By Your Side? Always | ALWAYS #1

Chapter 20: This Is World War Me

My head hurts like hell, my lips sting, my throat forms into a knot, I also try holding the tears when I realize, this is the trial I've probably feared the most to come, the 'fear trial', what I understood is, I have to face my worst fears here, I can barely breath from the anxiety this gives me.

I feel like a coward

Maybe I am one

Slenderman and his proxies guide me to a dark room, with a chair on it and a table, the chair looks old and very scary to me as I see it, Masky makes a movement with his head indicating me to sit on the chair, next, the proxies tie me up, my feet, my hands and my stomach, then Toby puts a small artefact on my head, it looks kind of like a headband but it has leather and some sparkles in it, his face deserves the word 'WORRIED' to be tattooed on him, because he basically looks like it. Then Slenderman is in front of me and I try to smirk, but it's impossible with my anxiety so I just nod slightly and he looks into my eyes almost breaking my skull from his look.

-Now, this is the final trial, good luck- Slenderman says and sits on a desk in front of me

-You'll need it- Toby whispers to my ear and goes directly where Slender is, to then, stand by his side

Masky's shaky hands have a needle between his fingers, he takes my hand and slowly pinches my middle finger, making some blood come out, then he lets the blood stain a golden plate, as he then places it on another table and I feel really dizzy, really dizzy like if someone just drugged me, my eyelids start to gain weight and they can't keep themselves open, and finally, my eyes are shut and the trial begins.

Oh damn it

After a couple of seconds, my eyes are now able to see where I am, the room doesn't look from this era, my legs begin to trot to the door, opening it and next, I'm walking through a really dark hallway, I open a door, a really old looking door and a voice inside me screams 'DON'T!' but I don't really listen to the stupid voice so, my hands turn the door knob and it opens immediately, to see a dark room, very dark with metal like walls, I dare myself to explore the room to see a shiny object on the ground, I realize that is a small earring, so I wrap it around my fist and when I'm disposed to leave the creepy room, the walls and ground shake, shake on a violent way that make me fall to the ground and sit on my ass, then I see the walls getting every time closer and closer to me, first fear.

Claustrophobia

Old foe of mine.

I try to stand up but the ground has taken me down, making me unable to do it, so I hug my legs and see the walls getting closer and closer to form a jail to my body and mind, they slowly start to touch each corner and I can feel them coming closer to my body. When I'm finally able to feel the anxiety overcoming me, and I can finally stand up on my feet, I can see the walls, they only have one meter away from my body, and decreasing.

Think Regina, come on think... Stop the fear, stop the walls, think, act don't give up.

There are some... nails? There... GOT IT!

I run to the nails and take them on my shaky hands and I feel the rustiness on them as I run to the first wall I see, which is in front of me and my hands work to attach the nails to the wall. When I finish, the wall does what I think it should do, it stopped moving, relief doesn't last long, when I realize I'm out of nails, damn it. I begin to search through my mind something to stop the walls, I try to control my breathing, getting higher and heavier with the fear of being crushed, with the only feeling of missing space.

Then I do the most stupid thing, when the walls are close enough I take one of the walls with my hands and arms, and the other one, I try to stop it with my legs and feet, as I push them away from each other, my hands begin to hurt and my legs won't stand it anymore, but I try, and I believe the walls go every time slower than I think they would go, until I'm climbing one of the walls they stop, leaving a very few amount of space to myself, when I finally feel that I succeeded, the ground shakes again.