Intruder Alert

Chapter 7

The knocking at the door got louder and louder. Pidge knowing for sure now that Allura and the other's were not outside her door shoved Lance into the tunnels. She grabbed a flashlight and jumped in after him. She had just slid the secret door closed when her bedroom door clattered to the floor. Several footsteps entered the room knocking things off her bed and rummaging through things on the floor. Pidge flicked the light on and quickly walked away from her room. Instantly she heard crashing of items being thrown across the room and hitting the wall. She prayed silently that they wouldn't hit the panel that opened the entrance to the tunnel.

She heard Lance following silently behind her. Every once in a while his foot would not lift entirely off of the ground and it would slide across the metal floor. Pidge led in front shining the flashlight out in front of them. Right now the only plan she had was to wander around the tunnels until she ran into to someone. As long as it's not that impostor, she thought to herself.

She frowned as she adjusted the light in her hand. She fingered with her shirt as she walked. She just couldn't seem to understand why the red bayard would activate. She wasn't the red Paladin Keith was, which left her to wonder even more. Could it sense her distress? She wasn't sure but whatever she thought it revolved around being able not to just sense what its Paladin needs but also the people around it. Of course it was just a theory and she needed to confirm it. Now having something to do, sure it was far down on the priority list, but at least it was something.

They came to a split hallway, both were just as dark and creepy as the other. Pidge looked from on to the other and looked back at Lance shining the light at his feet.

"What do you think?" Lance seemed to take a moment to think looking from one tunnel to the other.

"I think either one would be fine," he replied glancing at the tunnels again. Pidge turned around keeping the flashlight pointed at the ground and started to walk towards the one on the right. She stopped suddenly and she felt Lance run into her causing her to stumble a few steps forward.

There standing in front of her were a pair of Lance's shoes she slowly moved the flashlight up her heart starting to race and her breaths coming in short and fast.

"L-Lance?" she asked her voice shaking.

"Yeah?" came the voice behind her. Suddenly Pidge went completely pale. The flashlight had finally made its way to the person's face.

The face was Lance's the only thing that was different was that the eyes were opened wide staring into her soul. The mouth was twisted up into a creepy grin, sending chills down her spine. The impostor took a step forward and instinctively Pidge took a step back and grabbed lance's sleeve pulling on it.

"R-R-R...." she couldn't get the word out of her mouth, "R-R-R-RUN!" she finally managed to scream the word and without hesitation Lance took off running in the opposite direction Pidge close behind. Pidge didn't dare turn around to check but she heard another set of footsteps right behind them.

One moment Pidge was running for her life the next she was on the floor trying desperately to stand up, the flashlight had long since left her hand and was nowhere to be found. A hand clapped down on her ankle, and there was a flash of the vent across her mind as she was dragged toward the impostor. When she came to a stop the cool air encompassed her middle that had been exposed. She didn't notice as the figure above her lowered towards her. She wanted to cry out, but couldn't she was paralyzed with fear.

A hand rested on her skin gently tracing the pink scars then it started moving up following the scars all the way to her chest. The hand spread out and Pidge grabbed it and pulled it away.

"NO!" she screamed at the being. The impostor let out a growl and smacked her. Not with a human and but with a clawed hand. Her face stung as she fought back to get him off of her. His hand went back drawing lines on her middle with one claw. Slowly he pressed down drawing a little blood and Pidge squirmed, but he only placed a hand around her neck.

"How about a few more to add to the collection?"

Without warning he moved his clawed hand across her middle not stopping when pieces of skin got stuck together. Pidge let out a blood curdling scream and in one last feeble attempt to get him off of her.

Somehow she had managed to crawl away heading down the tunnel. Once more her head was spinning and her breath was coming in short and fast and beads of sweat covered her face. Tears flowed down her face as she forced herself to crawl forward although she didn't cry out. Footsteps from behind her came up quickly and kicked her in the side. She collapsed, but the kicking continued. At this point she was out of it, she was in and out of consciousness. Her body turned numb to the pain.

There was a loud blast and the kicking ceased. Rapid footsteps ran up to her and dropped to her side. Her body was exhausted and she was so tired she just wanted to sleep. She closed her eyes, but not for long.

"Pidge! Pidge, I need you to stay awake! Can you do that?" Lance gently shook her shoulder and she raised a bloody hand that landed on his chest before falling.

"Leave....me....alone.....let....me....sleep..." her voice trailed off as she started to close her eyes.

"Pidge!"