*Disclaimer: This work contains horror/terror themes that may not be suitable for iUP’s younger audience. Viewer discretion is advised*

**2 Weeks Ago**
“Ok, we’ll get you signed in.” Said the person at the front desk. “Name and pronouns?” “Jason Stewart, he/him.” I replied. Once they signed me in they gave me a keycard and name/pronoun tag and told me to go through the hallway and to the door marked ‘Testing Room’ and find the head scientist. As I walked down the hallway I was tingling with excitement. I couldn’t believe I was actually here! The best lab in the country! Gary was sure that I wasn’t going to get in. He bet free ice cream. Man, that was a good chocolate sundae. I pulled myself back to the present. I chided myself as I affixed the name/pronoun tag Don’t get distracted! You need to make a good 1st impression! I found the door the attendant mentioned and walked through, not sure what would be on the other side, but excited nonetheless.

The moment I walked through the door I almost got checked by a person walking quickly by “Sorry!” said the person, swiftly dodging me and continuing to their destination, short green hair a blur. I looked around to see that like the scientist I already mentioned, everyone was rushing around from desk to desk. In the middle of the room there was a tank with something small and black inside. Why use such a big tank for something so small? I wondered. I saw a person with pale skin and a white lab coat next to the tank with some sort of machine in their hand, their long brown hair tied up in a ponytail, they seemed to have an authoritative presence. Most likely the head scientist I thought, walking across the room dodging the rushing scientists. “Excuse me, I was wondering where to find the head scientist?” I asked the scientist with the machine. They turned toward me and I got a glimpse of their name/pronoun tag. Dr. Brooks, she/her. “Hm? Yes, that’s me. What do you need?” she glanced at my tag then before i could reply said “Are you the new intern? I don’t remember seeing you before.” “Yes ma’am” I replied. “Oh hello! Welcome! Let’s get you set up, then I’ll explain what you’re going to be doing here” she beams. “Alex come over here and set up our new intern!” Dr. Brooks shouts over the din to a group of people at one of the clusters of desks. One of the people walk over and I realize it’s the scientist that I ran into when I came in. They look like they’re 16ish, my age. Olive skin wearing casual attire, a t-shirt and shorts. My eyes flicked down to their tag, “Alex, they/them” I thought. “Jason, this is one of our other interns. Alex, can you get him set up please?” Asks the doctor. “No problem doc.” Said Alex “Nice to meet you properly” I said with a smile. They smiled back and said “Same to you dude. Sorry about almost running you over before.” “No problem” I laughed. “Now come on, we’ll get you a desk.” they started to head over to the cluster of desks that they came from. I jogged after them, only able to track them by their distinctive green hair in the chaos. As we got to the desks I noticed that all of the people there appeared to be around my same age, also in casual attire. “They must be interns too.” I thought to myself. Alex gets their attention with a wave of their arm “Hey guys this is the new intern Jason Stewart. He needs a desk so Jack you need to move all your stuff off of one of the desks.” The aforementioned Jack has short black hair, dark brown skin, and is wearing a My Chemical Romance T-shirt. They groan and start moving their stuff (which is mostly stacks of papers) “Dude you really need to get a shredder.” remarks one of the other interns, they have long wavy red hair and freckled skin. Their tag saying Mia, she/her. Jack, without turning towards her says “Its organized whether you think so or not” Mia snorts in response then turns towards me and with a friendly smile says “Welcome Jason, don’t mind Jack, i’m pretty sure his “organizational system” isn’t really a system, but he’ll keep his stuff off your desk.” her fingers making sarcastic air quotes. “It’s fine, not like I really have anything.” I replied. After I got my stuff set up Alex called over Dr. Brooks to continue with the tour. “All set up?” I nodded “Great! Now let’s get you acquainted with what we do here.” she says happily. We start towards the tank in the middle of the room. As we walk the doctor says “So, you’re probably wondering what this is.” I nod and as we get closer I notice something in the tank I didn’t see before. This… creature was actually rather cute. It had the look of a black cat, right out of a halloween poster. Though there was something off about it. At 1st I couldn’t tell what it was, then I realized. It sat in the middle of the chamber totally still, no ear twitching, no tail movement, I wasn’t even sure if it was blinking. I would have called it a statue if not for its eyes. Sparkling with an intelligence that seemed to study everything around it, and even more ominously, the rage sparking in its eyes. Its eyes could have been glowing red. I blink, and the look is gone, its eyes blank. I wondered if I was just imagining things. “This is the main project of this facility.” says Dr. Brooks gestured to the statue cat inside. “We were experimenting with portal technology and when we finally got it working, this thing came through. It hasn’t moved since it got here.” Portals?! I thought in amazement. I stared at the creature in the tank, my mind racing, This thing is from another world?! Why is it just sitting there? Is it alive? “We tried to communicate with it but it’s been unresponsive.” said the doctor next to me, shocking me out of my thoughts. The doctor stared at the tank with a stare of fascination, of an excited kid. She seemed to shake herself out of the trance and turned to me with a beaming smile “Ok, on to the next thing.” She walked off to another spot in the lab. As I turned to follow her I felt eyes on my back and I glanced back at the tank, and my blood ran cold. The small creature’s head had turned towards me, eyes still blank, yet I still felt as though it was watching me. Waiting for something. “Jason?” called Dr. Brooks, making me glance in her direction. She was already across the room “Are you coming?” When I glanced back at the cat’s head it was back to where it was before. Like nothing had changed. I shook it off and jogged after the doctor.

**Present Day**

It’s been a couple of weeks since I started interning at this facility. The main focus of our research is still unresponsive no matter what we do. Since the 1st day I haven’t seen it move, though I still feel as though it’s watching us. Mostly I’ve been just helping around the lab with the other interns. For example, me and Mia are out getting coffee for everyone. “You got the list?” asks Mia. I fumble for the list in my pocket “Uuuuu…. Yep!” I whip out the list triumphantly as Mia rolls her eyes and opens the door “Dork.” she snorts. Once we get all the coffee we put it in Mia’s car to take back (there’s a LOT of coffee). As we drive back my mind wanders back to the creature in the tank and I wonder for the 100th time if I should mention what I saw. I decide that at the very least I need to get it off my chest or I’m going to explode. “Mia,” I start, not really sure what to say. “Yeah?” she replies without taking her eyes off the road. I pause, trying to get my thoughts together. “What do you think about that cat thing we’re researching?” Mia purses her lips, seemingly thinking “Hm, never really thought about it. It’s kinda creepy, just like a statue.” She snorts “Honestly it might be for all I know. Thing never moves.” One last chance to turn back. My brain whispers traitorously. Shut up, brain. I scold myself Just say it fast. I spit it out so fast I’m not sure she even registered it “I’ve seen it move.” To my surprise she just snorts “PF- You’re just seeing things,, everyone’s seen that thing move out of the corner of our eye” She shrugs nonchalantly “Its a freaky little guy” A rush of relief fills me “Yeah I’m probably crazy. Just a creepy little dude.” I laugh, trying to ignore the nagging feeling of unsure dread that I can’t get out of my head. She glances at me in the mirror, presumably trying to read my expression.. After a beat of silence she says “Well I overheard Dr .Brooks talking to some of the other scientists. They were talking about how they’ve been getting weird readings the last couple days. Nothing big, just some slight uncalculated fluctuations. If you’re worried maybe you should tell her.” “Yeah maybe…” I reply. We drove back the rest of the way in silence.

When we got back to the lab we passed out the coffee and when I got over to Dr. Brooks I see Mia glancing at me. As I hand the doctor her coffee I ask “After I pass all of these out can I talk to you for a second?” “Sure,” she replies, a worried look on her face “Is everything ok?” “I’m fine doc, I just may have some important information about the subject.” She raises her eyebrow at that saying “Ok, meet me in my office after you finish.” After I finish passing out the coffee I walk over to Dr. Brooks’ office down the hall from the lab. When I enter she asks “You had something to tell me about the subject?” “Yes.” I reply nervously “Have you seen it move?” I ask, she seems to be confused at the question and says “No, I haven’t. Have you?” “Yes I have.” the confusion turns to surprise and she exclaims “WHAT?! YOU HAVE?! When?! What did it do?! How come we didn’t pick it up?!” she starts muttering to herself as I reply “It happened the 1st day I got here. I’m not even sure it was real or if I was imagining it. I didn’t want to derail us with some crazy story.” She’s pacing now as she says “Fascinating. What did it do?” “It just looked at me. Then I blinked and it was back how it was before.” I reply, getting kind of nervous with how excited the doctor is. “Maybe this is why the readings were fluctuating. Maybe-” She gets cut off by a big boom that shakes the ground. The sounds of screams fill the air. I whip my head around to see Dr. Brooks flips a switch in a sealed box that hangs on the wall like a fire extinguisher, and the alarms start blaring. I start to panic as I race to get up and make sure everyone’s ok. I bust down the door ignoring the shouts to stop by the doctor.

I sprint down the hall seeing the door to the lab blown out of the wall and on the floor on the other side. There are people on the floor, most moving. Some terrifyingly not. I search the faces hoping that my friends aren’t in them, and to my horror I see Jack’s face through the smoke. I shout his name sprinting over. As I get closer I see Mia close to Jack trying to drag one of the other unconscious scientists out of the wreckage and Alex is over Jack phone to their ear as they presumably call 911. I sprint over to check on Jack and check his pulse. Alex is almost gasping, blood running down a cut on their face as they say to the operator “Please come quick! There are a lot of people injured!” and hang up the phone. I try to stay calm as I say “Jack seems to be ok enough. We need to go help the others.” They nod and start to stand up, wobbling a bit. I quickly move to help steady them and ask if they’re ok. “Yeah, I’m ok. Just a little dizzy.” I look around to check for any wounded and I see Dr. Brooks standing in the blown out doorway looking at something. “Please we mean you no harm.” she says, her hands up in surrender. Suddenly she freezes, her body tensing up like a giant invisible hand is holding her. She lifts off the ground, pauses for a moment, then gets slammed back against the wall so hard I can hear her bones snap from 5 feet away. I hear a muffled scream from behind me. I glance behind me to see Mia staring in horror and fear at the limp body of the doctor. My head whips around pure fear filling me as I see the perpetrator appear from the smoke. The small body of a black cat. It walks out calmly, eyes sparking with rage. Its eyes glow a terrifying red as it grabs another one of the scientists with that invisible hand. Everyone just stares, terrified. Until Alex shouts “RUN!” and starts to pick up Jack. The shout shakes everyone from their stupor and they start to stampede down the hall, most not worrying about their unconscious coworkers in their rush to get away. I grab Jack’s legs as Mia tries to protect us from the wave of people. The cat watches calmly at the chaos, the gleam in its eyes almost amused. Then it disappears in a flash. Only able to track it by the glow of its eyes it starts to jump from person to person slitting their throat. We rush to get out the door, barely getting ahead of the carnage. We are one of the last people through the door, Mia slamming it behind us. Just as the door shuts it explodes off its hinges, throwing us off our feet. One of the doors slams into me and pins me under it. I watch, my head pounding and feeling like it’s filled with cotton balls. As a blur of red bounced from person to person, the victims falling with screams of pain I hoped and prayed it wouldn’t see me. Suddenly I heard a familiar voice scream “JACK!” I whip my head around to see the creature on Jack’s chest, and his chest deathly still. Oh god… Fear racing through my body forces me up, pushing the door off of me, ignoring the pain. I race to intercept the creature as it dives for Alex, who’s unconscious on the ground from the combined head wound and explosion. Mia not looking much better, standing over Alex trying to protect them. I get about halfway there before the blur slams into Mia’s chest. Without even a scream she crumples to the ground, her eyes blank and dead, neck a shredded mess. I only get another step before the creature moves on to Alex, killing them just as quickly. All i can think is oh god, oh god, OH GOD. Not being able to stop my momentum, the last thing I see is a blur of red coming towards my face. Mom, Dad, Gary, I love you guys. Is my last thought before pain explodes in my throat and everything fades to nothing.

I wipe the blood from my muzzle. Messy, but efficient. I muse to myself. I let my senses expand to sense if anyone is left. Based on this base’s pitiful defenses. This place is ripe for the pickings. I think, walking out of the facility away from the annoying wailing of the alarms and smell of blood.