The Hunters Gift [currently on hold]

Chapter 8

The alarms went off almost instantly, a high pitched shriek combined with a red flash that illuminated and rotated through the room. People suddenly swarmed the place, shouting and crying. A wave of panic swept over the crowd, every one running into each other in a frenzy, all heading into different directions.

Aloisa cursed. she jumped up, throwing over her chair and dragged us out of our seats, one by one. She nearly wrenched my arm out in the process.

"Quick quick quick!" she hissed, pulling us through the crowd.
"Out of the way!" she shouted, elbowing herself a path. We squeezed through the mass of moving bodies. I got elbowed in the face and stepped on by the people around us, while all the time the consistent wail ripped through the air, pounding through your head, over and over and over. Honestly, would I not have this much adrenaline pumping through my veins at this very moment, I would have a serious headache.
Aloisa jabbed herself through the mass of people and jammed open a small door. She pushed us through before locking it tightly and running to the front. She ushered us through different tunnels in a maze of corners and turns and twists in the red, flashing light, and then we stumbled out into a closed room.

Aloisa stopped and cursed again.

"I took the wrong turn two tunnels back." she mumbled to herself, scanning the walls hectically, before glancing back over her shoulder. "Too late to go back now, too late, shit shit shit."

After pulling each of us fully into the room she started scrubbing the walls, scratching them with her fingernails, digging her fingertips into the bottom of the wall. I felt utterly and completely useless.

From the corner of my eye I saw Cal move a protective arm around Leo, covering her ears in the process. After a second of listening to the wail of the alarm I decided that his decision was pretty smart - even though I was probably just imagining that the sound was getting louder.

Unconsciously our group moved closer to each other, as we watched how Aloisa rammed a piece of wood into the wall, making it crack and fall apart.

Well, at least it wasn't one of her mechanisms that would fail them in the time they most needed them.

After a second of staring down into black nothingness though, her mechanics seemed far more appealing.

"Uh, aloisa you're not seriously implying that we should-"

The woman jumped forward and, after she snatched my arm in a none too pleasant grip, shoved me into the gaping black hole.

I would love to say that I was expecting it and therefore didn't make a sound on the way down but just accepted my fate of whatever might come, but sadly, that wouldn't be the truth.

The truth is, that I screamed all the way, cursing the old woman for everything she did to us during the time period that we knew her, cursing my parents for letting me go and cursing myself for wanting to join the team on their trip to Italy so badly. Now look where I was, thrown down a black hole that would end my existence. I didn't even know where I was.

All of this I managed to cram into the seconds of my fall - or was it minutes? Hours? Time has lost all meaning for me the second my feet left the ground.

Thankfully, I felt the ground soon enough.

Or should we say, very painfully for me.

I landed on my shoulder and arm, making an audible breaking sound before a hot, searing pain shot up my arm and I lay there gasping, with spots dancing in front of my eyes. My head connected with the ground several times too, and my knee, that traitor, reminded me of it's presence with a continuous stab - that would probably be just as painful as one of a knife - every time I moved it the slightest bit.