On The Stairs

Having stepped through the mirror, Noah now found himself in front of a room that while incredibly similar to his own, knew very well that it was not.

Again, the noise, color and smell faded for Noah, all of which mingled with the unmistakable feeling that he did not belong here.

Even though it was nighttime when he entered, this place seemed to have the same amount of light as the other time he was here, illuminating everything with a dreary shade of gray.

'...I did it.' Thought the young man as he stood completely still and analyzed his surroundings.

With this, if there was any doubt left before as to whether what he had experienced was a dream, it was now completely dispelled.

"!"

Suddenly waking him from his astonishment, a pain coming from his chest interrupted him, reminding him of the reason why he was here.

It disappeared quickly, but even that short time was enough for him to start moving, passing spit, knife in hand and fear present in his body, Noah then began to walk down the hallway.

His steps were extremely careful, not wanting to make even the slightest noise so as not to attract the attention of any inhabitant of this world.

Although this care meant that he took more time with each step, which in turn slowed him down, he didn't mind.

Soon, the hallway came into his field of vision.

In this one, things were almost identically as he remembered them.

Whether it was the attic door having a large hole in the middle, to the doors of the other rooms being open, everything was the same.

The only thing that had changed were that certain stains had now appeared on the wooden floor.

Specifically, there were two of them, both being especially striking due to their hue, despite being in a gray world, they were a much darker color.

One of these stains was just below the attic door, consisting of several black droplets staining the floor that Noah might not have noticed if it weren't for the caution with which he moved.

Then there was the one that drew the most attention because of its size and path.

Just in the next room, the entire door had a dark stain along with a dent, the stain looking as if a liquid had splashed almost its entire surface.

While the dent was only present on the door, the stain did not end there, but left a wide trail on the floor, as if whatever had been used to make that stain had been dragged away.

Dragged from the door, all the way down the hallway to the stairs.

Seeing this, Noah's fear grew slightly because although he had not seen what had happened here, he could already get an idea.

On his previous unfortunate visit, it was not only the creature in the kitchen who had noticed his presence, but also that strange slender creature that Noah first thought was a person.

A creature which, as soon as it saw him, ran towards him with abandon, smashing a window and running up the stairs before slamming the attic door with no regard for the noise or the wreckage it caused.

This, considering there was already another creature below who was on the lookout for Noah, resulted in said creature being alerted immediately.

As for who had won this encounter, judging by the noises he heard the other time along with the stains he was seeing now, made it clear that the creature of the kitchen had been victorious.

Also being obvious because it had been that creature that had climbed up to the attic, not the other one.

"..."

Shaking his head at this scene, Noah continued to move down the hallway until he reached the stairs.

Just as he had thought, the stains continued down all the steps until it reached the first floor, where the stain took a curve in the direction of the kitchen.

*TAKTAK*

"!"

A strange sound then came from the kitchen, briefly startling Noah, who stopped in his tracks.

For a few seconds, the young man froze, his heart beginning to pound from the uncertainty of not knowing if he had been discovered.

*TAKTAK*

Fortunately for him, the sound continued, indicating that whatever the creature was doing in the kitchen, it had not been interrupted.

As for why Noah was sure this was the creature, it was because at this moment, an intense pain was attacking his right ankle.

It was as if he could feel the connection between his wound and the creature, something that despite causing him pain, would serve him well.

After confirming the creature's position, the young man then turned around and returned to his room, just as cautiously as he had left.

Already in his room, his gaze fell on the blue backpack he had brought and left on the floor, grabbing it and carrying it towards the stairs.

In this process, his speed slowed much more, but as a few minutes passed, he accomplished his task, placing the backpack just inside the door of the room next to the stairs.

With that, Noah then began to descend the stairs, his pace, though shaky, was cautious to the extreme. With each step down, both the sound and the pressure seemed to get bigger and bigger, until finally, on the last step, he could see it.

*TAKTAK!*

Standing in front of the kitchen table, the same multi-limbed creature was waving its hands over a certain object on the table.

*Chack!*

Now that he was closer, Noah realized what the sound that made him so nervous was.

The creature was eating.

What it was eating didn't need to be mentioned, after all, with its body stretched out on the table, that slender, humanoid creature lay motionless, its entrails in plain sight.

"..."

Watching this grotesque scene, Noah couldn't help but feel nauseous.

Although he wasn't the type of people who would faint at the sight of blood, this sight was still unpleasant to him.

There was also another thing to notice about this situation, and it was something that Noah for the first time experienced in this world.

'...There is a smell.'

Although said smell was repulsive, it served to prove that this world was not devoid of smells, but most likely, they only occurred under specific conditions.

By this point, his grip on the knife was so strong that his hand even seemed to be losing sensation, which although it might seem like a bad thing, also had a good side to it.

That good side being that right now, Noah's tremors had greatly diminished, his body becoming firmer.

Slowly, with his gaze locked on the busy, clueless creature, Noah began to raise his right arm, the one with which he was holding the knife.

Although they were both on the same floor, Noah was still on the stairs and the creature was still in the kitchen, meaning there was a good distance between them.

With this in mind, a direct physical attack would be quite difficult to pull off, not to mention extremely risky.

Luckily, the young man was not looking for a physical confrontation.

*Swoosh!*

With that sound, Noah threw the knife with all his might towards the creature's back, filled with an amalgam of emotions that contained his fear and hopes.

Fear not only of what the creature might do to him if it caught him, but of discovering that what he was doing now was useless and his fate had been sealed since he was wounded.

And hope that somehow, he could fix the disastrous and unfortunate situation he had gotten himself into.

Seeing the knife in motion, even though Noah was not a religious person, at this moment, the prayers came out without difficulty.

'Please, any god, help me with this!'

*CHAK!*

"KREEEEEEE!"

Immediately after, the knife noisily stabbed into the creature's side, who soon let out a thunderous shriek of pain.

For a moment, seeing this scene, Noah rejoiced, but before he could continue, the creature turned in his direction, looking straight at him.

"KREEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Then, screaming with palpable rage, the creature lunged at Noah without even paying attention to the wound in its side.

At the same time the creature began to move, Noah had already turned toward the stairs, climbing the steps as if his life depended on it.

*TAPTAPTAPTAP*

The young man's desperate footsteps echoed up the stairs before being almost completely eclipsed by the heavy footsteps of the misshapen creature following him.

Fortunately, because said young man was closer to the stairs, he had a head start, an advantage that got him up to the second floor faster, turning a corner into a room.

With its prey escaping, the creature quickened its pace, using its many arms and legs to climb up to the second floor not only using the steps, but also by grabbing onto the wall.

Thanks to this, the creature had managed to climb in half the time it took Noah, already standing on the top step.

"KREEEEE-!"

*BAM!*

However, just as it set foot on the second floor, before it could even turn in the direction its prey had fled, it felt something unpleasant.

Causing several bones to be broken, a heavy blow had made contact with its face, caused by none other than the prey he was chasing.

Standing right at the corner of the stairs, Noah had struck the creature using his backpack, which due to the force of the impact, had opened, revealing several metal weights inside.

Weighing about 40 kilos, the backpack, along with Noah's strength, were definitely capable of doing considerable damage not only to a human, but also to the creature, this was especially true considering that the affected part had been its "face".

With this, now the most complicated part of his attempted plan had succeeded.

Noah knew very well that in a direct confrontation, he had everything to lose, after all, he was just an average human, while what he was facing was a monstrosity that could break wooden doors as if they were made of cardboard.

Therefore, the only option he had was to attack it using something external, and a bag of weights seemed ideal.

The tricky part of this was being able to act at the right time, as thanks to the weight of the backpack, it would only give him time to use it once, whether he did it too soon and too late, the fate he would suffer would be the same as that of the slender creature.

To his luck, that which had forced him to come all this way, that which had caused him to now look haggard and weak, had been what ended up helping him and most likely, saving his life, the wound on his right ankle.

Although he had no idea how, it was clear that the wound had some sort of connection to the creature, which manifested as more pain the closer he got to the creature.

Thus, just at the point where it seemed that his leg was being torn apart, Noah attacked, hitting the creature squarely.

*Tumptumptump!*

Having been hit by the backpack full of weights, the creature, apart from being injured, also lost its balance and fell down the stairs to the first floor.

Already on the ground after receiving such a blow, along with having fallen down the stairs, a normal person would be seriously injured, but the creature was not normal in any sense of the word.

"KREEEEE-!"

Letting out a shriek, the creature began to move, and although some difficulty could be seen, it wasn't enough to immobilize it.

At that moment, through the air, falling rapidly towards the first floor Noah's backpack could be seen, falling towards the creature on the ground.

*CRACK!*

This time the impact was stronger, landing squarely on the creature's torso and releasing cracking sounds, causing even the creature to go silent for a moment.

With this alone, Noah could already be considered to have succeeded thanks to the large amount of damage he had caused.

However, because he had been throwing the backpack, he had failed to notice a certain detail.

*Chack*

"!"

Suddenly, on his left ankle, Noah felt a strong grip, which made him bring his gaze downward.

Starting from the creature's body, without knowing exactly when, a deformed and extremely long arm had managed to reach the second floor.

*Swoosh!*

"SHIT!"

Thereupon, the young man was forcibly dragged towards the first floor.