“I really...” Victor murmured, his voice heavy with exhaustion and frustration, as if every word weighed a ton: “I hate this damn job!”

As if in response to Victor’s complaints, wet, grotesque sounds of flesh slapping echoed behind us. When I glanced back for a moment, I clearly saw those shapeless masses: heaps of pulsating meat, covered in twisting tentacles and gaping mouths, drooling like they were starving for everything around them.

A constant smell of rot hung in the air—thick and suffocating, like the very environment was decaying. Meanwhile, Victor and I ran without looking back, driven by the desperate urgency of knowing that the slightest hesitation could be fatal — and in the end, that’s exactly what it was about: our lives literally depended on it.

“ihihihihi!” A light, playful laugh sounded beside me. For a moment, I thought I imagined it, but when I turned my head, there was Althea, floating softly next to me, as if gliding through the air with minimal effort. Her smile was radiant, almost mischievous, and her eyes sparkled with excitement: “This is fun!” she said, her voice full of contagious enthusiasm.

For a moment, I thought I misheard her. Victor, running beside me, stared at Althea like she was some kind of monster — a completely illogical creature, beyond any human understanding. And honestly, even I had to admit: sometimes I couldn’t quite figure her out... even though she was my little sister.

In the end, with no better options, we kept running. Sweat streamed down Victor’s face, exhaustion etched deeply into his features. His steps were heavy, his breath short. I, on the other hand, kept steady — no fatigue, no pain. It was one of the few perks of my abnormal body: a complete lack of tiredness.

But that “gift” came at a price. I don’t feel hunger. I don’t feel thirst. Cold, heat, pain, pleasure... none of it reaches me. My body remains the same, as if frozen in time. While the world pulses around me, I exist in a constant state of sensory immobility — an empty shell in motion.

Of course, though it had its downsides, I couldn’t say it was all bad. In moments like this, when I’m fighting for my life, this state really comes in handy. Adrenaline sharpens my focus, my senses become heightened, and every second seems to stretch out. Honestly, I wouldn’t want to be in Victor’s shoes right now — not for a second.

As I kept running, lost in thought, Victor’s voice broke through beside me, full of worry and urgency: “Shit! This isn’t going to work... These freaks are going to catch us before we reach the elevator!”

He threw a quick glance over his shoulder toward the grotesque pile of flesh chasing us, his wide eyes reflecting mounting panic. The next moment, facing forward again, his voice rose with a mix of frustration and despair: “And why the hell does this hallway never end?!”

Putting aside Victor’s constant complaining, there was one thing he was absolutely right about: that hallway seemed endless. We had lost track of how long we’d been running, but I felt like it had been at least half an hour — maybe more.

The strangest part was that, under normal conditions, a casual five-minute walk would take you from one end to the other. In other words, something there clearly defied logic. Time seemed distorted — or space... or both.

(Also) at the exact moment that thought crossed my mind, I turned back — just as Victor had warned — and there they were: the anomalies. Close. Very close. I could even smell their rotting bodies in the air: (Guess I need to speed things up a bit)

With a simple thought, hands made of black smoke rose from the floor and grabbed Victor, lifting him into the air with force. Surprised, his eyes widened briefly, but he quickly looked back and stayed silent, lips pressed tight, as if he already knew resistance was useless.

The next instant, just before one of the tentacles from the meat-made anomalies could touch me, a golden field burst from my body, spreading like a silent wave. Inside that field, time seemed to slow — I had more than enough space to dodge or counterattack.

But all I did was take a step forward, with an almost unsettling calm. When the golden field vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, Victor’s eyes went wide in astonishment. From his perspective, still held in my arms, his body had been flung a few meters ahead for no apparent reason — as if the world around us skipped a frame.

Glancing sideways at Althea — who floated beside me with surprising ease — I projected my thoughts to her: (I’m going to pick up the pace. Can you keep up without trouble?)

Althea heard me, her lips moving but then stopping, like something unexpected had just occurred to her. A moment later, she wore a melancholic expression and slowed down, letting herself fall a few inches behind me. With a theatrical sigh, she murmured: “Dear sister, I’m so tired... If you run any faster, I don’t think I’ll be able to keep up” She paused dramatically, eyes shining with a mix of charm and hope: “How about you carry me like a princess?”

Needless to say, I realized immediately she was just taking advantage of the situation... like she always did. But honestly, I didn’t have time for her manipulations. Althea and I would be fine — even if those creatures caught us, we knew how to survive. The problem was Victor. His fate looked truly grim.

So, without a second thought, I scooped up Althea — still floating gently beside me — into my arms, carrying her like a princess. Under any other circumstances, the scene would’ve been adorable, almost poetic.

But the beauty of that moment was completely ruined by the fact that I was running awkwardly, gasping for breath, clearly panicked, while a horde of grotesque creatures chased us. Their twisted bodies writhed with pulsating tentacles, their appearances like raw exposed flesh, as if they had crawled straight out of a nightmare.

Yet, as always, Althea remained oblivious. She simply nestled against me with a serene smile and began sniffing me, as if the moment was sacred: “Ah! The smell of my dear sister!” she exclaimed, closing her eyes in delight: “What a wonderful moment... I’ll cherish this memory forever!”

... Okay, I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that. Anyway, the next instant, a thick shadow wrapped around my feet like a second skin. Victor noticed what was happening and, alarmed, shot a direct look at my face. I just smiled slightly and replied in a calm, almost teasing tone: (Careful not to bite your tongue)

The next instant, as if my words were a silent command, the shadows around my feet trembled on their own. The moment I stepped down, a sharp sound — like the snap of something breaking — echoed through the air. In the blink of an eye, my body was thrown forward violently, just like Victor, still trapped by the dark hands clutching him like living claws.

At that exact moment, I had broken the sound barrier. Honestly, I had no idea if Victor would survive — everything pointed to no. Yet somehow, inexplicably, he was fine. I was just guessing, but I began to realize this place didn’t obey normal physics.

It was like the logic of the real world had been left behind. Victor, an ordinary human, shouldn’t have survived that brutal acceleration. And yet, there he was — intact, as if breaking the sound barrier with his own body was perfectly possible here.

Anyway, that worked perfectly for me. And by the way, if you’re wondering if this is reckless... does it even matter? It was either that or die at the hands of those freaks. Either way, there was no choice. My body kept shooting down the corridor, moving at almost superhuman speed.

The flesh-made monstrosities — grotesque and pulsating — fell behind, their distorted shapes becoming fainter shadows as I put distance between us, their grunts muffled by the frantic echo of my steps.

Running at that speed, the freaks chasing us simply dissolved into thin air, like shadows melting away in the light. I kept the frantic pace for several minutes down the nauseating corridor, whose walls and floor pulsed, made of wet, living flesh, exhaling a fetid, nearly suffocating stench.

Then something finally caught my attention: a door, like an elevator’s, but entirely formed from pulsating flesh, appeared just a few meters ahead. Running at full speed, I figured it would take about thirty seconds to reach it — thirty seconds that could mean the difference between escape or being swallowed by that nightmare.

But there was a problem: the door was firmly locked. No matter how I looked or tried, it didn’t seem like it would open. I didn’t even have time to think about it because suddenly those freaks started emerging from the walls behind me.

They appeared with terrifying speed, moving much faster than the monsters I’d faced before. To make things worse, other creatures began appearing in front of me, blocking the path I needed to take.

My train of thought lasted less than three seconds before we encountered the anomalies. Victor, beside me, wore an expression of pure horror, his eyes wide like he was seeing something unimaginable. Then suddenly, his eyes snapped shut — an instinctive reaction to brace for an imminent impact. But to our relief and Victor’s confusion, the impact never came.

Seconds before the collision, I jumped with precise timing. My body rose a few inches above the anomalies, feeling the thin air around me as the wings firmly attached to my tailbone unfolded silently and powerfully. Without losing momentum, I thrust myself forward, my body gliding and floating through the air, steady and light, far above the uneven ground beneath me.

The next moment, we were at the elevator door. Honestly, I didn’t have time to look properly at Althea, still nestled in my arms, nor at Victor, held by the shadowy hands stretching out before us. My thoughts raced too fast, almost like an instinctive reflex, guiding every move without hesitation.

I didn’t know if it would work — especially in this strange place, where the rules seemed nonexistent, like everything was total chaos. I wasn’t sure if it would work with Althea, still connected to me at a distance, or with Victor, who wasn’t even close. But I ignored all those uneasy thoughts. I closed my eyes for a moment, focused, and unleashed the anomalous power I had gained just hours before.

A strange sensation rippled through the air; the space around me began to warp, as if the very fabric of reality was being pulled and shaped against the will of this place. The walls trembled, almost resisting — a silent battle between the natural order of power and the chaotic supremacy of nonexistent rules.

Then, in a moment of pure resolve, without hesitation, I lunged forward — breaking through the pulsating flesh door before me, cold and grotesque, as if it were the last barrier between me and the exit from this hell.

My eyes closed for a moment — and when I opened them, all I saw was an ordinary hallway, just like the ones I’d known after all this time in the facility. I blinked a few times, still taking in the scene around me. Behind me, Althea floated gently, as if defying gravity, her arms wrapped around me in a firm, almost protective hug.

She watched me with a playful smile, that look of complicity she always had. Below me, Victor lay motionless, his face pressed against the floor. Well, apart from the impact of the awkward landing, we were all alive — which at that moment was all that mattered.

But the most striking thing was the feeling I had ahead of me: energy pulsed, building up with an almost tangible force, vibrating in the air like a storm ready to explode. At the same time, I could sense how unstable and volatile this energy was, as if any movement could trigger unpredictable chaos.