Chapter 08 The Thing that Wore Julian Finch's Face

He was mumbling.

"...shouldn't have used batch 47... no, no, the 47 was stable, 48 was the one with impurity... but the pressure held until 0300, I checked the logs, I checked them..."

Aris stopped a few feet behind him. "Julian?"

He didn't react. Didn't turn. Didn't even pause.

"...the cell lines are dead, all of them, the HeLa, the HEK, even the primary cultures, everything died, but that doesn't make sense because the control group should have survived, the control group was untreated, so why are they dead..."

His shoulders were trembling.

"Julian, it's Aris."

"...unless the leak wasn't contained, unless it spread through the ventilation, unless it's in the walls now, in the air, everywhere, and I've been breathing it for three days..."

She saw his hands now. They were at his sides, fingers twitching, opening and closing like he was trying to grab something that wasn't there.

"...the readings were wrong, or I read them wrong, or the equipment is faulty, but it can't be faulty because I calibrated it, I calibrated everything, I was careful..."

Aris reached out, almost touching his shoulder. "Julian, listen to me—"

"...it's under my skin."

She froze.

His voice dropped to a whisper. Not the whisper of someone sharing a secret. The whisper of someone who was listening to something inside themselves.

"I can feel it. Moving. Under my skin. Little feet. Little... paws. Scratching. Digging. Like it's trying to get out."

His head tilted slightly. Not toward her. Toward the wall. Like he was listening to something on the other side of the concrete.

"...or maybe it's trying to get in. Maybe it's not under my skin. Maybe it's in my blood. In my brain. Maybe I'm not me anymore. Maybe I'm..."

He trailed off. His trembling intensified.

"Julian." Aris's voice was firm now. She stepped closer, close enough to see the side of his face. His skin was pale. Too pale. She could see sweat beading on his temple. "Julian, you need to turn around. Look at me."

"...I can hear it."

"Hear what?"

"The rabbit."

Aris's blood went cold.

"It's whispering to me. Telling me to be happy. Telling me to share. Telling me that if I just inject everyone, they'll be happy too..."

"Julian, there is no rabbit."

"...there is. There is. I saw it. On the camera. In the storage room. It moved, Aris. It stood up. It looked at me."

"That's not possible. The mascot suits are—"

"The real rabbit. The one that's been here all along."

His hands clenched into fists.

"...waiting for someone to let it out."

Aris grabbed his shoulder. "Julian. Turn around."

He turned.

The light flickered.

And Aris screamed.

For one moment, Dr. Julian Finch was two things at once.

Half of his face was still his own. The kind, weathered face of her mentor, the man who had recruited her, trained her, believed in her. His one good eye was wide with terror. His mouth was open, trying to form words.

The other half was Happy the rabbit.

The skin had stretched tight and glossy, like latex pulled too thin. The eye had become a hollow black pit. The mouth had split into a bloody grin that was too wide, too red, too full of needle-thin teeth. The ear on that side had elongated, curling upward like a rabbit's, but the fur was matted and wet.

The thing that wore Julian Finch's face raised one hand. The hand was still human, still trembling. In it, it held a syringe but not the cute plastic ones from the lobby. This syringe was massive, the size of a fire extinguisher, made of dark glass and metal. Inside, a liquid bubbled and churned, glowing with a sickly pink light.

"Happy wants to play, Dr. Thorne," the thing said, in a static voice that was half Julian's and half something else. Something that giggled.

"Julian, no—"

"Happy wants to inject happiness!"

It lunged.

Aris stumbled backward, her heel catching on the floor. She fell hard, scrambling away, her eyes locked on the monster that had been her friend. It took a shambling step toward her, the syringe dripping, the needle coming closer.

"ARIS!"

The voice came from behind her. Chen's voice.

"ARIS! Cover your ears!"

A sharp CRACK split the air. The sound of a gunshot, impossibly loud in the concrete corridor.

The Finch-thing staggered. A red bloom spread across its white lab coat, just below the collarbone. It looked down at the wound, then back at Aris.

And for a single, heartbreaking moment, its face was just Julian Finch again.

The monster face faded. Latex skin melted away. Hollow eye became warm and human. His grin changed into something almost peaceful.

"Forgive me," he whispered.

Then the light flickered, and the monster was back.

Strong hands grabbed Aris by the shoulders and hauled her backward. Her face was pale, her sidearm still raised.

"Run, Doc! Run! Whatever that abomination is, it's not dead!"

Behind them, the Finch-thing let out a shriek that was half man, half animal, and all nightmares.

And from deeper in the facility, from the labs beyond, other screams began to answer.

Aris couldn't look away. She couldn't blink. She couldn't do anything except watch the body of her mentor or whatever had been wearing his face twitch and spasm on the cold concrete.

Chen pulled her, sidearm raised. Her eyes were locked on the Finch-thing. Her finger was still on the trigger.

"Aris! We need to move!"

The Finch-thing twitched.

Its fingers curled. Its shoulders convulsed. Its head lifted off the ground, the half-rabbit, half-human face twisting into something even worse than before. The hollow eye socket seemed to pulse. The elongated ear twitched like it was listening to music only it could hear.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Chen whispered.

She fired again.

CRACK.

The bullet tore into the creature's shoulder. It screamed but kept moving, kept twitching, kept trying to get up.

CRACK.

Another shot. The chest. The same red bloom spreading across the white lab coat.

The Finch-thing convulsed violently, its back arching off the floor, its mouth opening in a scream. 

"Aris! We need to go. It's not going to stop moving! That thing took three shots and still kicking!"

Chen fired again. CRACK. CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.

The slide on her pistol locked back. Empty.

Chen grabbed Aris by the arm and pulled.

"Move! Now!"

They ran.

Behind them, the Finch-thing was already trying to rise. Its movements were jerky, uncoordinated, like a puppet with tangled strings. But it was rising. And worse, other sounds were joining it.

Screams.

Not just from Lab 70. Not just from the corridor. From everywhere. From the walls. From the floors above and below. From the labs that had been locked and quiet just hours ago.

A woman's scream, high and piercing, echoed through the corridor.
A man's voice, shouting something unintelligible.
A crash. Glass breaking.
Another scream.

"What is happening?" Chen gasped as they ran.

"I don't know," Aris said, "I don't know. But we can't stay here to find out. The lab. My lab. Sarah is there. Lab 69. We can't leave her. We get her. Then we find Leo. Then we get help."

 "We get her. Then we find Leo. Then we get the hell out of this place. Got it!"

They rounded the corner and slammed into the elevator bank.

Doors were open. The interior was dark. And something was inside.

Aris saw it, a shape, crouched in the corner of the elevator car, its body too small, too thin, too cursed. Its head lifted. Two glowing eyes stared back at her.

Chen saw it too. She shoved Aris past the elevator.

Behind them, the elevator doors closed. Then opened. Then closed again.

Something giggled.

----------------

On camera feeds, in security room, the stairwell was a mayhem.

People were running past each other. Some going up, some going down, none of them looking at each other. A man in a bloodied lab coat stumbled past, muttering, "They're in my skin, they're in my skin, they're everywhere." A woman was crouched on the floor, sobbing, her hands covering her ears.

Exit doors burst open. Someone screamed. Doors slammed shut. Lights were flickering. Emergency alarm had started, a low, pulsing tone that seemed to vibrate in their teeth.

---------------

Lab 69 was closed but lights were on inside. And through the small window, Aris could see movement.

"Sarah!" she shouted.

Doors opened.

Sarah stood there, pale as death, her eyes wide, her hands shaking. She was holding a pipette like a weapon.

"Aris, thank God. Thank God, thank God, thank God—"

"We have to go," Chen said. "Now. No time to explain."

"What's happening? I heard gunshots. I heard screaming. I looked out the window and I saw—"

"Doesn't matter what you saw," Chen interrupted. "We need to move. The thing we saw. The monsters. The... whatever that thing was in Finch's lab. We need to go before it got us."

"What is it?" Sarah asked.

Chen looked at Aris.

"You're the scientist. You tell her."

Aris's mind was racing. Pieces were clicking into place. Finch's mumbling. "The leak." "Been breathing it for three days." "The rabbit."

"The Mayfly project," Aris said slowly. "Finch's project. It must have leaked. Into the ventilation system. Everyone's been exposed."

A crash from down the hall.

All three of them turned.

Something was coming. They could hear it. Footsteps. Heavy. Unsteady. Dragging.

Chen raised her empty pistol out of habit. "We need to find Leo. Now. Stay close. Don't look at anything that isn't us."

They ran.

---------------------

The security room door was locked.

Leo heard pounding on it. "Who is it?"

"Chen! Aris! And Sarah! Open the damn door!"

The deadbolt slid back. Doors swung open.

Leo stood there, his face pale, his sidearm drawn, his eyes darting past them to the hallway beyond. Ben-san was behind him, hunched over the monitors, his fingers flying across the keyboard.

"Get in. Get in, now."

They spilled into the room. Leo slammed the door. Threw the deadbolt. Leaned against it, breathing hard.

"Everyone okay?"

"Mostly," Chen said.

"Mostly?"

"Finch is dead."

Leo had already suspected.

"The thing in the hallway?" Ben-san asked, "The one on the monitors? That was Finch?"

"Yeah. That was Finch. Or whatever Finch became."

Ben-san was staring at the monitors. His face had gone white.

"Ben-san? What is it?"

He pointed at the screen.

The feed from Level 3. The main corridor outside the cafeteria.

People were standing there. Not running. Not screaming. Just... standing.

Dozens of them. Lab personnel. Security. Maintenance. All facing the same direction. All perfectly still.

And in front of them, at the end of the corridor, stood Happy.

The mascot suit was no longer on its cart. It was standing. Upright. Facing the crowd. Its arm was raised in its permanent wave. Its smile was frozen and cheerful.

But its eyes were different.

They were watching.

"Oh no," Sarah whispered.

"What? What is it?"

Sarah pointed at the screen, her hand trembling.

"It's looking at the camera."

Everyone stared.

Happy's head was tilted. Just slightly. Just enough. Its painted eyes were aimed directly at the security room feed.

Directly at them.

And then, impossibly, its smile widened.