Running From Hell

Chapter 5

Note: There is non-graphic smut in this chapter

I awaken and to my relief, Sheila and Liam are still beside me, sleeping. The burning brach sheila had mounted on the wall has long since burned out, and the little rock room we reside in is smoky. "Guys" I whisper into the dark.

Sheila stirs beside me and opens her eyes. "We're still here." She says, smiling. 

I had half expected my dreams to transport me into some warped, horrible reality and send me screaming back to the surface. But no, I had had peaceful, uninterrupted sleep.  

Liam awakes now, brushing dust off of himself and getting to his feet. 

"What are we going to do?" He says into the dark. He grabs the branch and sets it against the blistering hot rock wall and within seconds it catches fire again, spreading a dim light around the room that is diluted by the smoky haze. 

"I have no idea." Echo/Sheila says, rubbing her temples. 

"Maybe we should just turn ourselves back in. We're lost. There's nothing else we can do." Liam says. 

"Are you insane?" Sheila shouts, standing up suddenly and shaking liam. He takes a step back, dazed. 

"I have been in that cell for God knows how long and now we're free. You want to give this up? Right now we would be burning hot, eating maggoty food and tossing a rock against a cell wall for the rest of eternity. So suck it up and move on, because I for one am not going back there. No way in hell!" She shouts. 

"Sheila, calm down. Someone will hear us." Liam says, holding his hands up in surrender. 

"Oh, so now you're concerned about being caught?" She growls, sitting back down beside me. "Men." She grumbles. "Can't make up their friggin minds." 

I look between Sheila and Liam after Sheila's little outburst, then get up. 

"Liam's right." I say. Sheila glares at me. "We do have to do something, but not turn ourselves in. We're being tricked here. We have to keep moving, because once we've given up they'll come back for us. Frankly, I think they're enjoying this." I explain.

Who even is "they?"

I picture satan and little horned minions sitting in a control room together, laughing at us as we pace around a little rock room and sort out our shit. 

"This is a really crappy situation." Sheila complains, slapping her hands to her face repeatedly. 

"I would've rather been in the in-between for eternity than go on this cat-mouse chase with Satan." She says. 

"Shelia!" I shout. "Were'nt you just the one advocating not giving up?" I demand. She looks at me sheepishly. "Yeah, well, if we were in the in-between, there would be no hope. We'd go insane. But here....guys...Here, we have something. And that something is a motive." I say. 

Liam and Sheila look at me in a different way than before. I decipher this look as something I do not want to recieve. They look at me as if I am a leader. 

"We need to move." I command. Liam and Sheila get up from their sitting positions and agree obediently. Great. Just what I needed. Two puppy dogs following around as I bark orders. I cannot do this alone. 

"Any ideas?" I ask. 

The room is silent. 

"Oh, come on, guys. Just because I gave a Martin Luther speech doesn't mean you can sit there and wait for me to figure out some brilliant way to evade eternal damnation. Pick up the pace, get those brains working." I cry.