Sabrina

Chapter Twenty- Four

Crawling out of the first set of gates to the realm, I felt content.  I had unlocked the rose, I had freed the light, but there was a problem. I had met eyes with the leader of the darkside. I wasn’t sure what this meant, but Morgan had been adamant that I could not do this. Apparently, it had negative effects.  I didn’t have time to worry about that at that moment though; I needed focus on escaping this dark realm first. I crawled along the floor, trying to slowly sneak out of the second gate before I was spotted. I felt the sweat building up between the palms of my hands and the fabric of the black, leather gloves that I was wearing. I was nearly there, I was nearly safe. Deep breaths, I reminded myself as I etched closer and closer to the gate that led to my freedom. Just a few more seconds and I would be safe. Not only safe, but also successful. I want so badly to succeed. I needed so badly to succeed.

I reached the gate and slid it open slowly. With the first little push, to my absolute horror, it squeaked slightly. I turned back towards the exterior of the building I had just explored, quickly glancing around; my eyes were scanning for any sign of movement, anywhere in the apartment. My ears were sharp. I didn’t hear a sound though; I assumed no one had yet noticed. The coast was clear, or so I thought. I continued on my way out into the outside world. I gate open a tiny bit further and then squeezed my tiny frame through the small gap.

“Hey!” I heard a man’s voice from behind me. The hairs on the back of my arms prickled up. I immediately sprung from the ground and up onto the railing at the edge of the gate, all in one kind of movement. I glanced backwards. The man was now only a metre from me, also on the veranda.

“Get back here I know it’s you!” he spat at me, “I’ll turn you in- you know I will. I’ll tell them everything!”

“Fuck you” I breathed, grabbing onto a pipe on my left and sliding downwards until my feet hit the pebbled driveway. It was then that I began to run.  I could have sworn I’d never run that fast in my life.

I ran for miles, or so it seemed, only daring to stop for a second once was I half way to where the car was meeting me. I took some deep breaths, standing under a tree as I checked that I had what I wanted. I pulled the small velvet bag from the satchel strapped across the front of me. I tugged it open and looked inside, only daring to have a quick glance. Sure enough, it was there. To anyone it would have looked like a simple rose, but to me it meant a whole lot more. To a lot of people, it meant a whole lot more. I secured it back in the satchel across my chest and began running once at a fair pace, once again. This was the harder part of the journey, as it was entirely uphill. I toughed it out though. There was no way I had come this far to fuck it all up now.

By the time I saw the headlights of the escape car, shining in the near distance, I felt like my legs couldn’t possibly carry me any further. But there was the car, just ahead, waiting for me, and so I forced myself to continue at a sprint for just a few metres more. Finally reaching the vehicle, I ripped open the door and jumped into the back seat. The car immediately began driving, even before I had time to fasten my seatbelt.

Once I was buckled up, I realised I was not alone in the back seat. Upon looking up, I was greeted by a few familiar faces. My team was there, all smiling at me with their ‘congratulations’ grins. And there was Morgan Freeman, with his eyes narrowed and his hand outstretched towards me.