of contact.
“I think it’s gone,” Levi whispered, nudging his elbow back, trying to create space between them.
“Can I tell you a secret?” Asher asked, his voice low enough that Levi felt the vibration against his shoulder blades. “Something important.”
Against his better judgment, Levi nodded, feeling Asher’s chin brush his hair with the slight movement.
Asher’s lips moved closer to his ear, his breath ghosting over sensitive skin. “I liked holding you all those times you were dying,” he murmured. “But I like this too.”
Levi jerked forward, slamming into the metal shelving with a clatter that seemed deafening in the confined space. He spun to face Asher, back pressed against the shelves, heart hammering against his ribs.
“W-what did you say?” he demanded, voice hoarse with sudden fear.
Asher remained still like a predator. “You know what I said.”
The closet felt like a trap—Asher between Levi and the only exit, the air thick with unspoken threats. All pretense of changed nature, of cooperation, evaporated in the wake of those whispered words.
He’s testing me, Levi realized. Seeing how far he can push before I break.
“You promised,” Levi reminded him, hand fumbling for anything weapon-like on the shelves behind him. “You said you were going to be a gentleman.”
“I am being a gentleman,” Asher replied, making no move to approach. “But I remember what I did to you.” His head tilted slightly. “What I still want to do to you.”
Levi’s fingers closed around a screwdriver, gripping it like a lifeline. “St-stay back.”
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Asher said with chilling composure. “But I’m not going to lie about what I am either.” He stepped aside, clearing the path to the door. “I want you to trust me.”
The gesture should have been reassuring, but it only heightened Levi’s unease. This calculated manipulation felt more dangerous than outright threats—Asher testing boundaries, revealing his true nature in controlled doses to see how Levi would react.
“We should keep moving,” Asher continued as if nothing happened. “That thing will circle back.”
Levi kept the screwdriver clutched in his white-knuckled grip as he edged toward the door, unwilling to turn his back on Asher again. The momentary illusion of trust shattered, leaving only the hard reality that his companion remained what he had always been—a predator playing a longer game.
“After you,” Levi said coldly, gesturing toward the corridor with his makeshift weapon.
Levi maintained careful distance between them, the screwdriver a comforting weight in his palm. Whatever game Asher was playing, whatever his true intentions, one thing became crystal clear:
The monster hadn’t changed. It had simply learned patience.