I scream as I suddenly snap up from my sleep. That was a horrible dream. I don't want to be the next shadow figure. Just the thought of fifty years with no light and no friends or family is enough to give me the shivers.
I try to open my eyes, but that sandy substance is still there; it falls into them and burns.
“Ow! Gosh what else can go wrong?”
“Vanessa are you okay?” Mr. Marsh asks. It takes me off guard a little; I kind of forgot he was here.
“Oh, um yeah, I'm fine.” I say as I wipe the sand off my eyes. We sit there for a moment in silence until I am struck with a horrifying realization.
“Mr. Marsh...do you think you know how long we were asleep?”
“Um, I can't say I do, but if I had to guess, maybe nine, ten hours?”
“Ten hours?!”
“Well, it's just an estimate...”
Now I only have one thought pumping through my mind. Twenty-four hours, twenty-four hours, twenty-four hours...
“How long were we up last night, you know, since he told us about becoming the next shadow man?”
“You mean since I woke up in the cave?” For the first time I realize he had been asleep through the whole “twenty-four hours talk.” Does he even know one of us might not make it?
“Wait, Mr. Marsh, you know he wants one of us to be the next shadow man, correct?”
“I think so, you have mentioned something like that once or twice...” he trails off.
“Do you know we only have twenty-four hours to decide?” At this, fear fills his eyes; he looks up at me and says, “Vanessa, how long do we have?”
I count it up in my mind. “Okay, so we were awake for about five hours before I passed out by the rock, which we probably stayed passed out for maybe three hours, but there is really no way to know. You say we were asleep for nine to ten hours. Eighteen hours. We have about six hours left.” What I've just added up strikes me. “Six hours...Mr. Marsh, we have to get out of here, we have to get out of here, NOW!”
“How? We can,” he takes a moment to catch his breath, “we can barely move.”
“We have to try... If we're here when he comes back...we're done for.”
“We can try... but how do we even get out of here?” he asks.
“This way.” As I am leading him to the hole, my mind is consumed with a new question. Why didn't the shadow man tell Mr. Marsh about the twenty-four hour time limit? Why would he only tell me? Then it hits me. Our fate isn't up to us. Our fate is up to me. I decide not to focus on this tremendous amount of pressure, and instead only focus on the one thing I can do: get us out of this shed, and as far away as possible. I crawl out of the hole first. I notice it has gotten immensely bigger since the last time I was here. The shadow man probably just forced Mr. Marsh in the hole, and broke through the wall in several places to fit him in. Mr. Marsh crawls out of the shed, shaky and unsteady. I'm really not sure how we are going to get much farther away from this shed in six hours.
Since it is my third time navigating through the foliage around the shed, I figured I would be pretty good at it by now. I am horribly wrong. With my ankle broken and swollen and my bruised ribs and some random stinging cuts on my face, try as I might, I run through several thorns. By the time me and Mr. Marsh get out, we are covered in them. As we are gingerly picking them out, I suddenly feel lightheaded and dizzy. I feel a headache coming, and my vision gets blurry. It's hard to focus, hard to even think. The dehydration has set in.
We make our way through the woods, until we stumble upon a clearing.
“Is this right Vanessa?” Mr. Marsh asks.
“Uh...I...oh yeah, yeah it's right.” I say, but truthfully, I have no idea. I can't concentrate on anything; I think I'm going crazy.
We begin to crawl forward until, suddenly I jump. There is someone in the middle of the clearing, not twenty feet in front of us. I panic.
“Mr. Marsh it's him! It's the shadow man! If he finds us he will take us back to the shed and then one of us will be trapped here and we have to run! We have to get away from him! No. We have to kill him. We have to—”
“Vanessa, I think you're mistaken; I don't think that's him.” He tries to calm me down.
“YES IT IS!!! And how would you know anyway? YOU'RE ON HIS SIDE AREN'T YOU?! YOU'VE BEEN ON HIS SIDE THE WHOLE TIME! WHY DID YOU LIE TO ME! WHY?!”
Nothing I'm saying makes sense, even I know that, but I can't stop. I'm going crazy. I'm really going crazy.
“You've got it all wrong. Vanessa you're not thinking straight, you just need to calm down and—”
“NO!” I screech. “I can't! I—OW!” My head is pounding. I can't take the pain. I let out a final scream before succumbing to the darknesses of this world once again.
YOU ARE READING
The Endless Night
Action"...never walk out alone..." Rumors have haunted the property around the little cottage for years. Vanessa Görtz and her family have just moved in and her parents are taking these rumors seriously. Vanessa decides to take matters into her own hands...
