I'm Not Her (Petscop AU)

Chapter 5

Care had always been good at running.

She'd run around a lot as a toddler, considering how much she was outside. She had also been more social at the time; so there were all the friends she'd meet at the park that lasted for a day that she'd have to catch up with.
She'd also run a lot at the orphanage; although that mostly had to do with hiding from staff after doing something she wasn't supposed to do.

Running in the Newmaker Plane, however, was a completely different situation. For the first part, you could barely see anything; so the chances of running into a wall was a constant threat. Secondly, it was incredibly hard to tell where you were going in the first place. Was it left? Right? The world may never know.
The lack of sunlight wasn't any good for the head, either. Care had already felt a bit dizzy back when she was trying to get out of the apartment with the faceless boy's help, but she paid no mind to it. Now, however, it only got in the way of her desperate flee.

She had no clue if anyone was actually chasing her, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Care also wasn't quite sure how long she had been sprinting, but it was apparently long enough for her to reach the scrappy shack with the gravestone in front of it. Letting out an exhausted wheeze, she slows down and bursts through the door, quickly shutting it behind her. She gasped for breath, placing her hands on her knees and simply just standing there for a while. She was sweating like crazy, although she could've cared less about that.
She was momentarily safe.

Her head still spinning a little, Care forces herself to stand up straight and take a look at her surroundings.
In front of her stood a somewhat recognizable flower. The largest flower she had ever seen. The center must've been as big as the entire upper half of her body. It seemed to have broken through the floor, meaning there was something underneath.
This assumption was quickly proven correct when Care noticed the stairway leading down. Letting out a sigh, she drags her feet towards it.

It wasn't too far down, but the area below was darker than the room Care was currently in. Sucking up her drowsiness, she slowly begins treading forward. When she reached about halfway, her vision gradually getting fuzzy, her body gave in and she decided to lean against the closest wall; which was to her right.

She fell straight through.
And it wasn't a gracious fall. Care more or less tumbled straight through what was once presumed a solid, stairway wall. She shrieks, trying to land on her feet but tripping anyways.
Care instead landed on her stomach, her left leg twisting uncomfortably and the wind getting knocked out of her lungs. The only response that made it out of her was a sharp shout.

"God DAMMIT." Slowly opening her eyes, she pulls her legs up towards her stomach, wincing slightly at the sudden sting in her left ankle.
Her vision had gone all messed up; eyelids drooping and the world seeming much darker than usual. However, Care could still tell where she was. Everything was just more saturated.
She was back outside of the shack. She must've twisted her ankle, because when she stood up the jolt of pain made her want to sit back down again. She considered going back inside, but her sudden cry might've alerted the Shadow Man if he was anywhere nearby.
The Shadow Monster Man.
Biting the inside of her cheek, Care turns away from the small building and limps in the opposite direction.

♓︎■︎⧫︎♏︎❒︎❍︎♓︎⬧︎⬧︎♓︎□︎■︎

She was on her last chocolate bar.

The hurting in her ankle had faded a bit. Although Care highly doubted it had healed. She had probably just gotten used to it. Letting out a sigh, she hums quietly to herself as she continues down the pathless ghost town. She was incredibly tired and weak. It only brought up more flashbacks to when she was six.

She figured out that the flower in the shack was the flower she had cried under when she first fell. The familiarity she had with it made a little bit more sense now. Care swallows a small bite of chocolate.
It didn't quench her thirst.