Escape - Chapter 24.1
Chapter 24.1
Swish!
“Ugh!”
A leg, long and spidery, lashed out, striking my shoulder with brutal force. I went flying, crashing into the corner of the living room.
Bang!
A high-pitched ringing filled my ears, and a tremor ran from my shoulder down my back. Oddly, I felt no pain. The impact blurred my vision. Chaotic sounds pierced through the disorientation—incomprehensible screams, the shattering of glass and furniture. These weren’t coming from inside my apartment.
I knew, instinctively, something was happening on the 20th floor, the residential level.
Screech!
Before I could form a coherent thought, the Serpiente lunged again—if you could call it lunging. Anyone who’s seen a spider at full speed knows how fast those legs can move.
‘I have to dodge.’
The warning blared in my mind, but my body refused to cooperate.
‘Damn it, I can’t die to a creature like this.’
Spitting blood onto the floor, I raised my arm. If I couldn’t move, I’d use the momentum of my attacker. The monster closed in on its seemingly helpless prey. Or was I the monster, and it the prey?
I timed it perfectly. Three. Two.
Crack.
Propelled by the force of its charge, my knife plunged into the Serpiente’s forehead. Its jaws, open to tear at my throat, froze inches away, trembling.
A crimson geyser erupted, spraying me with its blood.
Pressing down harder on the embedded knife, I slowly closed my eyes, taking several deep breaths to calm my racing heart.
Seconds later, the lifeless body slumped to the side. I remained there, stunned, staring at the blood splattered across the walls of my darkened apartment, my hands trembling with the sudden release of tension.
Adeline.
Her sweet, innocent face flashed into my mind. My eyes snapped open. If this was happening across the entire floor, Adeline…
The next moment, I was bursting through my door, a shard of broken glass clutched in my hand.
The scene in the neighboring apartment was a hellscape. Adeline’s parents, once so kind, were now mangled beyond recognition. A vast pool of blood spread across the floor, the wardrobe where Adeline hid appearing like an island in a crimson sea.
A massive Serpiente used its legs to pry open the wardrobe door. As the monster, the executioner of an entire family, gazed at its final victim, Adeline’s scream ripped through the air, shattering my last shred of composure.
Her scream was the trigger.
Screech!
I lunged at the Serpiente with the glass shard.
Its teeth clamped down on my right arm. We were trained never to pull away from a bite, but seeing its legs move toward the wardrobe, I yanked my arm free.
A searing pain shot through my arm as its teeth raked across my flesh. Blood flowed freely, but I ignored it, driving the glass shard into the Serpente’s eye.
It shrieked and thrashed. I ripped the shard free and plunged it in again.
‘Until it’s dead, until it’s dead. Die, I don’t care where, just die.’
All I remember is the sound of tearing flesh and the spray of blood so thick it blurred my vision.
Finally, the mutilated Serpiente collapsed into the pool of blood. Adeline, who had been sitting in stunned silence, erupted into hysterics.
Perhaps the first death she had ever witnessed was far more violent, more overwhelming than she could have imagined. It was unstoppable. This was beyond any horror she had ever conceived.
The sounds of flesh tearing, bones breaking, joints snapping—they permeated everything, inescapable even when she covered her ears, drowned out even by her screams. The blood soaking the floor was a constant, gruesome reminder.
Adeline couldn’t tear her eyes away from the carnage, nor could she close them to escape the bloody images. Her screams were relentless. I called her name repeatedly, but she wouldn’t calm down. Finally, I pulled her into my arms.
