Trapped

She woke up with a cold sweat. Her chest rising up and down furiously. Throat clenched with fear. Hands in fist, tearing the sheets from underneath her as her knuckles turn marble white.

 It awaits.

        The gray and still dawn was moist and smelled of fresh dew. It was a one very small loft. The kitchen is right next to the living quarters, a small bathroom that connects to the living room and bedroom, and the small bedroom connecting to the outdoors and the bathroom. Everything was organized, but the purpose of that was that there wasn't much décor in the house. The walls were gray and bare. The refrigerator and cabinets mere with any food or supplies. She turned on the shower. Frigid as the ocean she got in not giving it a second thought. Then, as she got out to dry herself with the towel she fell screaming. The shrieks unbearable to her ears.

                          "STOP!" she said frantically.

         She tried to get up, falling to the concrete floor as she clutched her ears against her head. "Stop it! Just leave me alone!" she bellowed.   

         She ran to her room, her body dripping with beads of cold water and sweat.

                          "This can't be happening. Not today, not ever," She said hyperventilating.

         She put her clothes on very ruggedly, put her hair up misaligned, got her navy blue hoodie, and her plain, smooth, black wristwatch. She jumped the five steps outside her front door onto the dirt pathway stumbling to her mountain bike.

                      "I must get away from here. Please make it stop! Please..." she whispered agonizingly.

         She started biking out of town, not even stopping to take a break. She then took an acute right turn onto a rocky dirt road. She came up on a dead end. It was nothing but woods. There was a crevice in the woods, as if there were a pathway. It was small, but noticeable enough that you'd think it would be an opening to a trail of some sort. Except, it seemed peculiar, very occult. It was pulling her towards it. She could feel it pulling her. She could hear it, talking through her mind as if saying there's 'No way out', 'You can't leave', 'This is it'. She started trembling as the wind rushed out from the dark ominous opening. 

                        "Damn it. Why?!" she whispered in madness. 

She backed up, turning to get off the dirt road. She took a different turn this time peddling for another 20 minutes. She came up on another dirt road, it was very similar to the last one she was just on, almost identical. She went completely still. Her whole body was numb and gelid. "No..." she said barely above a whisper. The woods were directly in front of her. The same black ominous pathway stood before her. Her eyes began to swell up with tears full of anger, hatred, desperation, frustration, sadness. It was all surreal. It was all just a dream. This couldn't be real! It all be over soon, right? But who had the same dream, day and night of their life for so long. She turned around and was again starting down the road that lead her to the woods.

                             *

         She couldn't figure out why this has been happening to her so recently. It wasn't easy on her. It wasn't just talking to her. It screeched unbearably in her head. The things it whispered were not human. Nothing a human dared wished to hear. So heinous, so-so odious. The things it expatiated! She couldn't leave her house. Everyone thought she was nonsensical, ludicrous. She always got hastened to leave the public. The police officers did not allow her to be anywhere for long, for someone told on her, for scaring them or their children. It got so bad she had to be seen by a psychiatrist. She was prescribed pills for her "condition", but she never took them. She just flushed them down the toilet. She had nobody to help or support her. She knew no one, nor anyone knew her. So it's not like it mattered anyway.

                             *  

          She peddled all the way down the dirt road. It was peculiarly longer than when she first arrived on it. It seemed endless. She knew this was not a mistake. It was that thing again. It wouldn't leave her alone. Would it ever stop? She biked for another three hours. She wouldn't stop. She couldn't. How could she? It was determined to hunt her down, torture her with his manipulative ways in her mind. She didn't want to stop, but she had to. She could barely pedal any longer. She was starting to get dehydrated. She swerved of the dirt road, making her bike skid sideways. Her whole right side, as she tumbled onto the dirt road, got all scrapped, torn, and bruised. She rolled to the side of the road onto the grass. The grass and woods met up with each other only leaving about ten feet of grass between the dirt road and the woods. She couldn't move. She couldn't speak. She was to tired to scream, cry, or do anything really. She just lay there not able to think of anything, absolutely anything. Then before she knew it darkness came before her, falling into a deep sleep. There was nothing she could do about it except fear and wait.

                             *

           It was dark. A cold breeze blew upon her, waking her to an agonizing start. She ached all over. She was deep into the woods. Where was she? How long did she blackout for? Then it dawned on her, sending a cold and cruel shiver down her whole body.                "How... did I get here?" she barely heard herself whisper.

                            "Hello?" she said in a hoarse, squeaky whisper.

                        "Hello?!" she said more strongly.

                          'They will hear you if you don't stay quite!'  It whisper harshly at her.

                        "Please, just leave me alone!" she said weakly, almost on the verge of tears.

                          'Just give me yourself, and it'll all be over.'

                        "Who are you and what do you want?!" she said vexed.

                           ' Be quite, you imbecile! I am nothing compared to what they will do to you if they find you.' 

                        "Who's them, and how can I trust you?" she said in a whisper, acknowledging more cautiously, but reluctantly as for she was still irresolute towards the thing that spoke to her in her mind, and her mind only. He did not answer.

                        "How can I trust you when you put me in here for those other things to find me?" she waited for him to respond, but no answer came.

                        "Why can't you just let me leave?" Still no answer.

                        "Answer me! Please..." she was desperate now.

She then heard a screech. Unbearable to hear she had to cover her ears. Something seemed off. No, wait. Yes, yes of course something was of. The scream so agonizingly unholy was not in her head. It came from the unbearable living hell that she has become to know. Out in the distance she saw something abnormally large. It moved rather quickly. As it got closer she could see that it had long, slim fingers with razor sharp nails. It was all black and slim, possibly a sort of primitive not known to man. As it got closer it appeared to have a filthy, slimy physical appearance and a revolting miasma attached to the figure. No, wait. I-it wasn't a kind of primitive at all. As it was 20 feet away from her she could see that it was a decaying corpse. Oh god! The horror it caused her as it screeched again. She finally got out of her trance from the perturbation she had just seen. She started running as fast as she could, not caring if she would trip or not. So this, this is what the man speaking to her mind meant by worse.

       The forest she ran through was disquiet for it was somber and quite foggy. It was fairly mild, but she was dousing with cold sweat. She could feel herself getting weak. Strange for she had only been running for five minutes. Her legs started feeling like lead. She could feel herself being pulled down to the earth. There it was again! That damned malicious, diabolic opening in the woods. It seemed to grow bigger by the second. She couldn't go back, for the decaying apparition was behind her. Nor could she go forward, for the opening was there and she could not possibly begin to think what was beyond that. Both sides of her were trees so tightly packed together that she couldn't possibly fit threw. Its as if the woods lead her this way. Or could it be that the forest was alive and was torturing her to her death, or possibly a worse fate. The opening started to warp itself around her, consume her.

                           'You were to late to decide.'

          Then all there was was a sound similar to a tree being struck by lightning. Then the opening disappeared like a black hole. There was no decaying corpse or opening in the woods to be found. No trace of anyone being there. Being manipulated, tortured. The woods were no longer so compressed together, dark, or misty. The woods were full of light and dark shades of green. Sun breaking through, making it look like a warm, welcoming, distressful day to stride in the woods without questioning or concerning about it. 

         Her bike was no longer were it had been. No trace of her being there. Except her black wrist watch.

                             *

        A little boy came running. He did not appear to be older than six years of age. He had a grin from ear to ear plastered on his youthful face. " You can't catch me!" He chanted as he ran. He stumbled onto the grass, a grimace on his face. His grimace quickly withdrew when he saw the black wristwatch.

                            'Good little boy. So you're the next one I've been waiting for.'

       The young child looked startled for a moment. Not knowing where the voice came from.

                           "Look, daddy what I found!" the boy exclaimed.

And so it begins.