Thump.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. The infinite tick of the clock had me wishing the period would end. I wasn't even listening, but even if I'd wanted to, I couldn't block out the incessant noises in my head. One, in particular, stood out from the rest, and annoyed me to no end, not for its volume, but for its familiarity. I couldn't quite place my finger on what this low thumping sounded like. Possibly machinery, or furniture moving. The constant thrum of whatever it was never let up. Could no one else hear it? What was it? My curiosity burned, but I dared not investigate what it was. I was a dreamer, not an adventurer. Or, if you prefer, a coward. I much preferred speculation to action. In fact, sometimes, I'd make up outlandish reasons for the sound's existence. Anything from aliens to someone punching a cardboard box was plausible in my mind. I always chuckled at what I could come up with. Occasionally, however, when the thumping stopped, only for a second, I'd wonder if I'd ever have the courage to actually seek out its source. Every single time I would lose my nerve. The images that invaded my mind convinced me that death or injury would be a heavy price to pay to satisfy my curiosity.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Another boring, boring period spent with the insufferable noise. Then, there's that second where it stops and my poor ears are given a moment to rest. But instead of giving me a break, another sound emerges from the deep. A high, guttural sound. It almost sounds like… shrieking? How interesting…

Tick... Tick... Had I really become so desensitized to the noise? Had I completely missed someone screaming bloody murder? I abruptly got up from my seat to follow the sound, completely forgetting I was still in class. I couldn't stand it anymore, especially after hearing what I could only assume was another student screaming. As I ran, I mustered up as much courage as I could.

The noise wasn't hard to follow. It led me downstairs to... The janitor's closet. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe, just maybe, I had misheard and the thumping really was just machinery, and maybe I was just losing my mind because the constant stimulus was completely overwhelming. Yes. Of course. Maybe.

I decided I wouldn't chicken out. I’d made it this far. I could still hear the thumping. Loud. So loud. I was sure I was in the right spot. So, I went into the janitor's closet.

The janitor's closet almost felt like a dark hole. It seemed to suck out all the time and light from the air. No, it wasn't actually dark in there, but the walls felt as if they would close in at any moment and their grimy, green bricks would crush me. A pit started to form in my stomach and I was sweating, already imagining my impending doom. The janitor’s closet was not only claustrophobic, it was also quite dirty. The floors were sticky with some sort of copper-coloured substance. The walls, covered in janitorial supplies, weren’t much better. Hung around were mops that would cause a slow death if plunged directly into my heart, sponges that could be shoved down my throat, limiting my air supply until I eventually ran out of air and suffocated, the floor scrubbing machine that could wipe my head clean off if I wasn’t careful around it. A cold sweat gathered on my brow. It dawned on me that if I died here, no one would notice. Who would go looking for me? In a janitor's closet? If I screamed while the life drained from me, no one would hear, just as they didn't hear the scream from before...

A faint click brought me back from my thoughts. Trembling, I carefully inspected the source of the noise and found a panel of the wall was loose. As I pulled it back, I regretted ever coming downstairs. What would my discovery of the sound help? Images of my death flooded my mind once more and the pit grew larger. This was not somewhere I was meant to be.

Ignoring my clearly rational brain, I entered the weird not-wall. I was met with the sight of a long hallway, lit dimly by a single naked lightbulb. A few moments later, the hall lit up completely, almost as if my presence here was expected. I tensed up, on high alert. The hall seemed to stretch out for an eternity. It was so long, in fact, that I couldn’t see the end of it, which fueled my anxiety. The colour of the walls was abhorrent. A mixture of beiges, browns and coppers made what I guessed was supposed to be a marbling effect. The result, however, gave the hallway the impression of being wallpapered with human skin. I quickly dismissed the thought. Disgusting. But… Would it feel like skin if I reached out and touched it? Just as my arm shakily extended, I heard wailing, so loud and grievous it shook my soul. The voice sounded familiar… It sounded like my voice. I looked around, desperately trying to locate the source, to no avail.

I had to get out of there. I turned back and saw pitch black darkness and halted in my tracks. Where was my way out? I ran towards the darkness only to be met with more and more darkness. There was absolutely no one who could find me. I was alone in a vast, yet suffocating darkness. I tried to feel for walls but found myself stumbling around in blank space. If I hadn't been standing on it, I would've thought there was no floor. My breaths came in short bursts and I tried to gulp in as much air as possible. If I didn't die murdered, I'd die suffocated.

A chill ran up my spine. Something was in the hall with me. Something large, yet human. As it got closer, I froze. And then, just as suddenly as it came, it left, passing beside me like I wasn’t there. My nostrils flared and I felt like curling up and lying on the floor. But I didn't. Who knew what horrors lied on the floor?

I blindly followed the thumping sound, seeing as it was the only thing I could do at this point. Occasionally, the noise would be cut by not-me’s howls and each time, I was more and more tense. The sound resonated in my ears and stayed in my mind as I walked. Was I going insane?

I was met with blinding light and for a second, I couldn't see at all. The sound hit me before the sight. The thumping was so loud, it was all I could hear and it drove me mad. Accompanying the thumps was a sound I hadn’t heard before, a sort of low groaning that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, a thousand different voices, yet one single sound. Suddenly, it hit me and I knew why the sound was so familiar.

My eyes adjusted to the new light. All there was was a huge, fleshy mass of what I assumed were my classmates. The sounds of wailing and groaning continued along with the thumping sound. The sound of one large heartbeat. I couldn't help but stand and stare, mouth agape. The being itself was a hulking, disgusting creature, with thin, marbled skin. I recognized the tones of its flesh from the corridor from before and from my classmates' skin. The papery quality of the epidermis left all the creature’s veins exposed like bloody ravines slithering along its body. I could tell the heads and arms I saw at the surface of the body weren’t the only people incorporated into the mass: it was a lumpy kind of being, which probably meant it contained the earliest victims in the interior areas of its body. I had to close my eyes and keep myself from completely collapsing. Unbridled disgust and a rampant fear filled my being and made my head ache.

I felt unsteady on my feet and looked down at the floor. I stumbled back and I blinked a few times and took a good look around. I was completely surrounded by the fleshy mass. It wasn't just the blob in front of me, it was the entire room. I was standing in a room of human flesh. I… was standing in a room made entirely of people I knew. I once again felt nauseous. I realized the mass was only a tumour in the body of the flesh room. It was everywhere. I couldn't leave. I couldn't escape. It was all-consuming. And that wailing. My wails. Were they coming from me? Was I making those sounds?

I felt the presence from the hall again and felt the familiar chill from before. My eyes widened.

“Tsk, tsk tsk. Don’t you remember, kid? Curiosity killed the cat.”

I whipped my head around and was met with icy blue eyes. Just like their colour would suggest, they were cold and unfeeling. The janitor was quite a spindly man, which was jarring next to the blob that was the mass. His fingers were unclean and charred. I defensively put up my arms, trying to protect myself. He reached out as if to grab me. His blackened fingers flexed as if menacing me, or maybe warning me of my impending doom.

In a feeble attempt to escape, I stumbled back and touched the flesh wall. The taut feel of stretched skin barely holding back a mishmash of organs and the squishy sound of flesh meeting flesh made me gag while the fine body hairs on the skin tickled my neck and back. The vellus hairs left an itchy sensation on my skin and scalp. It was as if there was a spreading infection where I was touched by the wall. The warmth of the mass and my own body became indistinguishable as I sank into what my former peers had become.

The janitor quickly caught up to me and grabbed me by the arm. His dirty fingernails and crazed look made me wish I was anywhere but here. He squeezed my limb so tight my circulation was cut off.

“Surely you’ve pieced out what’s going on by now.”

I stayed quiet. I felt like I was suffocating. My throat felt as if it were sewn shut and my eyes welled with tears. I clawed at the janitor’s arm to no avail. It was so sturdy my nails were starting to chip and break.

“Ain’t she a beaut? My own creation. And you thought janitors were stupid.”

I shook my head vigorously. I couldn't speak. I was trembling and my attempts to inhale any air were reduced to pained gasps. I tried to think back on my life. What had I done to deserve this?

“No matter anyways. You’ve seen her now. ”

NO!

“You’ve seen enough movies to know what that means.”

PLEASE, NO!

I screamed. I screamed for dear life. I screamed until my throat felt like it’d just been slashed, yelled that piercing shriek I’d heard in the corridor and in the room before. Only this time, I was sure it was me.

The janitor pulled me towards that monstrosity.

I cried. I screamed.

I saw those cold, blue eyes. And I became a monster.

By Caroline Ghenadenik