Menthone

Racing through the darkness, Shannon, tried to put as much distance between herself and it. Since the thunderstorm cut the power off, the breaker fried when the backup generator tried to kick in.

Darkness was all she felt. A perpetual wall of infinite blackness stretched out before her, yet if she were to collide with something, she dare not stop.

For the soft pads of its feet could sense her every movement as she ran away. The odor receptors within its nose picked up on every ounce of fear that emanated from her sweat glands along with her ragged breathing's breath from today's lunch (garlic chicken may not have been the best option, in hindsight). Even though Shannon was experiencing total darkness, it barely needed one-sixth the light she did, with eyes that were sharper than an eagle's.

It was everything she wasn't... the perfect predator.

Even its cognitive abilities proved it smarter than what they initially thought. All of its exams proved that, but also that the exams themselves were faulty when studying such a highly intelligent species. What they thought was a breakthrough was in actuality a death sentence. Anything that intelligent to have such ground breaking skills in cooperation must have some form of an ulterior motive, right?

That was how it got the first of them. Some upstart handler who's had his fair share of wild beasts. Sure, he may have had experience with saltwater crocodiles, pumas, shoebills, and even cassowaries, but nothing could've prepared them for that. It knew how to establish trust, or least the guise of it. It learned how to "play along." That was the beginning towards its independence streak.

"We were never in control," she huffed and puffed as her instincts propelled her to the safest place she could think of. "It was like a leash, but even with a collar we were never the ones in control. It knew what it was doing all along, and we were too foolish to realize that we had tied ourselves to it. Trapping ourselves with it."

Tears flooded Shannon's eyes as her thoughts raced to that of her parents and how she closed them out to focus on her studying and career. The friendships she let go all for the pursuit of becoming well established. Even giving her pet away to an old friend to take care of, as Shannon only saw herself as needing time for her career more so than having someone to come home to after a long day of work. All of it, all of her sacrifices that she's made over the years was going to be for naught if she couldn't save her own skin.

*CLANK!**CLUNK!**CLUTTER!**SPLASH!*

*CLANK!*

*CLANK!*

*CLANK!*

*CLANK!*

*CLAN!*

*CLA!*

*CLllllllll-!*

"Damn it!" She clutched her knee momentarily. Upset at the noise, but more upset about the potential ground that she's lost. The pain radiating in her bones, if she had the time to check (and a light), she was sure that she'd find a growing bloody red splot on her jeans. "Why didn't the fucking janitor put away his God damn mop bucket!"

Not having time to roll around or feel sorry about herself, the adrenaline in her veins almost but all subsided.

Picking herself up, she made sure not to slip in the filthy mop's water again as she limped towards the only spot that she thought she'd be safe in.

"Finally, I'm here!"

Leaning on the push bar of the fire exit door, whatever color that was left in her face had drained when she had pushed on the door only to be greeted with a *Click!*

"No."

*Click!*

"No."

*Click!*

"NO!"

Tears welled in her eyes as the thoughts that she wouldn't be long for this world rushed through her synapses faster than her fear response could process them.

"Pull it together Shannon! Think! This is useless to you right now! Where can I go that save my skin, and not just by my teeth!"

Remembering the mop bucket and her positioning in regards to the building, a second wind came to her faster than lightning could light up the night.

Looking over towards her right, she remembered that she was in the lower level of the cafeteria. "The salad bar. Its bolted to the floor and its doors are at least half-a-centimeter thick of aluminum. They put ice and store food underneath those cabinets."

A bolt of lightning flashed. Within the darkness, for a split second, she saw it from well over one-hundred meters away. Its eyed shined red like the demon they made it to be. Just as how nature designed it. This was all just an intricate game of cat and mouse.

Everybody knows that a skilled predator likes to play with its food.

More intensely than the thunderclap that had followed, the stress her heart had induced almost seized her. Had the will to live not catapulted her towards the salad bar.

Sliding on her knees, she felt around for a handle, a latch, anything, anywhere. It was all just a smooth, cold, surface. Nothing about it felt different. Nothing about it felt unique. It was flatter than a lake on a calm evening who's waters were so dark one might mistake it for the ground and go falling in. So, smooth and featureless it was her hands almost felt as if the cabinets themselves lacked a face. Yet, it just couldn't be.

Sure, she saw it within the darkness, but she also saw the metal handles and bins of the salad bar twinkle in the lightning's flash, just out of the corner of her eye.

Knowing that she wouldn't feel it moving ever closer towards her in the dark, panic began to set in even more.

"Please, God Please! Let me live! If YOU do I promise I'll never make another Adam and Eve joke again in my life!" She was so desperate, she felt as if she were gambling with the universe right now, and the odds weren't in her favor at the blackjack table of life. Her bluff wouldn't be able to pull through, nor would she be able to simply fold. It was go big or go home, and the only home she had to go to at this point was making peace with the universe by returning to a state of equilibrium.

Until-

*THWACK!* Her pinky finger had struck aluminum, but to her it was more valuable than gold encrusted with the royal crown's gemstones.

Feeling around the base, she grabbed a firm grip on the handle before wrenching it open.

*TUNK!*

It opened, like a breeze. Pushing the handle back up, she climbed inside before slamming the door behind her. Climbing a ways down on the inside, she pushed away cobwebs, dust bunnies, and mingling bits of dirty hair. None of it all mattered to her no matter how icky it seemed. She might of been a clean freak, but she cared more about being alive than being clean at this very moment.

Trying to regulate her breathing, she placed her hand over her mouth and slowed her breath out of her nose.

Having crawled beneath the concrete slabs of the salad bar, she figured that it wasn't the best place, but that it'd work for the time being. It might know where she is, but it couldn't get to her here, at least that was what she hoped. Until...

"Rmmmmmmmmm..."

"Closed mouth vocalizations..." The bass within its murmur was so low that it had vibrated her entire skeleton, shaking her very central (overly) nervous system.

Looking to her left, she then saw in the darkness the glint of the metal doors pushing inwards a bit. It was scratching at them. Testing them.

"Impossible, I crawled at least sixteen feet through this thing. It can't possibly know that I'm in here. My scent should have thrown it off somewhere else down the li-"

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of aluminum being pierced and peeled back like a rusty can opener cranking away at a can of tuna. Only thing was she was the snack inside.

With a new hole ripped open, her breath was caught in her hands as the air from the outside mingled with the inside, resting on her cold, sweaty, clammy face.

The only sounds she heard was the wind howling outside right before a flash of lightning revealed a black pupil bathing in a sea of red staring right in her direction.

It found her.