As if something had shattered reality, his brain could only understand pieces of what was going on. The piercing echo of the fire alarm, a scream, a chain braking, the same passage over and over again... Nothing made sense. His thoughts came together fast, but fear splintered them faster.

They'd left her apartment behind and were now in the corridor that led to the emergency exit, except that it wasn't the same hallway as before. Not exactly. The first time they went through the loop, someone had sealed the elevator entrance, and none of the doors budged an inch.

Are we trapped?

Where the hall ended, they found one door ajar and headed downstairs, walked down thirteen steps, and dared to climb through a hole in the wall of what otherwise would have been a dead-end.

"What the fuck!"

And they did all that only to find themselves back at the start.

"It can't be," fear strained her voice. "We were just here. Let's go the way we came from!"

"No. That thing is behind us."

Once more in the corridor that led to the emergency exit, they tried every door for a second time, but their locks were broken. Like before, they found but one option at the end of the hall: a doorway left ajar. Adam pried at the half-open entrance, but couldn't make out what awaited them on the other side. He looked at Vera, and from the corner of his eye caught sight of the thing chasing them. It walked backward, but that didn't seem to slow it down.

"Move!" He hurried her into the next room, down the stairs and through the hole in the wall.

And they did all that only to find themselves back at the start.

She collapsed, crying on the floor. Her sobbing drowned by the alarm sirens.

"It's a labyrinth," he whispered. His body ached under the crushing weight of his failure to move forward.

"I thought I was smart," she cried. "Safe. Hidden!"

"It doesn't matter. We need to get out here," Adam helped her up and attempted to escape again.

And again.

And again.

And they did all that only to find themselves back at the start.

In the passageway that led to the emergency exit, they tried every door for the thirteenth time, but the locks were jammed. Like always, they found no other option than a single doorway left ajar at the end of the corridor. They crossed it, hurried down the stairs, and through the hole in the wall.

And they did all that only to find themselves back at the start.

"Dammit!"

Madness is trying the same thing and expecting a different result, he told himself. Fuck this. Instead of heading down the same hall, he used his weight and rammed his shoulder against the door to his immediate right.

"What are you doing?"

"Something," he said. "Anything!"

Although the wood shook with the force after his first try, it didn't open.

"Wait!" She strode towards him. "Let's do it together."

"But, Vera..."

"I know." Even speaking seemed to be taking a toll on her. "Will it matter if the creature catches us?"

She was right; they both knew it.

"Okay, on the count of three."

"Yes."

"One..." he said.

"Two..." she said.

"Three!" they shouted in unison.

With a last, protesting creak, the door gave way. They crossed the threshold and closed it by placing a bulky metal trash bin they found nearby against it. They had finally ended up in a different place, but their small victory was short-lived. They were in a boxy landing that looked like the same one in Adam's building, something he didn't have a chance to think about, as a loud banging came from behind them. We don't have long. The air was rank with smoke, reminding him of the smell of bad cigars that pervaded the clubs he used to frequent years ago.

"Let's go to the elevator."

"They only work until the thirtieth floor, I told you," he replied, panting.

"How do you know this staircase leads somewhere different?" Vera too was breathing hard.

"It has to."

The terrible banging was louder, and the bin receded a little after each thump.

Amidst the chaos of the red flashing strobe light, the stink of cinder and decay going down his throat, and that maddening shrill rising note stuck in a never-ending cycle, the one thing that wasn't a mystery to him was what that accursed creature would do to them if it caught them.

They needed to escape, but he feared this would be impossible.

"What is this place?" Vera shouted to make herself heard over the sound of the unseen speaker strobes.

Adam had climbed over thirty flights not half an hour ago, and they all had been almost the same; a few singed patches here and there and steps covered by a thin layer of ashes. This looks nothing like that. A charred, spiral staircase seeming to have neither beginning nor end awaited them.

It's either this or go back and face the fiend, Adam told himself.

The door behind them burst open, and the bin fell with a clank to the ground.

"We need to move."

Vera covered her ears. "I can't." That last effort had been too much. "I'm too weak."

"Like hell you are," he said, aware that if his own shoulder hurt enough to bring tears to his eyes, maybe she'd broken hers. "On your feet!" He grabbed her by the arm and forced her to go downstairs with him. "You're right. All we have to do is get to the elevator below us."

They should have been able to access the lower floors every thirteen steps, but someone had sealed most of the emergency exits with concrete blocks and cement. Did the contractors do this? Is this why I didn't see them before? He wondered. No! That doesn't explain the loop or this bizarre staircase.

Vera collapsed and dropped the notebook she'd been holding tight against her chest; she grimaced with pain as her ankle twisted in a weird way.

"Grab the notepad!" She told him as he leaned forward to pick her up.

"Leave it!"

"No," she pushed him back. "That's our weapon against them."

Adam realized it was futile to argue over something that would only take him a few seconds to do, so he did what she demanded and then picked her up in his arms as a newlywed groom would carry a bride. He carried her across the threshold of their new apartment; he bore her weight down the spiral staircase for what seemed like an eternity.

She was skinny. He had a strong back. None of it mattered after a while.

Adam stopped and leaned against a scorched wall, coughing because of the faint, but ever-present fumes. He avoided looking at her. Each time their eyes met, she begged him to leave her there.

"Come on, man. You can do this!" he told himself out loud, doing his best to ignore the headache the red lights and the blaring fire alarm had mutated into a pulsating agony beyond anything he'd felt before.

"Honey..."

"Stop it." He snapped at her. "I won't abandon you."

"You don't have to," she pointed at the next bend. "We are here."

He noticed an entrance to a floor unaffected by the nightmarish curse.

She wiped off a tear and hugged him.

"Can you walk?"

"You bet your ass," she said, putting her weight on her unharmed leg and leaning on a wall to move forward.

Unlike everything above, this level was the same as it had been earlier. Except for the big blue trash can near the elevator, the place was spotless, the sand-colored walls were still smooth, and while the chrome door frames shone crimson now because of the pulsing incandescent light of the — Oh no! Elevators don't work in case of emergencies; he realized while Vera pressed the down button. It was all for nothing.

Despite the incessant fire-alarm siren, he heard a glorious ding that could only mean one thing: It wasn't out of service.

We can make it.

As he made his way towards her, a glimmer drew his gaze; then, a shadow disappearing in the passage to his right sent a chill down his spine. For a moment, he feared the unnamed abomination had followed them here, but then he spotted something that looked familiar on the carpet and turned back to get it.

"Is that a...?" He picked a compass from the floor. Where had he seen it before?

The answers came rushing in like waves. The homeless man from the parking lot. He had an alien millipede in one of his jars. He spat a substance on me... Adam stopped breathing, dreading the smallest gulp of air could derail his thoughts. After that, the hallucinations began. He infected us. If he is here... I bet he must have gotten to her somehow too. A bad feeling sank into his stomach. This is his compass, I'm sure. Which means...

"He is on this floor," Adam whispered before running towards his friend. "Vera, wait!"

Pressing a button inside the car to keep the doors open, she didn't get to utter a word. It all happened at once. Her smile faded, giving way to a puzzled frown and then shock. Then Adam heard the whipping sound of a cable snapping above; the momentary squeal of metal as the elevator fell, disappearing into the blackness of the dark shaft as if the throat of a giant had swallowed her whole; and the scream of his friend facing her inevitable death.

To be continued...

Your daily routine is a labyrinth too.