Tony felt the blood draining from his left eye like a waterfall as he lay on the hallway floor trying to catch his breath. The corpse of the raven mask pressing on his chest and dying his body in warm blood. The bone saw had long fallen to the side and skidded across the ground a few feet while his hands shifted to push the body off of him.

On the other side, Tessa stood in place in deep shock with a complex series of emotions flashing across her eyes. Thin slices of flesh and blood flowed down her face as she stood there stunned with the corpse of the butterfly woman at her feet, twitching with her head twisted at an odd angle. Her fingers released the bag in her hand involuntarily and the crashing sound woke both parties up from their dazes.

Tessa grabbed her head and squatted down mumbling over and over about how none of this was real and everything is just a bad dream. The reality, virtual as it was, hitting her deeply that she killed someone. Whether it was purely in reflex or intentional did not matter to her in her current state.

Tony finished pushing the raven mask aside and rolled to his feet while covering his left eye. He gritted his teeth as he drew the scalpel from his eye in one fast motion. The intense pain nearly made him bite off his own tongue. He tore off and jammed a strip of cloth from the masked raven as he yanked, doubling over from the pain.

After pulling it out, he spit out the cloth rag and staggered to a nearby medical cart, searching for alcohol, bandages, gauze and antibiotics. The pain in his left eye throbbed and splashed blood continuously as he stood there with his hands moving quickly. The death of butterfly Olivia barely registering in his fuzzy consciousness. It was not that he did not want to care about her, merely that he did not have the spare attention right now.

Tessa finally came back to her senses after a few minutes and she moved to the young man’s side. She wanted to say something, but could not find the words as she pulled out several trays holding the gauze squares and bandage rolls. She handed the gauze to the young man and stood aside with a blank face, wondering what she should do next.

Tony blinked subconsciously and a small arrow of blood shot out of his left eye as he held the gauze squares in his hand. His fingers moved quickly as he tore open the packaging, patted his eye wound gently like patting his dog and laughing to himself. His mind a mess of pain, regret and sorrow. Even though he knew that this world was virtual, the tragic life of Olivia still tugged at his heart strings. She had finally become free and was killed just like that, even though it was an accident.

He closed his eyes and opened them once more with a level of new determination sparkling in his right eye. He took the antibiotic ointment, sprayed a glob into his left eye and grit through the pain as he pressed another few squares of gauze over it. Then he wrapped a roll of bandage over the left eye and finally turned his attention fully to Tessa, the young woman that killed Olivia and the only familiar face in this strange virtual city.

“Thank you,” he said with a stiff smile that was uglier than crying.

“You’re welcome…and I’m sorry.” Tessa replied awkwardly, her face scrunched up.

She took out more gauze and cleaned up her own face and spread antibiotic ointment over the areas that she could without causing more agony. Then she shifted her attention to their messy surroundings. The food she brought with her was scattered across the floor, rolling in pools of blood as lights flickered in and out in the hallway. The flicker was strange as the lights were fine when she was coming up and the elevators seemed to still be working perfectly.

Tony also shifted his attention to their surroundings and his face turned ugly. The electricity never had any problem earlier, it was one of the few positives of this weird world. He nodded at Tessa and walked towards the window to look outside first before making any other decisions about what to do next. He felt his scalp tingle in fear as he saw an incredible terror. A four-legged beast of nearly two meters was walking towards the hospital building that he was in. Its skin was crawling with ants and two hollow holes where eyes might be turned in its odd fist sized head towards the window where Tony was looking down. His blood ran cold and his breathing stopped as his body reflexively tried turned into a statue and a short phrase repeated over and over in his head.

You can’t see me. You can’t see me. You can’t see me.

Unfortunately, the beast opened what could be considered a mouth in the middle of its chest and grinned widely as it stood on its hind legs. The crack was a dark hole with ants falling off, crawling in and out and a tongue flicked out lazily. The red meaty object layered with small horny protrusions and saliva.

Tony staggered backwards and looked over at Tessa with fear burning in his eyes. His voice stuttering as he looked at her.

“We…we need to run. I don’t know what is coming, but we should run first.”

Tessa faltered at the deep fear in Tony’s eyes, but asked no questions. She moved her feet first and decided to trust in a familiar face first and question him later. Whatever he saw must be worse than the raven masked man considering he didn’t falter in front of him when it came to fighting for a chance at life.

The duo ran tot he stairs and headed down first to the floor below, intending to hide first and listen for movement outside. They did their best to avoid the blood pools as they crossed the hallway and then threw away their shoes in the stairway after noticing the bloody footprints leading down. It likely wouldn’t buy much time or even confuse a child, but it was the best they could think of within a few seconds of haste. After reaching the next floor below, they quickly found the staff lounge on the floor and pushed the couch to the door before plopping down to take a break.

“What exactly did you see??” Tessa questioned in a low voice as she sat on the carpet.

“I don’t know. It was some kind of beast covered in ants, with shallow holes for eyes and mouth on its chest. When I saw it, I felt as if it was reaching out and grasping my heart.” Tony shuddered in fear as he explained his thoughts.

Silence filled the room once more after his words settled in. Only the sound of an analog clock over the sink ticking could be heard for a few seconds. Both could feel the fear and despair permeating their bones as they considered the dangers of this world. Neither knowing if they would make it out of here or even how to make it out. Tony had only known this hospital while Tessa had been on the run since the university.

The silent tick of the clock was broken by a shuffling sound outside in the hallway. The duo held their breaths and quietly crawled to the far wall of the small lounge, away from the door. The shuffling sound came closer and closer, finally stopping at the door. Then there was nothing for a full minute, then another minute passed and another until finally a small explosion occurred. The door exploded outward into wood chips as the couch was sent flying into the opposing wall. Then the monster stepped into the room. Its body shifting as it entered the room from being covered in ants to small faces of chimpanzees protruding from its skin while still shaking off ants as it moved. Terrified screams echoed out from the small lounge for a few seconds before the hospital quieted down.

***

On the streets outside an office building a few miles away, Vincent and the group of naive NPCs were heading towards the apartment building that Vincent spawned in. His encouraging voice could be heard from time to time as he directed everyone forwards. His voice flowing with confidence that the monster would not catch up before they made it to the next point and there may even be resources to destroy it.

The group traversed through the streets for almost half an hour before stepping into the lobby of the apartment building with the ghouls. Vincent was basking in his own madness and arrogance as he fantasized about all of the experiments he would perform on this new group. He was lost in his own thoughts and missed the eye signals between the naive NPCs. It was his first and last mistake when dealing with them as a sharp pain soon shot up his neck to his brain as his vision turned black.

When Vincent opened his eyes once more, he was tied upside down by his ankles in the center of the lobby with a small TV in front of him. A video was playing on repeat and had just restarted as clarity returned to his eyes.

“Hello. I don’t know who you are nor do I care. You might be a good person or a bad person, but that too doesn’t matter to me. Your only reason for living is to pay tribute to our dead friends whose bodies continue to move after death. You may curse us, think it’s unfair or that we are cruel but this world forces everyone to be cruel. We only wish to survive and by paying tributes to our undying friends, we can survive a  few more days without fear of the nightmare beast. So, allow me to thank you for your contribution to our continued survival.”

A woman’s voice filled Vincent’s ears as a masked face explained while gesticulating with her hands. It was an unfamiliar voice and Vincent struggled as he listened to no avail. An unconscious saying about karma flashing through his head as he rubbed his wrists ferociously, trying to use friction to burn the ropes, even as his skin tore and bled.

The soft noise of shuffling feet soon filled the lobby. Then legs with torn pants filled Vincent’s eyes followed by rotting flesh waists and arms with a black substance leaking from them. Soon after jaws with ugly faces wrenched into abject terror came into view and pounced onto Vincent as pain filled screams filled the lobby as pairs of eyes watched from the windows near the entrance.

***

Outside the virtual city, a woman smiled as she watched in a room filled with monitors. Her white pristine lab coat draped lazily over her shoulders as her fingers tapped on the keyboard in front of her. Her orders ringing out to the control room located in the lab in reality. Vincent’s corpse was too brutalized to be reused for anything and he was too complacent. As for the remaining two, their bodies were intact within the world but their minds were already gone. They would be recycled as hunters and NPCs, just like the former experimental subjects.

With everything settled, the woman smiled to herself and closed her eyes, savoring the experimental results. Another successful experiment completed.