The Night Owl

I stared down at the clipboard in my arms, taking notes on a recent experiment as I wander the empty halls of the research building. The loud sound of my shoes echoed off the mellowed grey walls. Soft blue lighting over my head illuminated the pages as my pen dragged in various curves, writing up another successful animal experimentation we had been planning for a while. It was the only light that I had, the day had fallen to night and all you could see to my right, outside the large windows, was a few closely planted trees that occasionally tapped it's overgrown branches against the glass.

Each door I passed was exactly 15 paces apart from the next, each door was approximately eighty inches in height, each door I passed has a number to the right of the doorframe. 103, 104, 105, 106, 107... I had walked this hall a thousand times and my analytical mind never let me forget those patterns.

A sound broke my focus, I looked up to the hallway expecting to see another researcher or perhaps the night cleaning staff.

Empty.

I looked towards 108, one of our various research chambers or occasional office break room.

Dark.

I was alone inside the building.

Then the sound again, and I looked over to the window. At first, I believed it must have been those branches again; however my curiosity piqued when I noticed two shimmering green orbs in the darkness.

As I pressed my face close to the glass and attempted to block out the surrounding light with my clipboard and hand, I steadied my breathing to prevent the glass from fogging up my glasses before I could see the source of the noise.

That's when I saw it.

A barn owl, lingering on a tree branch, looking right at me.

My lips turned up into a small smile, it wasn't often I got to see animals in the wild. The owl was still, it's eyes never left me; if I hadn't seen it tilt its head to the side I would have sworn it wasn't real.

My thoughts wandered to previous talks with fellow researchers about possibly testing our new chemicals on animals with much more delicate bones; we didn't do this because we had to, we wanted to know how far we could take science and human experimentation was completely off limits. That being said, animal testing was getting harder and harder to hide. I couldn't let the opportunity go to waste!

With the kind of speed I only ever muster when running late, I sprinted towards the animal handling rooms; swinging the door open I realised I wasn't completely alone.

A pair of eyes caught mine, brown ones; attached to a man who definitely had a much more defined masculine body than my own. He was a darker skinned man with the same lab coat as myself however around his neck was the lanyard allocated to those of a much higher authority than a newly appointed researcher such as myself. Put simply, he was one of the top dogs.

I felt a bit embarrassed bursting in with such a bold slam of the door now.

"Oh hey! You're.. Samson right?" He asked me, it was a surprise to me that anyone knew who I was from such a high level of the facility. He extended a hand to me.

"Yes, Hello. So sorry, I didn't realise there were still others in the building.." As I took his hand to shake it; I took note of how small my hands were, not to mention how pale and how cold they were in comparison to the beast of a man in front of me. My eyes rolled down his orange lanyard towards the name on his badge as I spouted words, trying my best not to be rude as I had absolutely no idea who he was.

".. Lorenzo." He beat me to it.

"Lorenzo." I repeated, embarrassed. Suddenly my initial mission caused me to tear my hand away and head for the nets we keep in a cabinet near the back of the room. As I frantically searched I felt his eyes on me from behind.

"Whoa there kiddo, you lost something?" A chuckle escaped his lips as I dropped roughly three nets on the ground while pulling the biggest one I could grab.

"Ah! Well, there's a barn owl outside and I wanted to catch it so I could run some tests on it tomorrow morning." I said making my way past him, I blurted out an apology about the mess and a quick promise on clearing it up later as I rushed down the halls.

I exited the front door and made my way round the side of the building towards where I previously saw the owl. I trudged through the small patches of mud and forest life, using the interior building to guide myself until I made it to the tree.

Much to my surprise, the owl hadn't moved. Its eyes remained on me, which was strange.

I slowly made my way towards the owl, my steps careful as I readied the net to catch the animal. Our eyes never left each other and to my surprise I had caught it, I hadn't been so proud of myself in my life! I was so excited in fact that I didn't notice that the owl hadn’t struggled once.

I brought it inside, passing down the halls and finding an empty containment room, 104 where I transferred the owl into one of the cages set out for test subjects. I locked the cage and left the room.

Lorenzo was outside, with a slight smirk on his face. He pushed himself off from the wall he leaned against and made his way closer to me.

"All this.." He stepped very close to me, his hand running through the top of my hair; a small sharp pain hit as he pulled a branch from my tangled black hair and examined it. "For a bird?" He asked.

Embarrassed, I laughed awkwardly. "Yes, I.. enjoy my work. And who knows when I would get this opportunity again."

Lorenzo chuckled again, his hands dropped into his lab coat pockets. "You're an odd kid, Samson. You still have to clear up the nets." He added with a wink.

My face red, I hurried past him to go and attend to the mess I had completely forgotten about in all my excitement.

The next day myself and a few of my other researchers began our testing on the bird. We did our usual examinations, checking its heart and respiratory system, a few knocks to various joints to test reflexes and overall body condition. It was a routine check to make sure we were experimenting on a healthy creature.

The tests results were inconclusive, however we pressed forward. We began with simple chemical exposure to common human cold, before moving onto our genetic manipulation chemicals designed to add or destroy various types of its DNA cells. The results were disappointing to say the least. The bird did not react.

This was strange.

We continued to test for the next few days, we delved into much more painful treatment to examine healing processes and behavioural patterns, but the results never changed.

After the testing was over we never settled on what to happen with the owl. Honestly, we forgot about it.

After a week, I found it in the initial testing room 104 as I was bringing in a rabbit that was going to be used for routine cosmetics testing. I almost dropped the cage I was holding when I saw it was there. Staring at me. Those big, empty eyes.

It... hadn't changed, it hadn't been fed or watered in 7 days, yet here it was... absolutely fine.

My curiosity got the better of me when I decided to come closer to the animal, I set down the rabbit cage next to the owl and walked around the table. Scanning it for any possible signs of it being swapped, or possibly a fake owl put in its place as a prank.

That's when I saw a small flash of orange just under the table, I bent over and reached down to inspect it. It was a lanyard. Lorenzo's lanyard. But that wasn't what made my stomach climb up into my chest, my throat feel dry and my palms start to sweat. No… It was that the badge and the lanyard were covered in blood.

The shrill sound of the rabbit's squeaky scream shocked me from my thoughts, and though still under the table I hesitantly looked upwards as thick red liquid dripped off the sides and onto the floor in front of me; followed by the rabbit's head hitting the puddle and splashing some blood in my direction.

My heart was thumping so hard in my chest, my whole body felt every single beat.

Slowly, I rose from under the table. Bit by bit I uncovered an anomaly that shook me to my very core.

First, the cage that held the rabbit was torn to pieces, a metal cage ripped apart like it was made of paper.

Second, the owl's cage was burst open from the inside.

Third, the lack of the rest of the rabbit.

And Fourth, The Owl attached to the roof above me; blood dripping from it's now misshapen beak that seemed to have grown into that of a large maw. It's wings, broken and re-assembled to imitate that of large bat wings. Its eyes still held the same emptiness that had always been there except now with triple the vision it had with another 4 eyes messily placed around it's head all looking at me. Its body was longer than before, now almost as long as my own, its feet bent and twisted, latching onto the lights and crushing the glass within.

I ran.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Journal Entry, Day 1.

Dr Samson Wilham here. I am a researcher working as part of Hudson Incorporated's Chemical Advancement Department. I am trapped within the facility with that... thing. At the first sign of trouble the security team put the building on full lockdown, the building has a measure in place during some kind of containment breach where all windows and doors have these heavy steel security screens that lock everything, to stop anything getting in... or getting out. Including people. I haven't yet run into anyone else however I may need to venture upstairs towards the cafeteria if I have any hope of getting food.

Does anyone even know we’re here?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Journal Entry, Day 10.

Samson again, I managed to find a small group of other researchers hiding in the cafeteria. They were nice enough to let me in, they’d barricaded the doors to keep it out.

There was so much red that painted those halls... so much blood. And the smell…

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Journal Entry, Day 48.

It keeps finding us, how does it keep finding us? It's killed over 20 people so far. And that’s just the ones I know about.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Journal Entry, Day 77.

WHY HAS NO ONE COME FOR US?! PLEASE COME FOR US! PLEASE HELP US!!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Journal Entry, Day 104

The Owl killed them all... Please help me.. I think I'm the only one left. I kept thinking I could survive this with people. But they're gone now..

Even in my fight for survival I took notes on The Owl, its behaviour is hostile, its diet consists of meat of any kind, it has intense hearing and eyesight but deadly quiet when it moves to attack. By the time you hear it coming, you’re already too late.

If you ever find this journal... please make sure others know about this thing.

It's outside.

I'm sorry, this is my fault.