Monster

"Huff, puff, damn it."

He tried to get up but failed miserably and fell on his back.

Eve had his hands tight wrapped around his tibia, the shin bone.

As an avid fighter, he was not new to injuries but that did not mean he could shrug off an injury.

His fighting capability usually kept him safe from anything serious so this was his first time being hurt this much.

Eve slowly let go of his shin and grabbed around for anything to use as support.

A cold metal met his blistered palm, causing him to grimace. 

His eyesight was blurry and the dimly lit environment didn't help him either.

'At least it's not pitch black.'

He brought the metal to his face and tried to guess what it was.

'A stick… A crowbar maybe? No, the ends are different. It may be a broken segment of a pipe.'

Whatever it was, it was thin yet tough, cold, and reliable. It could support Eve's weight with little no to issue and it was around 1.4 meters long as well so it was enough length too.

His left leg stung and swelled quite a lot which made it hard to move so he turned around and placed a tip of the pipe on his left side on the broken slab of concrete he was on.

Then he slowly pushed and gained height.

He tried to not put any weight on his left leg to the best of his ability but the pain made him dizzy to the core.

He gritted his teeth and endured through the pain and managed to get up.

Now, he could somewhat properly see the environment he was in now.

Smashed tables, blood stains, dust, and concrete lay everywhere in the dimly lit hall as if a hurricane passed through there.

Eve managed to use his support rod to walk away from the position of his fall as he could smell the toxic fumes of the fire on the floor above leaking down via the hole.

Eve walked as fast as he could, which did not amount to much.

His initial thought was to stumble his way to the exit stairs which was not far. And so, he walked up to the dark entrance of the stairs.

Every bit of his body hurt, his clothes had been charcoaled, and he was miserable. But the state of the hall urged him more than his state.

The eerie silence, the smoke descending from upstairs, dim lights, the ruined state of the furniture all combined and woke a sense of emergency and fear Eve didn't know was inside of him.

His pace quickened despite his leg's protests.

'Huh?'

A horrible stench smacked him right in the face, causing him to halt in his tracks right there.

The familiar yet equally repulsive scent caused his brain to do a hard reset.

'Ah.

That thing is still on the stairs, isn't it.

Although it might not be the exact one though. Who is to say that only one of those things existed?'

He now needed to decide what to do. Wander the hall and risk it or go into the stairs and risk it?

Naturally, he was not going to get himself cornered in a tight space with limited mobility so he would have had to pass.

He scanned the area close to him for anything useful, maybe some painkillers hopefully.

However, the drawers and the desks were all splintered and broken and as such, it was practically impossible to find anything on the piling rubbish on the floor.

Eve sighed, 'I should do something about this leg.'

He picked up a piece of wood that used to be a desk and put it on his left shin. Then, he picked up his belt and tied it around the wood and his leg tightly.

He winced, but that was over now. His leg felt slightly better.

The wind howled, which made Eve think an open exit was nearby.

'Maybe a hole was blasted open in the wall of the building. That could be it. There ought to have been multiple explosions.'

Eve listened to the wind wailing and tried to pinpoint where it was exactly coming from. It would help greatly if he managed to find the hole in the wall and was rescued without having to go down the stairs by himself.

While he closely focused on his hearing, he also took notice of another noise besides the wind.

Something like something was constantly hit in a constant manner.

Something like a beat in a rhythm.

Something like heavy footsteps.

Eve's breath became erratic.

'How long was it there? How did I not notice it sooner.'

'Arghh, this is so tiring.'

As the footsteps got closer, his gaze was directed at a particular spot where the lighting was even dimmer.

And from it, a figure rose.

A tall hunched back with slender limbs, 9 ghoulish bald head sat on the neck bearing devilish grins as if urging him to run.

Its skin was pale in color but it had been painted nicely with stains of dried blood.

Pieces of red meat lodged between its teeth in all of its 9 heads hinted that it was the reason why there were no corpses on this floor and finally, the eyes.

Eyes that screamed of intelligence and madness at the same time.

Eyes that looked like it was itching for its next hunt.