The Vacuum

Part 11

"Wake up! Wake up!" Yelled a voice as it shook her. The large hands circled her arms and tried to hold her back from her flailing and self-battering in her sleep. They jolted the little body hard, as hard as they could to wake her up but her skin was so slick with sweat that they kept sliding.

Her eyes darkened open from sleep with a wide horrified glint in them. She didn't even see who the person was as she began to fight to monstrous hold, still flesh in her nightmare and unable to tell if the bindings were fists or ropes. Her black sheets were slick with blood and sweat, scabbing that she had torn off her own arms. "No!"

"It's not real!" Toby's voice finally cut through her senses.

She looked over at the red blinking clock as she tried to ignore the metallic taste of her blood in her mouth, feeling around and finding that she had bitten her own tongue in her sleep so hard it bled. Any normal person would have woken up at that but the dreams were so real that the pain she was experiencing in them mixed with the outside world. It was two thirty in the morning. He hadn't been there when she went to bed finally. She wasn't meant to sleep alone...the doctor had said to not let her sleep alone.

"Where were you?" She finally chocked out.

Toby looked down at where his hands were holding her arms. "Out.... with....friends." He tried, not able to keep eye contact. "God Baby you can't do this anymore! That's the third time you've ripped these stitches! Now we have to go back to the hospital!" Her eyes weren't focused on him, darting around in wide wild circles. "There's no one here!" He yelled for the millionth time.

"Yes, they are. They're everywhere." She muttered as still scanning the room as her left leg with the open stitch pulled up to her chest. "Every dark space...Every corner, every room-"

"ALEX!" He shook her hard again. "For the last time! There are no such things as monsters!"

Her eyes lurched to him, haunted but still steady and knowing. "People are monsters...and they're everywhere."

Alex secured the flash onto the top of her SLR along with the low light lens as she looked into the dark void of one of the caves. The moment of that night made her frown as it beat at her consciousness. She could feel a cool, promising breeze prickling her skin and sending goose bumps along her sweat drenched skin.

She smiled to herself. To anyone else it might feel ominous, but the assaulting sun felt more dangerous than the cold promise of the caves. She had found several entrances for them, but she liked this one the best. It didn't have a no trespassing sign above it and looked more like a small hole engraved into the ridged cliff side. It felt almost like it was rebelling in itself; the way it dug into the imposing structure of the cliff. Nothing was meant to encroach on the massive rock structure, but this little hole had carved its way through.

Pushing some of the dried scrubs away, she looked in, pulling her first glow rod from her bag and slipping into the narrow mouth of the entrance. She pressed up against the wall as she moved, feeling the dry rocks press into her back and some of the dissipating bruising there. She looked up to see how high the rock ceiling was and how secure it felt before moving father in. Pulling out a small pen light she scanned it around, letting her eyes adjust.

Twisting her neck, she pulled herself in further after putting the pen knife and glow stick in between her teeth. Her little body slithered and contorted along the walls and rocks, moving like a snake. She'd always been good at this, working with the terrain. It reminded her of something methodical and mind numbing but at the same time demanded her bodies full attention.