Razor sharp triangular teeth. Eyes pitch black even under the flashlight. Stick-like limbs too long for a human.

“Where’s my mom?” the thing’s circular mouth didn’t move as it said.

The voice sounded like it came from a sweet innocent young girl. A sound completely wrong for a thing like that.

“What did you say?” Gale asked, reaching for his pocket.

The thing spread itself on all fours, like a spider, and scuttered towards him. It stood upright in front of him, teeth just inches away from him. The head tilted as if curious at what its looking at.

“Where’s my mom?” the thing repeated.

Analysis had told him it was a Skin Walker. He heard about them before in a supernatural encyclopedia in the orphanage’s library. These things weren’t ghosts. If it’s not a ghost, it could be hit. If it could be hit, he could do something about it. If he could do something about it, he shouldn’t be afraid. If he’s not afraid, he can save his friends from this thing.

Hold on, that was a mundane encyclopedia. It’s completely different from everything that’s in Aur. This thing could be intelligent if it could talk. He could reason with it.

“I don’t know,” Gale said. “Can you tell me who your mom is?”

The thing’s circular mouth closed and opened. Its black sockets for eyes stared at him, inching closer and closer to his face by the minute.

“Where’s my mom?” it asked again.

Gale stepped a couple of steps back, “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me who your mom is.”

“Where’s my mom? Where’s my mom?” The creature repeated, speaking faster with each repetition.

“I don’t know,” Gale said, raising his voice. “Can you tell me your name?”

“WHERE’S MY MOM?” The voice changed, now growing into shouts. “WHERE’S MY MOM? WHERE’S MY MOM?”

It jerked forward with two quick steps. Its jaw opened wide enough to cover half of its face.

“WHERE’S MY MOM? WHERE’S MY MOM? WHERE’S MY MOM?”

The voice became a deafening piercing high. Its pitch kept going higher with each question.

Weber blade materialized immediately onto Gale’s right hand as the creature bent its leg and launched. Ducking out of the way, the Weber blade sliced through its rear right leg. The thing skidded and stumbled across the floor, hitting the wall to a stop.

“WHERE IS MY MOM?” it shrieked, crawling onto the ceiling with three limbs remaining, and then lunging at him from above.

Gale dodged to the side. The fresh wound from yesterday throbbed from his chest, making his sidestep stutter. The thing’s needle like claws already mid swing. The Weber blade met the swipe, forcing him to skid backwards, hands numb from the bad positioning of the block.

His turn. Launching himself forward, the Weber blade stabbed through the thing’s chest. Black liquid dripped out of its chest, hitting the floor and vaporizing as soon as it touched the concrete floor.

The thing grabbed onto the sword with both hands, pulling itself closer to Gale’s face.

Gale tried to break free, but the creature held the sword tightly. Its face came just inches from him, snapping its teeth at him.

Before it could snap at him once more, Gale activated Phase Touch on the edges of the sword. He put his foot on its chest and kicked it away.

The creature dropped to its knees. It moved slower while letting out the whine, the cry of a little girl.

“Home. Want to go home. Where’s my mom?” it sobbed. Gale paused with his sword raised for another strike.

[Skin Walker felled.]

[Extracting Origin from prey…]

Its black blood dripped from the edges of his Weber blade. The thing didn’t move again. Thousands of tiny grains filtered out of its body, swirling around Gale and entering through his chest. The familiar warmth of Origin extraction rushed into him. His whole body enveloped in its warmth.

He took a deep breath. The wound on his chest healed. For a whole moment, he forgot he was in an asylum.

[Mission found.]

[Destroy Rift Core.]

[Description: Class 0 Rift anomaly found. Rift core partially attached, incomplete form, causing anomalies within reality. Mission is mandatory. Destroy the Core.]

[Rewards: 1000 points.]

A new mission just like that. That was new. 1000 points was a lot too. Tempting, but his friends were still here. Whenever there’s a monster, there’s just not one of them. His friends’ safety came first.

Breath of the Void released outwards, finding mundane signatures. Tendrils went through the corridors and rooms, mapping everything. The layout of the asylum appeared in his head, everything from broken ceilings, empty rooms, and glass shards on the floor.

Two mundane signatures huddled away at what looked like an office several rooms away, same floor. No one else nearby and no creatures. Safe for now.

The Weber blade dematerialized back into the storage box. Gale hurried through the doorway, following the path the tendrils mapped, jumping over a cart and avoiding both glass shards and needles on the floor.

Entering the room, Andrew sat below a wooden desk while Jacob hid behind a rusty metal desk away from the doorway. Their flashlights off, making it completely pitch black inside.

“Guys,” Gale whispered. “It’s me.”

Jacob yelped.

Andrew grabbed his arm, turning on his flashlight and pointing to Gale.

“Is it gone?” Andrew whispered.

“It’s gone,” Gale whispered back. “You can come out.”

Jacob didn’t move. “How do we know it’s really you? What if you’re that thing and you’re just a monster?”

“Would I be talking to you now if I was?” Gale said flatly.

“Good point,” Andrew said, crawling out first, legs shaking. Jacob followed, staying close behind him.

“The hell was that?” Jacob asked, voice shaking.

“Definitely wasn’t a ghost, right?” Andrew asked next.

Gale looked at both of them. One was missing. “Where’s Mia?”

Andrew and Jacob exchanged glances.

“She ran ahead of us,” Andrew said. “I thought she was right ahead of me, but…”

“You didn’t see where she went?” Gale asked.

Jacob shook his head. “We just ran. I heard her scream again, but it literally sounded like it came from everywhere.”

“I thought she found her way to the car,” Andrew said. “She’s smart. Should be fine. Right?”

What? But his tendrils didn’t detect anyone other than these two in the building. Either Mia made it outside, or something worse happened.

“We need to find her,” Gale said. “Now.”

“But that… that thing…” Jacob stammered.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“It disappeared after you guys ran away,” Gale said quickly. “We need to find Mia right now.”

“Disappeared?” Andrew moved over to the doorway, shined his flashlight both ways along the corridor. “That fucking thing didn’t look like something that just ‘disappears’, bro. It looked like something that eats people!”

Jacob hugged himself, moving over behind Gale. “Man, what if it got her? What if its eating her right now? I’m so sorry I didn’t believe in her science books. Oh god, oh god.”

“Guys, get your shit together,” Gale took Jacob’s shoulders and shook him. “We can’t just leave her alone. You’re just going to leave a girl alone? For pete’s sake.”

Andrew backed up to the corner beside the door. “Nah, bro. No way. We wait for the sun. That’s the play. Wait for the sun.”

“You serious?” Gale asked.

“Dead serious.” Andrew slid down, now hugging his knees. “We stay put, keep quiet, we wait for daylight. Then we get the hell out of here.”

Jacob nodded frantically and joined Andrew on the floor, also hugging his knees. “He’s right. That’s what they always say to do in survival situations. Stay put. Don’t wander around in the dark getting picked off one by one.”

“This isn’t a horror movie,” Gale said. “Mia is out there somewhere.”

“And she’s smart,” Andrew replied. “Smarter than all of us. She’ll hide, just like we did.”

Jacob pulled his knees to his chest. “What was that thing, man? Did you see its teeth? Its fucking face? No way I’m going back out there.”

Mundane people with normal reactions. This was how real normal people reacted, unlike him. Just like his first time encountering that ghost lady, except he tried to slice it up before running away. However, he couldn’t just stay put. His legs itched at wanting to find Mia.

“Fine,” he sighed. “You two stay here. Don’t go anywhere. I’m gonna go find Mia.”

“Dude, don’t,” Andrew grabbed Gale’s leg. “Don’t you watch horror movies?! The guy splitting up will usually be the one killed!”

“Then come with me,” Gale said.

Andrew looked away. “I can’t.”

“That’s what I thought.” Gale pulled his leg free. “I’ll be back with Mia. Don’t move from this spot.”

Jacob whimpered. “What if you don’t come back?”

“Then wait until morning and get out,” Gale said. “But I will.”

He left them by the corner of the room and exited. The hallway stretched empty, still unnaturally cold. He ran left, opposite to the direction of the door where the skinwalker came from.

Stopping in the middle of a 4 way junction, he let the tendrils out of Breath of the Void. Tendrils flew through all three ways he hadn’t yet explored. One tendril went up the stairs from first to the third floor. More patient wards, doctor offices, and treatment rooms with a large chair that had a clamp for the head.

Nothing. No sign of Mia anywhere in the building which was odd.

Pushing the tendrils further out, he searched every corner and hidden space. Tendrils even went inside the metal cabinets in the cleaning janitorial rooms and under office desks.

Still nothing, except for one spot. Past the central hub, deep in the west wing. The tendrils couldn’t penetrate into a corridor. From the vision shared by the tendrils, the corridor looked like a fog that prevented them from going inside.

That would be the only place where Mia would be at. Otherwise, she might’ve already escaped.

Opening his eyes, his feet took on a sprint, making almost no sound as he avoided all obstacles that would make a sound. Left at the main hall, through the common area, past broken furniture and the fallen ceiling.

He reached the west wing entrance. Metal double doors hung sideways crooked, one almost torn off from its hinge. He slipped through, flashlight forward even though he didn’t need it.

The west wing corridor was similar in structure to the east wing, but more broken down. Water damage had collapsed parts of the ceiling. Black mould grew all over the porous ceiling and walls, smelling almost like rotting shit.

Gale moved forward towards the fogged corridor. On his way, the corridor turned to the right twice. He passed a room that held a surgery table, four sides of the table had metal restraints.

He stopped at a doorway. No actual door, just an opening with a thick grey fog that filled the space. It stayed within the doorframe like a solid wall, not spilling into the hall he was in.

Reaching his hand out onto the fog, his fingers met resistance, not quite solid nor gas. More like a watery texture. He pulled back his hand, feeling and seeing nothing other than a lingering cold.

Mia might be in there. Or something else.

Gale pushed through the watery resistance. For a second, he couldn’t see anything, but then the fog parted and closed behind him. Inside the corridor, a much cleaner and newer looking asylum stretched before him like it was never abandoned at all. The walls were a pale green, the floor a white tile that looked freshly mopped, with water streaks and all. Fluorescent lights flickered overhead even though the whole asylum shouldn’t have power at all.

He tried pushing out the Void’s tendrils again. This time, it worked, reaching every corner of the new space. The corridor and rooms were arranged differently than the original building, looking more like random placements with no pattern. A surgical room would have an office beside it. A garden would be inside what looked like a cafeteria. Things that didn’t make sense.

In one room, a mundane signature. It must’ve been Mia.

Gale moved fast, following where the tendrils mapped out the changing corridors. The corridor split, blocking him and he almost crashed into the wall. Tendrils remapped the route as he turned left. Lights flickered, flashing on and off constantly the deeper he went in.

The corridor changed again, but this time, he got to the other side just before the space twisted again. He reached the door marked “LIBRARY” in faded letters. Tendrils pointed him to this location.

The room was bigger than he expected. But unlike the corridor, this place looked derelict. Wooden shelves lined the walls. Bookshelves stood higher than he could see. All of them filled with rotting books with their yellowed pages falling out. It would’ve been a great smell if this whole situation weren’t a life or death scenario.

Mia crouched under one of the tables near a bookshelf, shivering uncontrollably.

“Mia,” Gale called.

No response, but her shivering turned into shaking.

“Mia, it’s me. Gale.” He stepped closer. “We need to get out of here.”

Still nothing. She even inched back away from him.

Gale moved carefully around to see her face. Her eyes were open, staring ahead. Her face showed nothing. No fear, no shock, no nothing like she wasn’t really there.

“Mia?” He grabbed her hand.

She screamed instantly, loud enough to hurt Gale’s ears.

“Shh! It’s me! It’s Gale!”

Her eyes were wide with fear, not recognizing him. She bit his palm hard.

“Ow!” Gale pulled his hand back. “What the hell, Mia?”

The scream stopped. Mia blinked rapidly, her eyes finally focusing.

“Gale?” she whispered. “Is that really you?”

“It’s me,” he said, palm throbbing from the woman’s bite.

Mia grabbed his arms, gripping as tight as she could. “Gale, we gotta get out of here. This place feels wrong. Everything is just wrong.”

“I know. That’s why I came to find you.” Gale glanced around. The books no longer looked still. Instead, they breathed as if alive. “Let’s go. Andrew and Jacob are still hiding. Let’s get them then get out of here.”

“They’re okay?”

“Scared out of their wits, but they’re fine,” Gale said, leading the way. “This way.”

Mia pulled back. “No. Not that way. I tried. The corridors keep changing… it’s changing every time I look back or something.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I’ve been trying to get out for like hours.” Her voice shook, making it hard to understand. “Every time I think I’ve found the exit, I end up back here. In this library.”

Gale frowned, turning toward the door he came from. It was gone. Just a solid wall of bookshelves where the door had been.

“See?” Mia said. “This place doesn’t make sense. The doors disappear. The hallways loop back on themselves.”

Closing his eyes once again, he took a deep breath before letting out the Breath of the Void. The map formed in his mind, different now as the corridors had changed since he entered.

“There,” he said, pointing to the shelf across the room. “There’s a door there.”

Mia shook her head. “I’ve tried every wall. There’s no door there.”

“Trust me.” Gale went to the shelf and checked it. It looked normal, but his tendrils told him that there was an exit behind. He pushed.

The shelf swung open like a door, revealing a corridor.

“How?” Mia asked, eyes wide.

“Lucky guess.” Gale looked into the corridor. “This should lead us back to the main building.”

“Should?” Mia’s voice shook.

“Will,” Gale said. “Come on.”

He took her hand, and this time she came along. They stepped through the hidden door together.

The hallway stood before them with the familiar pale green walls and peeling paint. Red emergency lights strobed through the hallways. White tiles showed cracks that weren’t there before.

“Was this the way you came?” Mia whispered.

“No,” Gale said. “But my gut says it’s the way out.”

They walked slowly. Their steps echoed even though Gale tried to step as quietly as he could. Suddenly, the air got colder, and their breaths started fogging in front of them.

“What was that thing?” Mia asked quietly. “The thing with the teeth and face, you know what I mean?”

“I don’t know,” Gale lied.

“You stayed behind. When we all ran.” She glanced at him. “Why?”

“Do you think you should run away from a bear?” No mundane human can outrun a bear. Something like this thing was probably faster than a bear.

“That’s not a bear.” Mia said. “That’s just crazy.”

Gale sighed. “I am crazy.”

He tugged Mia into a run. The corridor turned left sharply. Tendrils felt the resistance of the fog just up ahead.

“Gale, that is that?!” Mia almost stumbled from his speed.

“Trust me!” They ran through the grey fog and turned left again. The familiar entrance hall came into view. Broken reception desk, collapsed ceiling, overturned wheelchairs, just as he remembered it.

“We made it,” Mia caught her breath. “But how? This isn’t the way I ran…”

“Does it matter?” Gale pulled her forward. “Come on, let’s get the other two and get out.”

Mia nodded and held onto Gale’s arm as closely as possible as they crossed the entrance hall. Halfway across, she stopped.

“Did you hear that?” she whispered.

Gale listened. A soft sound came from behind them. A familiar child’s voice.

“Where is my mom?”

Mia yanked Gale’s arm hard. “Tell me you heard that.”

“I heard it,” Gale said, now pulling her to the exit instead. “Keep moving.”

“But that’s a child. A little girl. We can’t just leave her alone.”

“Keep moving,” Gale pulled Mia’s arm, increasing their pace. “That’s not a girl or even human.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep