"Honestly, this has been one of the longest days yet." Groaned Michael.
"C'mon I wanna get to Allan. I just know something's up with him he just won't admit it."
"Mish, it's as if he was in a fight or something. You see the scars on his neck?"
The hallway lights flickered once - twice - then bathed the building in red as the emergency sirens screamed through the building.
The two froze mid-step outside the conference hall
Michael's face drained. "Hell nah."
The words slipped out before he could stop it.
Aria spun toward him. "The power - ?"
"The emergency sirens in the engineering wing." His voice cracked with urgency. "That's where - "
"Allan." They said it at the same time.
The hearts dropped into their stomachs.
The elevator beside them dimmed into an unusable hunk of metal. Michael slammed the emergency button anyway. Nothing.
He swore again and jerked Aria toward the stairwell.
"We run."
They didn't hesitate.
They burst through the stairwell door and started sprinting down the concrete steps. Fourteen floors between them and Allan.
Fourteen floors of rising dread.
Michelle's ponytail whipped behind her as she kept pace with Michael.
"What the hell happened?" She gasped. "The alarms didn't trigger earlier - why didn't Engineering send a warning?"
Michael was breathing hard. "I don't know but we both know the cause down there and if it overheats - "
"It won't... The director must be on his way down there with the emergency key."
Their footsteps hammered against the stairs.
On the landing between the twelfth and eleventh floors -
A man nearly collided into them, racing downward while spewing furious explitives. Their boss.
Director Han Seojin.
The usual pristine - tailored suit, calm tone CEO presence.
Right now?
Disheveled.sweating. Fuming.
"Where the hell were the alarm alerts!?" Han barked, gripping the railing as he bounded past them. "A core overheat doesn't just happen! Someone's getting fired for this - no sued - no jailed!"
In his fist swung a slim metallic object - the master key chip.
Michelle shouted down after him, "Director Han! How bad is it?"
"Beyond Disastrous!" He snapped. "If the call goes it takes half the block with it! Who the hell has access to the chamber!?"
Aria and Michael exchanged a look.
Both thinking the same thing.
Flight Eight.
Michael's phone buzzed violently in his pocket. He didn't stop as he snatched up.
"Darius?" He answered breathlessly.
Aria turned around when suddenly Michael skidded to a stop, nearly tripping.
"Hey..." She watched his expression shift - fear first... Then dread... Then something even worse.
Michael's lips parted.
"Tell me you're joking. Motherfucker tell me you're joking!"
Aria grabbed his arm. "Don't sugar coat it."
"He locked himself in the reactor chamber." he almost fling his phone onto the nearest wall.
"That's a suicide mission..."
"C'mon!"
They sprinted again - faster than before, reckless, desperate, filled by a terror they couldn't swallow down.
Allan blinked hard. Everything looked... Normal.
The blaring alarms were gone. The vibrating console had gone still. The frantic, rising temperature cooled into a steady, soft hum.
Allan's breathing steadied as he slowly stepped forward.
Inside the swirling light, something shimmered - a small, metallic glint.
He froze. Not in fear this time. In recognition he couldn't explain.
He exhaled shakily.
"Of course..." He muttered to himself. "Why not? One more weird thing to add to the list today."
He took a step closer toward the reactor.
From the observation window outside, Darius's eyes widened.
"Why's he stepping closer?"
A senior technician shook his head sharply. "No. He needs to get away from it. The radiation levels could spike again any second - "
Darius slammed his palms against the glass. "Al! Al! Stop you idiot!"
The room remained perfectly silent.
"D, you and I know It soundproof." Another technician whispered. "He can't hear you."
Inside, Allan continued walking - almost drifting - toward the pulsing core.
On the monitoring screen, the reactor temperature dropped again, stabilizing the moment Allan stepped closer.
"What in the hell..." someone breathed.
Darius Leaned forward.
"We all can see that, right?"
Back inside, Allan stopped just shot of the reactor, staring into its churning light.
A strange calm washed over him.
Then -
Something changed.
A subtle pressure tugged his mind. Not forceful, but insistent. Familiar.
He turned back toward the door.
He reached out -
Hand touching the metal handle -
And -
The reactor surged
Lights flared once more. Warnings spiked on the panel.
"Al?" Darius shouted instinctively.
Allan froze, hand still on the lock.
A voice slid into his mind, soft yet unyielding... The same voice from the forest, from the mirror, from the nothingness between breaths.
"You leave right now... You die."
Allan swallowed thickly. His pulse raced.
"The path ahead," the voice murmured, "is far beyond your human minds' understanding. Dare not walk out that door."
Allan squeezed his eyes shut. "No! Not again! You're not real, I'm just loosing it."
"You humans with your silly conceptions to evade reality."
Allan gritted his teeth. "Then show yourself. Stop hiding in my head. If you're real - prove it. Stop haunting me and just leave me alone!"
He twisted the handle -
It didn't budge. The door held firm.
"You have to hurry and step into the core before..."
"Before nothing."
Allan went to the glass window indicating the door won't open.
"The door." Darius pieced it together.
When he tried to open it.
Same results.
"The fuck! It won't budge. Get the shears and break him out of there. "
The reactor behind him pulsed - once, twice - like a heartbeat aligned with his own.
"He's almost here human! Hurry up and step into it!" The voice had become urgent, desperate in a way he didn't understand.
"This is your only chance."
Screams, sirens and shouting tore through the night. Red and blue lights strobed violently across the Nexus Tech Plaza as firefighters rushed to set up containment. Police officers dragged yellow tape across the entrance urging people backward, but none heeded
A small crowd had already formed - employees, bystanders, reporters. Cameras flashed. Microphones thrust forward. Someone shouted that the whole building might blow.
Panic spread like wildfire.
A fleet or firetrucks screech to a halt beside the main doors just as the CEO arrived - tie hung loose, and a string of Korean curses falling out of his mouth in rapid-fire bursts.
"What happened?" The accent slipped.
"Chairman Han!" The head firefighter called, rushing toward him. "Sir, we need immediate access. What's the status inside?"
Han shoved the master keycard at him, panting.
"It's the central reactor prototype! My staff tells me it's overheating - three minutes away from detonation."
The firefighter nodded grimly and shouted orders to his team.
Meanwhile -
Michael and Aria surged forward, ducking under the police tape before two officers caught the mid-stride and forced them back.
"HEY! Let us through!" Michael barked but all their please fell on deaf ears hell-bent on doing their best to save as much people as possible over one.
"ALLAN!" Michael shouted over everyone, scanning the windows as if he could see him through the floors.
Michael slammed a fist into the hood of a police cruiser. "Dammit Al..."
In the distance above them, behind thirty stories of glass and steel -
A pulse of bright, otherworldly light flickered through one of the upper windows.
Inside the sealed chamber, Allan staggered backward. The voice had fell silent.
Then the cold came.
A suffocating, unnatural cold that sank into his bones and before he could react, something wrapped around his torso - tight, invisible, crushing.
The air left his lungs in a strangled gasp
Outside the reinforced glass, the others watched as Allan rose into the air, limbs dangling, his back arching from the pressure. Pain shot through him like lightning. He felt something sharp - fingers? Claws? - digging into his sides. Warm liquid rushed down his ribs.
Blood.
He couldn't breathe. Couldn't think.
The cold was killing him.
Then it threw him.
His body slammed into the far wall with a dull, sickening thud. The impact knocked the wind out of him, leaving him choking on air and agony.
Through blurry vision, he saw Darius yelling, banging on the glass, panic etched across his face.
The invisible fhand returned, curling around his throat. Allan kicked and clawed at the empty air as he was lifted again - higher this time. His feet dangled helplessly.
And then the figure began to appear.
First the outline.
Then the shifting shadows.
Then the skin - dark, unnatural, rippling like obsidian.
And finally -
The eyes. Red. Burning.
The same eyes from the forest.
Darius and the others stumbled backward, hands trembling as he watched the impossible being take shape in front of them.
One of te engineers, terrified - bolted for the exit.
He never reached it.
The creature's head snapped toward him, and with a sickening twist, the man's neck broke from across the room. He collapsed instantly.
Lifeless.
Everyone froze. No one could scream. No one could move.
Allan's vision darkened as the creature's grip tightened around his throat. Spots danced in his vision. He could feel the force crushing his windpipe, crushing him.
Then -
With a fuck of the wrist, the monster huried him across the chamber.
He hit the glowing reactor with full force.
The glass exploded around him as his body crashed into the containment shield. Shards sliced across his skin. The reactor pulsed violently - its temperature spiking again.
Allan collapsed against the broken edge, unable to lift himself. Heat rolled across his body, the rising hum rattling his bones.
The creature stepped toward the shattered reactor glass.
Each footstep cracked the floor, spiderwebbing the tiles. The red in its eyes brightened with every breath.
The people outside the room began bleeding out of their eyes. They yearned to scream out in pain but... They couldn't.
It smiled, as if it understood just what was about to happen if it pushed a little further.
The hum reached a shriek.
Allan felt the heat surge - felt the chamber tremble - felt the energy ripping free -
And then the world erupted
Outside.
The night sky lit up as the engineering wing exploded.
Fire roared out of the shattered windows, raining sparks onto the pavement. A shockwave blasted across the cordoned-off area, knocking police and firefighters off their feet.
Michelle's scream cut through the chaos.
"ALLAN!!"
The two stared in horror as flames engulfed the building. Tears blurred their vision.
Their friend - their family - was inside.
Gone.
Or so the world believed in that moment.