Bound by Hellfire

Chapter 9

Shoulders and elbows plunged into our stomachs as we fought to push our way through the crowd of people. I felt a sense of deja vu again, thinking back to the crowds in the courtyard. How my brain could combine the two is beyond me, and yet the memory slipped into my mind as another roar echoed around us.

We were still close to the back of the crowd despite our best efforts to push through. The hallway was too skinny and the darkness was not helping.

"We'll never make it through!" I called to the others.

A plan had to be made. It was our lives or theirs and yet we stood waiting in line for the crowd to move up. It wasn't in our nature to push through. Even in this dire situation, it felt wrong to grab the shadows in front of me to pull myself closer to freedom. That was until a loud metallic scraping screeched the stone behind us.

The sound was ear-numbing. I couldn't help but lift my hands to my head as the noise made my brain tremble. The crowd wavered for a moment. I couldn't see their faces but it was clear that everyone was turning to look to where the noise was coming from.

A tall shadow had emerged from the staircase! Its lanky arms were held wide covering the diameter of the small aisle, and sprouting from them, razor-sharp claws that scraped away the stone like it was chalk. From the monster's head, a large bramble of antlers protruded out toward the ceiling. The roughly 12-foot high passageway meant nothing as the twisted bones kissed the corners of the room, leaving specks of cobble to crackle onto the floor.

But despite all of the monster's horrific features. Nothing could compare to the embrace of its eyes. Red light bounced off the cold damp walls as I caught myself once again trapped in its gaze. The four cracks opened wide, flooding the walkway with their blood-red glow and then back to darkness as they breathed back in with each step the shadow took.

Then the monster once again leaned its head back, its antlers vibrating, as rubble fell around the beast. Its terrible roar pierced our ears like a knife to our skulls... and then... it charged!

Diana was the first to react. Her eyes widened with horror as she quickly turned back toward the opening. Our subtle pushing through the crowd was all for naught as she clawed her way through. The monster's incoming footsteps quickly faded as the corridor exploded with screaming and shoving. Diana slipped through the cracks in the crowd like a fish down a stream, and in an instant, she was out of sight.

Ethan and I looked at each other. Our faces both wrinkled with terror as we both followed Diana's lead. I quickly grabbed Andrew's arm and we began pushing our way toward the light. It didn't take long for the monster's stride to grace us once again. Our efforts to follow Diana were failing and we quickly realized that if we didn't do something soon we would be overtaken.

I leaned forward as I stretched to look over the sea of people. There had to be a hole, a crack, some way to get around, and then I saw it. It was only natural that a herd of cattle stay together as they move, and we were no different as we too fell to this design. The edges of the walls had been left unguarded as people naturally pushed toward the center of the hallway. The cracks were slim but it was all we had hoped for.

With my other hand, I grabbed Ethan and we made our way to the wall. Looking in at the crowd I could see that they moved as one. All motioned by fear, they pushed and pulled like waves in the sea. And with each wave, we crept through as they crashed together.

Slowly but surely the room around us lit up with light as the doors grew closer. Then with one last push, we joined the river once again as it flooded out of the prison and into our supposed freedom.

The sun was blinding. I did my best to see what was in front of me, squinting into the sun. My ears sighed with relief as the echoes finally escaped from them and into the open air.