The following is based on a report from Notre Dame...
Across Wilson Drive, tucked in a dark recess she’d never noticed, stood a squat, bunker-like building. Featureless and menacing, its steel doors looked locked tight against intruders. She’d never seen anyone go in or out—until tonight.
A golf cart roared past, jostling her heart rate, her phone clock blinking 3:17 a.m. Before she could look away, a shadowy figure slipped through the gates, moving with practiced ease, as if familiar with every step. She held her breath, adrenaline quickening, and whispered to herself, “Area 42… What’s in there?”
The next day, she couldn’t let it go. Between classes, Elara scoured campus forums, pestered anyone who might know, but answers kept evaporating the closer she got. All she gathered were whispers about strange experiments, unsettling sounds at night, and an obsession with something called "Boom Boom" sauce in the dining hall. She cornered Theo, her best friend and fellow Glynn Honors student, into investigating that night. Tall, lanky, and sporting a perpetually amused expression, Theo followed her out, half-terrified and half-intrigued.
“I’m telling you, Elara,” Theo hissed as they skulked across the damp grass near the utility plant, his glasses fogging up in the chill. “It’s probably an old storage room or something. We’re gonna get busted.”
“It’s not just some storage room,” she whispered back, her eyes gleaming with excitement. “Someone snuck in here at three in the morning. Doesn’t that seem off to you?”
Before Theo could argue, a rough voice cut through the darkness. “You kids better not be snoopin’.” A flashlight beam blinded them as a groundskeeper stepped forward, face etched with suspicion. He jabbed the flashlight toward them, an unspoken threat. “Ain’t nothin’ here but trouble.”
They backed off, Theo practically dragging her away, but as they retreated, Elara’s gaze lingered on the building, noticing the East Utilities Plant sign she hadn’t before. She didn’t buy it. Something waited inside.
---
A few nights later, Elara returned, alone this time. She told herself she was “just going to look,” but with all black clothes and laced-up sneakers, she’d come prepared for more. She crept along the building’s side, trailing her fingers along the cold, rough walls. The steel door she’d seen that shadow slip through was locked, but she pulled out a bobby pin, heart hammering, and set to work. After tense minutes, she felt a click. She froze, scanned the campus around her—dim streetlights casting long shadows, everything still and silent, but an uneasy sense of being watched prickled at her skin.
She slipped inside.
The hallway stretched before her, dimly lit and unnervingly quiet. White walls reflected the faint yellow glow of emergency lights, sterile and barren. Her steps, muted by the rubber soles of her sneakers, felt almost deafening against the silence. A faint smell of disinfectant clung to the air, tinged with something metallic.
Moving deeper, she caught faint echoes: the hum of machinery, muffled voices she couldn’t quite make out. She strained to hear, but the voices drifted off as she moved closer.
A faint hiss filled the silence. She stopped, pressing her hand against the wall, fingers trembling. A door hung slightly ajar nearby, spilling out flickering light from a faulty bulb. She eased it open a fraction, peering in to see a room lined with metal tables, strange apparatuses cluttering countertops, and a metal vat in the center filled with some thick, dark substance. Its bubbles released a faintly sweet, pungent smell that tickled her nose. Above it, a cracked sign read Boom Boom Sauce in faded letters.
“Elara, what are you doing?” The whisper came from directly behind her, and she stifled a scream. She spun to find Theo, his face pale and eyes wide with worry.
“Theo!” she whispered, but his focus was fixed on the bubbling vat.
“I came to stop you from doing something stupid, but… is that the Boom Boom sauce? Why’s it in here?”
“Forget the sauce, look around!” she urged, pointing to another door across the room. Thick and reinforced, it stood slightly ajar, spilling a pulsing, unnatural glow out into the dim space.
Theo swallowed, voice shaking. “Elara, this isn’t worth it. We should go.”
Her curiosity outweighed her fear. “We’re close, Theo. Don’t you want to know?”
Reluctantly, Theo nodded, and they crept toward the door. The chill radiating from the room pricked their skin. She pushed it open, and they stepped inside.
The walls glowed with an otherworldly light, symbols etched into the concrete pulsing in eerie patterns. But what froze her blood was the figure standing in the room’s center, back turned. Dressed in a lab coat splattered with dark stains, its head cocked unnaturally to one side, as if listening. Elara and Theo stood, paralyzed.
The figure’s head twisted in a stomach-churning angle, staring at them with hollow, empty eyes. Its face was gaunt, skin stretched tight over bone. It lifted one bony finger to its lips, as if demanding silence.
Elara gripped Theo’s hand hard enough to hurt. “Run,” she breathed.
They bolted, their feet slapping against the hard floor as the strange hiss behind them escalated into a low, chilling laugh. As they neared the exit, a deafening alarm blared, the building coming alive with flickering lights and a chorus of clicking locks engaging all around.
Theo yanked her through the door as it swung shut behind them. They collapsed onto the cold pavement outside, the night air sharp and bracing. For a long moment, they sat in stunned silence, staring at each other, raw horror in their eyes.
“What… what was that?” Theo whispered, his voice nearly lost in the night.
Elara shook her head, numb, her gaze drifting back to the building. In the doorway, the figure stood silhouetted, watching them with those hollow eyes, empty yet somehow full of dark intent. They had seen something unspeakable—something ancient and deeply wrong.
As they staggered back to their dorms, hearts pounding and minds reeling, Elara knew they had woken something. And whatever lurked in those dark halls was not finished with them yet.
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