I pull a lighter from my backpack and try to light the moss that clings to the branch. The moss is engulfed in a frenzy of flames, casting a bright blaze into the academic building. I step through the threshold into the building, and the light is immediately extinguished. I try to light it again to no avail. I look around and notice that I don't need the light.
I can see, not like there is a light shining, but like my eyes are adapted to this darkness. My eyes filter it through a lens that pushes it away and reveals what is underneath. I stare down a long hallway painted with ornate pictures stuck in frames plated with gold. A blue rug lines the floor, leading down the hall into the unknown. The walls are painted an off-white that shines in the darkness.
I don't understand how I can see in this darkness. How have my eyes adapted to this? I attribute it to the Pope and his blessing again, as that is the only answer that makes sense in my fragile mind. All other thoughts and options lead down paths that narrow before becoming swallowed by something that I cannot comprehend.
I push the thoughts from the window through which I view this cruel world. I need to focus on the task at hand. Money. Evelyn. The hunt. Find what Sabrina wanted me to hunt down, kill it, and bring her the heart. Kill the weakness. Slaughter the prey. Deliver the heart. Those thoughts spiraled through my brain like a whirlpool. I began to fill with a feeling that reminded me of anger and rage, though this was different, something calmer. It bubbles within me as I walk through the narrow hall, studying the paintings. They watch over me. They follow my every step, predators stalking prey. I feel the presence on me. It haunts me, pulling air from my lungs before I can exhale.
Then I hear the floor creak, and I watch as the paintings rise, the floor becoming the ceiling. I'm falling, and with each second, I build more speed. The air whips me as I fly through it like a bullet. I'm in a tunnel, the barrel of a gun, surrounded by four walls that suffocate me.
I fall faster.
Then I collapse into something that absorbs my impact, and I see shadows fly like shrapnel. I'm sucked into a black hole of tenderness. Heat radiates onto me, making me sweat as my breath increases. There is nothing for me to grab onto. I'm in the belly of the beast, digested by a monster that I'll never see.
An abyss.
Wooden floor planks are scattered around me, broken from their fall from the sky. Some of the paintings also fell and are now just paper scraps. Whatever it was that absorbed my impact is squishy below me. It's like I'm sitting upon a heap of hot, wet rags. I see the darkness, swirling shadows that suck down the light from the hole in the ceiling. I understand what it is, nothing, the absence of life.
There is a noise in the distance, I can't make out if it's muffled words or the cries of an animal. A light appears down a long hallway that seems to go on forever. Like the moon shining over the city, this light is out of my reach but feels so close that I can reach out and grab it. In the darkness, I can make out most of my surroundings. I'm perched upon a blob of blackness that's neither solid nor liquid. I can feel myself being pulled down, but it's slow enough for me to escape. The walls around me are black stone with four hallways leading away from this intersection.
Looking down each hall, I only spot the light. The rest are veiled by shadows that seem to move and swirl away from me. A haunting chill runs down my spine, causing me to shudder with the fear of the unknown.
I think of the hunt, that's what I must do. Think only of the hunt.
I stand and begin to sink faster now that I'm only connected to the blob in two places. Hands are reaching up, grabbing my feet, and pulling me like gravity does to a ball thrown into the air. With each step, I must pull myself free from the shadow. I look down again to see that it's following me, attached to my ankles and trailing along.
Slime.
The ooze flows around me, a living and breathing monster. I bend down and grab a handful of it, and a burning sensation leaches onto my hand. I fling the ooze to the wall and hear the sizzle as it burns into the stone. Panic begins to set and I start to move quickly down the hall, knowing that I must get away from this or face the same fate of being eaten by something without a mouth.
I've only read of these creatures in storybooks for children. I pinch myself, hoping this is nothing but a dream, but the pain is real, and I'm sucked back into the reality of my situation. Each step that I take is harder than the next. I draw a dagger and try to slice into the substance, but the dagger goes right through it, having no effect.
Then I see the end. I can see plain stone, a place where the ooze has not yet spread. Only a few more steps, then I can make a break for the light. I push myself to take the steps, and I'm inches from the stone when that noise echoes around me again. Though I now know that it is not muffled screams. No, it's the howl of something. A deep howl from the back of the throat of a being that has seen more from life than I have.
I hear it again once I hit the stone, this time much closer. I draw my daggers, holding them in attack position. My thoughts race, I must dispatch them just like I did the rats, quickly. I imagine that whatever it is is a powerful beast with razor blades for teeth. I imagine my worst fear so that anything else may not cause me fright.
Yet, I am paralyzed when I see the red eyes that lurk in the shadows. I turn to run towards the light, but with each step, I notice that it is not getting any closer, only further away. I hear paws beat on the stone with loud thuds as I race down the hall, daggers still clutched in my hands. I can feel hot breath against my skin and panting that is muddled by my own strain.
The burn comes without warning, and soon I am on the ground, face down into stone. Sharp burning comes from my back. Sharp burning that pierces through my skin and out of my chest. I wheeze and cough up blood. My daggers have skidded away from me. I see them, but cannot reach them. I claw on the ground, trying to move inches.
I got nowhere. I'm pinned to the ground by something.
A piercing, burning pain radiates through my shoulder. I try to look over, but cannot move my neck. I try to scream, but nothing will escape because there is no air to leave my lungs. I see the pool of blood beginning to form below me.
I feel myself fade, my vision going blurry before complete darkness.
I whirl on the beast possessed by some otherworldly creature. I see it now, a dark wolf with red eyes and snarling teeth. Each tooth looks like it could be one of the daggers that I have. I see them in my hands, but know not how I got them. They glow now, a golden hue coming from the blades. The red eyes are beady, and foam comes from the creature's mouth. Each claw is a razor blade with serrated edges. The black fur is matted and tangled.
I lunge at the beast with one of the daggers while I slash with the other. I watch the piercing blade miss while the other blade slashes the beast's eye. Blood leaks from the wound, though the blood is not red; it is blue, as if it is devoid of oxygen. I slash again, and again. Connecting with different parts of the creature, causing blood to spew onto me and the walls.
It swipes at me, and I roll in a dodge but collide with the wall, stumbling back. I'm hit with one of the claws, which digs into my stomach as it throws me against the wall. I cough up blood as I slide down the wet wall, and the claw retracts into the paw that now hovers above me. I swipe at the paw and miss.
The creature begins to howl towards the light.
"You should never come here." It says, still looking at the ball.
Another razor rends my chest, and a river of blood washes the stone clean.
"Your kind are so weak." It spits.
"She thought you would be the one, but you're weaker than the rest." It laughs, mocking Sabrina and me.
I try to manage a swipe at the beast, but I'm looking at a stump where my hand should be, and blood is mixing with the foam spewing from the creature's jaw. I scream before everything goes black, and I'm once again lost in the darkness.