Awakening

19: Demand

Blake slammed into a wall as he turned a corner, but he did not let the dizziness stop him. He was hot on the cat-like creature's tail as it skirted around unknowing staff and patients frantically running as the building tremored a few more times.

He screeched to a halt when an older man stumbled in front of him, vomiting blood onto the tile. The man staggered into a nearby wall but Blake jumped over the blood and continued after the Shadow. A few more nurses raced into a nearby room; whether out of fear or to help a patient, he did not know, but his focus was not on them. The Shadow erratically bounced off of walls down the hallways, as if it were lost.

Blake slid again when the creature turned yet another little corner, but not before he watched a few other bystanders cowering on the floor, or coughing and vomiting extensively. Blake breathed in the dust left over from the shaking building, and coughed himself as he kept his eyes on the creature. His mind raced as he continually chased after it. The sudden illnesses of everyone, the tremors and flashing lights, all the machines going haywire...not to mention he could practically taste the fear and panic in the air as plainly as he could smell the blood and a souring sickness.

But something else about the air tasted foul, something almost unnatural. Coughing didn't help; he inhaled almost as much as he exhaled, increasing his nausea with every passing second. Everything in the air made him dizzy, and his stomach twisted in knots.

The creature suddenly skidded to a halt, then without warning rushed right towards a door. Blake tore after it, but could not catch up as it phased right through the steel within a few seconds. Blake looked at the sign to the right of the doorway. STAIRCASE.

He pushed the heavy door open with all his might; the eerie echo of the stairwell was quite the contrast to the chaotic and thick-scented mess of the hospital hallways. Blake looked down, then lifted his chin. The Shadow jumped from railing to railing in its ascent, effortlessly scaling every floor it climbed. Blake rushed up the stairs after it, his hear pounding harder and louder with each stomp up. One flight of stairs, two flights, three, four...

Then he laid eyes on a door and the end of the stairwell, and the creature once again phased right through it.

Blake slammed his body into the exit bar to latch it open. The impact was uncomfortable and threw off his balance a moment, and a chilly gust greeted him as he made his way across the rooftop. Blake slowed down and scanned the entire area, only to find that the Shadow had vanished. There were only a few places to hide up here, behind the rooftop door entrances and some wide but short columns. He proceeded with caution, his eyes trained for any signs of the creature.

"So you came..."

Startled by the sudden voice Blake spun around in a moment's notice. From behind the door column emerged a figure, walking with a confident stride as a couple of Shadows emerged from behind the same pillar. Instinctively Blake stepped backwards and his entire body tensed up.

It's him...

One of the shadowy wisps jumped onto the man's shoulder and produced this odd hissing-squeaking sound. The man stepped towards Blake at the same time and lifted his hand. Blake held his breath and flinched when the man snapped his fingers. Nothing happened initially, but movement beyond the stranger grabbed his attention, and the sight now revealed to him sent a horrified chill pulsating throughout his body.

A Shadow the size of a small horse, accompanied by three smaller creatures, stepped into full view on the rooftop side. And it its long and snarling jaws...the limp form of June, held by the back collar of her hospital gown. A small bit of blood trickled out of her mouth, but unconsciousness prevented her from struggling free.