Ernest gasped. I hear he moved around his camera, as he got closer to see better probably. I got so shaken up that I didn't react directly.
Only a few feet away from me, two wide-open eyes were staring at mine. Horrified. Silents tears running down a completely white face. Mouth opened. I felt my heart sink deep into my chest. Ernest stayed silent, confused and rattled as I was. It took me a moment to recognize him, between two flickers of the light, it was him.
As I opened my mouth to alert the others, his eyes got blurry. A trembling index rose on his mouth and shushed me. His entire body was shaking. I shook my head in disbelieve. I was baffled. He must have been in such a fright and needed to feel safer, to be comforted. I took a step forward, glass screeched under my foot.
I heard a ruffle, something moved in the back of the room. A rat or something? But Lucien tensed up instantly. Shaking more violently. I did not think much of it, and tried to direct my lamp towards the source of the noise, but the shelves were so filled and numerous, I couldn't see anything. Lucien gestured at me to take my light down. I didn't understand why.
The thing kept moving around. I could not spot it no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't see it. I could not guess what it was. The best I distinguished was some large shadow… It had to be an animal or something right? A big fat rat. Yeah, a big fat rat. Like earlier. A big big fatty rat.
A very faint and subtle murmur reached my ears. "Shh… You woke her up." A tear dropped down his cheek… What do you mean her? The thing kept ruffling stuff around. It was starting to make a bit too much noise to my taste. I felt my sweat running down my back. I had to do something.
Hugo and Damien must have wondered where I went, I heard them speaking but couldn't make up what they were saying. I knew they were checking the room in front of the nurse's break room. Lucien heard it too, his face went from horrified to frighten. He was holding his breath. His eyes locked into mine begged me to do something.
The noise made by Hugo and Dames seemed to have alerted whatever was in that room with us. It started moving more, I think it was getting closer. It was slow… Yet everything felt so out of time, It felt ominous and unstoppable. I could hear each of its steps. It sounded as if it was dragging something very heavy with itself… That. That was not a rat. I had to do something.
It's breathing got louder, loud enough for us to hear... It sounded heavy, slow, but kept getting faster and louder, hoarse and deep. It sounded atrocious and painful. No known animal to mankind does that noise. It was accompanied by some sort of drippings noises… as if it was drooling. It was getting closer to us, and Lucien was the closest one. I had to do something.
I kept trying to spot it with my lamp but its flicker worsened, it was going to die in my hands and we would soon be in complete darkness. In the dark with that thing, we would be helpless. I had to do something.
I couldn't scream, I couldn't speak. No sounds were able to come out of my mouth. My knees felt weak, my heart was pounding in my chest. The thing walked on something that crumbled under its weight. The noise echoed in my head. It was heavy. Just like Lucien, I was paralyzed. Incapable of doing anything, too terrified of how this atrocious thing could react to any of our actions. But I had to do something.
Its steps were only a few meters away from Lucien now. I had to do something. Whatever this is, I can't let it get to Lucien.
I heard Hugo calling my name in the back.
The thing stopped instantly.
It heard.
It listened quietly.
Hugo was walking toward the door.
It heard, it knew.
The thing growled loudly. A deep, powerful, angry, cavernous howl. Never have I heard such a terrible noise. It sounded enraged. Gurgles, drips, howls…Between two flickers of the light, I saw something. It was huge. It was definitively not a rat. It had green piercing eyes.
Then, the thing started marching faster in our direction. On its way, it knocked off one of the shelves and everything on it fell apart in a deafening crash. I felt my blood rushing through my veins. The noise shook me so much it got me out of my paralysis.
I jolted on Lucien, caught him by his arm and dragged him with me as I threw myself out the door. I had dropped my flashlight to seize the handle. I slammed the door as hard as I possibly could. The thing launched itself on the door in a strong, metallic bang. Lucien screamed. He could not hold the pressure and fear any longer. He broke down entirely.
But we were out, and separated from the thing. I was there, sitting on the floor, my back against the door, holding Lucien close with one hand and not letting go of the handle with the other. Lucien was holding onto me so tightly I felt his nails digging onto my skin, through all the layers of clothing I had.
In front of us, confused and horrified Hugo was looking at us, unable to process what just happened and had no clue what to do right now. Maybe, just like Lucien and I were earlier, he was frozen in place. Damien, alerted by the screams appeared at the doorway, running. His face changed drastically. His eyes went wide, his mouth opened to scream but no sound came out.
The thing began to bang on the door with all of its rage. It made the loudest and the most heinous racket in the world. It seemed to resonated so heavily through the building that it must have made the entire structure tremble. It felt so violent, I felt each blows through my ribcage, sound and energy vibrating away through my bones.
I yelled at the top of my lungs "The door! Hold the door! Hold the door!". I too was having a breakdown. I was terrified of what this thing could do if it came out of the room.
Hugo and Damien looked terrified. Both in shock. Incapable of moving at first, Hugo quickly snapped out of it and jumped on the door, helping me to keep it close. I turned around to get a better grip when Damien took his son away from me. Both of them fell down against an armchair further.
Holding that door was so hard, the force this thing had was enormous, Hugo and I had so much trouble to keep it shut. Hugo looked around and spotted something. "Hold on" he shouted at me. He ran away and took some kind of long metal bar, something that had fallen from the ceiling probably. I had no other choice but to hold on. It was so much harder without Hugo's strength. The thing was banging and pulling on its side, raging, howling. I wouldn't be able to hold on for a very long time. It was so much stronger than me. It was starting to gain ground, the door was opening slightly, only a few centimeters… but it would have been enough if Hugo didn't slide the bar through the metal handle to finally block the door.
He pushed it all the way through. He did it in such a rapid way that it caught my hand in the process and scratched me. No time for prudence, it had to be done.
We both pulled away from the door at the same time. Holding our breath, tensed up. We grabbed onto each other. Hugo held me close while the thing kept trashing around for what felt like very long minutes. None of us was moving. None of us could. Ernest was silent, probably baffled too. We waited. We couldn't have done anything else.
Even after, when the thing finally stopped, we couldn't make up our mind to move again. Too worried it would startle it again…
We all heard it get away from the door. The same limping steps, the same dragging noises, it's heavy breathing getting further away from us… It cackled as it sank deeper in the back of the room. Yes, a cackle. A raspy but high pitched laugh. We all heard the cackle.
Then silence. Complete silence from the room. Only the wind and Lucien's sobs.
Hugo and I looked at each other. We were out of breath. We were both shaking. All we could think was that we needed to get out of there. And fast.
We looked at Damien who was holding Lucien so firmly he could have suffocated him. The kid was crying into his dad's arms, trying helplessly to catch his breath. Damien kept patting his back and rocking him, whispering reassuring words in his ears. He was close to tears too.
Hugo glanced back at me, asking me without needing words, if he could let go of my hands. I nodded. I didn't want to let go of him, but we needed to move and get out.
We helped them back up. Lucien could barely walk. The poor boy was completely wet, his clothes were damp and cold. The rain must have got to him somehow. His entire body was trembling and he was absolutely livid. He didn't look very steady on his feet. Damien and I held him up and helped him run while Hugo lit up our way.
Ernest kept asking, completely panicking, if Lucien was ok, what had just happened, what happened to Lucien, what was the thing in the room, if his dad was ok, if we all were ok. We only gave him quick and hazardous responses, all on edge we urged him to keep it quiet. We didn't want to make noises. We didn't want to startle the thing again… What if it has another way out? It's damn fast, it could catch up on us in no time.
We ran toward the service staircase. I swear, I saw the door of the creepy room, the… Mama room, open. From the corner of my eye, I saw it open, I saw the damn bed. I swear, I had closed the damn door. I made sure it was closed. I am sure I saw it opened again. All my senses were screaming at me to get the hell out of there. My heart was pounding so heavily I could feel each of its beat in my entire body.
Hugo went first and waited down the stairs for Damien and Lucien, as to catch them if they fell. He looked around, to make sure the coast was clear first. I noticed he kept an eye out, to check I was still behind Dames and Lucien. I saw him smile in relief.
As I was waiting to be able to enter the staircase, something on my right caught my eye. The stairs were frail, we each had to go through individually if we didn't want it to break down with us. Although… I might not have minded that much an opportunity to get down faster…
I looked up at what caught my attention. And I regretted it instantly. I felt all the hair on my body rise up and my nerves stung me again. Ernest faintly cried "Oh no." I thought the exact same. Why on earth did I lookup?
The door that was originally opened through the hallway, was now closed.
The hallway was clear, I could see the window at the end of it. It was so dark.
I moaned out of fear, I couldn't hold it anymore. There was no tough guy left. We had to leave.
Ernest whispered to us, halfway crying, to hurry up.
It creaked and squeaked, but it held. We made it down the stairs safely, although, the banister broke in half as Damien accidentally knocked it. He caught himself pretty well and fairly graciously, holding onto the walls.
We ran through the main lobby, I'm pretty sure I heard noises of something roaming behind us. Please let it be my companion rat this time. I did learn my lesson and did not look back to confirm. I did not look through the other hallway. I kept my eyes on Hugo all the time. He was the one looking around and directing us towards the exit.
We made such a racket going in the lobby. Those damn beer bottles… In our haste we simply couldn't pay attention not to knock them.
We got quickly into the little office that served us as an entrance earlier. Hugo got out first and helped Lucien climb the window. Being the last one, my first instinct had been to close the door behind me. I even took the chair that was still in there to lock the door. You never know. "Is that really necessary? Just Hurry you guys are almost there!". Ernest's voice was breaking.
Lucien was hardly holding on. He barely had the force to hold himself up. He was pale, so pale, his hands were cold… Getting out that window, even with help, it used all the energy he had left.
Ernest got out of the car and rushed toward us when we approached the fence. His dad yelled at him to go back in. I never heard Hugo screaming so deeply and loudly. But Ernest didn't listen. I'm glad he didn't. He held onto the mesh of the fence to keep the opening as wide as can be to help us out of this vile place. I was so proud of him for thinking about doing that. And also, to gather the courage to do so, he must have been very scared too. He kept barking at us to hurry the F up… well…A la Ernest…
Damien carried his son to the car, Lucien was on the verge of passing out. Damien shoved him in the back seat, he sat next to him. I made sure to stay behind Ernest, holding onto his collar and hushing him toward the car. We threw ourselves into the car. The first thing Hugo did was to lock the doors.
We took a moment to calm down, regain composure. We were safe. Nothing could reach us.
