Note from the author:
This chapter took a little while due to holiday events and travels, but we're almost near the end! Thank you for reading and for feedback as always! Comments really help me understand what is working (or isn't) in a story and keep me motivated! I also haven't had tons of time to edit this story in general, so I expect to go back through and fix everything after it is completed.
=========================================================================
Callie's heart pounded in her chest, which bounced painfully as she fled down the hall. She hadn't planned on partaking in any rigorous athletics while filming, so she hadn't thought to wear her sports bra that she usually favored on her morning jogs. Though when running for her life, Callie could bear the discomfort of her regular C-cup bra. She could hear Phil's frantic footsteps behind her, along with the fleshy stomping of the monster, which she had hoped was just a trick of her flickering flashlight, but Phil's screams to keep going cemented the reality of the horror unfolding around them.
Callie could still barely believe what she had seen. Ghosts were one thing -- they were supposed to be shades of the living, usually showing up as vaguely humanoid apparitions, but to describe that thing as "vaguely humanoid" was a very generous description. It appeared to be half human, but just the bottom half, or perhaps "halves" would be more accurate. What had greeted them in the corner of the hall was the scarred, naked lower half of man, but instead of an accompanying torso, there was another man's pelvis and legs attached to the top of the hips by bloody, messy stitch work, as if the man's legs had been mirrored on top of themselves.
Four impossibly long and gangly arms sprouted from the creature's back, which reached around to grasp the darkness around the fleeing duo with slender, boney fingers. Most surreal, however, were the two sets of enormous male genitalia hanging from between the mottled legs, which appeared permanently erect and swung back and forth wildly as the monster ran, its huge, swollen lower set of balls slapping loudly against its thighs and both cocks leaking copious amounts of precum that sprayed in the air and trailed along the broken tiles on the floor. The scrotum of the upper legs sagged down around the erect shaft that was pointing towards the ground, each orb jiggling while hugging the veiny length.
"Wh-what the hell is that thing!?" Callie shouted through labored breaths, unwilling to look back, only focusing dead ahead on approaching obstacles and paths to take in order to try and gain some distance on their pursuer.
"I don't fucking know! Just don't fucking stop! It's right fucking behind us!" Phil screeched, his voice cracking. He was lagging behind Callie quite a bit now, who was considerably more athletic than the stout producer, not to mention not burdened by a heavy camera. Phil had dropped his flashlight in surprise when they first encountered the leg monster, so he was relying entirely on the camera's night vision and Callie's erratically bobbing light ahead of him in order to navigate the cluttered corridors.
"Wh-what if that thing grabbed Jake and the others!?" Callie gasped as she hurdled over a rusted gurney that was blocking the hall. Phil was too out of breath to respond by the time he got there. He struggled to climb over the steel stretcher, the rickety metal legs making it difficult for his already shaking limbs to find their balance.
Callie looked over her shoulder after hearing his panicked grunts of exertion and skidded to a halt, pivoting on her heel and sprinting back towards him. She could see the lurching form of the monster scrambling through the shadows towards Phil, and just when it seemed like it was about to grab him with its gangly arms, Callie yanked Phil off the gurney while kicking it towards the creature.
The monster toppled into it, tripping over itself and crashing to the floor in a heap of debris. One of its knees rammed up into the upper set of testicles, which seemed to shrivel as the creature let out an inhuman howl of pain from some unseen orifice that loudly reverberated along the walls. Callie and Phil were forced to clasp their hands to their ears to block out the debilitating scream, gritting their teeth as their very bones seemed to shake.
Fortunately, even after the howling had stopped, the demonic creature momentarily struggled to get to its putrid feet, giving the two of them enough time to dash away down the hall. Phil's t-shirt clung to his chubby body that was caked with sweat, his pounding heart threatening to rend itself out of his chest. Just when he was about to collapse from exhaustion, he heard Callie call out to him, standing by an open doorway and beckoning him inside. A quick look behind confirmed that the monster was no longer within eyesight, so now was as good a time as any to find a hiding spot. He dove into the dark room ahead of Callie, who carefully and quietly closed the door behind them, before they both fell to their knees, panting loudly.
Only a few seconds later, the heard stomping footsteps approach their hiding spot, coming to a halt just outside the door. Callie frantically turned her flashlight off while Phil covered his mouth to muffle his haggard breathing. They sat huddled in silence, cursing their traitorous, thundering heartbeats that threatened to give them away. Callie let out a small whimper in surprise as four cracked palms pressed up against the glass window of the door, slowly sliding along the surface to find an opening. Phil, watching through the night-vision camera in horror, quietly reached his shaking hand up towards the skeleton key lodged in the keyhole, clenching his eyes as he carefully turned it just as one of the gnarled hands grasped the handle and rattled it back and forth.
The creature tested the lock a few times by pushing on the door with considerable force, banging the steel in its frame as the window's bulletproof glass rattled in place. Callie and Phil did their best to quietly slink towards a desk in the corner of the room, taking shelter behind the rotting wood as the banging continued. Just when it seemed like the door might give way, the noises stopped, and they heard the plodding, fleshy footsteps quickly meander off down the hall, hopefully assuming the two cowering humans couldn't possibly be behind the locked door.
They dared not speak for several more minutes, simply listening to each other breathing in the darkness and straining their ears for any more signs of stalking monsters in the shadows. After a while of nothing happening, Callie decided to take the risk of breaking the silence by letting out her held breath and gulping deeply.
"I think it's gone," she whispered with a dry tongue, switching her flashlight back on to dispel the crushing darkness. Phil squinted into the light and nodded, letting out a sigh of relief as well. They both got to their feet, their legs feeling like jelly from a combination of fear and exertion.
"H-how are we going to get to the roof with that fucking thing running around?" Phil stammered, wiping his sweaty palms on his cargo shorts. "What if there are more!?"
"We've got to at least try! It's our only hope of getting help!" Callie replied, nervously biting at her fingernail. "We barely escaped, but what about everyone else!? What the fuck even was that!? There's no way it's just someone playing a prank!"
"Y-yeah..." Phil gulped, running his hands through his already messy hair. "I admit this is really challenging some of my long-held beliefs..."
"I just hope Jake and the others found places to hide, too..." Callie sighed, now chewing on a different fingernail.
"I'm surprised you even still care about Jake and the others after what happened," Phil raised a brow.
"I'll kill them after we all get out safely!" Callie scoffed, holding herself back from angrily kicking something.
"D-do you think they could be..."
"They're alive! They're alive, okay!? We just need to get the police and... and I don't know, maybe a priest or something!? We just need to figure out where the heck we are now so we can keep heading to the roof. Stay focused! We can't afford to get lost!"
