Slipping into the Deep

The child watched as her mother paced between the shelves. Her long skirts swished in time with her slippered steps. Multi-colored lights danced across the floor as the last rays of sunlight passed through the colored glass windows. Her mother pulled bottles off of the shelves, the elixirs inside glowing through the murky glass bottles. She turned and smiled at her daughter, extending her free hand to her. The girl immediately leaned forward, her smaller hand reaching for her mother's.

The hands came out of nowhere, latching onto her arms. Finger nails longer than butter knives and black as night dug into her skin. The girl thrashed in its grasp but her squirming only made the talons dig further into her flesh. She was pulled away from the little shop and her mother, into the darkness.

She woke up screaming again. Still disoriented and shaken, she crawled over to the opposing wall and picked up the small shard of rock off of the floor. She reached up and scratched a thin line against the wall. Now there were 4,745 tallies on the wall recording her captivity.