George Karim

Chapter One

I am currently stranded in a foreign country all alone. ‘Great’, I thought to myself. As I sat in the back booth of the local café, the sky started drowning in darkness.

“Miss?”, I looked up to see the sweet waitress who served me earlier, “It’s ten minutes till curfew. I’m afraid you’ll have to leave now.”

I nodded, turning my attention to outside the shop where it looked like a ghost town.
“Ghost town”, I weakly chuckled to myself.
I gathered my belongings which weren’t much, just a backpack with a toiletry bag, two pairs of jeans, two long-sleeve shirts, one wallet, and a smartphone. London was unbearably cold. I learned the air at night was bone-chilling, like walking through a morgue.
My paranoia must have been getting the better of me because I swear, it feels like someone is following me.
“You’re fine. You are just a bit nervous about not hearing from your family in the last 24 hours, that's all”, I prompt myself. 
The pace of my evening stroll went from a brisk walk to booking down the road. A terrible shrieking, the reason for my now voluntary exercise, was getting closer and closer. I am running at my top speed but from the sound of it, the source of the shrieking was close enough to make my ears bleed. I wipe my hand against my ear. It was bleeding. The momentary distraction cost me and I tumbled.
London’s cobblestone street touches my back as I attempt to expand my lung for I just had the wind knocked out of me. I must be having a clinical mental breakdown because right in front of my face is a pale, glowing figure of a woman wearing a Victorian dress who is hovering in the air. I hold my breath petrified for the woman is staring right at me as if waiting for me to show a sign of life. Something told me I didn’t want to let that happen. By what must have been the grace of God I hear a voice shouting, “MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!” I rolled a good three feet and look up to see three people about my age fighting the entity with chains, swords, and bomb flares. ‘I really must have gone insane’, the little voice in my head tells me. It must have all been too much because the last thing I remember was the muffled sound of footsteps getting closer before everything going black.