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Arrius let out a frustrated sigh as he stared blankly at the dark rusted ceiling above his cot. It had been days since he had last slept and the exhaustion weighed on him like a heavy blanket that offered little comfort. He closed his eyes once more in an attempt to drift asleep, but the silence of the room was cut by the relentless whispers that had been haunting him for days. Arrius could never make out what the whispers were saying as they toyed with him as if just out of earshot.
He sat up and scanned the room in another attempt to discover the source of the noise. Arrius knew it was pointless, he had repeated this ritual countless times over the previous nights.
The room was a large sleeping quarter with one end lined with exposed toilets and a single door at the other end. It was always dark in here as there were no windows. The only source of light came from a red lamp perched above the door. Its glow bathed the two long rows of cots that lined the room. Each filled with fellow members of Arrius’s septic pipe repair team.
“It was their proud duty to ensure the hive city wasn’t overrun by waste and bile” he had thought to himself sarcastically a thousand times.
Arrius’s gaze swept over each cot until he was satisfied that none of his teammates were actually awake. Before lying back down, he noticed the red light above the door. Arrius hated that light. In a couple hours the light would turn green signaling the start of his teams work shift. He knew he wasn’t going sleep tonight and its glow reminded him of the brutally exhausting day ahead of him. He spat a foul curse at the lamp.
The lamp went out.
The room was drenched in darkness and Arrius felt a wave of shock roll over him and he quickly reached for the headlamp hanging on his bedpost. He flicked it on and realized that everyone in the room was still fast asleep. He swung the light around to the red lamp itself and felt a shiver of fear run down his spine. The door underneath it was open.
The beam of light shining at the door began to shake as his hand began to trembling. Arrius shifted his weight and slid off the side of the cot. Never taking the light off the door, he slowly walked down the aisle of cots, determined to close the door from whatever evil may be on the other side. He reached the door and went for the handle, the whisper returned directly behind him. He spun around and flashed his light back into the room and saw nothing besides cots and sleeping bodies.
Confused and trembling Arrius returned to the door and lunged for it. His hand grasped the cold metal handle.
“COME” the whispers rasped before going silent again.
Arrius froze, his hand tightly wrapped around the handle. All he had to do was pull it shut, but he couldn’t move. The indistinguishable whispers began again, once again playing on the edge of his mind. A drum beat accompanied the voices as the pounding of his pulse grew louder. His other hand loosened its grip on his flashlight and he let it fall to the ground. The whispers came from the hallway and Arrius was compelled to follow them. He lost control and walked into the darkness.
Arrius couldn’t tell where he was going, where he had been, or even how long he had been walking. All he knew was that he was far from his little cot and that the whispers were getting louder. He couldn’t see anything in the blackness of the abandon pipeline he stumbled into a long way back.
Reaching the end of the pipe Arrius walked into a massively tall room being faintly illuminated by a single light on the ceiling. Judging by the abundance of abandon pipelines leading off in many different directions and the gag inducing stench, Arrius came to the conclusion that this was an old abandon septic hub.
Peering up into the light, Arrius could see that one of the pipes from high above was still pouring water into the room. His jaw dropped when he could make out the shape of someone standing on top of the spilling pipe. To his horror, he quickly realized that wasn’t a person but something else entirely.
The creature peered down with piercing yellow eyes that glowed in the dim light. It slowly extended its six arms out, as if welcoming Arrius for a loving embrace. However Arrius could tell there was nothing loving about the creature as each of its hands was tipped with claws longer than any knife he has ever seen. Arrius tried to scream and run but was forced to watch as the creature slowly put one of its claws to where the creature temples should have been on its abnormally bulbous head.
Visions joined the whispers and for the first time Arrius was unafraid. He dropped to the knees under the creatures gaze, spreading his own arms out in acceptance of the true meaning of the whispers. He felt the blood in his head pump furiously against his own temples.
“I WILL BE THE FIRST!” Arrius screamed at the creature.
The throbbing in Arrius head intensified until he collapsed onto the cold wet floor and his vision went black.
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