Mailmen for Cryptids

Mail In The Maze 4

The last bit was said so softly I almost didn't hear him. I had met the Silver King and he was the reason why I was stuck with this damn job. But he was a big deal in the supernatural world. It was a bad idea to drop his name and I really didn't want to think back to how we met. I sort of understood how the uniforms worked now. Even with that comforting idea of a god level bullet proof vest, I was still scared walking around the horrible place we were in.

As we walked, I saw that the walls had marked spots. Messages from people who had gotten lost. They used whatever they could to write them. From what I guessed was nail polish, to scratching away at the wall paper. I hadn't heard any signs of life beyond the carpet-muffled sound of our own footsteps and, without any other noise to cover it, the oddly disconcerting hum of the lights above. Rufus clearly knew where he was going even though everything looked the same. But as we kept walking, I started to see more messages and stains on the ground I feared was dried blood. I didn't want to think about who or what left those stains behind. I stopped in front of one wall with frantic writing in a faded sharpie. It was a name and address. That was all. I don't know why it got me to stop. There were plenty of names written and we passed by many old pleas for help. I couldn't help but wonder about the people who had died here. Or who was still lost. And their loved ones who was waiting for them to come home. I had my phone in my pocket. Without realizing I had taken it out to take a photo of the message I was staring at.

"It's best if you don't."

I froze when I heard Rufus speak. There was sudden tension between us. He was telling the truth. It's best if I don't let myself go down the route of trying to find what was lost. Nothing good could come of it. I turned off my phone and returned it to my pocket.

I think he felt bad for making it awkward. He kept darting his eyes back at me clearly trying to think of something to say.

"You know, things have changed a lot since I last came by. Because this place adjusts to humans' expectations it's never the same twice. Two people could be right next to each other but seeing something different. The last time I was here it smelled so much of chemicals and bleach, it was hard to get around. But now it's pretty nice. I can understand why creatures have been moving here recently. Lots of space. Free food."

Rufus was trying to fill the silence by chatting away. When he mentioned the free food part, he gestured to a stain on the floor we had just walked by. We had been walking by an increasing amount of them. The one he nodded his head towards looked fresher than the others had. I looked up at him, face twisted in horror over what he was implying.

"I keep forgetting you're human. That was... very insensitive of me."

We decided to walk in silence after that. I just wanted to find whatever Mr. Chatter was and get out of there. Even though we didn't see any bodies, it was becoming very clear people had died in this space. I hadn't heard or seen anything and Rufus hadn't named a big bad monster to look out for. So, what was killing all these people, taking their bodies and leaving their belongings behind? I walked around the copper-colored stains on the ground but found it slowly get harder to walk around them. I really didn't want us to get to the point where the floor was entirely that dried blood color. I soon found out I didn't have any choice.