Inside

Chapter 1

This was the moment for all of us. The sun was setting, and barely any light was coming in though the windows. I quickly collected the key from the fourth floor as water flooded the corridors.                                     Somehow, I managed to make my way past the neck level water, without knowing how to swim.                            It was as they had said. The place was cursed and with the sunset the upper floors were ruined by floods, which came from nowhere.                                          Slowly the water would go down the floors before taking the entire school down. Yes, it was a school, our school. And it was my responsibility to make sure that me and my team of five got out of this wretched place.                        Without wasting a second, my friend and I made our way to the second floor.  Two of our friends had set a temporary base camp while searching for an ancient artifact at the second floor.  However, as we arrived at the landing of the third floor, a loud scream was heard from the other side of the corridor. I turned around to decipher the source, but my friend stopped me. There was a look of sheer terror on his face. He said that deadly and gruesome creatures that haunted this place at night used to lure people to their deaths. I wanted to tell him that no matter whatsoever the creature might be, and whether or not he may be trying to lure me, I would never leave any of my friend alone. And perhaps if it was him in the grasp of that deadly creature, then what would he have suggested.                          But instead of giving a sermon, I told him to wait for me at the landing and went towards the classroom. The water from the fourth floor had already started flooding the far end of this corridor. I had few minutes to save my friend and get out of there. While running as fast as my legs would carry,  I thought that the voice could only belong to the friend I had left on the ground floor, perhaps the safest one, to guard the relic and altar. What was he doing here? Was this a trick?                                                              Brushing aside the sensible voice in my head, which was sure that this was a trap, I stepped in the room, third to the corner. What I saw knocked the breath out of my lungs. My friend was holding the relic while his leg had been broken and his hands were profusely bleeding. His skull looked as if fractured and a bone, perhaps of the rib cage was bent at an awkward angle. He was gasping for breath, any more delay and he would die. However, as soon as he saw me,  his eyes became wide in terror.          He shouted at me to back off and to leave him, but I took wide strides and tried to tried to lift him up. The room had become pitch dark now, and I could barely see anything. His hand movement was restricted as if held by some chain. And soon enough, in the faint red glow of the only light in the room,I saw that metal chain that was restraining him. I tried to pull away but to no avail. It was already night and the monster must be lurking somewhere nearby.                                                                     It was at that precise moment, it struck me that if it was night, where was this faint red glow coming from. As soon as I looked up to see behind my friend's back, I was met with the most horrid sight of a creature. It's red flaming eyes were piercing mine, and my every inch on my body was on fire. I could not look any further, and was knocked out of my senses, waiting for the inevitable, for this torture to end.