Chapter 43 Fetch Quest
Fetch Quest
Consciousness returned with the violence of drowning in reverse.
Levi’s lungs burned as they expanded, greedily gulping air he’d been denied in his final moments.
His skin prickled with gooseflesh against the cold concrete floor beneath him and a metallic taste coated his tongue—blood or fear or memory, he couldn’t tell.
His hand flew to his throat as he gasped, his fingertips finding the tender bruise Asher left.
This didn’t reset.
Why didn’t it reset? Is it permanent?
The thought should have disgusted him. Instead, his fingers lingered on the bruise, the slight pain a strange comfort.
He’d been swept away in the flooded maintenance passage. Separated from Asher. Drowned in the building's hidden systems. And now—
He was somewhere new?
Levi pushed himself upright, wincing at the protest of muscles that remembered dying even if his reset body didn’t bear the evidence.
Decay hung heavy in the air, the musty smell of abandonment overlaid with something sharper and less natural.
Formaldehyde and other, less identifiable substances.
The room had high ceilings, large windows covered with metal shutters, medical equipment arranged in tiers like a classroom or—
An observation deck.
He patted his overstuffed pockets. He still had the blueprints, the journal, a notepad, and the keys. Everything was where it was supposed to be, except…
“Asher?” His voice sounded wrong in the cavernous space, small and tight and far too desperate. He tried again, louder this time. “Asher!”
Only silence answered.
A hollow ache spread through his chest, radiating outward from a point just beneath his sternum. It hurt, like hunger and thirst and being shot all at once, but sharper. He felt like he couldn’t breathe again.
I can’t do this without him. I don’t want to be alone.
He needed to move. Find Asher. Find the third key. Escape this nightmare. But his feet felt leaden, his body unwilling to venture further into the darkness alone.
A noise echoed from somewhere in the corridor outside, followed by what might have been a whispered conversation. Levi froze, straining to hear.
”—swear I heard something—” The voice was familiar. Jasper?
”—probably another of those fucking things—” That was definitely Elliot.
Levi moved toward the door, relief washing through him. I’m not alone after all. “Jasper? Elliot? It’s Levi!”
Silence, then hurried footsteps. Two figures appeared in the doorway, both looking like they’d been through hell.
Jasper’s face was streaked with dirt and dried blood, his normally relaxed posture rigid with tension.
Elliot’s designer clothes were torn and filthy, his left arm bleeding and held protectively against his chest.
“Jesus, man.” Jasper’s voice cracked with relief. “We thought you were dead!”
“Tyler and Maddie?” Levi asked, though he already knew the answer.
“Who?”
Fuck.
“Where’s your psycho boyfriend?” Elliot asked, scanning the room nervously.
“He’s not—” Levi began, then stopped himself. What was Asher, exactly? Tormentor? Ally? Something else entirely? “We got separated. I don’t know where he is.”
“We need to get out of here,” Elliot said, his voice tight with barely controlled panic. “This place, it’s not just haunted or whatever bullshit we thought. It’s alive. It’s hunting us.”
“We can’t leave yet,” Levi replied. “We need the third key.”
“Fuck your keys, man! We’re going to die in here!”
“The keys are how we escape,” Levi insisted. “There’s a central control room. If we can access it, we can shut down the building’s systems. It’s our only chance.”
A distant sound interrupted them—a wet, thumping noise punctuated by a rhythmic clicking. All three froze, eyes darting toward the partially open door.
“One of them is coming,” Jasper whispered, backing away from the entrance. “We need to hide.”
“What? What’s coming?” Levi asked, but Jasper was already pulling him toward the tiered seating area.
“Trust me, you don’t want to find out. Those things—they’re not like the traps. They’re...they were people once.”
The sound grew closer—the unmistakable patter of bare feet on tile, moving with an irregular cadence.
Click-slide-thump.
They crouched behind the lowest tier of seats, breathing shallow and controlled. Levi risked a glance toward the door just as a figure appeared in the entrance.
His stomach dropped.
The shape of it was human, but its proportions were wrong, limbs too long, and its neck bent at an unnatural angle.
Its skin stretched taut over elongated bones, giving its face a skull-like appearance except for the mouth, which gaped wide to reveal rows of broken, discolored teeth.
It moved with jerking, spider-like motions, head ticking a few degrees with a soft clicking sound with every step.
But the worst part was its eyes—still human, still aware, watching with terrible intelligence as it scanned the room.
Those eyes found Levi’s, and the creature’s mouth stretched into what might have been a smile.
“Run,” Jasper breathed. “Now!”
They bolted from their hiding place as the creature let out a wet, gurgling screech.
Levi darted for the secondary exit at the back of the observation deck, Jasper and Elliot close behind.
The creature moved with terrifying speed, skittering across the floor and leaping onto the walls like an insect.
The corridor beyond the observation deck was narrower, lined with frosted glass windows that cast everything in a diffuse, bluish glow. Levi sprinted ahead, heart pounding against his ribs like it might break through.
Behind him, Elliot screamed. Levi glanced back to see that the creature had pounced on Jasper instead. They tumbled to the floor in a tangle of limbs—too many limbs—as Jasper fought to keep the creature’s snapping jaws from his throat.
“Go!” Jasper shouted. “Just fucking go!”
Elliot scrambled to his feet and raced past Levi, disappearing around a corner. Levi hesitated, watching in horror as Jasper struggled beneath the creature. He won’t come back if it gets him. He’ll disappear forever, too.
“I said go!” Jasper’s voice broke on the words, face contorted with effort.
I’m sorry, Jasper.
Levi backed away, then turned and ran. The wet sounds of struggle faded behind him, replaced by the thunder of his pulse in his ears. The corridor forked and he chose the right branch, following the signs for “Staff Observation.”
He burst through a set of double doors into what appeared to be another, smaller observation area.
Unlike the main deck, this one had no tiers, just a single row of chairs facing a large window and a table with a metal tray of scalpels and syringes.
The shutters were open, revealing a surgical theater below.
Levi slammed the doors behind him, fumbling with the manual lock. It wouldn’t hold the creature for long, but it might buy him precious seconds.
Movement in his peripheral vision made him spin around. There was another one of those creatures inside, crouched in the corner, watching him with those horrible, aware eyes.
“Fuck,” Levi gasped, backing toward the window. His shoulders hit the cold glass, nowhere left to retreat.
The creature tilted its head with several clicks, almost curious, then began to advance with its jerky, unnatural gait.
Levi’s hand closed around a metal chair, the only potential weapon within reach. He lifted it, knowing it would do little against the thing approaching him. His arms trembled with exhaustion and fear.
The creature lunged.
A blur of motion intercepted it. Two forms collided with bone-jarring force, crashing into the row of chairs with a metallic clatter. Levi blinked, brain struggling to process what he was seeing.
Asher.