Wander

//Unnatural Physics//

The hallway itself was no less inviting than the room Wander had just left. It was almost entirely dark, save for a lone torch on the wall directly in front of him. As the flames danced and swayed, the shadows joined in on the frightening procession, grasping for his feet before scurrying back to the shadows, only to lunge at his legs once more.

Wander wrapped the large coat around him tighter, shivering slightly. The hallway was much colder than the room had been. He walked forward, touching one of the stones that comprised the structure, withdrawing almost immediately from the freezing surface and cursing under his breath. The stone was as cold as ice - far colder than he had expected it to be, considering it was directly beneath the warm and inviting flames of the torch.

Wander could almost swear that the stones where absorbing all the heat from the surrounding air, greedily keeping it for themselves despite feeling just as frigid as the air surrounding him.

He reached up, firmly grabbing the shaft of the torch, fighting to get it off of the wall for a few moments before it finally gave way. Lifting the light source above his head, Wander watched with interest as the shadows on the floor didn't seem to move. He tilted his head, moving the torch closer to the darkness, and the shadows quickly retreated after a moment.

Wander shook his head, willing himself to stop finding excuses on how to make the situation worse. Shadows that would not give way in the presence of light? Preposterous. He would get no further if he continued to think like a frightened child.

Seeing as how both left and right were as dark and unwelcoming, Wander thought for a moment and then decided to head towards his right. He moved cautiously, waving his torch in front of him with each new step. Again, the shadows did not seem to shrink away from the light, as normal shadows should. The small detail continued to bother him as he made his way further down the seemingly never ending hallway.

After what seemed like forever, the hallway ended with a large set of oak doors, very similar in everything but size to the room that he had left only a short while before. He shifted the torch from his right hand to the left one, giving the oak doors a massive push. They slowly creaked open, the sound reverberating through the hallway. Again, the hinges creaked in protest, clearly in a state of horrific decay due to either poor or nonexistent maintenance.

A shiver crawled up Wander's spine. He quickened his progress, stopping once the large doors were open just enough for him to move through safely into the area beyond. Carefully sliding through the narrow opening, he raised the torch over his head to illuminate his new surroundings. He was in a large room - so large, in fact, the shadows still clung to the ceiling like row upon row of sleeping bats. He was between two large staircases that wound above him, leading to a balcony of some sort directly over his head.

An odd sound made him stop. He focused to make the noise out more clearly, for, at first, it just sounded as if the wind was rustling leaves on a sunny, autumn day - an image much more inviting than what he could barely make out. He questioned the reliability of his ears, for as far as they could tell, what sounded like a chorus of whispers emanated from the hallway behind him. Wander slowly turned around, hoping that maybe his mind was playing tricks on him, that his imagination was trying to compensate for the lack of memory.

No such luck would be granted to him.

Further into the darkness of the hallway he had just exited, Wander could clearly make out the same white figure that had been in his dreams the night before. Again, it was studying him, with its head half tilted and its tongue darting in and out, testing the air for the new scent that was unfamiliar to it.

Wander moved slowly towards the open doors, not wanting to draw anymore attention to himself than necessary. First off, the monster from his dreams was real. That couldn't be possible. The only explanation would be that Wander was still asleep and dreaming, but that couldn't be possible, for he knew he was awake. Second, the thing, as he referred to it, could be seen down a dark hallway with absolutely no light and nearly-suffocating darkness. That, he knew for a fact, just wasn't possible under any circumstances.

Wander took a deep breath, slowly pushing the open doors closed. Just as he knew it would but prayed that it hadn't, the hinges squealed in protest. Just as in his dream, the faceless figure let out the same mind-numbing yell, dropping to all fours, its tongue darting through the air. At this, Wander dropped all form of stealth, using all of his strength to close the doors as fast as he could. Despite his best efforts, the large doors closed at a snail's pace. Looking back at the creature, he felt a whimper rise to his throat - it was moving towards him, and the doors, at an alarming rate.

Pushing as hard as he could, he prayed to shut it before the featureless assailant could reach its target.

The last thing that Wander saw before the oak doors were sealed was the monster leaping towards him from only a short distance away, followed by a large thump as it smashed against the massive layer of oak separating him from the nightmarish figure. Wander gave a small sigh as he sunk to his knees - there was no way for whatever that was to pass through the door to him. No sound could be heard, but the continuous scrapes as his stalker scratched at the door to no avail.

Hours passed as Wander sat there, aimlessly staring as the flame- his only companion- danced and flickered on the end of the torch. Finally, the scratching stopped; yet, he did not feel relieved until there were no sounds heard for quite a long time.

Even then, his feeling of relief was shallow and superficial at best.