The Shadows

Chapter 2

After what feels like hours of running through these seemingly never ending hallways, I crouch down and put my hands on my knees, gasping in much needed air and closing my eyes to calm down my blood racing through my veins.

"Come on. We can't stop now.. They'll catch us. We NEED to go. NOW!" He hurriedly whispers to me in urgency, pulling at my arm as his eyes darted the halls in a frantic and petrified manner.

"And go where? Down another empty hallway? In a dark room so the boogie man can't find us?" I spit at him sarcastically, pulling at my arm that he's got ahold of as he glares at me.

"Y'know a gentleman would at least tell a girl where their going and maybe even who he is but noooo.. I'm stuck with the psycho who's lost in a fucking maze with no where left to go, running from invisible enemies that are going to bite us in the ass from the shadows."

I couldn't help it. It was like my temper had reached its boiling point and I just exploded. Too much frustration in a very short period, I'd say. Not to mention the fatigued state my body was still in and the lack of any real sustenance in days.

"Look, I just saved your life.  If I'd left you there then they would have killed you. So shut your goddamn mouth before something bad happens to the both of us." He sneered at me. Hissing through his teeth before turning away from me and hurrying down the halls. Leaving me by myself, unsure of what the think and what to believe. What if he was telling the truth? What if there are things in the shadows? Things that can't be seen but are nevertheless still there.

Suddenly and unexpectantly it got eeirly quiet. The lantern just above me began to flicker as the temperature of the air around me dropped considerably. In a matter of seconds it was freezing and I watched condensation appear out of my mouth as I breathed out. My teeth started chattering and I was left to wonder what the hell was going on. Just as quickly as the cold had appeared, it went. Followed by a blazing heat, hotter than what I had to face outside on the desert floor. I fell to the ground as this heat seemed to be burning up the vital organs and muscles that my body needs. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something shift in the shadows, but when I turned to look there was nothing. Either I was going insane or I was beginning to believe that what the psycho was telling me was actually real, but either way whatever is happening to me I needed to get out of there. I quickly picked myself up from the ground and bolted down the hall, trying to escape the heat, and whatever else that hidden in the shadows.

The heat follows me, seeming to burn hotter every step I take, but knowing that if I stop or even take a break then that will be the end of it for me. Then it stops. The heat, the chase, the eeirly quiet of the cabin. I can hear the wind blowing sand into the unsterdy, deteriorationg walls of the cabin but I don't stop running, I can't stop running. I run until I can no longer run anymore. Until my sore and blistered feet are bleeding from the abuse and my head feels like its about to explode. And even then, I don't stop by choice. I feel my eyes roll into the back of my head as my legs begin to give from under me. I hit the ground unconscious. Unable to move and defenseless to whatever is out there after me. I'm out like a light.