The Beginning Of The End

Chapter 1

I awoke that morning to someone tracing patterns on my back with their fingertips.

"Mmm," I mumbled, burying my face deeper into my pillow to block out the light. "Adam, why'd you wake me?"

There was no reply, but the fingers stopped trailing across my back. A warm had pressed itself against the bare skin of my lower back where my top must have ridden up and stayed there, but Adam was silent.

"Adam?" I said groggily, blinking sleep out of my eyes as I rolled over. What, or rather who, I saw when I turned to face him gave me the shock of my life. I screamed, and bolted upright, scrambling away from the person who was most definitely not my boyfriend Adam. I looked around in a panic and realized I wasn't in my room anymore either. I was in a room that must have been at least five times the size of my own back home. The room was elaborately furnished, and I was sitting on an enormous four-poster bed with hangings open around me.

And there was a man sitting on the far side of the bed from me. He was young, probably in his early twenties, and he was wearing nothing but a pair of shorts. He was slim and had fair skin and curly blonde hair that could probably do with a cut.

"Who are you?" I asked, my voice shaking. "Where am I?"

He was silent as he stood and came around to the side of the bed where I was standing. I back away, stumbling over something but catching myself on the wall behind me. I could back away no further, and he kept coming, stopping just a few feet in front of me.

"My name is Jaylon," The man said. "And you are in my house."

"Why am I in your house?" I demanded angrily.

He cocked his head to the side, an amused smile playing on his lips.

"I got lonely."

Without another word, he turned and strode quickly away. He disappeared through a big, oaken doorway, pulling it shut behind him but there was no sound of a lock clicking. I ran over to the door and tried the handle. Sure enough, with a slight creak, the door swung open. I poked my head out to see Jaylon disappearing around the corner at the end of the wide hallway. Well, here was my chance to get away from whatever madness this was.

I ran quickly in the opposite direction to where Jaylon had been heading, trying to keep my footsteps as light and quiet as possible. At the end of the hallway, there were two more hallways leading off in opposite directions. I chose at random, having no idea where I was meant to be going, and headed to the left. I got to the end and found myself in a much narrower, more dimly lit passageway. I chose left again, and walked down. It smelled musty, and the handles on the many doors along the passage were dusty as if they hadn't been opened in a long time.

I must have been walking for at least ten minutes, turning this way and that, going down wide hallways and narrow ones, when I finally came to a flight of stairs. This was an enormous house, and I had almost given up finding my way out, but I went down the stairs anyway. I found myself in what seemed to be a hall of some sorts, maybe a ballroom. I walked quickly to the enormous double door at one end and opened them. They creaked terribly, and I was worried someone might hear, but no one came. I found myself in sort of grand entrance way with tapestries on the walls and chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. This place was huge; what was it, a castle?

But there, at the end of the entryway, was a big door with a window on either side. The windows revealed the blue sky outside, so this door must be my way out. I ran to the door, but just before I reached it a figure seemed to materialize right in front of it. I screamed and stopped short, almost falling over.

"Didn't you think that was just a little too easy?" Jaylon said with a rather wicked sounding chuckle. "I may be the only person in the house, but wherever you're going I guarantee I can have someone, aka myself, there before you get there."