The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf by Nick Bryan

reception desk, playing with her phone and resisting the urge to livetweet this experience. Would get her loads of new followers. She eyeballed the stairwell again.
    No sign of the police or Hobson. She considered calling him to check in, when the lift started up with a hiss. Fear leapt straight back up her neck to squeeze her brain tight. She looked at the indicators up top, and confirmed it was lowering towards her. Well, she figured, probably Hobson coming back down — the lazy old man figured out how to switch it on, so cut out the effort of walking down the stairs.
    Yeah, that’d be it. But still, as the lift closed in on the reception floor, Angelina’s feet were twitching, wanting to flee or leap back behind Jacq’s desk.
    The lift squeaked to a halt, and its flower-painted doors began to open. Angelina hoped that growl was her stomach.
    *****
    Smashing his way down the stairs, sending an echo through the Inspiration Gestation Station with every jump, Hobson smeared blood everywhere. Ellie would be furious about this mess, absolutely enraged, but she could wait her turn. If the dog was hiding in the lift and ripped Choi to pieces while he was looking after her, he was fucked .
    Not only had he left her alone to chase a fight, he hadn’t even found anything useful.
    Hobson leapt down from the second floor and put a stomp into his landing, trying to shake himself out of this funk. He smashed down, barely a foot from the gooey corpse of Matt. Pure luck he hadn’t pulped one of the dead legs. As it was, Hobson’s torso dipped to shock-absorb his landing, and he inhaled a gory stench that turned his stomach.
    Standing back up, he slowed for a minute, clinging to the wall as he skirted around the body. At last, he resumed his headlong kamikaze dive down the remaining stairs.
    His boots were so slippery with blood, his grip on the floor slid away during his last take-off. The landing still worked, although with definite stickiness when he pulled his feet up again.
    Hobson wrenched the door at the bottom open and rushed out, ready to fight his wolf.
    *****
    Angelina thought about running, but it seemed pointless. The lift doors were half open before she reached even that conclusion. As the nauseous shudder travelled up her throat and became a mouthful of retch, she realised the growling sound was her stomach rumbling after all.
    Angelina stepped forward, shaking as a tumbling mane of brown curly hair and hippy knitwear stumbled forward out of the lift, tripping over its own feet. At last, it looked up at her and gasped. There was blood rolling off her forehead, staining her hair and sleeves. Seemed you weren’t anybody tonight unless you were dripping with human fluid.
    “Jacq!” Angelina hesitated though, and for a second too long.
    As Jacq Miller’s legs finally caved in, Angelina grabbed her under the arms and tried to keep her upright. Unfortunately, Angelina was a slight teenager and Jacq weighed more than a toddler, so both ended up staggering backwards until they hit the desk and fell over.
    She felt a flush as the wooden edge jarred into her head. Not only did that hurt , Jacq’s head wound dripped blood onto her Day Two blouse.
    As they slumped together by the desk, there was another loud bang from the corner of the room, and Angelina nearly kneed Jacq in the face. It was only Hobson, making an unnecessary amount of noise opening the stairwell door.
    “Choi!” He rushed over and levered Jacq up with one arm, propping her against the desk. “You alright?”
    “I’m fine, I think.” She glanced behind him. “Your boots are covered in blood, what happened?”
    “Oh. Fuck. Never mind that, what’s she doing here?”
    “Not sure.” Angelina sighed after Jacq stayed silent. “I already called the police though, they’ll find out.”
    “You did what? ”
    “Called the police. Was I not meant to?”
    “No! Well, yes, but… just get her to talk, Choi.”
    “I’m not sure she’s up to it,