Chereads / The Winter Dew / Chapter 3 - Why so dark?

Chapter 3 - Why so dark?

"Why is it dark?" It is hard to open my eyes, covered in something. "Reeks of the smell of blood. Blood?" I gasped in terror, wiping my face with the tattered piece of clothes wrapped around my arms.

"How long was I passed out, for the blood on my face to have started to clot over my eyes?" My head was throbbing in pain with a harsh noise filled my ears. There was a dampening air that flowed into that small dilapidated room. Nearly drenched wood defined the dimensions of that room, lit by the damaged lamp in one corner of the room.

Getting my senses together I lifted myself off the ground. That took more effort than I thought it would have. I took a step and the floor creaked and then again and again. I reached the gate and turned the knob I hoped things would turn out better at least if not worst. The door made a sound worse than a shrieking opera singer. I would have cracked if I were made of glass. It opened out to a dark, dark hallway. Its floor was made of half-rotten wood. I took a step and it was confirmed that if I took a single wrong step the floor might swallow me whole.

Half of my body was shaking, maybe because of the wound on my head. The energy in my body was leaving more quickly by the second. My eyesight was getting hazy. As I kept moving a single heart beating and creaking sound accompanied me.

The hallway was longer than usual, having a symmetrical arrangement of doors on either side, half blackened sometimes and broken painting hanging in between them. The only source of light was the cracked lamps placed at regular intervals. The visibility was so little, it felt like I was trapped in a dark cave. I was directionless, just aimlessly walking. How I got there was still a mystery, bigger than that was the exit at the moment.

I was treading or should I say limping aimlessly when shivers ran down my spine. Through my fully widened eyes, I saw my own shadow move. It was not moving normally rather it was almost flowing on the ground. It was not the half-baked light, nor it was my weakened eye-sight. It literally stretched and then shred into pieces. It then climbed the two walls of the hallway and started reattaching. The most horrendous scene unfolded in front of my eyes. Suddenly It materialized into some kind of creature. With its two dark, red, bloodthirsty eyes, it gazed at me. I could clearly see its sharp set of teeth lined up in his drooling mouth at the sight of me.

My legs gave up. As I fell down it struck me I had to escape. It started to move towards me. I was half dead in that situation. My legs were not listening, my heart was nearing a heart attack and a freaking monster of a creature was approaching me. I started to hit my legs as I crawled away. Just a little sensation would allow me to run, that's what I thought to myself, and it did I felt a pang and that was the signal. "Run!" all the sirens in my head screamed.

With all I had, I started to put together and run, if you could call it that. Seeing over my shoulder I realized my hopeless situation. The creature wasn't even rushing toward me, it was just walking slowly toward me. It didn't even feel like putting any effort into chasing me. I was that easy of prey to it, for it to casually play with me. But that did not mean I had given up. I wanted to live, and survive even if just for a little longer.

Running through the hallways the sliver of hope was the exit door. A left, then a fall, a right, and then again a right. I felt pathetic but that was all I could do. When all hope seemed lost I saw it. A door that could only have been the exit. My breath was almost out but my last chance was in my sight how could I leave it? I put every ounce of will I had of living into my legs and rushed for it. I had it in my hands. I twisted the door knob and I heard that opera shriek and liked it for the first time. I was safe, was what I thought as I fell straight down on my face. As I slowly became unconscious I saw the door closing and a cold, very monotonous laughter.

"Why is it dark?" It is hard to open my eyes, covered in something. "Reeks of the smell of blood. Blood?"