• I woke with a start. Something felt wrong, then again what felt right in this place? I scanned the room for any changes to the surrounding. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The dank blinds were still half shut and looked as if one touch would shatter them. The bars on the windows were still there, the white walls were still as bland as ever. I sat up fully, how long had I been asleep? I yawned and thought it cant have been long enough so I started to lay back down on the rock solid bed when I realised I had missed something. The door, the door that was always locked, wasn’t. I leapt up off the bed to make sure I wasn’t dreaming….I placed my finger on the cold icy ‘Door Release’ button that had now turned green. To my amazement the door mechanisms clicked open, finally… a chance to find out where I was! I ran back to the side of my bed and found some battered old boots and slid each on as quickly as I could.

    I pushed open the door; my it was heavy… how the lunch lady managed to open it with that huge tray of hers I’d never know. I poked my head round the door, the corridors were empty. I took one look back into my room before exiting, there were no cameras so it wasn’t as if they knew I’d left, I had until morning to explore when my breakfast was delivered.
    “Hmmmmm…..”
    I examined the corridors for signs of life, nothing stirred. I noticed the corridors were like my room, perfectly white. The whole place had such a clinical feel, the white walls, the tiles and the metal flooring. The corridors were so long, I could barely see the walls at the end of both sides and the number of doors was impressive…was I in a hospital? I had to make a decision, so I chose left. The floors of metal were cold; I could feel the chill through the bottom of the boots that were now almost falling apart. I was trying my hardest not to make a sound in case anyone was around. I found it awfully strange that the place was deserted, what was with all the high security in the room if there was no one guarding it outside as well? It wasn’t fool proof; my escape was evidence to this.

    I carried on down the corridor, it never ended; white wall after white wall, black door after black door, all electronically locked as mine was. I didn’t understand it, where was everyone? I looked around back in the direction of my room and realised, how was I going to remember where it was? All I could remember was the door number, number 23009. Were there really over 23000 rooms in this building? It must be huge…I tried to focus on the other end of the corridor, that seemed miles away now. I thought to myself that it was too late to go back so I started to turn back the other way when I saw it, someone, something at the other end of the corridor out of the corner of my eye. I turned to face it, the small black figure on the horizon, but it was gone. Nothing was there except the white of the wall; maybe I’d mistaken it for another door close to it? I thought nothing of it and turned back the way I was heading, walking slowly to the end of the corridor, I had all night, why rush?

    I finally reached the end after about half an hour of walking; it was indeed a very long corridor! I turned and found myself face to face with a large door. I was in luck; it was your average push/pull door. I pushed the door open triumphantly with ease and to my dismay I found another corridor just like the last, this was different though. The doors were different, like the one id just entered through, unlocked and ready to be explored. I was uneasy about the place though now, I had my doubts about it. Where was everyone? Had they all gone home? Or had something happened to them? Whatever the reason it had left me utterly alone, alone to find out where I was that is. I turned and looked at the plate on the door I’d just come through, it was all scratched up. I could just make out one word and that was ‘accommodation’…. I could have guess that already, useful….I inspected the plate again, out of curiosity to see if I could make out the first word and realised something very wrong indeed. The scratches…. They looked like fingernail scratches, long, thin fingernail scratches, not average wear and tear. This place was starting to appear awfully strange, firstly the whole sterilised whiteness of it all. Secondly, where was everybody? And now this, the strange scratch marks on the door plate. What happened in this place? I had to find a way out.

    I wandered over to another door on the opposite side of the hallway, its large plate clearly saying ‘Laboratory’ followed by ‘Access to Entrance’. It sounded like my ticket out of there. I walked over to the door and put my hand on the handle when I felt something. It was if something was watching me. I turned sharply, again, nothing, just as before. It was like I was going mad, must be the walls. I pushed the door to the ‘laboratory’ open slowly and had a look around. It looked empty; it sounded empty….Where the hell was everyone? I opened the door fully and walked into an open room, it was some kind of lobby. I looked around at the walls, still white, but adorned with various safety posters like ‘Wear gloves at all times’ and ‘Do not allow specimens out of containment’…What were they doing here…and why was I involved? I was a college student, not a scientist…I walked over to the door marked ‘Laboratory - Restricted Access’, guess I wasn’t going in there. I carried on up to the desk, hoping to get some form of information. The dim lights flickered above my head, man that gave me a headache, they always did. I found a desk and had a look at some of the papers on the top… nothing of interest, schedules for meetings, personnel information…nothing of particular interest. I then saw the huge filing cabinets behind the desk; they were labelled ‘Patient Details’. If I was to find anything out about why I was here, I was sure it would be in there.
    I opened the cabinet labelled K-R
    “….hmmmm…Malcador……Malcador…,’ I searched through all the files, then came across what I’d feared, ‘Malcador, Edward’

    Laboratory specimen number 23009…..my room number…..what was happening? I felt so angry. What were they doing with me… specimen? SPECIMEN?
    “I AM NOT A SPECIMEN!!!!’ I shouted loudly at one of the security cameras I had noticed on the wall…I stormed into the middle of the room and shouted again in hope of someone hearing and seeing the damage they had caused. Then it happened… the lights died completely. The room plunged into absolute darkness. The blacked out windows of the door obscured most light from outside but the lights seemed to have gone off there too….
    “Great….a powercut,’…. I tried to get back into the centre of the room, feeling my way around the desk. I wondered if they could see my through the cameras still with night vision, maybe it was some kind of test? I found my way back into the middle of the room so I could try and head to the door when I heard something move… something near the door…. I could hear the door closing….squeaking shut… someone or something was in the room with me.


    I froze in terror, blind, unable to move. I was paralysed on the spot. I tried not to make any noise but I could hear my heart beating its way out of my chest it was that fast. I slowed my breathing and tried to listen closer to locate what was in the room. I could hear something breathing…. Slow wheezy breaths… rasping…. It almost sounded as if it were shivering…the noise struck me with fear… it wasn’t human, and if it was, it was not in the right frame of mental state to help me in any way. Suddenly the breaths stopped…. I couldn’t hear a thing.
    ‘SMASH!’ something fell behind me as I fell backwards into the desk….I dropped the file I had acquired from the cabinet in horror as all my joints froze up. It knew I was here now…I shut my eyes, even though I couldn’t see anyway it was comforting, trading darkness for darkness. Then the noise reappeared, it was closer…. It was behind me. I jolted upright as a loud, deafening screech filled the room. The noise darted all around me. In front, behind, even above my head the screeching. I covered my ears and fell to my knees on the hard floor. I could feel a warm tear roll down my face… I was going to die? The screeching halted suddenly as I heard an almost silent thud on the desk I was knelt in front of.

    I could hear that scratchy breathing right above me, then I felt the coldness of the breaths on the back of my neck as it lent down closer to me. The chill made my hairs stand on end as it sniffed around. I shivered as I felt something soft and cold brush past my cheek. What was it…? What did it want with me? Something tapped on the desk rhythmically, then scratched down it. I could feel something getting closer and closer, the breaths getting heavier and heavier, then it stopped, and the screeching started.
    ‘Make it stop… please make it stop’ I whispered into the darkness of the abyss, rocking backwards and forwards in the small space I was huddled in.
    ‘STOP,’
    And to my astonishment it stopped, it was still in the room… I couldn’t tell where… I could hear something dripping on the floors… Drip…..Drip…Drip…then something dripped on me… it felt warm, but I couldn’t see what it was…..all of a sudden I could hear screeching outside and the door closing shut…had it gone? I remained still, utterly terrified, tears streaming down my face. As I sat in the dark I wondered what terrible things went on here….I wish I never had as the lights came back on.

    They flickered on slowly as I shut my eyes from the bright glare. When I opened them I felt physically ill. Blood, everywhere; on the walls, the ceiling the furniture, dripping its way down the walls onto the floor, creating sickening pools on the floor. The perfectly white walls stained crimson by the liquid. I gagged as I shut my eyes again, clutching my throat. I opened my eyes to check I wasn’t dreaming, the blood was still strewn across the floors and the walls. It was then I noticed the long, deep, indents on the wall, were they made by that thing? I put my hand to my face in shock but then noticed something on my palm, red. It was all over me too. As I looked around in horror I panicked, I took in a deep breath through my nose to try and calm down and regain composure when it hit me. The smell, urgh it was overpowering. The scent of the already coagulating blood, it was everywhere, staining everything it touched a deep, dark red. I couldn’t take the smell anymore; I staggered to my feet and ran over to the door, swiftly opening it and exiting the room of death. I crashed against the wall on the opposite side as I slipped on something on the floor. More blood, a trail.

    It was pasted across the floor in a trail-like fashion, the long indents on each side of the wall followed the trail, it was definitely one way I would not be going. I panicked as I searched around for another door that was open, they all seemed to have been padlocked since I’d been in the Laboratory reception. What were they doing to me? Was it some kind of experiment? If only I hadn’t dropped the file. I was almost back to the reception door to go find the file when I heard that noise, the scraping on the tiles, sinking its way into my skull. I couldn’t go back in, it was a dead end, and whatever was in there with me before wouldn’t let me go again. The screeching was coming from the opposite direction of the trail; I had no option but to follow it, so I ran.

    All I could do was run…run from the darkness that was stalking me through the empty corridors. The endless labyrinth of turns and doors, within a few minutes of setting off I was lost within this vast mazelike complex. There was no way out that I could see all I could do was keep on running. I glanced behind me, nothing, I looked forward, still nothing. Maybe I had lost my pursuer in the corridors? Maybe it was lost too, or maybe it was still there, slowly, silently hunting me from the shadows. There was no blood on the walls or the floor here, it hadn’t been here. I ran on, trying to find an open door when I heard it again, scraping on the walls behind me, screeching like nails on a chalk board. I turned to face the noise and froze in horror. The screeching sounds were close, round the corner I’d just turned by the sound of it. I backed up slowly, keeping my steps light, trying not to make any noise as the screeching grew closer when I found id backed into a wall. Then the worst thing that could happened to me, the corridor fell dark. The lights flickered on for a brief moment as I watched the other end of the corridor in shock. It came round the corner, some…something, black in its entirety, a shadow in human form, faceless, terrifying. Then the lights flickered out again. I could hear it slowly edging closer shuffling its way towards me. Light appeared from above, it had gotten much closer, it was only a few metres away. It was hunched over, swaying as if it was off balance, its lank dark hair swaying side to side. Blood dripping from the face covered with, blood drenched matted hair. Its long… bloody claws scraping on the floor, it was monstrous.

    I didn’t look back, I ran and ran, turning down every corridor I could to try and lose the shade that was tracking me down. What did it want? What was it? I hadn’t time to think, I ran as fast as I could down the endless corridors, my heart racing faster and faster with each turn. If I bumped into that…that thing….I had no chance. The corridors all became to look similar; they all were drenched in red, the doors, all uninviting and padlocked. I turned down the next corridor on my left and started sprinting down it, but it was a dead end. A door was at the end of it, perfectly red and open ajar. Maybe I’d be safe in there? The surprisingly old fashioned bronze handle called out for me to open it and I obliged. As I touched the handle the lights suddenly faded, then turned off completely. The door in front of me shut on its own accord. Shivers ran down my spine, the noise, the scraping on the floor…..it was right behind me. I could hear its delayed breathing, it sounded as if it were struggling for air. Was it dying? One wrong move and I’d be diced by those razor-like claws. Those claws, they scraped along the floor, edging closer and closer. The dripping on the floor, getting increasingly louder. It must have been blind if it hadn’t attacked already, it couldn’t be able to see me, just sense my presence. I went for it as quickly as I could, pulling the handle clumsily and nearly hitting myself in the face with the door as I frantically tried to pull it open it to reach salvation. The thing sensed where I was and darted forward, it must have moved three meters in a matter of milliseconds. As I darted round the door it reached out with those claws which softly came into contact with my back as I escaped around the door. I slammed it shut as quickly as I could and fumbled for some form of lock. I found a small latch and clicked it into place, some good that would do against that…that abomination.

    The room was pitch black, like the corridors were. It was still out there, awaiting my return. I could sense myself that it was just beyond the door, I could hear its long nails grazing the door, a single, gentle touch of the claws dug into the strong door. I realised what damage the claws could do. I winced in pain as I felt my back; the shirt I was wearing was ruined, sliced up in three different places. I removed it as it was no longer of any use due to the damage it had sustained. I looked at my hands, covered in my own blood. The thing hardly touched me, but the wounds were apparent when the lights finally flickered back on. The room was filled with mirrors. Long, tall mirrors that lined the entire room. I realised how dangerous the beast outside was. Two long, gashes, 30 cm at least over each shoulder blade, dripping with blood. The warm liquid ran down my back, creating lines of red down my ivory skin. The blood dried quickly, it always did as strange as it sounded. The red lines turned almost black as the blood coagulated. A single touch managed to cause this much pain…I flinched again as it started to pulsate. I stared at the reflection in the mirror more and I recognised how badly I was being kept here. They seemed to feed me regular meals, but I was almost skin and bones. I could almost see my ribs, and my hip bones were jutting out the side, I had never seen myself look so frail. I looked paler than usual, even though I was very pale to begin with I looked as if I were bordering on albino. My eyes looked cloudy too….they were no longer the deep sapphires they used to be. What had they done to me? Who were they? I knew, but couldn’t remember, their faces faded within my memories. Things were really getting strange and I wanted out. I then realised something, but realised it too late. The door I had chosen was too good to be true. As I was caught up in my own reflection I failed to notice that I was not alone in the mirrored room. There was someone, or something, else in there with me, watching my every move. It put its cold hand on my shoulder as it spoke gently,
    ‘We finally meet, Edward’