Wouldn't it be Funny?

Chapter 9

(Art above by yours truly)

The Rec. Center shuttered again. With everything that had happened, I had completely forgotten about my ankle. Now, with the adrenaline gone, I felt every bit of the stabbing pain that was shooting up my leg. I had pulled Aaron in his makeshift gurney into a random storage room. We were huddled against a wall, far away from the basement steps.

I don't know what to do, I'm scared out of my mind.

The noise above sounded like a train, thundering towards us. I clung to Aaron in the darkness, trying to protect him from anything I feared would come through the ceiling and crush us at any moment. Aaron still hadn't moved, and neither had I heard anything coherent from him. We had been sitting like that for... I didn't know how long.

I held Aaron in my arms, crying my eyes out. I cried harder when the warm tears landed on his face. It scared me even more that I wasn't sure if he was bleeding or if it was the sticky tears from my gushing eyes. At least he was still breathing. I knew because I checked every couple of seconds, out of fear that he was dead.

In an instant, it was like the devil himself had broken out from the pit of hell. The walls shook so much I had to lean away from them. I couldn't describe the sound that surrounded us if I tried. The closest I could compare it to was a thousand elementary schoolchildren screaming in my ears. I wasn't sure if we were being pelted with debris, or if we were being physically pounded by the sound waves themselves.

It scared me that I had no idea what was going on up there.  I wasn't sure what was happening down here either. There was a burst of wind, and it felt like we were stuck in the eye of the storm. I couldn't get a grip on what I was seeing. Dark shadows were dancing circles around us and their yellow eyes glowed, playing with my sanity.

There was another shadow above us, with red eyes. Flashing orange darts erupted from its swinging arms and kept the yellow eyes at bay. It was protecting us like a dark guardian angel from hell. The shadow was roaring words at the yellow-eyes ones, something like, "you cannot interfere", It's glowing red eyes flashed at me. In that second, the red-eyed shadow was skewered by thousands of lightning bolts from the yellow-eyed shadows. I felt an actual weight as it fell on top of us.

I'm going insane.

I screamed... I was screaming for all it was worth. I screamed at the imaginary shadows as they came towards us. I tried to look as fierce as I could against them. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and I buried my face in Aaron's chest.

I screamed until something broke inside me and there was nothing left but silence.

****

It was quiet.

And dark.

I was warm.

My head pounded, and my eyes were so swollen I could barely open them. It didn't matter because when I did I still couldn't see anything.

"Ember?" I was suddenly jostled and something was patting my face. I tried to lift my hands to protect myself from this onslaught of gentle poking, but my arms were too sore. I couldn't recall doing a hundred pull-ups recently. I groaned in pain.

"Thank God!" The voice above me spoke. "Ember, please wake up. Are you okay? Where are we?" He continued to poke my face.

"Sto-st... STOP IT." My voice was hoarse, I swallowed trying to quench the pain. With Aaron's help, I sat up. Apparently, we had traded positions, whereas I was now cradled in Aaron's arms. I scooted away, but we seemed to silently agree to keep physical contact. Without touch, I felt completely alone in the darkness.

"How..." I swallowed again, "how long was I out?" My hand was grasping his shoulder, and his hand held my elbow.

"Too long." Aaron's voice reminded me what had happened before I passed out. Fear took hold of me while images of those horrible shadows flash across my eyes.

"Aaron!" I lunged at him, hugging him to me again. "Aaron, there is something in here with us," I whispered in his ear. His arms tightened around me.

"What do you mean?" His voice was strained. "I don't have my phone, we need a light."

"The stairs! It must be by the stairs." I prayed that it was safe to move. Other than our hushed whispering, it was completely silent.

We were too afraid to lose contact as we stood, and we got up supporting each other in the strangest embrace.

I don't care anymore if he dares to leave me for a second I'm going to have a heart attack.

After what had happened that night, all normal boundaries were thrown out the window. I was NOT letting go of this boy. At this point, Aaron was my anchor, and he was keeping me on earth.

We felt around the room, struggling to move. Between my ankle and his possible injuries from the fall, our progress was slow. My good foot hit the edge of the stairs, and I cried out in a mix of pain and happiness.

"The stairs! Quick, your phone must be here somewhere!"

We fumbled around and suddenly the corridor burst with light. I winced in pain as Aaron swept the light on me.

"Ember! You're bleeding!" His hand went to my head and came back covered in blood.

"It's okay!" I grabbed his shaking hand and wiped away the blood with my sleeve. "It doesn't even hurt. It was probably just a shallow cut so it already stopped bleeding." I was mostly trying to assure myself. There was too much blood to be a minor injury.

"Let me check you... give me the light." He handed it to me and I swept the light over him. Other than scrapes and bruises, he looked fine. It was when I saw the red eyes behind him, that I screamed. I pulled him away and we fell against the stairs. I scrambled to point the light down the hallway, but there was nothing there.

"Aaron, it's here. Whatever it is, it's here..." I squeaked. "We have to go, we have to get out of here now!" Without argument, Aaron scrambled to his feet and pulled me up with him. He dragged me up the stairs, my ankle being no help. I was frozen in fear. At any moment I was expecting something to grab my leg and drag me down the steps.

We got to the top of the steps, and Aaron tried to open the door. It cracked about an inch, before being blocked by something. I felt like I was going to throw up. Darkness rimmed my vision. At the same time, my body buzzed with energy. It was like sparks were flying off my body. Aaron screamed. The next thing I knew my hand was through the door and we were stumbling outside.

I looked behind me and saw the hole punched in the solid wooden door. There was a puddle of blood on the floor and something warm trailed down my leg. I lifted my hands and saw all the red. Aaron shrieked something in my ear before I collapsed and lost consciousness.

🌸🌸🌸

Thanks for reading!

Comment what you thought and pat the star for more...