"How can a kitchen be so big?"

I would think the same. How can this room be so big?! It doesn't even seem human-sized. I close my eyes in disbelief.

When I open them back again, the room has a more plausible size. Cry's head moves back and forth at me, then the kitchen, and at me again.

"Did you see this?" I try.

He nods, staring at the room. He gets up, and starts looking around. Instinctively, I aim for the fridge, and open it.

"Hey, Cry, come see!"

I can see apples, meat, pastas… as if somebody just left. I look up to Ryan, grinning.

"We got- What the hell!?"

I back up from the open fridge in disgust. In a second, everything rotted into a brown, blue and white mesh of different textures.

"This place is abnormal," states Cry as he looks.

I think I had noticed.

I close the door to the refrigerator and move away to look somewhere else. This time, I am the one called.

"Pewdie…"

I rejoin him and look up to where he stares.

"Don't close the doors."

This is what is written in the cupboard's farthest side. I can't make out what it's written with.

"What can this mean?"

"I have no idea."

I open the next storage cabinet. Another message is in there.

"There is no turning back."

I feel a chill run me down. I don't like this. Such messages never are a good sign. Ever.

"This is not right…"

I close the cabinet's doors violently and turn around. Cry gets up from a drawer, holding two knifes up.

"That should help."

He offers me one. I don't quite see the use to it – how could I use it against the THING? – but I still accept it with a 'thanks'.

Nothing more was to be found, so we decided to get out.

Cry opens the door slowly, checking for the creature that had been after us. I back him up, checking our six. I grab on my knife so hard my knuckles are white. Halfway through his movement, he stops an instant, then slams it open. He steps outside, and turns his head at me, aiming his mask toward me, motionless.

I follow him, cagey.

"What the fuck…?"

The corridor around us is brightly illuminated. The corridor no longer seems endless. In fact, now the surroundings look like a school. I can't stop my head from coming and going a way then another. There are windows lined up along the wall, letting the moon's light in. Outside is some kind of courtyard, with a forest at its rear.

The main light is not coming from the outside though, as most of the lights, except those who flicker, are open. It is so bright compared to the manor's lighting that it's almost painful.

I hear a click behind me, and turn around to see the door closed. It gives me the creeps.

"Why do they all close by themselves?"

"Something is off with those doors."

I shiver at the thought of the messages in the kitchen. I look at Cry, but he doesn't. He's studying the surroundings, standing very straight. He turns to me, and I can't help but freak out a bit at the sight of his mask staring at me.

"We should move."

I nod, unable to talk, my throat too sore from fear. I hate this place. I hate this situation. I hate being forced to do something to get out of here. I think I would have broken down already, were I not accompanied.

We take off to the left, classroom doors to our right, windows on the other side. I can't help but feel like something's off right now and here, specifically.

"Don't you feel like we're followed?" I ask after a few minutes of walking up and down corridors, shooting a glance sideways to Ryan by me.

He keeps on walking, turning his head a bit to look back at me. Then he tilts his head back forward, and passes a hand in his hear.

"I don't know", he sighs, "I can't seem to think."

He looks at the knife he holds in his hand, making me involuntarily do the same with mine. He whispers:

"This is crazy…"

He looks back up and stops. It takes me little time to do the same, before I follow his line of sight.

We're at a dead-end, with a gymnasium's door right in front of us. I look at him, but he ignores me and goes to open it. He peeks inside, then stares at me.

"Seems like it's really a gymnasium."

He gets inside, and holds the door open until I get to it. I know it's not out of politeness, as much as fear of us two being separated. This nightmare is hard enough to cope with already without the both of us having to search for each other in pitch-black ambiances.

I get in the room, quickly followed by Cry. It seems like a perfectly normal gymnasium; maybe a bit big, but there is/was probably many people in this school. Even though, I can't help but feel unsettled. Ever of our steps makes the floor creak, as if it was made of wood. The lights are on, but only one works fine. Most of them are dead and a quarter dozen flickers, more often closed than open.

"What's with that sound…?"

I listen up and hear the mentioned sound. It's somewhat similar to a wind's, blowing right and left, without any pattern I can determine. It feels as if it would be moving to surround us and keep us where we are. I try to follow its movements, but whenever I think I got it, I hear it again behind me.

"Fuc-rrr"

I turn around at the sound and see Cry, trying to break free from some kind of shadow. It's coming from the darkest corner of the room, hooking itself around Ryan's neck and right arm, immobilizing his knife and dragging him toward the darkness as it chokes him.

I can't move a muscle, battery-less robot as a decoration, until a crazy woman's laugh bursts out of nowhere and starts echoing endlessly on the walls of the gymnasium. At the same time, darkness tentacles start crawling toward me as well, making me react. I get a better grip on my knife and jump in.

The tentacles don't try to get me, but to make me walk away while it drags Cry. Their texture is barbell-like and they whip me to hold me off. But I see Ryan doing his best to struggle out of there and I know I can't leave him behind. So I wave my knife in front of me, protecting my face with my other arm. Sometimes I touch one of them and the laughs changes for an instant in a howl of anger and pain as it withdraws, quickly replaced by another one and followed by the return of the annoying sound.

It takes me what feels like ages to reach Cry, working my way through the forest of material darkness, but I end up by his side. Still protecting myself best I can, I plant my knife with all my might in the shadow stifling him. I leave the handle as a banshee screech echoes in answer, full of anger and spite as it withdraws. I grab Ryan's arm and pulls him out of the trap, running for the door. All I can think of is getting out of here, fast as possible.

I can feel him stagger behind me, but I don't stop, because I can also hear the thing follow us at top speed, angered and hungry. I reach the door and open it, shove Cry past it and pass it. I trip over Ryan, that had stumbled to the floor, weakened from the attack. I land hard, and hear the door close by itself once again.