Dead in the Water

Run

Branches tear at my shirt, scraping my chest and arms as I stumble through the dark forest. The air is thick and black, making my breath raspy and irregular. I have to move. I have to. I push through the trees, frantically looking for an escape.

I can feel it behind me, closing in.  Violent and relentless, waiting to tear me apart. Thumping, racing, consuming everything in its path.  I quickly look over my shoulder, and I instantly regret it. The monster is closing in, it's black tendrils wrapping around the forest, crushing and destroying, leaving a void in its path.

Adrenaline and pure fear course through my wavering body. I can't let it get me. It's not right.

A scream bellows from my chest as I push my body forward, but I can feel the fatigue setting in. My legs burn, my chest is wet from rain and sweat, the cold air is seeping into my bones.
My body is failing me.

A loud snap breaks my stride, and I crash into the ground face first, my hands grasping for anything to keep me from falling.  Pain surges through my left ankle, and tension builds as I feel it immediately swelling inside of my shoe. Gasping for air, I claw at the nearest tree, pulling myself up. The hair on the back of my neck stands up.

It's coming.

Again, I lurch myself forward. My ankle sends searing pain up my leg, each step worse than the last. Running has turned into hobbling, then limping.

I keep going forward. With my lead on the monster shrinking by the second, I frantically whip my head around, desperately looking for sanctuary, and escape.

To the right I find a clearing, dirt and wood turning into rocks, boulders, and dead brush. Open sky encompasses my vision, eradicating any of the forest I saw. My pace slows even more and I limp my way towards the endless gray.  A cliff.  I have found a cliff on the edge of the forest.

Powerful roaring drowns out my heavy breathing, and I near the edge of the cliff. Hesitantly looking below, I find violent, frothing waves. Water pounds against the cliff side 200 feet below me, churning and writhing. Mist caresses my cheeks, it's salty touch leaves me shivering. I turn my back to the water, just as it reveals sharp boulders underneath the blanket of dark liquid.

Now in front of me, trees explode and collapse. The monster rips its way through the woods, replacing everything in its wake with nothing.  I stare in terror at the beast as it swells, growing stronger as it comes closer.

I take a few steps backwards, feeling my heels come to the very edge of the cliff. Tears stream down my face as I process the sight of the dark monster.  It's tentacles coil and kink in the air, reaching towards me. It's close enough to me now that I can feel it's pull, like a vacuum, a black hole, eating every last thing in its path.

With one last deep breath, I scream at the horror
"I'm sorry!"
The ground disappears from underneath my feet, my body tipping backwards. The darkness tries to latch onto me, barely grazing my hand as I descend.

I close my eyes, not wanting to see the end. I become weightless and I fall, the roaring water rushing towards me. I'm ready. It is done.

Just as my body hits the water, I jerk awake, gasping for air. My eyes search the hot room, sweat dripping down my neck and back. I analyze the room, looking for the water, the forest, the darkness.

All I find are cement walls.