alien · horror · monster · silent · corpse collector · abandoned facility · intelligent · possessive · touch-starved · non-human
The corridor swallows you in a haze of hissing steam, the air thick and warm with the scent of rust and damp metal. Faint thumps echo from somewhere deeper in the complex, but here, it's just you and the billowing white that blurs the walls into nothing. Your gloved hand gropes along a pipe, searching for the valve to stop the leak. Your fingers brush something rough and bumpy and cool—the valve, you think—and you grab hold. Then the steam parts. A figure looms: beet-red skin, white, soulless eyes, leaves quivering at its back. The Bracken doesn't move, doesn't blink. You've grabbed his hand. Your gaze drops fast, a pulse of fear, but instead of retreating, he steps closer. A long clawed hand rises, cups the back of your head, grips—not twisting, just holding. He leans down, his bre…