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Part 1

Each breath comes in short, painful gasps as the elevator finally begins to ascend. The familiar screeching of metal on metal ricochets through my head whilst my eyes close as if that can block it out. I can feel my body wavering from side to side as claustrophobia begins to kick in. Squeezing my eyes tighter, I fight against it and unstably rise to my feet on shaky legs. The elevator continues to tremble around me, and this does nothing to sooth my aching limbs. Or my aching heart.

Fatigue slowly rolls in as I continue to stand still and do nothing. I lick my split lip and wince at the sting that it produces. I'm so pathetic. The left side of my once baby blue shirt is completely ripped off, showing the side of pale, lean abdomen and protruding ribcage. The other is fully intact though the sleeve is long since burned to a crisp. My legs are bare against the frigid cold of the building that I had run into for refuge.

Finally the elevator comes to a complete stop and I stumble against the grate that was to be considered a wall. The door screeches open and I step back in fear of what awaits on the other side. Long seconds pass off the door rising into its place in the ceiling and my hands shake the entire time. Once I can finally raise my eyes with the small iota of courage that I can muster, I'm thoroughly shocked to see that my demon does not stand in front of me. In fact, nothing stands in front of me but a small porcelain doll that lay flat against the floor. I step out of the gate and wring my fingers together in front of my chest. My lungs compress and I hold my breath as if that can make me any smaller.

The doll was old, that I could tell for sure. Small chips of its cheeks were missing and one single spider web crack gleamed from the center of her forehead. Gleamed. I step forward an inch and lean forward to peer into the dolls dull, green eyes. Patches of it's long since faded red hair is missing and deep gaping holes lie in their place. They're glowing. Glowing.

Squinting my eyes so that I could focus my gaze on the dolls interior, I notice that the glow doesn't seem to originate from anything. Gulping vigorously, I step back and do a nervous 360. My eyes slowly trail over my surroundings as if they're afraid that something will pop out from the darkness that beckons. A single lift bulb flickers above me and I jump instantly. I can feel my heart hammering against my hands as I squeeze them closer to my chest. Turning back around, I glance down.

Moments pass of me staring at the floor in terror. I have to widen my eyes to focus on each pigment in the concrete floor. My head throbs as I step back and lean away from...nothing. The doll was gone. My breathing quickens and I snap my attention to the short, dimly lit hallway in front of me that branched off in two directions going left and right.

I step around the spot where the doll should be and shuffle to the end of the hallway. Glancing down the left hall, my eyes skim over the hundreds of storage units that line both sides of the wall. Ignoring the thousands of nervous flips that my stomach was undergoing, I turned to look down the other hall. It held just as many storage units and carried on for what seemed to be eternity. The one thing that caught my eye was the movement of something further down the hall. What scared me the most was that whatever it was, it was very tall.

I dismissed it as a rat, though my mind knew it was anything but, and began the long walk down the left hallway. There was nowhere else for me to go, and going outside was so far out of the picture it almost made him laugh. Almost.

The shuffle of my dirtied white vans echoed down the hallway and I cringed with each step. Sighing, I contemplated ditching the shoes. They were making my location known to the very thing that I wanted to avoid at all costs. My neck prickled and my fingers twitched, so I snapped my head up. Just as my eyes adjusted under the dim lighting, the side of a lean figure came into focus as it hurriedly stepped into a storage unit about twenty feet away. My jaw dropped and my shoulders tensed under the fear that seemed to be always pressing over me. As if it were a cloud that hovered just inches above my head. Or a mist that that clung to my ankles and dug into my skin.