Running From Darkness

Escape

As soon as they had kitted up, Sam led the others out of James' door and through the twisting, turning complex of the institute. They tiptoed down turn after twist and eventually James lost all sense of direction and just concentrated on making his way along as soundlessly as possible. They managed to make their way to the main door and Emily swiped her dad's keycard, all of the emotions she had let out to James a few nights ago hidden behind a mask of determination and concentration. They all filtered out through the bottleneck door and found themselves on a wide, sweeping gravel path with an Aston Martin DB9 and a Bentley Continental alongside a Ferrari LaFerrri parked along it. Working at this place must pay well, James mused. What they used the ads for though when they never seemed to leave baffled him.
"Okay guys," Emily whispered, "there's no way we can make it across here without making a noise and being seen by the guards but the plan is we run across the gravel and get out as quickly as possible, trying not to show our faces."
"Why can't Sam just teleport is out to a safe distance?" Nathan asked.
"The wards around the building make it impossible for demons to get in using power, unfortunately it also means that we can't teleport out without setting off the alarms and alerting every guard to where we are."
"Actually, there is a way," Nathan inputted cautiously, "my trainer and I were working on ways to extend my invisibility to others and, well, just grab on to me." They all did what he said and watched as a slow sheen of silvery light passed over their bodies. "None of you let go of me right? Or you'll be visible again." Clumsily, they made their way to the edge of the institute grounds, where Emily put a hand on Nathan's shoulder to stop him and said,
"Wait, I've got someone who's going to temporarily disable the wards for us." They waited for a couple of minutes whilst Emily made a complicated sound that sounded like a cat clawing out its own vocal chords. Soon after, there was a rustle in the bushes and a girl who looked about their age stepped out. She looked perfectly human, her body shape was slight and slender, her blond hair fell down her back in golden curls and face was in the shape of a pointed oval. The only differences were her slightly pointed ears and luminous yellow eyes with slotted pupils, like a cat. This girl came within about 3 feet of them and began drawing some complicated patterns in the air with only her fingers. The glowing light trail she left was purple and fizzled slightly, like a chemical that reacted to oxygen. As soon as he had finished, the purple runic designs began to pulse, like the rhythm of a heart beat, and a door shape condensed in a strange azure blue. The girl pulled open the ethereal door and whispered anxiously,
"Hurry up! The doorway will close in s couple of minutes!" Her voice was soft, but had a seeming roughness to it, as if he wasn't sure she wanted to be here. To make things more obvious, her eyes darted about, as if looking for something in the shadows. They all hurried through the shape one by one. As soon as they did, they all felt their stomach drop and they felt as if they would fall over from weakness but it faded as quickly as it had arrived. They stood in an awkward silence until Joseph said,
"Guys, we ought to go before they see us."
"Yeah, good idea," Sam said, obviously not wanting to be here any longer than he needed to be and set off into the woods that surrounded the building. The other trudged after him with Emily and the other girl walked slightly slower than the others, chatting all the way.