Name: Elias Foster.
Next came the date, employee ID, department, supervisor. Elias rushed to fill out the form, pen scribbling in rough strokes across the paper. Hours worked… material used…
Safety and incidents.
He hesitated. Isaiah's voice echoed in his head.
Keep yer trap shut. We need this dam fixed. We don' kno’ what we sawrr’ out therr’.
Slow and careful, Elias wrote out his answer.
No safety incidents or accidents occurred during the course of the day.
All safety protocols and procedures followed without incident.
All PPE worn as required.
No near misses or unsafe conditions observed. No safety violations or breaches of safety guidelines noted.
He sighed.
The manager's office was empty when he left the form on Emily's desk. Must've gone home early. He clicked the light off.
There were new cracks that morning, shrill birds cut through the shouting voices at the dam. There were two weeks to finish work. Workers were darting through like ants, passing tools with an urgency that had seeped into every movement.
It happened as Elias was reaching to smear concrete over the split wall. Something slithered out of view, too quick to catch, disappearing into the blackness. He froze, gripping the trowel tight. Concrete slipped from the trowel and slapped onto the ground below him.
“Foster!” A loud booming voice echoed from above him. “Fix that damn crack! And don’t go wasting any more o’ that concrete.”
The man that greeted him when he had pulled himself back over the edge was not Emily. He was tall and wide, with a thick beard and an easy smile. “I’m John, new manager. Go mix some fresh concrete; the last of the small cracks need finishing by day’s end.”
Isaiah’s eyes were round and wide, staring at him from behind John’s back. He shook his head, almost imperceptibly. Elias tore his eyes away from him, fingers twisting over the chords of his harness. “Um…Where’s Emily?”
John’s smile drooped at the corners. “Not sure, I jus' go where they tell me, she didn’ show up for work today so here I am.”
The freshly covered crack was left to sit and cure in the hot summer air. At the end of the day, there was another form to fill out.
No safety violations or breaches of safety guidelines noted.
The pen felt heavy as he signed his name at the bottom.
Isaiah was next. Elias almost missed it, but John was grumbling about being short staffed and he had counted the bright yellow hard hats of his coworkers immediately. Isaiah was gone. That night he went to John’s office, unfinished form in hand, but it took John two minutes to brush him off and usher him out the door.
He came back at 2:00 A.M. He knew better than to waltz into the repair site in plain view of the cameras, so he snuck through the side, down through the scaffolding, teetering, harnessless through the rickety structure. Flashlight in hand, thick rubber boots sloshed through the water as he walked, echoing out in the quiet night. It felt like there were things lurking just out of sight, moving shadows and hushed voices murmuring just out of earshot.
“Isaiah?” His voice rang out across the water.
He took a deep breath and stepped forwards. There were hands gripping at his feet, curling around his ankles and pulling him back. His breath hitched, and he looked down, but it was only the pooling water. Another step.
“Isaiah?” He called out again.
There was a slow grinding noise to his left, like concrete shifting over itself. The water below him moved as the shock rippled through it. He brought a hand up, fingers pressing against the concrete.
A crack split through the air, and Elias fell backwards, landing hard on the ground. His eyes were wide, fixed onto the concrete wall in front of him. The dam had split open. Elias stared. It was five feet tall, and no wider than the span of his shoulders. Before he knew what he was doing, he reached towards it. The dampness of the air clung to his skin as he stepped into it. The air from inside was musty, and he strained to squeeze himself through. The dark swallowed him whole.
He clicked on his flashlight when he stepped through, and light flooded over–
–-Blood.
Elijah’s battered face stared up at him.
The monstrous form revealed itself in one horrible movement. Slipping over the water and hurling itself towards him before he could turn to shine his flashlight on it.
There was a new form to fill out in the morning.
Name: Oliver Greene.