Chapter 11
“Lionel!”
He ignored the call of his name from behind him, not wanting to lose the creature as it ran for its life.
These monsters were the only thing in this building that might be able to point him toward what was going on.
So, Lionel followed after it, catching a glimpse of its foot as it pulled itself into an open apartment.
“No, you don’t,” Lionel muttered, catching the door just before it closed entirely. He pulled it open just in time to see the creature disappear entirely into the wall. Unlike the other times he’d seen one of the creatures phase through solid drywall, this time it made a hole in its wake.
Lionel’s footsteps faltered, stumbling as he walked through the apartment to the far side.
As he got closer, he realized it wasn’t just a simple hole cut into it; the space inside was too dark, too endless.
He frowned as he leaned closer, shifting on his feet as he peered inside it.
He couldn’t see anything—not even the creature that had disappeared a moment before.
“Stop.” Lionel jumped as a hand came down hard on the wall right beside the rip.
He stared up at Mads, whose expression was stern, jaw clenched, and eyes narrowed at Lionel.
Mads’ shoulders and legs were tensed as though ready to lunge at Lionel if he did anything wrong. “Don’t,” Mads said, shaking his head.
“What is this?” Lionel asked, looking back at the rip and taking another step toward it. Mads stepped in front of him, putting his body fully in between him and the wall, and grabbed his shoulders. Lionel flinched at how hard his grip was, his fingers digging into his skin.
“Don’t,” Mads repeated.
Lionel peered up at him, eyebrows raised. “What is it?” he asked again. “It’s not just a hole in the wall. Inside is weird, maybe this is where the creatures are coming from—like a hive or—”
“I think we should leave it alone,” Mads interrupted.
“What?” Lionel asked, baffled. “This might be how we get out of here.”
“If it’s where the creatures are coming from, why would it help us escape?”
Lionel pursed his lips, considering the question before saying, “I still think we should check it out. Maybe there are answers inside—”
“You want to go inside the weird rift in the wall where monsters are coming out of?” Mads asked him, stressing the ridiculousness of Lionel’s idea.
“Do you have any better ideas?” Lionel asked, throwing his hands up.
“Yeah, not walking right into the hands of the creatures,” Mads said. Lionel tried to shake Mads’ hands off of him and push past him, but he was far stronger than he looked. He held Lionel in place and asked, “Why do you want to get yourself killed?”
“I don’t want to. I just want answers,” Lionel said, his voice rising. “Why are you so resigned to us being stuck in here? Why aren’t you trying to figure out how to get out?”
“I am,” Mads insisted. “I just don’t think this is the way!”
Lionel shoved Mads’ hands off and took a step back this time, glaring at him.
Mads kept his hands out toward him, looking like he didn’t trust Lionel not to try to run past him again.
His features shifted from pinched with anger to dropping in concern as he asked, “Are you okay? How did you even find this?”
“I just followed the creature,” Lionel muttered.
Mads looked back over his shoulder, eyes scanning over the rip before taking a few steps away from it. “Come on, let’s just find somewhere safe to go and rest—”
“I’m sick of resting,” Lionel snapped. “We rested all yesterday evening and night-”
“We were interrupted during the night,” Mads reminded him. “You don’t look too good, Lionel—”
“I’m fine,” he said. “I just… want to get out of here.”
“I know,” Mads said, voice softening as he stepped closer to Lionel. He put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it in comfort, the touch feeling so different from just a moment ago when he had grabbed Lionel so roughly. “Let’s just… did you find another safe area?”
“It was the apartment with that woman creature,” Lionel said. “It didn’t look like it had been touched besides her.”
“Then let’s go there for a while to just… get ourselves settled.” Mads glanced over his shoulder at the wall again as though waiting for something to crawl through it.
Lionel nodded and followed him out and back to their original safe haven.
The snow had already accumulated so much in just the short time that they had been away that it came up to Lionel’s knees. “How is it so deep?” Lionel asked as he opened the door, the snow collapsing out into the hallway without the structure in place.
“You were gone for several hours,” Mads said.
Lionel turned to him, eyes round, “Was I?”
Mads nodded, “It had been about two and a half hours for me when I came to find you.”
“It had barely been twenty minutes for me,” Lionel murmured. He didn’t like how much this place messed with everything that should be consistent.
Lionel’s head pounded as he grabbed the bags that Mads had put up on the kitchen counters. They had a thick layer of snow on them already as well, and Lionel wondered how many hours had passed in here while they were arguing.
Luckily, it only took them one trip to carry everything to the new space.
Lionel looked around when they entered, prepared for another creature to be hiding in plain sight.
While Mads got everything organized, Lionel walked around through each room and checked more thoroughly than he had before—under the bed, in every cabinet and closet, and even along the walls in case another hole was open in here.
Once he was done, he joined Mads in the kitchen. He rifled through their bags, assuring everything was there, and began opening and closing each drawer and cabinet to check for anything helpful.
“Lionel.”
“What?” Lionel asked, turning to look at Mads, who had his head in the fridge, checking to see if anything was edible even after the electricity had been out for who knows how long.
Mads turned to look at him, blinking. “What?”
“Did you call for me?” Lionel pinched his eyebrows together.
“No,” Mads shook his head.
“Oh,” Lionel murmured, looking back at the cabinet he was looking through. “Well, I found a couple of knives we can add to our bag. But there’s nothing too special here.”
“Yeah, the fridge is stocked with things we could use while we’re hiding out here, but nothing we should bother bringing if we have to flee,” Mads said as he shut it.
The tension between them was thicker than it had been since they met. Lionel didn’t know what to say to Mads, and Mads was stubbornly keeping his own mouth shut. So, when they took a seat on the couch, a full person's worth of space between them, Lionel didn’t know what to do with himself.
He decided to pull out his phone, booting it up and checking the time—it was well into the afternoon, meaning he really had lost a few hours to the building.
Meaning it was also nearly thirty-six hours since everything had begun.
Lionel chewed on his thumbnail as he scrolled through to check if any text messages had managed to come in or if any apps would load.
He groaned and shut the phone down again when nothing besides a never-ending buffering circle would work.
He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees and his head hanging between his shoulders as he rubbed at his temples. The longer the time went on, the less hope he had about everything. There really was no one coming from him, just like he had told Derek.
Lionel raised his head, looking at the window as he ran a hand through his hair.
He wondered if Derek was okay, if he had somehow survived—if he had gotten away from whatever horror the building had shown to him.
The night seemed so long ago; Lionel didn’t know how Derek would have been able to make it on his own for this amount of time.
“Lionel.”
Lionel turned to Mads, eyebrows raised. Mads looked over at him, expression mirroring his own.
“What?” he asked.
“Are you okay?”
Mads kept asking him that. Lionel wondered when he would finally say he wasn’t. “I’m fine,” he sighed, rubbing his neck. He stood up after a few more moments of silence. “I’m going to go check the bedroom more thoroughly—just in case there’s anything we could use.”
Mads nodded as Lionel walked over to the bedroom and pushed the door open.
Whoever used to live here must have been fairly wealthy.
Their closet was well stocked with designer brand clothing and bags, alongside a dresser that looked like it was made from solid wood.
The bed was far more comfortable than anything Lionel had slept on, and he had to admit he was a little excited to use it later that night.
Lionel stooped down to the floor, pressing his cheek against the wood so he could look under the bed frame.
“Lionel.”
He ignored Mads’ call as he shuffled to grab a few long, thin storage boxes hidden beneath.
Lionel assumed it was more clothes, but took a moment to dig through them anyway.
He pulled out a pair of sneakers far better than his own and glared when he saw they were two sizes too small.
He tossed them over his shoulder and continued rifling through the brand-name clothes.
“Lionel.”
“Give me a minute, damn,” Lionel said, huffing. Mads was getting almost possessive with how much he insisted on being right beside Lionel, how he kept calling for him every time they were even a room apart.
Lionel shook his head before the thought could truly take place—he shouldn’t be pointing his anger towards Mads.
The other man had been nothing but kind to him, had been nothing but helpful and protective.
He was in the same boat as Lionel—at the moment, they only had each other to help keep them alive and sane.
“Lionel.”