Run For Your Life!

You don’t understand what happened.

How you ended up here is confusing; you just finished jogging around the neighborhood and were heading home when you decided to take a shortcut.

Oh, how you regret that now…

One moment, you’re going through an alleyway; in the next, you turn a corner and see a very long corridor. It reminded you of a school, or a hospital, or any building their size. You couldn’t help your curiosity, so you approached.

It’s the dumbest move you’ve ever made.

As soon as you stepped foot on the tiled floor, an alarm began blaring, lighting the corridor in red. You quickly tried to turn back, only to be met with a wall and locked double doors; the alleyway was gone.

Now, you’re confused, terrified, and utterly fucked.

You have no choice but to move forward.

Unfortunately, you make the decision to look around at the intersection a few steps forward. You don’t scream, but you do jump at the sight of the tall yellow monsters behind the double doors on the left. You stare, frozen in shock and fear; monsters don’t exist, not these types.

Something in you says to snap out of it. So, you do. And you look right, at a disembodied, shadowy smiley face, lurking behind the other set of double doors. You’re shaking; you don’t know if you were always doing that or it just started.

And something about this doesn’t seem right.

Then, you realize something; straight ahead, down the long corridor, there are chairs, tables, lights, and so on scattered all about, blocking the way, or at least making it more difficult to maneuver through.

They are going to hunt you down.

Your life flashes before your eyes; you think of your first everything. You panic. You hyperventilate. You beg God to save you, beg anyone to save you. You wonder how this happened.

Then, denial sets in. You slap yourself. Then again. And again, harder each time. You don’t wake up; this isn’t the kind of nightmare you can escape, not alive.

During your rapid bursts of emotion, you step forward too far. You hear those double doors open, slamming against the walls. You hear footsteps, rapid, coming right for you.

You sprint.

You push past the obstacles, jump over some, and even dodge a few that suddenly fly in front of your path, though it pushes you towards exhaustion faster.

But how fast you are doesn’t matter; you can hear them getting closer, their growls practically in your ear.

Your legs ache but you keep pushing yourself.

They keep getting closer.

You see a door at the end of the corridor. It gives you the strength to push yourself even further. You ram into it; it flies open.

And in the pitch dark, you fall.