Chapter 2
1076 Words
Mr. Martin didn’t walk her through the building.
He walked her through the rules.
“Stay out of C Block after midnight.”
Natalie adjusted the sleeve of her uniform. “Why?”
He didn’t answer right away.
“Just stay out of it.”
She frowned. “Is it closed off or…”
“After midnight,” he repeated.
Not louder. Not sharper.
Just final.
Natalie held his gaze for a second, then nodded slowly.
“Okay.”
He turned away like that settled it.
“Basement’s off limits,” he added.
That one came quicker, like he didn’t want her asking about it.
“Structural issue?” she asked.
Another pause.
Then, “No.”
That was it. No explanation. No detail. Nothing she could work with.
Natalie shifted slightly, the fabric of the uniform heavier against her skin than she’d expected.
“Is there anything else I should know?”
Mr. Martin stopped at the end of the hallway.
For the first time since she’d arrived, he hesitated.
Then, without looking at her, he said, “If you hear something, check the cameras first.”
Natalie blinked. “And if I don’t see anything?”
He finally looked at her.
“Then don’t go looking for it.”
Natalie crossed her arms lightly. “And if I hear something?”
Mr. Martin didn’t stop walking.
“Then you pretend you didn’t.”
Natalie told herself it was just a walk.
That was all the job was. Walk the halls. Check the doors. Keep the lights on.
Simple.
She stepped out of the office and into the corridor, the beam of her flashlight cutting a narrow path through the dim.
The building didn’t sound the same anymore.
Earlier, there had been movement. Distant noise outside. The faint hum of daytime still lingering in the walls.
Now there was nothing.
Not silence exactly.
More like the absence of anything that should have been there.
Natalie adjusted her grip on the flashlight and started forward, her boots tapping lightly against the concrete.
The sound echoed too cleanly.
Too sharply.
She slowed, listening.
Her next step landed softer.
The echo didn’t.
It carried just a fraction longer than it should have, like the hallway was holding onto the sound instead of letting it die.
Natalie exhaled slowly.
“Old building,” she murmured.
That was all it was. Stone walls. Weird acoustics. An old prison built to amplify every sound.
Explainable.
She kept walking.
The farther she moved from the office, the colder the air became. Not enough to see her breath, but enough that her skin noticed. Enough that the back of her neck prickled beneath her hair.
Natalie resisted the urge to rub at it.
She wasn’t being watched.
That feeling meant nothing.
Her steps slowed anyway.
Just enough that she could listen between them.
Nothing.
No movement. No voices. No shifting air.
And still, something felt wrong.
She reached the turn leading into C Block and stopped.
The hallway stretched ahead, darker than the others. Even the flashlight didn’t seem to reach as far down it.
Mr. Martin’s voice slipped back into her head.
Stay out of C Block after midnight.
Natalie shifted her weight.
“It’s not midnight,” she said quietly.
She hadn’t actually checked.
But it couldn’t have been that late yet.
And it was just another hallway.
Just another section to patrol.
Simple job.
She stepped inside.
The temperature dropped immediately.
Cold pressed around her hard enough that she felt it through the uniform, sharp and unnatural compared to the rest of the building. The beam of her flashlight seemed weaker here, swallowed faster by the dark.
Bars lined both sides of the corridor, rows of empty cells stretching endlessly ahead.
Natalie moved forward slowly, her footsteps quieter now without her meaning them to be.
The air didn’t move.
The entire block felt unnaturally still, like the space itself had gone silent the moment she entered.
She tightened her grip on the flashlight.
Something brushed across her fingers.
Not air.
Not fabric.
A hand.
The touch slid slowly across the back of hers, deliberate enough that every nerve in her body recognized it instantly.
Natalie froze.
For one sharp second, her brain supplied an explanation automatically.
Another guard.
Someone had stepped beside her without her hearing them.
She turned.
No one.
The corridor stretched empty in both directions. Bars. Concrete. Shadow.
Nothing else.
Her pulse slammed hard against her ribs.
“That’s not…”
The words died as the flashlight slipped from her hand.
It cracked against the floor and went dark.
The darkness settled instantly, thick enough that it felt physical.
Natalie stopped breathing for half a second.
Then she crouched quickly, hands searching blindly across the concrete until her fingers hit cold metal.
She grabbed the flashlight and jammed her thumb against the switch.
The beam flickered weakly before finally steadying.
Moonlight filtered through the barred windows high above, pale and thin, just enough to turn the darkness into shapes instead of emptiness.
Natalie lifted the flashlight slowly.
The beam swept across the bars.
Across the floor.
Across the empty cells.
And stopped.
Halfway down the row, someone sat on one of the cots.
He didn’t move.
Didn’t react to the light.
He just sat there, perfectly still, like he had always been there.
Like he belonged there.
Natalie’s brain struggled to process it.
A person.
Inside a locked cell.
That wasn’t possible.
He turned his head.
Natalie screamed.
The sound ripped out of her before she could stop it, echoing violently through the block.
She turned and ran.
Her footsteps hammered against the concrete now, loud and uneven, the silence shattered by the frantic rhythm of her movement.
The hallway suddenly felt too long, too narrow, like it was stretching around her as she ran through it.
She didn’t look back.
Didn’t let herself.
She slammed into the office door hard enough to rattle it in the frame, fumbling with the handle before wrenching it open and stumbling inside.
The door shut behind her with a heavy thud.
Natalie stood there gasping for breath, hands shaking violently around the flashlight.
The office felt smaller now.
Safer.
But not by much.
Her eyes snapped toward the clock on the wall.
12:26 AM.
Mr. Martin’s voice echoed in her head.
Stay out of C Block after midnight.
Natalie swallowed hard.
She had never checked the time before going in.
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