This whole bizarre situation suddenly reminded me of another equally strange incident that happened when Emily, Laura, and Victor took me to the base located under that canned goods factory. That day, as soon as my room was ready, Laura came in carrying a piece of paper and a pencil.
I honestly didn’t know what she expected by bringing that, but from my perspective, it seemed like a good chance to ask about everything I was curious about. Plus, I wanted to understand exactly what I was. So, my first reaction when I grabbed the paper was to write down all my questions without hesitation.
Maybe that’s why I didn’t bother to review what I was writing. After all, let’s be honest, I wasn’t a kid—I had long passed the stage of making silly writing mistakes. But when I handed the sheet to Laura and saw her expression turn completely perplexed and confused as she read what I’d written, it was clear something had gone horribly wrong.
I tried again, opting for something simpler this time. But, strangely, everything I wrote was automatically rewritten into symbols I had never seen before—or at least, I didn’t remember seeing. To make things worse, these symbols were a mix of letters and numbers. It was unsettling enough not being able to read what I had written, but the most disturbing part was that no matter how hard I tried, everything kept turning into those indecipherable inscriptions.
That’s why I never tried writing again after that. It didn’t matter anyway since no one would be able to understand me. To be honest, even I couldn’t understand what I was writing… or maybe, in some strange way, I could. There was something about the symbols, something that felt familiar, like they were information I was supposed to know. In fact, I felt like I did know what was written, but the feeling was uncomfortable—almost unnerving.
So, I preferred to pretend I didn’t understand. Of course, believing that didn’t change anything—it wasn’t like my disbelief would stop me from reading. Even so, the sensation of understanding remained. Either way, maybe the only solution was to acquire some sort of anomalous power, something that would let me transmit thoughts directly.
Anyway, back to the present, my goal was to head in the direction where the lines met. That was probably where the main body of the creature responsible for those tentacles was. By the way, the monitors were showing something resembling a lake. It quickly became obvious that this was the anomaly from Base 17 everyone had mentioned while we were flying here on the jet.
(So, it’s a lake? That’s... pretty weird. But for some reason, it reminds me of the time I woke up in that strange forest. That was an anomaly too, wasn’t it?)
I paused to think for a few seconds, but I was quickly interrupted by a loud noise coming from the entrance door. We all turned toward the sound at the same time. The loud noise was followed by an incessant barrage of gunshots. I watched as Laura and Emily’s expressions grew tenser, while Victor’s face darkened into a grimace.
A few minutes later, the sounds from outside stopped completely, but no one seemed remotely relieved by the sudden silence. Emily and Laura backed away as far as they could, keeping their distance from the door, while Victor, on the other hand, seemed to have found the opportunity he’d been waiting for. He gripped his gun tightly, ready to act.
Another loud bang echoed against the door, but this time, whatever was on the other side clearly wanted to get in. The banging grew louder and more forceful, with pressure building on the door, making it slowly give way. Little by little, it started to open, revealing more of those grotesque tentacles, covered in thorns and mouths everywhere, emerging once again, ready to invade.
“This door won’t hold much longer...”
Victor was right. If those creatures got in, I honestly didn’t want to imagine what they could do. Anyway, I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t let that thing do whatever it wanted to Laura and Emily, because if it did, that creepy old man would take control of me from that moment on. And I would do anything to avoid that dark future.
Before those creatures could break through the door, I sank into the floor. The sensation was something like sinking into water on my back, except I didn’t feel the weight of the water. I swam to the other side of the door, where the corridor stretched out. What I found there was desolate. Several tentacles were clustered in front of the door, and the guards who had been watching it...
Now, several parts of the guards' bodies had disappeared, consumed by the mouths of the tentacles, which devoured their flesh until only bones remained. Then they continued to feed until not even the bones were left. These creatures were insatiable.
My plan was simple: lure the tentacles into the dark world and then close it to trap them all at once. Although I wasn’t sure it would work, did I really have another choice? Actually, I didn’t have any offensive powers yet, and on top of that, those tentacles weren’t even the main body of the true threat.
After my brief internal monologue, a small crack appeared in the wall of the corridor. Only my head passed through it. The moment my head emerged, the tentacles turned, as if they somehow sensed my presence. They writhed grotesquely and, without warning, began advancing toward me.
I widened my eyes for a moment at the scene. I expected to see a single tentacle coming toward me, but instead, all of them were coming at once. I didn’t hesitate for a second; I immediately turned and began swimming away. When I looked back, a dozen hungry tentacles were chasing me, while I swam desperately.
My last stop was once again in the control room, where Laura, Emily, and Victor were. As I jumped out of the crack in the wall, the tentacles followed right behind me. Laura, Emily, and Victor’s eyes widened in surprise. The next moment, all I did was close the portal behind me, just like the device I used to lure the tentacles in the first place.
As the severed tentacles fell at my feet, the silence took over the corridor on the other side of the door. No sound could be heard, at least for now. I had managed to buy us some time, but I knew those grotesque tentacles would surely return at some point. And honestly, I doubted I would have enough strength to help Emily, Laura, and Victor when that happened. Of course, I could always push them into the shadow world… but that was an extreme alternative.
"Haa... Seriously, why do these life-or-death situations keep happening to me?"
I watched Victor as he muttered to himself and inspected the door. Honestly, it didn’t look good at all, no matter how you looked at it. It was wide open, to the point where it probably wouldn’t be possible to open it without some kind of equipment.
"We’re trapped in here... Honestly, I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand, if we’re trapped, nothing can get in. But on the other, if something does get in, we won’t have any way of getting out"
In the end, Victor sat down on the floor, visibly relieved. Laura and Emily seemed to feel the same way—probably all of them were just grateful to be safe, at least for the time being. Meanwhile, I decided it was finally time to explore this place... or rather, to resolve this situation once and for all.
As usual, my body dissolved into shadow, transporting me to the dark world. In this space where nothing reigned, I could swim endlessly. It was a sense of freedom you probably could never understand. I dove in and swam non-stop until I reached the outer edges of Base 17, where I simply leaped back into the real world.
I wasn’t sure if I was at the front or the back of Base 17. To be honest, the surrounding woods looked exactly the same; there wasn’t the slightest difference that I could tell. Still, even without distinguishing the exact location, I could feel where my next target was.
I walked through the icy woods, scanning my surroundings carefully. Every time I looked in a certain direction, I felt, for some reason, like something had been watching me just moments before. However, when I checked, there was nothing—just emptiness. To make matters worse, the darkness deepened with each passing moment, though it didn’t make much of a difference to me, since my exceptional night vision allowed me to see clearly even in the pitch-black.
I continued to follow the lines, all pointing in the same direction. Of course, I had no idea where they were leading, but I was certain of one thing: I was getting deeper into the woods. The forest was silent; aside from the wind, the only sound breaking the silence was my own footsteps.
I walked for a few more minutes until my feet stopped on the white snow. The reason for the pause was the presence of red stains on the ground, starkly contrasting against the pure white snow. It was, without a doubt, blood. As I looked at those marks, I noticed something odd: a red snowflake falling right in front of me. When I lifted my gaze, I saw that red snowflakes kept falling endlessly, dyeing the scene with a sinister hue.
That wasn’t all. The sky, once dark, now had a reddish tint. When I looked back at the ground, I saw that the snow, once white, had turned red. My feet, pressing into the snow, caused red liquid to spill out. In the end, I simply tilted my head to the side and continued walking, ignoring it all, as if nothing was happening.
One question had been haunting Emily’s mind for a few days. Since she settled there, she just couldn’t shake it off the way she used to with other thoughts. It was a simple question, but with countless possible answers: "What exactly made the now-called 'Angel of Death' different from the other anomalies?" Sure, it looked like a human child.
However, that wasn’t something exclusive to Emily. Other humanoid anomalies were scattered across the organization's bases around the world. If she had to point out a difference, it would be that the "Angel of Death" hadn’t tried to kill them the moment it saw them—at least, not yet.
Emily’s question was simple, but at the same time, complex: what makes a human, a human? If the "Angel of Death" not only had powers but also transparent skin and glowing eyes, could it still be considered human? Could it really be that simple to classify something as human or not? Though she knew there wouldn’t be a definitive answer, Emily couldn’t help but think about it. Without this distraction, she knew she’d end up losing her mind from boredom. In the end, it was just a thought without a logical answer.
"I keep wondering where the angel went"
That wasn’t the first time Laura had asked that question, but neither Emily nor Victor knew where the anomaly had gone. It simply disappeared into the ground and never came back. Emily had some suspicions about where it could be, but there were no cameras outside of Base 17.
Even if cameras were installed in the forest, they’d stop working soon enough. Besides, Emily had lost contact with the people who were supposed to be around the lake, though by now, she already had an idea of what had really happened.
"The rescue team should be here in a few hours... of course, if we survive long enough to see them"
Victor, as always, expressed his opinion concisely. In situations , he was usually the first to act. Emily figured this was just a common trait among people in anomaly response teams. However, his last words seemed to take a strangely negative turn for the future.
"By the way... you seem pretty bothered by something. I noticed it since we were on the plane. Is there something I should know, something going on that could’ve gotten us into this mess?"
Emily lifted her face to meet Victor’s gaze and stared at him for a few seconds, sighing in resignation as she ran her hand through her hair. Though she thought Victor was relatively resigned to his impending death, Emily knew she wasn’t much different. In fact, she was trembling with fear. After all, who could accept the idea of dying without warning? Was there really anyone capable of doing that?.