Gone

Chapter Twenty-Five: Oh Mama I'm In Fear For My Life

It didn't take long for all to become clear. For a moment however, my head felt hazy. This hadn't happened before, but I assumed it was because of whatever Alice was doing. I glanced back to see if she managed to pull off her plan. The expression on Matt's face was gold. He looked like a drunk being woken up with a bucket of ice cold water being thrown into his face. Alice shared a similar look. I began to wonder if that's how I also looked after using the gift. Regardless, it seems she was able to make it work.

Without wasting anymore time, I latched onto the path we needed to follow, Henry's trail. Pursuing it, I eagerly awaited to confront the troubles of my past with all the warm welcome of an invading nation. Though it retrospect those invading nations often found little success as the years went on according to class. I've never been good with metaphors come to think of it actually. Regardless, the point stands. I was in hot pursuit of the source of both my problems, and recent successes.

There surprisingly weren't many obstacles for us to overcome outside of navigating in the dark. Despite the path however, it was starting to get cramped. Even for me, pushing deeper into the cave's narrow walls and winding turns was getting to me. I hoped Alice was fine, if it was trouble for me I couldn't imagine what was going through her mind, given her claustrophobia. As I pondered this, I noticed she wasn't responding as much. Perhaps she was focused on the whole projecting of my gift that it was preventing her from speaking.

In any case, we eventually came to a full stop along with the trail. The path was still highlighted, but something was wrong. It was starting to feel too... Convenient. The hard to navigate path, the cramped hallways, and of course the abstraction of light while difficult to get over, felt rather easy to circumvent. That didn't sit well with me, given how dire our situation was only an hour or so ago.

These creatures, as deformed and monstrous as they act, were still people at one point. They've laid traps for us and others, planned killings, built something with their own two hands. Two have been taken care of, so why isn't this one putting up more of a challenge? I wracked my mind trying to figure out why the threats and trials of the journey would be so effortlessly avoided now that our prey was on it's last stand. Only two conclusions came to mind. Henry, my father, has been hiding and eluding the truth and consequences of his actions since day one. He was able to escape the law, and his crimes against nature. By becoming a part of supernatural entity, who's to say he can't have even more ways of evading us?

Or worse yet- I thought, what if we're no longer dealing with the mentality of a man? What if we're now faced with a being hell-bent on survival using the husk of a man as it's connection to the living world? This was the same creature that wiped out an entire camp of people down to the last for feasting and fun. It played with them, toyed around with it's victims by being clever and preying on their actions. Who's to say it's not doing so again now that even less are in pursuit of it's fowl life?

There's one last thing that began to bother me, and would soon blossom into full born paranoia. Alice and Matt. They haven't made a sound since I stopped moving. And she still hasn't responded.

Crack. Where were they? Where could they have gone? Why didn't I notice it at all? I glanced around trying to find any indication of their presence- to be met with nothing but empty shadows. Tip. Tap.

Wait... Shadows. Why can't I see the path now? It hasn't been that long since we began, has it..? Did they get lost after the path left? No, Alice would have told me I imagine. More importantly, it was here moments ago with no indication of it fading. What the hell is going on..?

Crrrick. Crack. Something was aloof. My sense of the world was completely lost. I couldn't see a damned thing. Nor could I feel anything around me. It felt like a vacuum of space was tightening around me. This feeling, it was like the living embodiement of paranoia. It took all of my progress to a halt and began encompassing me in it's tight hold, rapidly breaking down any and all explanations and attempts to make sense of it all. I felt like my thoughts were being crushed whenever they would try to formulate. All of it was enough to make me feel like I did on that fateful day. So stricken with fear and shock that I could do nothing but lay there on the cold floor, not even mustering the will to cry in the face of such inhumanity. This felt like that moment only intensified by a hundred and with nothing to link the source to.