Legends Below (Discontinued!)

Endless

Itzel

This world is much stranger than you think.

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Our legs were sore from running for miles, but we never gave in. It's a run-or-you-die situation, and I'm not wasting chances.

When the IT guy watched us through the window, we hacked the lock on the back door and burst out of the classroom, straining my aching legs to sprint faster than ever before.

I never looked back. That cunning smile of his, the eyes of a puppy hiding something much darker inside.

We were nearing the school gates, the sounds of his heavy footsteps thudding closer and closer.

Ice courses through my veins. We have to survive this. We must survive this.

We ran through the rugged bricked parking lot and darted straight to the gates. The gates were locked, but we could still climb over it. At last, freedom from a hell of a nightmare. Jesus has sent down angels. But from the corner of my eye, the girl running with me suddenly had her arms dancing ungracefully in the air, her body plunging onto the rocky floor.

There lay Julie, face flat on the floor, her shoelace sprawled out on the bricks, loose from her shoes. My heart skips 10 beats.

It's over. We're screwed. Jesus doesn't exist.

It was false hope. We're dead.

I gave up running. For all the deeds Julie has done for me, I couldn't bare the thought of sacrificing a wingman for my selfishness. I froze still, squeezing my eyes shut and waited for the lanky man to run into me and kill me in whatever way he wanted. It's over. Julie can run away while I die. End this nightmare. But, all I felt was the hem of my uniform skirt flapping against my skin.

I pull open one eye.

The parking lot was empty, just the dark and dirty walls of the school glaring and towering over us. I had never noticed how dirty the walls were from all the running and adrenaline running through my veins.

Julie slowly got up from the floor. A small stream of blood trickled from her grazed pinky finger.

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Julie and I were staring at the gate for as long as the earth has existed.

I always remembered, running out of the gates with Bernadette, Julie, and Andrea after school everyday, laughing as they sought shelter from the drizzling rain that poured out nearly everyday in this month. Now, the pedestrian path of memories was mercilessly replaced with rows and rows of trees growing up to the dark star-less blanket of night.

My chest rose up and down erratically. I was so focused on escaping this hellhouse that the woodlands laughing back at us had appeared invisible seconds ago in my head.

I ran to school from the pedestrian pathway yesterday morning. Trees this big have no possibility to grow so much in so little time. There's something much darker going on here than what we are catching on to.

"I don't care. I'd rather run away into unknown woods than be chased to death by some crazed psychopath," Julie said in breathless pants.

I nodded in agreement. I just wanted to go home.

We climbed over the tall bright-blue fence that guarded the students from the rest of society.

Julie had touched down the ground first. I jumped from the fencing and set both my feet on the wet grass floor after her, tramping into the mysterious woods.