The chase

Chapter 3 - The trap

I sit alone on the rigid hospital bed, legs hanging idly off the edge. The room - much like the rest of the hospital - deathly silent. Those flashes of memories replaying constantly through my head, so familiar yet so foreign. As if I knew them. As if they knew me. Why was I being exposed to such events? What importance do they play to me? 

As if on cue, the lights begin to flicker, indicating its presence. The high pitched screech of steel vibrates through the small room. I watch the door in front of me, awaiting its inevitable arrival. Seconds tick by slowly but surely and my anticipation builds to the point of breaking. Suddenly a mist appears before me, clouding what vision I have of the door frame. The scraping halts, the tip of a scythe breathing through the fog, revealing inch by inch the possessor of the weapon. First, the weapon itself; long arched metal blade, its long wooden handle - as if made by the oak of a tree - wound together in a dance of death. And then, the demon itself, effortlessly hovering through the air, its form blending with the fog now behind it. Those bright purple eyes still filled with the hunger of pursuit. Like it will not finish the chase until it fulfills its purpose. A purpose, I'll be finding out rather soon it seems. 

It stalks towards me, closing the distance. I begin to tremble, the hairs on my arms standing on edge. My fear spikes at an all-time high as it reaches closer and closer, now a meter from where I sit. One more step, just one more step. 

It stops - as if cut off by an invisible wall. It worked! I look to the ground at the demon trap we'd etched into the ground. How the giant star sits proportioned perfectly within the circle, the untranslatable symbols glowing in victory. I don't know how Jayden has so much knowledge of the supernatural, but I am grateful for it. Without him, I don't know what the spirit would have done with me by now. 

Oddly enough it raises its arm towards me in a possessive nature, pulling me in. I slip down off the bed and without a thought, I begin to close the rest of the distance between us. No. Get away from it! But I can't control my body. I'm standing face to face with the demonic spirit, my eyes unable to break from its glance. Its hand slowly extends to its full length towards me, its hand falling on my left cheek. My eyes widen in horror as a tear falls silently from my eye.

"No, I can't this weekend sorry," the young woman says. "I am back to back with assignments and work right now," 

"Please," a voice from the other end of the phone pleads. "I haven't seen you in two years, I miss you -" 

"Look mum, I'm sorry I truly am," she interrupts "But these will be the most important years of my life, make or break!"

"Ok darling, I understand. I'm sorry," 

"It ok," she says, "I promise, as soon as I'm done you'll be sick of seeing me. Now I have to go, bye mum." without a second thought the woman removes the phone from her ear.

"I love you sweetie -" her mother tries, only to be responded by the dead beeping of the other end of the line.

A blinding light breaks through the memory and I awake standing back into the face of the beast, my body tingles with pain, it feels as if the air has been taken from my lungs. I jump back in a fit of panic and fall to my knees, trying to catch my breath, clutching for my neck. I look back up towards the demon. Its scythe elevated above its head, ready to strike. I close my eyes and brace for death. Suddenly an ear-piercing shriek bursts my ears and I look up in time to watch as an iron bar finishes its path through the spirit and it fades into the air into nothing. 

Jayden stands before me, iron bar in hand, his face in a frenzy, the pentagram seal broken by a newly formed crack in the ground.

"Are you ok?" He asks in concern, kneeling down to my level, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder. "Breathe, just breathe," he instructs me, I take in long deep breathes, looking into his eyes the whole time for support.

"I'm ok," I tell him, not even convincing myself in my tone. What was that memory about? I don't understand why this is happening. They do not feel like my memories but I feel like I'm connected to the inhabitants of it in some way. Like I care for them. Like I want to slap that woman in the face and remind her to tell her mother every day that she loves her. But I can't. They're just - dreams. I need to find out why this demon wants me to see them, what are its intentions?

"Come on, lets go." He says, 'we need a new way to approach this."