Escaping the Unknown {COMPLETED}

"Is it over?"

Every muscle in her body ached, burned.

Zoey’s eyes flickered open, slowly. She felt as if she’d been asleep for weeks.

A bright light caused her eyes to seal shut once again. She brought her hands up to her face, rubbing it tiredly. She groaned when the movement of her arms made her shoulder blades sting of soreness.

She slowly brought her arms back to her sides and propped herself up on her elbows. She looked around the room she was in from her lying down position, the brightness making her blink several times to adjust.

She glanced around the room and froze when she made the connection.

My room? She wondered.

She sat up more, noticing that she was laying on her purple rug, placed in the middle of her bedroom from home.

Is this some kind of joke? She asked herself.

Zoey slowly got to her feet and looked towards the window above her bookshelf. It let in the late afternoon light.

Where’s Camden? Where’s Miles?

She turned towards her bedroom door and opened it quickly, looking down the long hallway of her home. She ran to the end of the hall, towards Camden’s room and didn’t even bother knocking.

She burst the door open and, standing there was her confused, older brother.

Camden turned towards the sound of his door opening and saw his sister with a big, hopeful smile on her face.

“Is it over?” she asked, her voice soft.

Camden nodded, “I think so.”

Zoey ran to him and hugged him, relieved.

“I can’t believe it!” she muttered into his shoulder.

Camden just nodded but then froze.

Zoey pulled away from the embrace and asked, “What’s wrong, Cam?”

He hesitated before asking, “Where’s Miles?”

Zoey looked up at him in question, “You’re right. We still need to figure out what happened after he passed the finish line. It was all a blur after that.”

Camden nodded in agreement and they started to leave the bedroom.

They walked down the stairs and to the door. But before they walked out, Zoey caught a glimpse of the stove clock, “Wait, Cam,” she stopped him.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“Wasn’t it around 4:30 pm when we left to the house?”

He nodded, not getting what she was implying.

“Look,” she pointed to the clock and he squinted his eyes in confusion.

“I guess it’s treating this like that whole...house thing never even happened. I wish it hadn’t.”

Zoey nodded, “Amen to that.”

Camden laughed softly, “Let’s go.”

He opened their front door, ready to walk the short distance to Miles’ house when they saw him running down the street as fast as he could.

Camden hurried to move out of the doorway for him to run through. Miles zoomed in and started searching for something.

Zoey watched as he ran to their living room and starting looking through all of their newspapers.

“Miles,” Zoey said, laughing a bit at his desperation. “What are you looking for?”

He held up his pointer finger signaling ‘one minute’. A few moments later, he held up what he had been looking for.

Mr. Henry’s missing newspaper.

The newspaper that sparked the idea of going to the house in the first place.

Zoey’s eyes widened a fraction in surprise, by then asked, “What do you need that for?”

“I need it to help me believe that all of this is really over,” he replied.

“What do you mean?”

“When I passed the finish line, what happened to you guys?” he asked, completely disregarding her question.

“Well,” Camden started, “I saw you step through the door and then darkness took over. What about you?”

“Behind the door I stepped through, Oakheart was there. It was the last door and I knew it but when I looked back at you two, you guys were just staring into space. I thought I was the only one who would get to come back home but I was wrong. I guess if you were outside of that obstacle course, you were safe.”

“But what about Mr. Henry?” Zoey asked.

“Sadly, I’m pretty sure he has to stay but he chose that. He knew that if he sacrificed himself, all of us would get to come home. Not just two of us.”

Zoey nodded sadly and looked down. She felt Camden put arm arm around her shoulders for comfort and give them a soft squeeze.

“So,” she spoke up again, “What did you want to use that newspaper for?”

MIles smirked slightly, “Burn it.”

Zoey snorted, “Burn it?” she asked.

“Yep,” he said, popping the ‘p’.

“Why?” Camden asked.

“To show that we made it thought that. We survived! And now it’s over,” he looked down at the newspaper, “I want to burn it to, one, keep it our secret,” he motioned to the three of them, “and, two, show that we’re stronger than some inanimate object: a house that could kill us. But we made it! I want to burn it to show that we’re survivors.”

Zoey and Camden smiled at him.

“C’mon,” Miles said, motioning for them to follow him.

They walked out the back door and onto the porch. Camden set some wood in the fire pit, Miles set the paper on the small pile, and Zoey lit a match.

“To surviving!” she held up her match in a victory stance.

The boys laughed at her clicheness but followed her and said, “To surviving!”

Zoey tossed the burning match atop the newspaper and watched as their hardest trial slowly burned to ashes.

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Author's Note!

That's the last chapter!! Awww...but YAY!

Please vote, comment, follow, and tell me what you liked and disliked about this book.

The next part will be about my upcoming book :) Please go check that out. It will be a very intense, action-y story :)))

Thanks for reading :D

~Lindy <3