Don't Keep the Lights On

Chapter 5

As we neared the tower, I saw it was surrounded by a giant city of houses. On the edge of the tower were two, very ugly guards. "Oh. How are we going to get to the tower now?" Hannah groaned. She couldn't help looking towards Andrea's leg, which wasn't looking much better. "What? I can...still do this!" Andrea retorted determinedly. Hannah sighed. "I don't know, Andy. Maybe you can't." Dolly pursed her lips. "Don't let yourself go before you even know what's going to happen. Hannah, Andrea's strong. She'll cope."

Andrea gave Dolly a grateful smile. She smiled back. We started to walk again. We saw the tower getting larger as the houses drew nearer. I was so busy getting terrified I almost banged into the heavy metal gate. "Madison!" Dolly exclaimed, pulling me back. "Sorry." I muttered. "You wish to enter?" A voice moaned from the houses within. A old man came into our view. He had a black cloak that covered his face, and he was hunched over a large walking stick. "Yes." I gulped.

"Enter...but beware the woes that lie within." The man croaked. He opened the gate for us, and I felt like he was not here by will. He was only trapped like us. As we walked inside the small city, mist surrounded us. It gave me a sense of dread. I gave a gasp as I heard crunching beneath my feet. I looked under me. We were walking on a sea of bones. The houses didn't look so normal anymore. They were splattered with blood.

Once in a while, a scream echoed in the air, breaking the eerie silence that had descended upon the land. "What are they doing here?" I asked Dolly. She looked troubled. "Madison, even in hell, there are good and bad people. The worst of the worst are pulled into the dark realm. They get tortured. Sometimes, a scream is let loose into purgatory, which is where we are now, to remind people that if they commit worse crimes than even hell entails, they'll be thrown into the dark realm. What's worse, the people here don't die. They regenerate limbs fast. So they'll feel pain forever."

I shivered. "That's terrible. Who gets into the dark realm?" "Serial killers. People who start wars, like Hitler. And even people who kill other people in purgatory." Dolly answered. I couldn't help looking at Andrea. "Andrea won't get into the dark realm. The thing that attacked her will be though." Dolly said, as if reading my thoughts. "We're here!" Hannah called through the mist. She and Andrea had taken the lead.

I saw the tower stretching above me, and I once again couldn't help feeling the sense of dread. "I don't feel good about this!" Hannah said quietly. I looked at Dolly. She didn't show any signs of fear. All I saw was grim determination. We were at the last stretch of houses before I saw the hands. First they grabbed my friends.

Then they were clamped over my face and dragged me into darkness.