The Clock Shop (ORIGINAL VERSION)

7

OMG. I could not believe it, it was a tunnel. It seemed my nightmare was true. Should I just leave? Or do I keep going? I sat trying to decide for a solid minute, before deciding I was going to go in.

     It was a dark tunnel that seemed to go on forever and ever. I did grab a flashlight before I went in, but I was still so scared.

     I slid into the tunnel, it was concrete and rough. I got little rips in my jeans as I crawled through the tunnel. The flashlight barely lit up the tunnel, it seemed the tunnel went on forever and ever.

     It was like I was crawling to my death. I stopped for a second to contemplate what I was getting myself into. This is going to be the end, isn't it? No more Hannah Mancini.

     My whole life flashed before my eyes before I started back down the tunnel. All I could think about was if I was making the right decision.

     Luckily nothing closed off the entrance from where I came, but I was still paranoid and waiting for the feeling of being chased.

     I looked forward carefully, and hopefully, since I don't have to run from something, I should be able to be more cautious and not fall into a hypnotizing never-ending pit.

***

After what seemed like an hour later of going through a windy tunnel, luckily there weren't any areas that split off, I finally reached something. It was like a slide. It still looked like the tunnel, it just started to go downhill at an angle, like a slide.

     I decided to just go all in, I treated it like I was 6 years old at the park with my step-mother. I went down that slide with fear but a smile.

     The whole way down I worried about what would be at the end, am I going to die? The slide lasted for a few minutes and was starting to make me sick. I just wanted all of this to be over.

     At the end of the slide was when it got more difficult. I had a huge decision to make. There were two tunnels. Both looked equally eerie and dark, not even shining my flashlight allowed me to see anything down the two tunnels. Was I going to go left or right? I wanted to know if there was a right or wrong decision.

     This is like picking between life and death. I did not know what each tunnel might bring me to, I had to trust my instinct, which was to go back.

     When I turned around to go back I realized there was no way I could get back up that slide, I tried to, and there wasn't another way to leave, I had to pick one of the tunnels. My heart was beating like crazy, I was sweating like crazy, and I wanted to throw up and cry. I wanted to be at home. This is it, this is when I die. That's all I could think about. It was either sit there, cry and die, or I could go through a tunnel and possibly live.

     I picked tunnels because if I ran into my death in the tunnel, my options would've only been 'die' or 'die' anyways. I can't believe I thought I should do this. I shined my flashlight one last time through the tunnel, I still couldn't see a single thing from where I was standing.

     I started walking forward, into the right tunnel. That's what my gut was telling me. Even though my last name "Mancini" comes from the word "left-handed" in Italian, which I wasn't really worried about at the time. I walked and walked forever, unknowing of what I was going to find.

     I had hope, but also fear.

***

Halfway down the right tunnel, my flashlight's battery died, it was completely pitch black. I started to run in fear, I ran with my arms out in case I might run into something.

     I ran and ran and ran, I wasn't feeling tired, it was as if my muscles wouldn't tire, and my breathing was not heavy. I started to feel lighter, almost as if I was about to start lifting off into the air.

     Suddenly another part of my dream came: I was falling. Except, this fall was not anything like the dream. I was floating down at a fast pace, but not fast enough that I would get hurt.

***

Although it was still pitch black, I started to feel at ease and like I was a feather floating down through the air on a breezy, calm, and warm day. It was peaceful. I was the calmest I had been in a while, I had nothing to worry about, no bills, job, mysteries of The Clock Shop, just the feeling of finally being free.

     Soon, I was able to see a light coming from below me as I kept falling. I had no fear of what might be down there, I did not think I was going to die, I had a feeling I was going somewhere peaceful.

     I watched as the light below me grew closer and brighter. It was so bright, the exact opposite of the tunnels. Then, I was finally at the bottom and I couldn't see anything but white for a few seconds.

     But then I saw what was down there. It was amazing. I had no idea what Amanda Murray had seen, but this was not it. It was scary in the beginning, but once I started to go down the right tunnel, it wasn't so scary.