Entangled | Zayn Malik

Chapter Thirty-Eight

I snap out of my shock induced state and my senses finally come rushing back to me. I frantically search the steel doors for an out and I begin to feel frustrated when I can't find one. The whole right door is lined with various coloured buttons with not even the slightest inkling to what they're for. At the top of the door is the green button that caused the ground beneath us to open up the last time we tried to escape.

If I can find a way out I can go get Zayn and we can get out of here. Once again I ignore the pain shooting up and down my leg and I soldier on. I back away from the door and turn around - so I'm now facing the long and dull hallway.

The candles still flicker, seemingly still trying to warn us off with some sort of morse code. Bit late now. The silence in this place causes a shiver to run up my spine. I take a deep breath and prepare myself for what I'm about to do. I don't have much time.

I head for the first room to my right and my plan already seems doomed when the door doesn't budge. I back away for a second and close my eyes and give myself a quick shake, mentally preparing my body for the continued pain it's about to experience.

I take a step forward and I hold my breath as I drive the heel of my other leg into the door. It rattles and I feel a pang of relief as it does. I repeat this a few more times until the lock of the door breaks under my foot and swings open.

The whole room is a dark blue colour - the walls, the carpet, the furniture.

It just looks like a normal bedroom so I quickly enter it. I scan the room for a way out. I spot the en-suite so I barge into it, searching for a window or a vent or something. But I find nothing. I curse in frustration as I search the bedroom for the same thing and find nothing.

I exit the room and stand in the eerily silent hallway once again. This plan isn't going to work. I need Zayn. I feel sick and stupid that I even wasted any time when I should have immediately went after Zayn.

The hallway looks longer than usual as I begin to run up it. How I'm managing to even move with this horrific pain in my leg is beyond me. The only reasonable explanation is that my body is in too much shock to fully process the pain.

I run by each door and deep inside of me I wonder what's in there. More victims? More torture rooms? More dead bodies? My heart aches at the thought but that isn't for me to stick around and find out. I have other things on my mind.

I turn the corner to the next hallway and my heart drops. The door of the burning room is opened and black, thick smoke is billowing out of it - clouding the air in the hallway, heading straight for me. I hold my breath as I cover my mouth and nose and run straight into the cascading smoke.

"Zayn!" I shout as I reach the door. I can't see a thing. The black smoke clouds my sight with hints of orange.

I cover my mouth and nose with my arm again and I hesitantly step into the room - smoke surrounding me immediately. I feel it entering my body almost instantly - coursing through my blood and clinging to my lungs. I start to cough but I continue on. I squint my eyes trying to see something in the room and finally I do. Zayn.

My blood runs cold. It's astonishing how the blood inside of me can even do such a thing when the skin that coats it is furiously burning.

No no no no no no.

He's lying slumped on the floor, keys in hand, eyes closed. My body snaps straight into survival mode and I rush over to him. I can't speak due to the excessive smoke in the room so I shake him but he doesn't stir. Fuck. I grab the keys and immediately latch onto his forearms - dragging him out of the room. I somehow manage to get him out. But it's not over yet. The flames have followed us, they're viciously spitting and hissing at us, clinging onto anything and everything in their way and burning it to a crisp.

I bend down - ignoring every ache in my body - and fling one of his arms over my shoulder. I grimace and grind my teeth as I slowly but surely lift him - his body acting like a ton of bricks hanging off my shoulder.

Tears start to form in my eyes as I try to take steps forward towards the steel doors. Carrying Zayn is becoming too hard without the aid of him being able to carry his own weight. My body isn't strong enough at this moment in time but that doesn't stop me from trying. I somehow manage to get us up the first hallway and round the corner - our escape is in view now. I have a dull ache in my stomach as my arms start to feel heavier and my body starts to feel weaker.

The smoke scratches at my lungs again and as I let out a cough, that seems to be the last straw for my already damaged and broken body.

I squint my eyes at the steel doors ahead of me, watching on intently with confusion. Everything is in slow motion as the doors blur in front of my eyes. I hear a slow and muffled banging noise. What is that?

I try to turn my head quickly around but it only moves slowly. A black shadow seems to be creeping up the hall - crawling along the carpet, and then expanding all around the walls and the ceiling. And it's heading straight for me.

Everything around me seems to be delayed. Including my own words, my thoughts and my movements.

I say Zayn's name - wondering where he went - and it leaves my mouth well after I've said it in a sort of low dreary tone. I furrow my eyes in confusion as I look down to the ground and there he is. I can't see him properly, he seems to be only an outline, his body is flickering as I look at it - as if my eyes are suffering some kind of fit.

I see the dark shadow approaching me from the corner of my eye but by the time I turn round, it's too late.

The darkness has engulfed me and swallowed me whole.

-

Hiiiii,

I don't really have much to say right now except thank you all SO much for reading voting and commenting it honestly means so much to me you have no idea!

–Sx