The walk over to the annex was everyone's least favorite when trying to reach my father.
The path was only maintained about 100 feet from the main building exit doors; beyond that, you had to walk through the 'garden.' It had been beautiful once, but that was years ago. No one maintained it anymore because there was an atrium inside the main building now, which bloomed with flowers and other plants year-round.
This skeleton of a garden was depressing and frightening as soon as the sun started to go down. Things scurried about amongst the dead bushes and leaves. But this was only the appetizer to the rest of the disarray that awaited once you did reach the annex.
It was a building that had been standing for close to 80 years, and it looked every bit its age. The paint was long chipped away, rain-stained along every wall. The windows were rectangular slits that felt like an afterthought to the original design, and many were boarded up along the first floor.
The front doors clicked as I scanned my badge. The only piece of modern technology in the whole building, and it was only installed because my father kept losing the keys, thus the broken windows. The rest of the inside was run on whatever technology was installed during the last modifications, which was long before I was born.
No one manned the front desk; there wasn't even a security guard stationed out here. There was no need.
The electric buzzing of the overhead lights followed me as I reached the elevator doors. I pressed the call button and silently prayed that it was working; I was not looking forward to having to climb 10 stories if it didn't.
I heard the rattle of wires and metal as it made its way down.
It landed on the ground floor, and I heard the doors basically sigh as they slowly opened, revealing the dim and dank mirror interior. I waited a few seconds before stepping inside. Not trusting that it wouldn't suddenly just drop away, and finally putting itself out of its misery.
The elevator shook and shuddered as it agonizingly ascended the ten flights.
Would climbing the stairs have been safer? Most definitely, but I just wanted to get to Father's office and get this debriefing over with as soon as possible.
I was thrust forward when the elevator finally reached the 10th floor and lurched as it positioned itself. Now came the next trial: would the doors actually be aligned? It was a common complaint among those who had been summoned to meet with Father. It was that or the doors just didn't open, and they were stuck, to wait for Father to open them or until the elevator deemed it time to let them out.
The doors didn't open. Not after 5 minutes. Not after 10 minutes.
I took my cell phone out of my pocket, but there was no service.
Of course.
Another one of the perks of the annex was that it was a dead zone for cell service.
My fists hit against the aged metal doors, hoping my father would hear them from down the hall.
Another 5 minutes of that yielded no results, and I was stuck staring at a mirror funhouse version of myself in the most unflattering light.
The call button on it, of course, wasn't working either, though who would I even reach? I doubted it was connected to anything anymore. Seriously, how did Father do this every day?
He probably takes the stairs.
I kept jamming the open door button, but they didn't budge. I had even flexed my muscles and tried to pry the doors apart, but they didn't budge. None of the floor buttons did anything either; they were all lit up now, but the elevator didn't even sway. The only buttons that I hadn't tried were the very last three, B1, B2, and B3. It was clear that they led to the basement levels.
No one ventured down to the basement; there was no need. Father had mentioned that it was mostly storage, and I believed him. Or rather, I didn't want to think about what was actually down there. Basements for old houses creeped me out; I didn't want to think about what an abandoned lab basement looked like.
My finger hesitated as it hovered over the B. I didn't want to go down there, but I didn't want to spend the night in an elevator that could drop me to my death either.
I pressed it and held my breath. Nothing. I pressed it again. Also nothing.
Great. None of these fucking works! I thought as I slammed my hand up and down the console in frustration.
The elevator groaned and readjusted itself. Then it began to slowly descend.
All the buttons were lit now, every floor we got to, I prayed it would stop and open the doors, but it just kept going down.
8,7,6,5,4
Oh, come on, just stop.
2,1,B1,B2, B3
The doors creaked open, and before me stood a dark void. The light from the elevator barely made a dent in the darkness.
Like hell I am getting off here.
I pressed the door closed button, but nothing moved.
My eyes kept watch on the darkness. Something inside me told me to keep watch, because as soon as I turned away from it, something hiding within it would reach out for me. I had never been afraid of the dark, not even as a child, but now, as I stood slamming down on every single button, something made me want to be far away from it, in a brightly lit room.
The elevator refused to move. Not even to close its doors.
I would have to take the stairs. The thought popped into my head, and I immediately groaned.
Fumbling with my phone, I relied on muscle memory to turn the flashlight option on. Not wanting to take my eyes off the black abyss in front of me. Luckily, the light beam turned on, and I pointed it out front. It reached further than the light of the open elevator, but not by much.
Forcing one foot in front of the other, I stepped out. The door to the stairs was on the left of the elevator, so I moved sidelong in that direction, my back flat against the wall, unable to turn my back to the darkness.
I shuffled over at least 20 feet when the metal groan of the elevator made me jump. The doors closed, and I heard it ascend.
Stupid piece of shit. Now you work.
Now the darkness trailed me closely.
I moved faster along the wall; the stairs had to be coming up, they just had to.
But the wall kept extending with no end.
I turned the flashlight behind me. I could feel it—something just beyond the edge of the light.For a moment, I froze.Fear gripped me completely, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to break free.
The clang of the elevator reaching the mezzanine jolted me into motion. My body moved before I could think. I was sprinting forward, praying to every god I'd ever read about, making promises I'd probably never keep—and knowing they knew that and wouldn't help me.
Up ahead, I spotted two square windows with light spilling through them. My feet pounded the floor as I ran faster than I thought possible.I threw my body against the doors. Relief exploded in my chest as they gave way and swung open. I kept running, down a sterile hallway lit in dim, blue light, until I couldn't feel it anymore.
I turned.The doors were closing slowly on the darkness that had been waiting.Nothing followed. But I knew it was still there.
Where am I now? I wondered, glancing down the rest of the hallway.It was spotless—no dust, no grime, not a single scuff on the floor. Just a long, unbroken stretch of wall. I followed it. There had to be a stairwell somewhere, or at least another exit. Maybe I'd just sleep down here and wait for Valeria's search party. There was no way I was going back toward the elevator.
The hallway split a few feet ahead.To the left, it curved and continued, disappearing out of view.To the right, it also curved—but several doors lined the walls.I chose the path more traveled.
None of the doors opened.The few with windows were too dark to see inside, and I wasn't about to press my face to the glass and peer into whatever darkness lay within.
Farther down, the hallway ended in another pair of double doors, nearly identical to the ones I had pushed through earlier.An orange light flickered beyond the small rectangular windows.The doors were unlocked.
There wasn't much more light inside—just that single flickering bulb and the flashing LEDs of nearby machines. It was a lab. The layout was nearly identical to the one in the main building, the same one I'd left earlier after witnessing yet another failed experiment.
Up on a raised platform, beneath the blinking orange light, stood a large metal arch with dozens of cables snaking out in every direction.It was the ARK. Or at least, an early prototype of it.
I stepped closer.There were slight differences from the current model. Etched into its metal frame were symbols—faint, but deliberate. I didn't recognize them immediately, but they stirred something in my memory.
Leaning in, I studied them more closely, trying to place them.I accidentally bumped the desk closest to the platform, and the computer on it blinked awake.Still logged in.
On the screen flashed the same data I'd seen earlier—the report I'd been holding in my hands.
Impossible.
Another experiment had been run—different inputs, different power levels—but the same framework. And it had come closer to success than we had.
But who would run the same experiment at the same time?
I didn't have time to answer that.Because I felt it again—eyes watching me from the corners of the room.
I turned, slowly, scanning the space.Still alone.
You're just paranoid. Calm down.
Something moved in the corner of my eye.A shadow—quick, sudden.It jumped.
I turned to face it.The dark mass began to take shape, a silhouette rising out of the corner.
I wanted to scream, to ask what it wanted—but my voice caught in my throat.
It stepped closer.And I froze.
The room exploded with blinding light—harsh, white, total.I felt myself falling backward.
And then—
Darkness.