Danil's heart rate spikes abruptly after the pause and an inexplicable chill takes hold of him with cold sweat trickling down his body.
"How!! wha- wh!!!"
Without clear thoughts he bolts outside the room sprinting through the corridor. Danil stumbles a couple of times before reaching the stairs. He doesn't dare to glance back even once, the stomping sounds of his footsteps against the stairs echo through the building, keeping his sanity. He hasn't screamed yet but doesn't want silence to envelop his surroundings.
Danil has never ran as fast as he is running currently. Every cell in his body is in survival mode.
The closer he gets to the ground floor the more he seems to be gliding off the steps. He falls sometimes but gets back up explosively, pain not even registering in his mind. Finally reaching the bottom, Danil makes a turn to the right at a corner just from the exit, yet mere inches away of his face is the girl with the bent neck staring at him with her sunken and hollow eyes.
"Ahhhhh!!!?"
Danil finally lets out a piercing scream and turns back sharply and sprints again. This time he falls to the ground in his panic, yet as he is about to get up, an arm grabs his ankle and drags him backward. Looking back he sees the monsters arm stretched out gripping his foot and pulling him closer.
The girl holds him upside down, her neck twisting and elongating with a grotesque sound to meet his eyes. Nothing clear can be inferred from her eyes but she tilts her head as if evaluating.
After seconds that feel like hours the girl opens its mouth, "I NEED YOU" The voice was not a scream, but very raspy, like nails scratching on blackboards, enough to send goosebumps.
Danil couldn't comprehend what was happening he was still frozen, unable to think or move from his fear, but it appears the girl is less inclined towards patience. She slams Danil face first to the ground, his face mushed to the floor makes breathing difficult and the throbbing pain across his face is enough to bring him back to his senses, and Danil is simply astonished by the absurdity of the situation.
The girl slowly pulls him up again towards her eye level. His heart is still beating rapidly whether from the cardio or his terror he doesn't know, but Danil has enough sense to realize that whatever this thing wants of him best to co-operate otherwise…
"Wh-What do you want?!"
"I remember you. You are Danil Voss, the guy who used to get into scuffles against Lurek"
"Lurek?"
The name surfaces like something dredged. Lurek Brandt, two-faced, sadistic, wore respectability like a costume. He hadn't thought about him in years.
"You will carry out my revenge against five people. Lurek is one of them. Do you understand?"
Danil simply nodded, immediately he feels something inside his chest. This new feeling isn't caught from his existing senses but as if he has been made aware of another form of sensation that from which he was previously blind towards. Like a blind person gaining vision for the first time, his perception of the world has opened to a new depth.
Danil also feels a similar sensation that he feels in his own chest towards the girl. Hers seems to have a bigger weight and he realizes that he can vaguely sense some sort of connection between himself and the girl now.
The girl twists her neck to the other side and smiles while splitting her cheeks.
"Good"
The girl's form loses its edges. Her outline bleeds, her limbs unraveling into something that has no business existing in the same world as solid matter. Before Danil can process what's happening she is already moving into him, like water reversing up a drain. The pressure in his chest is immense. His throat convulses and he can't tell if he is breathing or drowning. Danil drops to the ground. Snot and tears running down his face, his throat feels as if its about to burst and he is desperately struggling to breath in air while vomit at the same time to somehow expel the intrusion. As time passes he loses his strength and his vision darkens before he stops moving, alone on the floor of the abandoned building.
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"Hh! Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhah! Hhah"
Danil takes a large breath in as he wakes up. He sits there for a long moment. His hands are shaking.
"A dream."
He says it out loud, testing it. The apartment is exactly as he left it. Morning light, same walls, same ceiling. He says it again, quieter.
"A dream."
He almost believes it, no convinces himself. Danil can feel slight aching from his body but decides to ignore it.
… He may not be able to put it into words but the world somehow feels different. Perhaps he is still not fully awake yet.
Danil decides to take a shower. The cold water running down his body lets him gather his thought more clearly. In his mind he understands whatever he went through in his dream cannot be real but everything felt so vivid.
There is warmth in his chest. Not pain, or discomfort, but warmth, steady and unfamiliar, like something settled there that hadn't been there before. He presses his palm flat against his sternum and holds it.
Nothing. Just his heartbeat.
He pulls his hand away and goes to get a shower.
"I need to do something, maybe get another job"
After he finishes taking his shower and wiping his body with a towel, he also decides to brush his teeth. He grabs his toothbrush from the sink and sparingly adds a bit of toothpaste on it. Leaning forward while using the sink as a support staring down. He takes his time brushing his teeth and when he takes a quick glance towards the mirr--
Standing behind him is the girl with the bent neck.