For every step I took, it took three and it made sure I could hear how close it was getting. It was still below me on the staircase, somewhere a couple of floors down but well within earshot and gaining ground fast. In daylight or among friends I wouldn't have cared that there was someone below us also heading for the highest floor of the car park but during the evening and all alone - something about that triple step made me afraid.
I started skipping stairs, trying to make it sound like I was walking normally so it wouldn't know that I was distancing us again. I held my keys like knives between my knuckles and kept to the centre of the stairs in case it tried to grab my ankles in passing. I clutched my dead phone so I could pretend to call for help if it came too close.
Whether luck was on my side or it just wanted to prolong the chase, I made it to the topmost floor alone and sprinted to my car. I'd barely made it to the driver's side before I heard the stairway door open and those skittering little triple steps came sprinting towards me.
I slammed myself inside, locked the doors and hit the ignition, headlights suddenly blaring into life just in time to illuminate the creature in front of me. It was like a 9 foot tall calf and a human fetus had been melted together and covered in dirt, those baleful milky eyes stared out from its bulbous head and I quickly realised that it wasn't capable of moving much.
It wasn't what had been following me. Sharp movement to my left spurred me into action as I sped out of there, scraping the walls and nearly breaking through the barriers on my way out. I glanced back one final time to see what looked like a heap of limbs waving at me from the exit.
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