Perception

3. Horror

Before Alex could turn and run, he was pulled into the room by an invisible force.

"No! Help!" He yelled out to Liz and Meg, but it seemed like they couldn't hear or see him.

He tried to pull away from the force, but it only grew stronger. And before he knew it, he was dropped into a sea of brown grass face first. He rolled over, coughing and spitting out dirt. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was that the sky was red, a deep red, like the world was bleeding.

"What the hell? Am I in hell?"

He stood up, looking around. There was only grass, no tress, not even a bird in sight. And as he listened to his surroundings, he noticed that it was dead silent. No cars, no people, nothing.

"Meg? Liz?" No answer.

He started walking, calling their names louder and louder, and finally he gave up and sat down in the grass. After a while the silence was so deafening, he felt like he was going mad. How long had he been here? Minutes? Hours? Days? He curled up into a ball, hugging his legs to his body, rocking back and forth.

He hadn't realized he fell asleep until a crack of thunder jolted his body awake. He sat up, looking around bewildered. The sky had gone a grey color, and he started hearing whispers.

He stood up on high alert, every sense in his body heightened. The whispers grew louder, and he looked around wildly. He sensed he was being closed in by something, but he couldn't tell what it was. He was so paralyzed by fear that he couldn't move.

Suddenly a bright light came on overhead and when he looked around again, he was standing in a football stadium.

"Welcome," a sinister voice filled the stadium.

Alex jumped at the voice, looking around for the source.

"Are you ready to play the game of choices?" The voice asked.

"What? What is this?"

"At each entry of the field lies a path for you to walk, but you only get to choose once, so choose wisely. The only rule is to never stop, no matter how scary it might get," the voice gave a hearty chuckle. "Gooood luuuck."

The overheads dimmed, and the timer on the scoreboard started.

"Don't let the time run out."

Alex looked around at the entrances of the field, saying to himself that he just wants to go home.

"Ugh, why didn't I stay my ass in the living room? Damn you, Liz!" He mumbled.

He looked at the scoreboard; the time was ticking down. He now had five minutes.

He didn't see how he would make himself willingly go into one of those dark tunnels. He couldn't. He wasn't aware what lied behind them and if it was anything like the voice he heard over the loudspeaker then he doesn't want to find out. He hadn't seen a face, but the voice alone chilled him to the bone.

What if he stayed rooted at the fifty yard line and let the time run out, what would happen then? Probably nothing, he thought.

So he stood frozen. The clock counted down to 3 minutes, then 2, 59 seconds, 30 seconds. When the time ran out the stadium filled with silence.

Was that it? He thought.

"Oh, no. You let the time run out," the voice sneered. "Tsk, tsk. I didn't want to do this, but you leave me no choice."

Do what?

Alex looked around nervously, his breathing starting to accelerate. He heard a loud crack, soon after something white hit the field about a foot away from him. And where it landed, it left an enormous gaping hole.