Encountering Darkness: The Great Pursuit (Book One)

Chapter Twenty-Six

Amy wakes up in a gasp and finds she is on the floor. Straight behind her is the doorframe, and she tries to reach for it, but finds she cannot move. Her head and her body will not respond to what she thinks. She panics and realizes that she cannot feel anything, from her head down, but the pain in her head is unbearable.

There are voices all around her. They are whispering terrible things inside her head, telling her things like, "It's over, just give up, there is nothing you can do, look how you failed. She sees a darkness begin to fill the room, but the voices and the darkness disappear.

After a few moments, Amy notices she is not the only person in the room. In front of her she sees a white light moving back and forth. She cannot tell

what this is, except that the light is bright and it cannot be looked at.

The bright light moves towards her and flies past.

At that moment, the door to her back opens and Amy hears shrieking. The outer door to the place opens, and soon after there is silence.

The silence is painful, but Amy hears a pair of soft footsteps. The steps are running towards her, and she can understand words coming from them. It is the voice of the kids.

"Get up Amy! Get out, you are not safe here! Quickly!"

Amy gets up, without realizing it, grabs the shield, turns around, and heads straight through the doorframe, and then through the door to the room. She stops for a few seconds at the entrance to the hallway, but taking a deep breath, she runs as fast as she can through the hallway to the open door at the end.

She reaches the door and rushes through. Enjoying the bright light on her skin and the fresh breeze, she runs a short distance from the building and collapses onto the grass.

What just happened? She asks herself.

She looks herself over and she seems to be okay.

Amy takes a few minutes to recuperate and falls asleep.

***

When she wakes up, the sun shines bright and she hears birds around her. I must be okay! Perhaps this was all just a dream!

Amy stands up and looks around. She sighs and shakes her head as she spots the building she ran from yesterday, and puts her head down on her hands as she begins to weep. She hasn't cried for ages, a Gheon warrior doesn't cry, but since she believes she is alone, she doesn't care.

Once Amy is done sobbing, she still is not sure what to do. She looks all around her. There is the building in front of her, but nothing else. As far as the eye can perceive, there are trees, grass, and some very distant hills.

Amy walks up to the building and looks for a door. Not finding one, she touches the same area she touched yesterday, but nothing appears. She runs around the building 7 times and yells like before, but a door doesn't appear.

Amy realizes she needs to get back to that land she was in for a short time yesterday, but there seems to be no way back the way she came.

She turns around again and rests her back on the wall looking out from the building. She looks and waits for something to happen. Then she remembers!

"The kids will know what to do!" she says aloud.

Amy calls out for them, but after a while she gives up after hearing no response.

She realizes she is hungry, so she walks away from the building and heads towards one tree. As she makes her way through the tall grass, she looks about herself to make sure someone is not following her and to determine where she is. As she looks about, she is aware of a strong tug on her left hand. The shield falls from her hand and she trips over it, landing with the left side of her face hitting the ground first. Even as she is in a daze, a rush of excitement stores up in her.