Quoted By:
Your legs burned as you sprint down the narrow corridor – seemingly growing smaller and smaller the more you went on – as the sickening moist sounds followed, getting closer and closer to you. Wheezing, you burst through the door lying at the end of the almost unfathomably long hallway, slamming it behind you in haste. Your heart leaps into your throat as you realize just how close one of those decorated tentacles was to latching around your throat. Lungs on fire and muscles seizing, you quickly throw everything you can move in front of the door; tables, chairs…anything to keep the horrors in pursuit of you out. You quickly take stock of the room you’re in. Small, unevenly shaped…differing heights in the ground creating alternating rising and descending slopes. It’s the same as the other five you’ve already sprint through in a panic. A lone door at the far end of the room awaits you. A pain ripples through your head as you wince, making your way towards it. Why did this have to happen?
Why did it have to happen to Ina?
Your girlfriend was always bookish, put simply. Shy, quiet, pensive. You count yourself lucky you ever managed to even talk with her. She was kind, as well…thoughtful and sweet. Not whatever the fuck she is now. Moving towards the door as the one behind you rattles from impact, you move on. Something in your stomach shifts while the muscles under your eyes twinge, equilibrium thrown off balance.
Your memory seems so muddled now. You can barely recall Ina’s…human form, you guess would be the best way to put it. Long black hair in place of the crown of tentacles…no tentacles at all, really, as far as your memory is concerned. It all started with that goddamn book. The educated part of you quickly chimes in, mentioning that the book is most likely a grimoire – an ancient magical tome. Can potentially contain entities. It doesn’t take much thought to surmise that one of said entities probably corrupted Ina to her current state. A tentacle beast. Something touched by beings beyond the stars.
Muttering about “The Ancient Ones” leads you to believe that it’s probably far worse than you thought.
The appearance change was strange enough, true. She had stopped talking to you for almost a week – prompting you to visit her apartment in worry – as she tried to hide it from you. That day seemed so long ago, now. When she finally revealed the form to you, she didn’t seem particularly bothered by it. A red flag, in retrospect. You were willing to move past it, of course; she was your girlfriend. Future wife if things kept going well. The tricks with tentacles grew to be endearing, the more and more she mastered them. You weren’t sure what exactly you could do for her in this relationship other than be with her; obviously, no doctors or the like could do anything for her, nor did she want to even try. She was happy with her newfound abilities.
If they had stopped there, you would’ve been happy, too. Something about her demeanor…shifted. It changed just as much as her physical appearance, though it took much longer for that to come to the surface. Her eyes lacked the same curious sparkle they had. Her quiet nature bloomed into something more…open. You thought this was great, at first – Ina was finally leaving her shell. Only what was leaving the shell wasn’t the Ina you knew. It was something almost malicious. Something older than time. Something that wanted to watch you suffer, crack, and finally break. You shiver, navigating the seemingly endless labyrinth of halls. You regret ever stepping foot into Ina’s closet to hide from her.
Is this even a closet anymore? Where the fuck are you?
