Deep Down

Mirrors

"HELP!" I heard a shout and my eyes shot open, but I was alone.

I was lying down on a white floor, numb. I looked at myself, seeing that nothing has changed about me. That was when I looked up and I saw nothing but mirrors surrounding me. All reflections of me. I stood up carefully and walked towards one of them. My fingers touched the crisp clean glass. A girl with really long hair and green eyes peered back at me. I've never seen myself in a mirror before.

The reflection of me did the same, I pressed my hand against the mirror. Green eyes stared back at me, breathing patterns the same. Then my reflection moved her hand away from the mirror. Her eyes widened and she backed up. I hadn't moved, my hand was still on the mirror in the same position.

I took a step backward, looking at the rest of the mirrors. All of them were doing the same thing, backing up looking frightened. And then that's when I saw it. A hideous creature snarling at me, foaming at the mouth. It was in a dog-like form, except it was three times bigger, patches of bloody dark brown fur were missing off of it. It had claws like knives, its teeth were in rows, hundreds not just a few.

The nose of it scrunched up, eyes completely yellow. It took slow steps towards me, I stuck up hand out trying to show it that I mean no harm. With every step that it took I backed up, then I felt the coldness of the mirror against my back. I watched as it showed its teeth until I saw its yellow gums.

I took a deep breath in and closed my eyes, hoping that it was just a hallucination. When I opened my eyes again I saw that it was just even closer. I realized that either it attacked me or I attacked it, so I shifted my feet in a sturdy way and held out both my hands. I tried to concentrate and blast it, but nothing happened. The reality of the situation made me panic.

My hands and arms started to tingle, then go numb. I started to hyperventilate when this didn't work. My head started to burn, I took a deep breath in. All of a sudden the beast dropped on the floor at my feet, still alive but not seeming to be able to get up. I glanced at all the mirrors and saw that they were staring down at their hands, looking in fear and shaking.

My head started to sting and burn ten times worse than earlier and I grabbed my arms, my nails digging into them causing blood to flow down my arms and dripping on the once clean floor. I started to scream from all the pain that was going on at once.

"HAILEY WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?!" I heard an echo, then a stinging feeling hit my cheek.

I slowly opened my eyes, seeing only the tops of the trees passing by fast and feeling my body being carried while someone was running. I didn't know what was happening and I like I was being stabbed from all directions. I turned my head and saw Devina, with an angry expression on her face.

"Your scream gave us away! Why were you screaming and what's wrong with you?" Her voice sounded panicked.

"Shhhh," I replied with a pounding head.

I looked back up only to see Aiden's concerned face leaning over mine. My eyes were still foggy but I could see where the others where. Even though it seemed that he was running his heart rate and breathing was steady, even though he was carrying me. He seemed to see right through my soul and know everything that I was thinking. A small soft smile appeared on his face.

I looked past him, over his shoulder. Vale was running backward with his hands out, freezing everything behind us. Dakota was on his shoulders, locking my eyes with his. I took a deep breath then looked back ahead. Where to now? We were doing so good and I had to go ruin it all, now we might all just about getting caught.

On top of all that, my body was stinging and I wasn't sure if I could even hold myself up if I were to stand up. That gave the burden to Aiden of having to carry me, which despite his strength still made me feel like I was just slowing him and everyone else down.

"Aiden, how is it going with her?" Devina asked, not even bothering to ask me. I wouldn't want to ask me either.

The tall male tore his eyes away from mine and replied, "She seems fine, but she might freak out again."

"Well, you better make sure that she doesn't before I find a way to make her keep her mouth shut."

"Okay." He gave me a warning look, a look that said that I probably shouldn't freak out again. I never wanted to freak out and have a mental breakdown like that in the first place.

I looked down to see my hair brushing against his legs as he carried me and ran. Everyone here was working so hard to contribute to something that I caused. I hated how we didn't have time to stop and see if I could even do something as little as carrying my own weight, but we can't. I felt utterly useless. I guess I should be glad that they just didn't leave me behind, who knows what would've happened if they didn't put up with that.

I heard something that sounded like bullets were shooting through the air. I looked up to see a helicopter scanning around, the others presumably heard this too, we all ducked under the trees but kept at a steady pace. Devina kept looking up then looking back at us, I was sure that she was going to hate me for a while after this.

I tried to the best of my ability to hear over the sounds of everything to see if I could possibly find out how close the soldiers were. I was itching to ask them if they know anything about where anyone else is, but I knew that I couldn't so I kept my mouth shut. We were running through a thick forest, where everything else was frozen behind us.