Layers Of Nightmare

Each floor of the apartment building has a corridor similar to the letter 'H'. William and Marvin's unit was at the bottom left part of that letter. Both of the side corridors were about 16 meters in length, whereas the middle corridor was about 6 meters long—this was also where the three elevators, the garbage chute room and the emergency exit were located.

After going out through the front door and slammed it shut behind him, William did not hesitate to sprint away, while shouting, "HELP!"

Yet, only silence ensued. It felt as if all his neighbours had disappeared as well.

Soon, he could hear an ear-piercing screech from behind him accompanied by the sounds of heavy bangs to the door. Fortunately, the door was the type that open inwards from inside, so it will take a while for the unintelligent monster to bust the door frame.

Even if no one was there to help, William did not lose hope. The garbage chute was never an option as it was too small for him to fit through. After noticing that the lifts have stopped operating due to the electrical shutdown, he went for the emergency exit. That was when he realized that he had left the Desert Eagle behind upon fetching the sword.

'Screw it! It has no bullet anyway!'

Pushing open the emergency door, he rushed down the flight of stairs, albeit did so carefully as only the small lighting from his phone was guiding his way.

It was not long before William saw a white paint written "13" on the wall beside another emergency door. He started to slow down while gasping for oxygen, but who was he to blame? Years of intense study in the university and working on research projects had made him physically weak. A boy who was once in his highschool basketball team could only cover eight floors worth of stairs in one go now.

'A bit more than halfway there…' Just as the thought crossed his mind, an explosive sound resounded from the top as a roaring voice of abyss entered his ears. "Shit!"

Now that he knew death was right on his tail, William forced himself to rush down the stairs again. Though, never did he expect that the creature would 'teleport' right under his nose.

BANG!

The abomination instantly covered eight floors by falling head first onto the concrete platform connecting 13th and 12th floor. Bits of dirty blood splattered onto William's face from the open wounds around the creature's body.

William gasped as he halted his steps in hesitation, but that slight pause was enough for the creature to recover and stood up. The speed of its regeneration was even scarier than before!

One more thing he noticed was that the creature seemed to have evolved from its previous form. A pair of dark translucent wings had grown from its back and black-l.u.s.tred flames covered its limbs.

Thinking that he had a higher ground, William gritted his teeth and choose to fight. This time, to avoid the risk of his sword being stuck in the wall again, he swung diagonally—right onto its head!

A single sound of wind-piercing whizz resounded as the extended sword landed onto the flesh. The instant that a large chunk of the monster's head was sent flying, William did not feel the slightest excitement. Instead, a doubt welled up inside him.

'Was it that easy?'

As if answering his thought, the creature did not collapse. When the part of its head fell onto the ground, it turned into ashes, which floated animatedly onto its head and restoring it.

"WARRRGH!" Without a warning, the creature pounced at William like a maddened beast.

William was shaken at the sudden movement. His instinct kicked in as he did a roll toward one side and proceeded to climb up the stairs again. Behind him, sharp pincers went crashing onto the reinforced concrete wall, blasting it to smithereens.

Knowing that it missed its target, the creature grew even more agitated. It let out a screech and went to hot pursuit.

Arriving at the 14th floor, William looked back to see that the creature was only half a floor away. As another adrenaline rush arose from within him, he managed to push himself to break his speed limit.

When another door and the bold paint written "15" entered his eyes, William quickly pulled it open and slammed it close behind him. Then, a realization dawned upon him.

"I'm a f.u.c.k.i.n.g idiot!" He had unwittingly trapped himself inside the floor. The only way out of the building has now been blocked by a rampaging monster.

BANG!

The door frame behind him shook as the monster slammed onto it.

William had his face pale, while his shoulder heaved up and down. The pressure caused him to palpate heavily—on the verge of passing out from faint-headedness.

'No! I need to remain clear-headed!' He took a long deep breath, then began to contemplate his options while trying to suppress his anxiety from the banging sounds.

'The emergency exit doors are reinforced with steel, it should be able to buy me more time…' William looked at the shaking door frame. 'About seven minutes…?'

He first turned to look at the elevators, then denied the thought of jumping into it after forcing the door open. There were a total of 46 floors in the apartment building and only three elevators, he did not want to risk his chance of finding an elevator that stopped on exactly four or less floors below. Not to mention that he still needed to break open the top part and forcing open the door from the other side, if the monster jumped down by that time, he is finished!

'Then…' William turned his gaze toward the side corridors and the garbage chute room right next to the emergency door. An idea suddenly dawned upon him.

…

Eight minutes later, the monster burst out of the emergency door. Cloud of dust floated around as the door and the wall around it collapsed.

A dangerous red aura surrounded the creature. It could not believe that one weak human had caused it so much trouble!

It turned its head toward the corridor on the left, then on the right. It saw a phone leaning on the wall beside the rightmost escalator with the flashlight part facing it.

The creature produced a sound similar to a wheezing chuckle before walking toward the left corridor. It then noticed that one of the doors was broken down with clear sword marks around it.

The creature approached the room with the broken door slowly as it snapped its pincers in excitement. It could not wait to tear the human into pieces.

Meanwhile, William crouched down nervously behind a door. He was paying attention to the creature's movement from the shadow he saw through the gap underneath the door. The plan was not foolproof, he was betting on the creature's low intelligent, just that he was not sure on how low it is.