#eeriestatic

  Other than that, the building had been relatively quiet, and so had the people living and working in it. Some lights going out in the containment sector, the elevator malfunctioning, strange shadows lurking beneath the panopticon and clinging to the ceiling of the training grounds when nobody bothered to look up - those were only some of the incidents that could have been written off as coincidence, but they had been constantly happening ever since Shiro popped up.

  That was the calm before the storm.

  In the middle of the night, while the guards and agents were changing their share of shifts, those shadows congregated on the upper corridor leading from the elevator towards the panopticon’s watchtower. The camera feed would show a visual glitch where something akin to a person started to manifest out of the shroud of darkness as if they were clawing their way out of a tar pit. Over the span of a few long seconds, the figure that emerged became clearer. Aware of the gazes cornering him from all sides, he turned his head towards one of the cameras at an unnatural, painful angle while the feed on the guard’s monitors shivered and hissed. The one staring at them with a corpse-like blankness in his eyes was the same one that they had on another feed, still in his cell.

  Without waiting another moment until something else happened, they remotely sounded off the caution alarms in the other sectors. The color of the lights changed to a yellowish hue, signaling caution. That was one step below the utmost priority, but it could have escalated at any time. The few guards that still remained in the sector past their work time started to regret it, fumbling with their headsets until they reached the proper channels. They had to make a quick and rash decision: to lock that thing outside, making it everyone else’s problem, or to lock it inside, with them.

  “We are shutting down the entrance,” one of them said over the headset just as the heavy sliding door of the containment sector fell shut in front of the other Shiro’s face. They didn’t want to risk more breaches, not knowing what could happen under the circumstances. Their Shiro was still in his hamster cage, looking confused by the commotion. 

      “How did it get past the elevator without anyone seeing it?” More indecipherable chatter could be heard in the background, a chaotic bustle of disoriented people who were trying to come up with the best solution while severely underprepare for a breach-type situation. 

      “Shut down the elevator too!” another voice called out.

      Whatever solutions they were coming up with on the spot all seemed to only further narrow their own options. In the meantime, unaffected by the obstacle in front of his eyes, the intruder banged on the door, making it echo throughout the acoustic hallway. When he realized that it wouldn’t open back up, he started looking for another way around and spotted the elevator at the opposite end of the corridor.

      “They can’t pay me enough,” he grumbled to himself as he gathered up a clean washcloth and his to-do list from his cart. His next stop? The mezzanine. He breathed out a sigh of relief when he stepped onto solid ground, but that’s about when the relief ended because he didn’t have to walk too far until he reached his destination. “L2-12... Did I pass it by?” he wondered, glancing up from his clipboard in search of the correct number painted on the wall.

      “Well, boys,” he said, though he was only talking to himself. “Nowhere to go from here but forwards...”

      She was curious, but not curious enough to stare at him while the uncanny transformation happened. All that she’d thrown him in passing was that joke, but her head was turned away from him. The sounds were off-putting enough and, despite her ragged appearance, she wasn’t keen on the gory aspects of the process. If she could have been anywhere but there while it happened, she would have gladly taken off. But the entire facility reeked of blood and other less pleasant odors, so no matter where she wandered it would have all been the same in the end.

      ❝Gross.❞, she scoffed when she heard the crunching on marrow even though she was trying to drown it out. When he was finally done with his little feast and decided it was high time to stop throwing up blood, she glanced towards him through the corner of her eye and presented him with a most disapproving expression. The same kind of displeasure only Shiro would be able to convey through glance alone. 

      ❝At least I don’t need to eat flesh, but what do I know? Wipe your mouth before you speak, filthy.❞, she sighed while rolling her eyes and then shook her head as if dismissing that lackluster reaction altogether. 

      When offered the photograph, she retrieved it and stored it in the hidden pocket of her dress where it once was and patted the material back into place.

      „Ah, my friend is here,” he said, stealing a glance up at Knox. „You aren’t going to throw a fit in front of him, are you? Haha, I’ll talk to you later, then.”

      Without a moment’s hesitation, he hung up on whoever was bothering him and tapped the Do not disturb mode before pocketing his phone. Visibly shaken up, but still maintaining the vaguely welcoming look on his face, he turned towards Knox and greeted him properly with a nod.