Static

CHAPTER SEVEN

*Quick heads up, I was in a rush to get this chapter up so I did not edit it thoroughly. If you see spelling errors or sentences that don't make sense, please leave me a heads up in the comments, thanks!  Imogen and Blake pictured above btw*

I can feel myself running again.  Running in my nightmare, the landscape still blank, the colors still dull.  The fear tickles my spine and rakes its razor claws through my already broken mind.  Taylor runs with me, her cheeks flushed with red and her eyes wild with terror.  I know this scene well.  I know there is no end, that I will never be free from my invisible enemy. 
      My breath comes out short and quick, stinging my lungs and pressuring my heart like you wouldn't believe.  I feel the presence of the source of my fear closing.  I know I will never outrun whatever it is.  But I can't bring myself to stop even if there is no hope in escaping.  I don't want to surrender even though I will loose anyway. 
      Then, the world of my nightmare crashes down around me, the scenery stretches and morphs itself in peculiar shapes, messing with my mind even further.  Then the colors come.  The black explodes into reds and golds and shining silvers, the white bursts into blues and greens and royal purples.  It's a tie dye swirling mess that blinds me with its brightness and sudden beauty.  I trip and fall on the colored ground, dragging Taylor down with me.  The colors fade in and out of my spotted vision as my panic rises.  I try to scramble to my feet.  I can't lay here any longer or it will get me.  But something holds me down, as though I am no longer strong enough to withstand gravity.  Each time I get closer to standing, I am pushed back down onto the cold colors. 
       Taylor gets up with ease, she doesn't spare me a single glance before she takes off running again.  I call after her with a violent scream but she seems deaf to my desperation.  I'm crying, tears stream down my face and I try one final time to stand, only to be slammed down on my stomach yet again. 
      The thing that is chasing me, whatever it may be, is no longer closing in.  It doesn't have to anymore because I can feel it's darkness standing over me.  I cry out one last time for Taylor, but she is gone, dissolved in the colors.  I lie on the ground, my fave flat against the floor.  There's nothing I can do now but wait for the other shoe to drop.  Nothing I can do but wait until it decides to end me. 
      Then, I wake.  My eyes dart open and I can't see anything but black for the first minute of my true consciousness.  My skin is slick with sweat, my heart thudding faster than I thought possible inside my chest.  I heave the stale air around me, trying in vain to convince myself it was just a dream, that it wasn't real.  I'm still trying to catch my breath when a hand comes down hard over my mouth and pinches my nose closed.  I try to scream but I can't, I try to breathe but I can't, I try to thrash and swat at the hand but I can't.  My wrists are bound behind my back and I'm sitting on my knees with my ankles also bound. 
       I can't think, there's no oxygen getting to my lungs.  I try the only thing I can think to do, I bite down hard on the hand that found its way to my mouth.  I taste blood and it's not my own.  There is a low growl of pain from the person who tried to silence me as they retract their hand.  I gasp for air and my body rocks back and fourth with the force of my breath.
      "Freak!"  The voice hisses with deadly venom.  I cringe at the tone and I spit the blood out of my mouth.
       "Taylor!"  I call, my voice horse and cracking in my throat.
      "Blake!"  I hear faint muffled screams in the space but I don't know where it's coming from or who is responsible for making the noises.
       "Shut up!"  The one who's hand I bit howls.  I'm not prepared for the slap that he gives me across the left side of my face with the back of his hand. 
       "Get them outta here!" He commands, grabbing me by my shirt and hoisting my up onto my tied ankles.
       "Let's go!"  He growls in my ear.  I try to get my elbow out enough to catch him in the side but he stands too far away.  I try to force my feet to stay in place but he is much stronger than me and drags me along as if I weigh nothing.
        There is a bang and a crash as the man dragging me swings open a door and I realize that it's the door to the Ben & Jerry's.  We're still here.
        As I am pushed out of the building, the light and the cold air hits me like the coiled fist of a Monitor.  I resist the shoving of the man as best as I can but he jabs me hard between my shoulder blades making me stagger forward.
        I try to twist my neck to look behind me and I catch a glimpse of Blake and Taylor in the grasp of another black cloaked figure before my captor forces my gaze forward again.  I want to yell out for Blake and Taylor but what good would that do?  They can obviously see me already, there's no reason to risk myself just so I can say their names.
       As we cross the parking lot we come up next to a white van with tinted windows, the kind that kidnappers use in the movies.  How lovely.  I drag my heels and try to shake myself out of his grip.  The man acts like I'm just dead weight.
      He thrusts me up against the car door on the left side, pressing me against it with his burly figure.  My head collides with the car and spots flash in my vision.  I feel a warm liquid trickle down my forehead from my temple. 
     "Stop making this harder than it has to be."  He has bent his head down next to my ear and I can feel his sickly breath tickle my neck.  I grit my teeth through the pain in my skull and let out a dry, humorless laugh.
     "I'm just getting started, sweetheart."  I growl, working my jaw back and forth.  The man shifts his weight against me and I feel a sharp jolt of pain in my side as his knee rises and jambs into my waist.
     I have to bite my tongue to keep from screaming.  I squeeze my eyes shut.  It's about time I did something.