Alone (Bluford High) (Watty Awards 2013)

Chapter 8

  Her vision was blurry and she felt disoriented. It was like the area that surrounded her was moving constantly. It's like when you spin around so many times that you feel extremely dizzy and you suddenly started to see swirls and dark spots around the room. That's how she felt like. When her vision cleared, she couldn't see anything at all. This was Karen Amerson.  There was nothing around her except darkness. On top of that, her body couldn't move one bit. She felt as though she was in a tight, narrow space where she couldn't get out of. Due to this, she started to feel short of breath, like her lungs were being closed in. Then, her heart started racing like a track team. Her arms couldn't even move and barely her head. Was she being crushed without even knowing it? If that was the case, (which she considered out of panic) Karen began to hyperventilate. The idea of being closed in by something heavy was awful to her. But she had to do something to get out of this predicament. So, again, she tried to move her arms, which was more towards being successful the second time around. She did it once more and felt a rough surface or object kind of peeling the skin off. Karen winced painfully. 

     Suddenly, her arms fell back down. 

"God! Why?!" she whispered.

     There had to be something else that she could do to break out of whatever place she was trapped in. She slammed her back against the surface. Nothing. She did it a few more times and the result was the same. Then, she did it several more times with aggression and effort. Karen heard something crumble and fall. This motivated her to repeat this action despite its pain to her back.

"Come on! Come on!" she said to herself.

   With each slam, she heard the same crumbling sound followed by something falling. She felt herself becoming more free to the point where she could move her legs. At this point, there was a large hole that formed behind her and she gave it her all by backing into the rough spot one more time and the next thing she knew, she was out of there. There was a bright light above her and it momentarily blinded her. She opened her eyes to find herself in a large bedroom. In front of her was a king-sized bed with ripped sheets placed on it. On the floor, there were about four or five dead spiders on the floor with some of them having at least two or three of their legs missing. The last oddity she saw was a round bump in the wall by a closed door. There was something really eerie about it. It was TOO still. Still as a rock in tall grass. Before Karen could do anything, she saw it move. Strangely, this bump had eyes that opened, which revealed red scleras. The eyes looked at Karen.  She stepped back quickly. However, the face came out of the wall and its there was a body that was white as the wall beside it. It moved in an inexplicably swift manner towards Karen. 

   Seeing this, Karen ran away from it right before it had the chance to grab her. She immediately ran out the door. She ran through a small hallway with another bedroom right by her and the door was wide open. In a quick flash (inside this bedroom), she saw what looked like a terribly burned corpse that was lying on the floor in a contorted fashion. But what came next was even more twisted and disturbing. She came to the front door and she looked all around. That's when several more of the same figures came out of the walls with that identical creepy face. The expression on the faces, just like the one in the first bedroom, was blank, yet with an utterly frightening feature to them. Their bodies were extremely thin, skinnier than Karen's herself. Then, they all came after her. She shrieked in sheer terror as she ran out of the front door. 

  Outside, while running away, she found herself in another hallway, but much larger. She was beginning to think that she was perhaps in an apartment complex. And to make things worse, she was at one of the highest floors. Fortunately, there was an elevator right in front of her. She ran towards it and pressed the button rapidly and desperately.

"Open! Please open!" she yelled.

  On command, it opened. She got inside and pressed the 1 button to go down to the first floor. For a while, she wanted to stay in the elevator. But she knew that wasn't realistic. She was still wearing the night clothes she was wearing the night she was attacked. When she reached the first floor, her heart dropped to her stomach.