"Let's go, Silvanus."
Elya's voice didn't tremble in the slightest. Horror movies really did exaggerate everything. Who would scream just because the power suddenly went out? she thought as she climbed the staircase leading to the third floor without the slightest hesitation.
In a place neither of them noticed, Elya's shadow seemed to waver slightly. As she walked farther and farther away, her shadow left behind a rapidly stretching black trail across the floor, like spilled ink dissolving into the darkness.
Only after Elya's and Silvanus's footsteps had faded into the distance did it begin to move. Wriggling and swaying, it flowed along the wall before finally slipping into Silvanus's room through the gap beneath the door.
A bubbling sound echoed through the corridor, like a pot of water boiling on a stove, or something struggling desperately to emerge from a surface of thick, sticky slime.
