The loud tone is what woke her. Hayden slapped the alarm clock next to her. When the noise didn't stop she banged on it harder. Frustrated she sat up and glared at the machine, sure that it was out to get her some how. However, she found herself glaring into darkness at the illuminated numbers.
What on earth? Maybe it's broken
She tugged the cord from the wall and watched the numbers go out. The noise, on the other hand, seemed to have a mind of its own. It continued to grow in intensity. The earsplitting tone seemed to be coming from the walls all around her.
Hayden leaped from bed and went tearing out of the room. The noise followed her into the hall. She screamed and put her hands over her ears. She collapsed to the floor in terror.
"Stop it! Just stop!" She screamed once more, a guttural noise that came from deep in her chest.
Silence.
She removed her hands slowly. She waited a moment before standing in disbelief. Suddenly, she heard it again, softer this time. It was coming from down the hall.
Her feet seemed to move on their own as she followed the sound down the dark hallway. It grew steadily louder as she walked to Nathan's door.
The source of the sound is in there.
She knocked, but got no response. She knocked again, harder this time. Frustrated, she tried the knob only to discover it was unlocked.
Weird. He's out of country, right? Why would his door be open?
She cracked it, "Nathan? Is everything okay?"
When there was no response she opened it wider. She cringed at first, afraid the noise would wake up the entire hall.
She stepped inside and peered into the darkness. The room was illuminated by the glow of the computer screen, but it was empty. Walking toward the computer she noticed the noise steadily growing louder. She saw the words on the screen, "Human Study 4320" with some smaller font below it. She grabbed the nearby computer chair and sat down closer to the screen. What she saw confused her. "Subject is cooperative to repeated mundane assignments. Has no recollection of experiment and continues to respond to suggestions. Seeming success."
She stopped reading; something was wrong.
The noiseit stopped.
She glanced around, suddenly overcome with the feeling that she was being watched. Her eyes traveled upward toward the ceiling. There was a faint red dot glowing right above her. She stood up in an attempt to see where it was coming from. She walked toward the closet to see if she could find something to boost herself on. The noise resumed. She moved fast and grabbed the extra chair from the closet. Setting it down under the light she moved to stand on it. The noise stopped.
She froze. What is going on? She moved backward slowly and the noise started up again.
She put one foot on the chair and stood up.
The silence was deafening.
She was able to stand on her toes to look closer at the ceiling.
The small hole where the red light was emanating from was about the size of a quarter. However, as she stared it seemed to open up and allow her to see upward even higher. There space opened up into a large expanse; much larger than the actual ceiling space. Movement in the space caught her eye. It looked like a person moving stealthily along a series of pipes and thick cords. Suddenly it rushed toward her. She fell backwards off of the chair with a scream.
Hayden sat up in bed with a yell.