(no subject)
Based heavily on a dream I had a few nights ago. The quality of this is atrocious, and for that I apologize. It would seem that my writing ability is failing me.
It's wrong. Everything is going wrong. We should never have stopped here, we were only passing through.
The town was deserted. Completely and totally abandoned, like its inhabitants had walked out minutes before. The lights were still on, food was on the table. Everywhere we went, there was stillness and silence.
We took what we needed, so long as we felt the inhabitants would not notice it missing. We needed to resupply for the journey. We stopped in the window-filled ballroom of a hotel to collect our wares before continuing on our journey. One by one, my companions left, and I was alone to sort our supplies.
“You shouldn't be here.”
It was nothing more than a whisper, and I looked up with a start. There, staring at me from a gap between the blinds, was an eye. Large, yellow, and catlike, pupil contracted into a bare sliver. Unblinking. Unwavering. Flaming orange fur, and teeth... oh god, the teeth. A long, straight maw of sharp and vicious fangs, grinning mercilessly at me.
The sight left me paralyzed.
It seemed to delight in this fear. The smile grew broader. “This is a place of danger, a place of dark and deceit. No place for a creature like you.”
I forced myself to look away. Turning my eyes back to the hallway, I silently, desperately, pleaded for my companion to return.
“She won't be back,” the monster outside the window whispered. “None of them will. They ventured into the shadows, and they were caught. Now he knows you are here, and he is coming for you.”
This was not happening, it could not be; there was no such thing as monsters. Shaking, I did all I could to ignore it, to will it away with the belief that it was not, could not be, real.
It only seemed to fuel it. “You can try to leave, but you will not make it before darkness falls.” My companion had been gone for too long. The fear was becoming replaced with dread. “You value your life, do you not?”
I turned back to it. I stared into that horrible, unblinking eye.
“You must trust me,” it insisted. I felt it was not lying. What motive would this creature have to lie?
I nodded slowly.
“Lock all doors and windows,” it instructed. “Put as many of them as you can between you and him. He is large, but he cannot break a locked door. You must keep him distracted. Stay in the light, for it is his mortal enemy, but keep away from the windows. You must stay quiet, and you must not fall asleep. Make it until dawn, and you will be safe. Then run. And never, ever come back.” The mouth smiled wider. “Now go... now.”
And then he was gone.
Darkness was approaching. I leapt to my feet.
I am sitting in a closet. I had put eight doors between myself and the outside, with only the closet light to cradle me through the night.
Eight hours ago, the power failed.
I can hear him. He is pacing outside the closet door. Dawn is two hours away.
I am about to die. Please let me be dreaming.
It's wrong. Everything is going wrong. We should never have stopped here, we were only passing through.
The town was deserted. Completely and totally abandoned, like its inhabitants had walked out minutes before. The lights were still on, food was on the table. Everywhere we went, there was stillness and silence.
We took what we needed, so long as we felt the inhabitants would not notice it missing. We needed to resupply for the journey. We stopped in the window-filled ballroom of a hotel to collect our wares before continuing on our journey. One by one, my companions left, and I was alone to sort our supplies.
“You shouldn't be here.”
It was nothing more than a whisper, and I looked up with a start. There, staring at me from a gap between the blinds, was an eye. Large, yellow, and catlike, pupil contracted into a bare sliver. Unblinking. Unwavering. Flaming orange fur, and teeth... oh god, the teeth. A long, straight maw of sharp and vicious fangs, grinning mercilessly at me.
The sight left me paralyzed.
It seemed to delight in this fear. The smile grew broader. “This is a place of danger, a place of dark and deceit. No place for a creature like you.”
I forced myself to look away. Turning my eyes back to the hallway, I silently, desperately, pleaded for my companion to return.
“She won't be back,” the monster outside the window whispered. “None of them will. They ventured into the shadows, and they were caught. Now he knows you are here, and he is coming for you.”
This was not happening, it could not be; there was no such thing as monsters. Shaking, I did all I could to ignore it, to will it away with the belief that it was not, could not be, real.
It only seemed to fuel it. “You can try to leave, but you will not make it before darkness falls.” My companion had been gone for too long. The fear was becoming replaced with dread. “You value your life, do you not?”
I turned back to it. I stared into that horrible, unblinking eye.
“You must trust me,” it insisted. I felt it was not lying. What motive would this creature have to lie?
I nodded slowly.
“Lock all doors and windows,” it instructed. “Put as many of them as you can between you and him. He is large, but he cannot break a locked door. You must keep him distracted. Stay in the light, for it is his mortal enemy, but keep away from the windows. You must stay quiet, and you must not fall asleep. Make it until dawn, and you will be safe. Then run. And never, ever come back.” The mouth smiled wider. “Now go... now.”
And then he was gone.
Darkness was approaching. I leapt to my feet.
I am sitting in a closet. I had put eight doors between myself and the outside, with only the closet light to cradle me through the night.
Eight hours ago, the power failed.
I can hear him. He is pacing outside the closet door. Dawn is two hours away.
I am about to die. Please let me be dreaming.