The first shades of helplessness

 “No!” exclaimed Yota. He took hold of two of the six tentacles that were attempting to curl around Hikari's throat and body. “Let go of her!”

It slipped between his fingers and the suction pads along its undersides dragged at the delicate skin of his palms. He nearly gagged at the sensation, goosebumps spreading across his body like the flames they had extinguished mere minutes ago. As he stared into the new monster's bulbous but otherwise creepily cute blue eyes, he knew for a fact that he would never eat octopus ever again.

“Don't touch it!” cried out Hikari as she prised its jaws apart and removed it from the back of her neck with both hands.

A couple of tentacles whipped across his chest before he could question or help her, knocking him back into the corridor before trying to restrain her again.

“Wait!” He winced as he pushed himself back up to his feet.

Nasty raised welts that reddened further under his gaze covered his hands as well as Hikari's, spreading to her neck and jawline. It looked like some kind of allergic reaction. Did it have something to do with the vaguely acidic stench emanating from the monster?

“Stop it,” he hissed, grabbing the two tentacles that tried to ward him off and digging his nails into the squidgy flesh. “Get off her!”

Its eyes watered even before Hikari slammed it against the open door behind her. It wailed as though it had been wronged somehow, its teeth pricking her palms and roving tentacles leaving trails of red lesions across her face. She threw herself backwards against the wall this time as it tried to capture her again, her body half in and half out of the apartment. Its final pair of tentacles extended towards Yota, who yanked viciously on the ones already in his grip.

“Mmm … bbb …” It whimpered and he froze.

Was the monster talking? Had it been possible to communicate with them all this time? Or was this one more evolved than the other two had been?

“I said get off her,” he snapped, pain trickling down his face as his palms stung. “I'll hear you out after that, okay?”

“Mmaa … bbeee …” It continued to moan eerily. “Maaa … beee …”

“Don't bother, Yota,” panted Hikari as she tried to claw it off her shoulders. “It'll just make it harder for you to kill it later.”

She choked as the monster slid down to the middle of her back and clung to her waist, its first couple of tentacles winding around her throat. They tightened as she tried to pull them off.

“Damn – it,” she gritted out.

Yota threw the slippery arms aside and rushed forward, frantically tugging at the pair strangling his friend as her face turned red.

“I don't know what you're saying!” he shrieked, scratching and thumping the tentacles as violently as he could without hurting her. “What the hell do you want with us, huh? Why're you doing all this?”

“Yo-ta …” Despite her own perilous situation, Hikari still managed to place her hand over his and slow him down.

Her usually calm eyes showed the first shades of helplessness and he hated it.

“She didn't do anything!” he screamed until his throat burned, sounding more like a spoilt ten year old than a grown man who hadn't raised his voice for a long time. “She didn't do anything to you so leave her alone! Kill me instead if you have to kill anyone. Just let her go. Please!”

Hikari clutched at his wrist. The monster peered up at him through the gap between her arm and body like a child that had been scolded rather than something alarming that had floated up from the depths of the sea.

“May – be?” Its voice sounded like a series of clicks and bubbles noises one minute, then on the verge of tears the next. “May be …?” 

Maybe? Did that mean it was considering his offer? Did he honestly want it to? The thought stole his breath but then the elevator stopped on their floor with its usual musical chime and the doors opened.

A well known drawn out groan rolled down the corridor towards them like thunder.

Hikari's eyes widened and they both half turned in time to see the stone monster leave the compartment and glide towards them. Physically it didn't look any different from before but anger seeped through its monotone voice. If it caught them now, he had no doubt that it would try harder to kill them this time around.

Yota wasn't sure how he knew that but apparently he did. As did Hikari. She shoved the fire extinguisher past him with her heel, then pushed him towards the stairs with her free hand.

“Go!” She forced the words out between lips that were losing colour and pointed at the steps before she backed into the apartment and slammed the door on the tentacles hard enough to make the door frame shudder.

The ones that were trying to coil around his neck, wrists, and waist jolted. It let out a high pitched cry, mimicking a human baby with disturbing accuracy.

“Hikari!” He couldn't help her as she banged the door against the tentacles again, clearly inflicting as much pain as she could on them. He briefly squeezed his eyes shut, his thoughts racing alongside his heartbeat. “Damn it.”

The stone monster's groan overflowed in his ears and Yota hesitated in front of the closed door for a longer, then snatched up the fire extinguisher and ran down the stairs to the fifth floor.

Without her.

If he got to the elevator on the other side fast enough, he might be able to call the police and any one else who could save her. Hikari was smart. She had already hidden herself from the first monster. She would find a way to hold out until he found someone to help them deal with the third. Otherwise it meant he had just left his best friend to die.

He couldn't do that.

Placing a hand on the corner of the metals stair rail, he swung himself around towards the next flight that would take him down to the fourth floor.

A dark figure waited for him halfway down.

Close to the ground. Beast-like in shape and posture. Utterly silent as it dared him to join it in the unlit area of the building. It vanished the second her blinked but its presence lingered in the area like a blade resting lightly upon the knuckle of his pinky finger. Like a storm cloud following a humid day. Like the clink of beer cans in the cold evening air moments before they were thrown at something or someone.

Yota stopped instantly, non existent ice cubes running down his spine. His stomach flipped continuously as though he were jumping on a trampoline stretched over a canyon. A single misstep would lead him to an end too gruesome to imagine.

He backed away from the steps, stumbling until his back hit a door. His eyes watered as a scraping noise preceded an alarming thud on the stairs above. The monster was coming down from the sixth floor, pitching forward and then straightening up in a creepy rocking manner. The after-image of the beast monster removed his memory of the apartment number fixed above his head.

He couldn't go down those stairs, nor could he climb back up to the same floor as Hikari. A high pitched laugh from his left startled him so badly that he clutched at his chest. But the fire monster was gone and he couldn't see anything further down the corridor. Knowing that didn't stop the idea of it resurrecting itself from poisoning his thoughts. Finding somewhere to hide might have been the smart thing to do but the timer counting down to Hikari's demise hadn't stopped ticking at the back of his mind.

He didn't know where to go.

He didn't know what to do.

And staying in his current spot wasn't an option either.

“Hikari,” he whined as the stone monster landed on the halfway platform between the flights of stairs and began to turn around to face him.

The fire extinguisher started to slip from his grasp. The door behind him opened before it could hit the floor and his fingers clenched around Its handle.

Right before the door at his back opened wide and something pulled him into the numberless apartment without warning.