The Endless Night

Chapter 21

I'm so dizzy. I am feeling confused and lost again, but I quickly pull my thoughts back together.

“Focus!” I tell myself. “Solid thoughts. Solid thoughts. Solid thoughts...”

It's dark. I need to find the way out. I feel around in order to find, well, anything really—a light switch would be nice. I keep looking. My hands are dicing through the air like Frisbees until—I feel something. My hand has fallen upon some sort of flat, curved surface. I know what it is but I can't think of it! Oh, wait. It's a wall. However it is curved, so... Where am I? I put my hand on the surface again. It is cold and hard. Maybe it's a cave; yeah, yeah it's a cave.

I slowly run my hands along the wall hoping that if I keep moving along I will find the exit. I really can't remember what has happened tonight, but whatever I did, it made me really sore. Every step I take causes excruciating pain to shoot up into my legs. I look down and see my whole body covered in cuts and scrapes. Most of them I don't even remember how they got here. I slowly keep inching along the wall. As I move, the atmosphere around me starts to get lighter and lighter. I keep going, determined to get out of this cave. As I get closer and closer to the light, a vague figure comes into view. I look and see a large man kneeling on the ground. I decide that I should leave him alone and try and find another way out. As I begin to retreat a little farther back into the cave I trip on a rock and fall with a thud. The man quickly stands up and begins to look in my direction.

Maybe I should run while I can or just hide until he passes or—

“Hello?” He pauses. “Please come out! I won't hurt you I promise!” The man pleads. He sounds earnest, and desperate. I decide that I should help him if I can. I slowly get up and step into the light. When he sees me his eyes glow with recognition and awe.

“Annie...” He breathes out my name as though it were sacred then excitedly says, “Annie is that really you?”

“Yes, it's me...” I say cautiously. I don't think I know who this man is, but he definitely knows me. As we stare at each other I glance over to where the man was kneeling. I now see a girl, lying on the floor, unconscious. Her shirt is soaked, as if someone was trying to wake her up by splashing water on her.

“Annie, I've missed you—”

“Who is she?” I say abruptly. I do feel bad for interrupting, but I have to know.

“This—this is Nessie—you know her right?” At the mention of the name, flashes of images pass through my mind. Lying on the ground in the woods. The shadow man's hand clutching my arm. Sitting in a shed. Running for hours. Shrieks in my ear as I run clutching the hand of...someone.No, not just someone's hand. Nessie's hand. More and more images come. Watching Nessie fade away as I'm thrown into her house. Being there with her family in their house. Going off in a clearing by myself. And then, as quickly as they came the images fade away.

“Yes! Yes! I know her!” I yell. I have to get it out before I forget completely. Then I realize the more pressing issue. “Why is she unconscious?”

“She's going crazy...” he says very uneasy, “...and we're running out of time.”

“Running out of time?”

“We have four and a half hours until one of us has to be the next shadow figure, and if she doesn't wake up...”

“What?”

“Then he'll find us, and we'll have to choose...” The man looks up at me suddenly, and the light shines on his face. My mind is filled with recognition, but I can't say I know for sure.

“If you don't mind me asking... —Who are you again?” His eyes look pained and deeply hurt. He looks at me with his sad eyes and chokes out, “Annie, I'm your father.” Everything stops. My world is frozen.

All I can do is stand there and say, “You were gone so long… I thought you were dead...”