Chapter 107: A Monster and Its Prey

— "F-Fuck! Gwen, what the hell is going on?!"

— "T-This is insane! What the hell was that thing?! And Peter… Peter is Spider-Man?!"

— "Questions later!"

— "What about Peter?! We're not just going to leave him there, are we?! If we don't help him, he's going to die!" Anya exclaimed worriedly.

— "Stop saying that! He's… he's not going to die!" Miles replied nervously.

— "Are you serious?! You saw that thing and how it knocked him out, didn't you?!"

— "Y-Yeah, but… he's Spider-Man! If Peter really is Spider-Man… he'll make it! Right, Gwen?!"

When Gwen met Miles's worried gaze, she felt her confidence waver for a brief moment. She had immense faith in Peter, his abilities, and his determination, but the images of his body being brutally beaten by that creature continued to haunt her.

She had watched him endure terrifyingly violent blows before losing consciousness, without even managing to defend himself. And despite all her efforts to push the thought away, she couldn't help fearing the worst.

Yet she knew she couldn't afford to let her doubts show. Miles and Anya were already terrified enough, and if she herself began to lose hope, their panic could become uncontrollable.

Gwen therefore gritted her teeth, pushed aside her worries, and forced herself to put on a reassuring smile, struggling to regain a confidence she was far from truly feeling.

— "You said it yourself, Miles. Peter is Spider-Man. Remember everything he's already done. He'll make it!"

Her words seemed to gradually calm the two teenagers. Miles, in particular, felt some of his anxiety ease as he thought back to Spider-Man's accomplishments and all the dangerous situations he had already survived.

Anya remained more doubtful, still deeply shaken by what she had just witnessed, but she chose to remain silent and cling to that hope as well.

After racing through several hallways, they finally reached the school's main entrance. Without slowing down, they rushed toward the doors and grabbed the handles, convinced that all they had to do was open them to escape. But when they pulled on them frantically, the doors didn't budge an inch.

— "W-What the hell is this?!"

— "W-What?! What are you doing?! Open it!"

— "I can't! It's stuck!"

— "What?!"

Miles immediately rushed to Anya's side to help her. Both grabbed the handles and pulled with all their strength, repeatedly trying to force the doors open. But despite their efforts, nothing moved. The entrance seemed completely sealed off.

What they didn't know was that the symbiote had already made sure to block their only way out at that location. On the other side of the doors, thick layers of black webbing covered the openings, firmly holding the doors in place and preventing anyone from entering the building or, more importantly, leaving it.

As they realized they were unable to escape, fear became increasingly visible on Miles's and Anya's faces. Tiny beads of sweat appeared on their foreheads, while their movements grew more and more frantic.

Beside them, Gwen remained silent. Her hands had grown clammy, and her mind was filling with terrifying thoughts. Every second spent in front of those blocked doors reminded her that the creature could catch up with them at any moment.

Yet she struggled to drive those images from her mind and maintain her composure, refusing to give in to panic in front of her friends.

— "Fuck, what do we do now?!"

— "I-"

Gwen didn't have time to finish her sentence.

In the distance, deep within the darkness of the hallway, footsteps suddenly began to echo. But they sounded nothing like those of an ordinary person. Each impact against the floor produced a heavy, powerful thud, its echo spreading through the silent corridors of the high school.

They didn't even need to see the creature to understand what was approaching. The sheer force of those footsteps was enough to remind them of its enormous build and the terrifying strength it had displayed just moments earlier. And as the sounds drew closer, one certainty became impossible to ignore: the symbiote was on their trail.

— "We need to get upstairs! Come on, hurry!"

Without wasting a second, the three teenagers abandoned the doors and turned around. They rushed toward the nearest staircase and began climbing as quickly as possible, hoping to put enough distance between themselves and the monster before it reached the entrance.

They reached the first floor and immediately began searching for another exit. Their phone flashlights swept across the doors lining the hallways as they hurriedly tried to open several of them. But every attempt ended with the same result: the doors were locked.

— "None of the doors will open!"

— "What if we jumped out a window?" Anya suggested.

— "Are you crazy?! We'll break our legs!" Miles replied.

— "Then what do you suggest we do?!"

— "There's no point in jumping if we can't even move afterward. We'll be in just as much danger. We need to hide! Come on, let's go upstairs!" Gwen said.

They immediately resumed running and climbed the stairs leading to the second floor. But once they arrived, they discovered with growing frustration that the situation hadn't changed. The doors were still locked, and none of the rooms they tried to open seemed capable of offering them shelter.

That was when a ferocious roar echoed from the floor below.

The deeply bestial scream reverberated through the stairwell and hallways, instantly sending chills down the three teenagers' spines. Other noises followed almost immediately: violent impacts, objects being knocked over, and the crashing of equipment that the creature seemed to be destroying in its path.

Every new sound intensified their terror. They knew the symbiote was now very close, and hearing it tear the place apart without being able to determine its exact position made the situation even more unbearable.

Without exchanging a single word, Gwen, Miles, and Anya reacted in unison. They headed toward the stairs and climbed to the third floor this time, driven by the fear of seeing the creature suddenly appear behind them.

Their hearts were pounding, and sweat was now running down their foreheads. Despite being out of breath, they began exploring the hallways again, desperately trying to open every door that might offer them a hiding place. A classroom, an office, a storage room… anywhere would do, as long as they could hide inside.

But nothing worked.

Every door seemed to be locked, as though someone had deliberately sealed off every entrance to prevent them from taking refuge anywhere. The farther they went, the more oppressive that feeling became, and every new handle that refused to turn made them feel increasingly trapped.

Realizing they had once again reached a dead end, the three teenagers felt the pressure suddenly intensify. Their expressions betrayed a deep fear that was becoming increasingly difficult to conceal. Until now, they had managed to maintain enough control to think and make decisions, but their panic was finally beginning to take over.

Amid all this tension, Gwen suddenly felt something unusual. A strange sensation of warmth began spreading through her body, accompanied by nausea that seemed to grow progressively stronger.

Her discomfort intensified with every passing second, but she chose not to say anything, struggling to remain focused on their escape despite the uneasiness beginning to overwhelm her.

They continued climbing until they reached the top floor of the high school. This time, to their immense relief, several doors were open. They led into large storage rooms, one of which also had a second door providing access to the school's rooftop.

For the first time since reaching the upper floors, they finally had several places where they could take shelter. But this discovery immediately raised another question: how were they going to organize themselves to escape the creature?

— "What do we do? Who goes where?!"

— "What do you mean, 'who goes where'?! You want us to split up?!"

— "Fuck, do you want that thing to find all of us in the same place?!"

— "But we-"

— "No, we're not splitting up! We're staying together!"

— "Gwen, are you sure about this? I've got a bad feeling…"

— "I-It's going to be okay."

Gwen then raised her hand and pointed toward the door of the storage room that also provided access to the rooftop. Despite the discomfort that continued to grow inside her, she was trying to come up with a solution that would at least leave them with one additional escape route.

— "Get into that room. We'll hide there, and if necessary, we'll go onto the roof."

— "The roof? And do what?! We couldn't even jump from the first floor! If we go up there and it finds us, we're-"

— "WE'LL FIGURE IT OUT, OKAY?! I-I'LL FIND A SOLUTION!"

Gwen's voice suddenly rang out through the hallway, far louder than she had intended.

Anya immediately fell silent, surprised by this unexpected reaction, while Miles abruptly turned toward their friend. Neither of them had ever heard her raise her voice like that before.

Gwen, usually so gentle and composed, seemed to have reached a breaking point they had never seen before. And behind that outburst, they could now sense all the panic she had been desperately trying to contain since their escape from the gymnasium.

But as they looked at her more closely, they noticed something even more worrying.

Gwen's face had taken on a nauseated expression, and her movements seemed to be growing increasingly unsteady. She staggered slightly, as though she were suddenly having trouble standing on her own legs. Before Miles or Anya could ask what was wrong, her body abruptly gave way.

Gwen collapsed.

Miles reacted immediately and managed to catch her before she hit the floor.

— "Gwen? Hey, Gwen!"

He called out to her several times and gently shook her, hoping to get a response. But Gwen didn't answer. Her eyes remained closed, and her body lay motionless in his arms. She had lost consciousness.

— "S-Shit… what's wrong with her?!"

— "I don't know!"

No sooner had they exchanged those few words than more bestial roars echoed from the lower floors. The creature's footsteps could also be heard, closer than before, brutally reminding the two teenagers that they had no time to figure out what had just happened to Gwen.

Miles and Anya exchanged worried glances, then acted without hesitation. They carefully lifted their friend, one taking her by the arms and the other by the legs, before quickly heading toward the storage room leading to the rooftop. They passed through the doorway carrying Gwen, then closed it behind them, hoping the monster hadn't spotted them.

Inside, they discovered an exceptionally large room cluttered with all kinds of objects accumulated over the years. Tall metal shelving units stretched across several rows, loaded with cardboard boxes, old school textbooks, and equipment that no longer seemed to be in use. Between these structures were desks, stacked chairs, dust-covered cabinets, and various pieces of equipment, some of which appeared to have been abandoned for a very long time.

The room was so large and cluttered that it was impossible to see every corner from the entrance. The numerous rows of shelves formed actual passageways between the piles of equipment, while the accumulated furniture and boxes created countless spaces hidden from view. Despite the disorder throughout the room, this arrangement at least offered them several opportunities to hide without being immediately discovered.

— "HERE WE COME!"

The symbiote's voice suddenly echoed in the distance, loud enough to reach them despite the walls still separating them from it.

An icy shiver immediately ran through Miles's and Anya's bodies. They knew the creature was getting closer and that every second counted. Without wasting any more time, they ventured deeper into the room, still carrying Gwen, moving as carefully as possible between the shelves and furniture to avoid bumping into anything or knocking over an object that might reveal their presence.

They eventually found a sufficiently concealed space behind a large metal shelving unit. There, they gently laid Gwen on the floor behind the shelving unit, then arranged several particularly heavy cardboard boxes around her to hide her completely.

Once their friend was settled, they quickly checked that she couldn't be seen from outside her hiding place.

After that, Miles and Anya moved a short distance away and settled near a desk. They sat side by side on the floor, trying to catch their breath and calm their racing hearts.

But despite the silence they struggled to maintain, fear remained ever-present. Somewhere inside the high school, the creature was still searching for them, and both knew they were far from being out of danger.

TO BE CONTINUED.