Mona takes a walk.

How could it be gone? She looked away for a fucking second and a half. How could it just disappear?

She wasn't actually looking for an answer considering the only one she'd get would be that this town hated her. She just had to wonder why it chose to do this now. It showed her where she needed to go and what she needed to do – hard enough tasks as it were given all she'd encountered in this maze so far – but then removed half of that from the equation for no real reason. Nothing could ever be easy here. It was all just pain.

Mona pounded the sides of her head with her hands in her frustration, hoping the dull ache she began to feel would keep her from panicking or doing something reckless. Keeping her cool was the only way for her to survive. When she panicked, bad things happened. She learned that lesson well by now.

Collecting herself off the ground, Mona headed for the door. As bad as this situation was, it would probably just get worse the longer she stuck around in one location. This likely meant she'd be entering more doors, most likely ones that didn't lead somewhere as non-threatening as this. And now she didn't even have a weapon to defend herself with.

Despite being out of ammunition, she still gripped one of the guns she'd collected as she opened the door. Even if she couldn't use it to shoot, she might at least be able to bash something in the face. She didn't have much faith in being able to put something down like that but had at least enough confidence in her ability to stun it long enough to run.

It seemed like running was all she'd been doing since she first got down here. That or hiding. What choice did she have, though? She couldn't fight him. It didn't work when she was a little girl and it didn't work now as an adult. He was even stronger now. What good would standing up to him do her? This was all she could do to stay alive.

She was being lead somewhere again. That much was obvious after exiting the room and seeing that she'd somehow been transported to a narrow hallway leading to another door. It was so narrow she could barely fit out the door, scraping her shoulders on the rough stone as she was forced to sidestep out of there and continue on down the path.

The darkness meant she had no idea what was coming up in front of her, her light only reaching a few feet in front of her and revealing nothing besides more stone. Predictably, this meant a constant feeling of dread and worry permeated this entire journey, her ability to see behind her quickly disappearing as the route backwards was engulfed in shadows. The only thing she knew for sure was that this place seemed to be getting smaller, eventually forcing her to crouch down as she felt the ceiling scrape against the top of her head.

After what seemed like an eternity of traveling, she was finally forced onto her knees to crawl the rest of the way. To make matters even more uncomfortable, the passage had long ago turned from the solid stone to a soft, fleshy, sticky material. Some kind of slime seemed to be oozing from the walls, the urge to wretch coming back the more of it that clung to her body. Her disgust became so great that she was no longer able to tell whether the dull thumping came from her own heartbeat ringing in her ears or from the tunnel itself, so focused as she was on simply getting out of here as fast as possible.

Eventually, she finally did make it to the end. Piercing through the darkness was a bright light shining from an opening. Though she wasn't optimistic enough to consider it a good sign, she did note how the exit seemed to be even a little wider than the tunnel's constraints at this point. This made it easy for her to slide out on hands and knees.

She was quickly overcome with the urge to go back inside, hide away from wherever this place was. The place in question was some kind of nursery, possibly at a hospital. It was hard to tell given the general disrepair and fire damage covering every inch of the place. Beyond all of the grime, she could make out what appeared to be several rows of burned out cradles as well as the frames of some metal equipment in the corners of the dark room.

About the only thing that wasn't damaged in some way was a large glass window looking out of the room; or, rather, into it as was likely intended. And that's just what the figures on the other side were doing. Mona couldn't make out who or what they were, only that there were at least two of them. She couldn't say more than "at least" given the way their shadowy forms seemed to shift suggested there were multiple beings occupying the same space.

She also had no clue as to what they were doing. They were gesticulating and moving around on top of themselves and each other, seemingly shouting and arguing despite the lack of sound. Were they talking about her? The state of this place? Some other options based on what they might be seeing?

All of these considerations left her mind immediately as they started moving. No longer shifting around, both silhouettes formed into two neatly defined shadows, moving with alarming speed towards the door next to the window. It seemed to be the only way in or out of here barring the hole she'd emerged from, a fact that quickly filled her with dread.

They tried the door, shaking the knob and pounding. "I hope the door isn't locked," she heard in a breathy, echoed voice. It wasn't his voice but those were his words. She didn't know how she knew, but she knew. Was he here now? Did he find her despite all she did to run?

Disregarding her earlier behavior, panic overtook Mona as she sprinted around the room. She was desperate to find something – anything – she could use. There wasn't anything, though. Any kind of useful weapon or tool had evidently been burned up in the fire. No other exits to this place existed. All the while, the pounding grew louder, the door beginning to flex and bend around the lock.

The only way out was back. She realized that as she pushed past several of the cradles in her sprint towards the hole. But something was wrong. At some point, it had closed itself up. Not vanished completely, but squeezed closed like a sphincter.

A loud blow to the door broke part of the top hinge free. She was running out of time. If it wasn't open, she'd have to make it open. As awkward and disgusting as it seemed, she had no choice but to force her arm through the small amount of space left for the hole, pushing through what resistance it could offer.

Then the screaming started. It was shrill and loud and seemed to ring out from inside her own head. She had no way to tell if it was human or monstrous in nature, but the sound of it immediately forced her to pull away from the hole, freezing for a full second despite the continued scream and the pounding at the door.

She couldn't breathe. What had she done just now? Was it even a living thing? It had to be. She'd hurt it. She'd forced herself into it. It didn't want it. It was hurting. She hurt it.

Her vision blurred, her own screams of anguish drowning out the other screech. She couldn't breathe and her crying made her already compromised sight all the worse. Then her ears began to ring, balance going as she collapsed onto the floor.

The door may have burst open at that point. She couldn't tell. Maybe they never got in at all. Whatever happened next was going to happen whether she liked it or not, consciousness fading into darkness yet again.

This took a turn. Mona's walk through that hallway didn't turn out too well. She still has the save point, but let's hope she doesn't have to use it.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading. Share if you're enjoying. Always remember to keep your hands to yourself.