Thud!
A cold drop of sweat fell from Eleanor’s chin.
“…”
A shiver ran down her spine.
Her gaze was fixed on the top of the stairs.
Despite the unclear darkness filled with a subtle flow of light, she was convinced that something unknown was up there.
‘What on earth…?’
An unrelenting alarm rang in her head.
The figure at the top of the stairs.
It merely stood still in the shadows, not moving, just staring down at them, but somehow, she felt like she couldn’t take her eyes off it.
“…What’s wrong? Is there something up there?”
In the midst of this bizarre standoff,
Elijah’s voice rang out from below, questioning the current situation as if he sensed something odd.
“It seems that way. I can’t see much, but there’s definitely something—”
As she cautiously shifted her gaze to him to explain that something was watching them from above—
“Damn it…!”
Suddenly, a voice next to her was filled with panic.
Feeling someone shove her hard, she tumbled backwards down the stairs.
“Get out of the way!”
“Eek?!”
Losing her balance, she instinctively flailed her arms, looking for something to grab onto.
But all she could touch was the rough wall beside the stairs.
All she could feel was the coarse texture of the wall brushing against her fingers.
As her eyes met Cooper’s, who was also falling, she intended to protest against the shove, but—
RUMBLE!!
A thunderous sound erupted suddenly.
It felt as if her eardrums were about to burst from the pain.
With a grimace, she bit down hard on her teeth without realizing.
“———!”
Her vision blurred momentarily.
A persistent ringing echoed within her skull.
What on earth was happening?
In this sudden chaos, she questioned the loud noise she just heard, but the dizziness and headache torturing her left no time for contemplation.
“…Cough!”
A cough escaped her lips.
Her head hurt. She had no idea what was happening.
Her hair was stuck to the ground. She tried to brush it away with her hands, but they were shaking. Her back hurt. She lay on the floor, unable to comprehend why.
“Member!”
While she was feeling dazed,
A frantic voice calling her came from nearby.
“Member! You need to focus! Right now!”
Tap, tap, a large hand struck her collarbone.
The external stimulus began to rouse her consciousness little by little.
“What just… happened?”
As the dizziness faded somewhat, a bone-crushing pain hit her.
It was surely the impact from rolling down the stairs.
For an ordinary person, such a blow would leave them unable to move for a while.
Eleanor, too, felt a long groan escape her lips just from trying to sit up because of the pain.
But when she finally looked up,
The pain seemed trivial.
With a blank expression, she began to mutter to herself.
“…W-what is that?”
A voice tinged with fear slipped from her lips.
At the end of her gaze directed toward the place where she had just been,
The figure that had been watching them from high above had somehow made its way down to that spot,
And its sight, seen up close, was much more imposing and grotesque than from far away.
“Gah…! I don’t know, as soon as you looked away, that thing suddenly lunged at us…!”
Cooper seized his head and slowly began to rise.
Due to the deafening bang like a bomb exploding and the shock of falling down the stairs, he too seemed to struggle to move his body.
“———”
The grotesquely distorted face turned toward them.
Its arms, connected to that face, moved awkwardly.
With limbs that looked misshapen, twisted, and shattered, they resembled clubs more than arms.
“We… We have to run…”
She struggled to get up.
First, she needed to stand and move from there.
Whatever had just happened, the impact was enough to leave her ears ringing.
If that impact were to hit their bodies, they would literally be reduced to mush.
If she wanted to live, she had to momentarily forget the pain stabbing her entire body.
“Ugh…!”
But unfortunately, she couldn’t move her body as she wanted.
Adding insult to injury, her still-dizzy balance made it impossible for her to stand without falling repeatedly.
Thud, thud
From the top of the stairs, the distorted face slowly began to descend.
The sound of footsteps echoed in the emergency exit.
Compared to the speed of its sudden assault earlier, it was slow enough to respond to.
Yet, watching it slowly approach intensified the fear even more.
“Hurry up! There’s no time to waste!”
“Just give me a second. I’ll be up—Eek…!”
Frustrated, Cooper pulled Eleanor up, struggling to support her.
However, it wasn’t easy to help someone while he could barely keep himself steady.
Just when the distance to the creature had shrunk to a few steps,
The distorted face seemed to prepare for something,
Twisting its body widely—
THWACK!
With a flash, a loud sound filled the hallway.
Startled, it returned its contorted body to its original state.
THWACK, THWACK, THWACK!
Flames repeatedly burst from the muzzle.
Each time the figure was hit by the pellets, it was forced back slightly.
In accordance, Elijah, armed with a firearm, moved steadily forward.
“It seems to be working!”
Eleanor shouted in surprise.
Though the term “Abnormal Phenomena” evokes images of transcending physical laws of the world,
In reality, not all of them possess insurmountable power.
If it were like the pale face that had chased them down the hallway earlier, where the only option was to flee, it was a different story.
Some Abnormal Phenomena could be suppressed by merely projecting firepower from a group.
THWACK, THWACK, THWACK!
Thus, the fact that the distorted face reacted to the lead indicated
That they were, indeed, capable of responding on their own.
So, having been fleeing from it, they found themselves pausing.
THWACK!
Flames flared.
Smoke billowed from the firearm.
The once-unknown figure had gained some distance from them,
But sensing that the bullets had stopped flying, it began to move again slightly.
“What are you doing? Keep up the pressure!”
Frantically, Cooper yelled with an anxious tone.
However, Elijah didn’t respond at all.
He simply aimed his firearm downwards as if he had no intention of shooting anymore.
“…That was my last bullet.”
His voice carried a hint of disappointment.
As soon as the words left his mouth, Cooper and Eleanor’s faces froze slowly.
They recalled that while being chased by the pale face earlier down the hallway, they had used up most of their resources by shooting at the incoming objects.
Thud
Once again, footfalls echoed from within the emergency exit.
Again, all eyes turned upwards to the stairs.
“…It doesn’t seem to be hurt at all.”
“It looks like it’s even angrier…”
The two stared at the shapeless figure with tense expressions.
There wasn’t any discernible change or particular expression on that grotesque face, yet
Somehow, they couldn’t shake the feeling that it seemed a bit upset.
