Who Will Save Me Now?

Who Will Save Me Now? Chapter 5

I look back to the vent, sure I misheard, but someone, or something screams again from far down the metal shoot. The sound echoes off the walls and rings in my ears.

Defying all proper judgment, I step back into the vent and begin to move down the shaft.

The thin metal floor creaks as I crawl down on my hands and knees, head bent to the side, listening for another sound.

I continue straight for about a minute when I hear it again. “Ah... Help me!” a voice cries from my left. Turning my head fast I look down an offshoot ventilation way. The voice sounds in need, in pain as it bellows out from the dark.

With a sigh I close my eyes, begging myself to go back, to leave Storm City. This night may be my only chance to be free again, but my body turns against my will to the left and continues down into the dark. To the voice.

The yells grow louder and more frequent as I continue on, making left and rights, twists and turns as I head for the source of the cries. The voice alternates between screaming and pleading. It pleads to be released, and it pleads for someone to make it stop.

Make what stop?

There is a final wail, so loud, and so full of pain that I pause mid-crawl to put my hands over my ears until it stops.

Desperate to get to the voice, I move faster.

Suddenly I see a faint light towards my right, down another offshoot of vent. With great caution I move towards the light. When I reach it, I see that it is a ventilation opening, covered in mesh wiring, just like the one I came out of.

Crawling on a bit farther, I turn around to face the opening, trying to see who was screaming.

The vent must be in the far right corner of a room, because I can only see the wall across from me, the room to the left is blocked.

Someone moans from inside the room. Against the far wall I see the shadow of a person, a small girl with pigtails.

I rush to get the vent's screen off when all of a sudden, the girl's shadow moves.

Actually it doesn't move, it shifts, transforming into another shape altogether. A piercing howl lets out as the shadow continues to shift and contort itself.

A tear runs down my cheek as I hear its cries of pain, but I am no longer trying to undo the vent. Whatever is in there with that little girl would kill us both.

Suddenly there is a ripping sound, like torn flesh, and the girl's shape disappears completely, being replaced by the shape of something else. An animal.

A sob rises in my throat as I picture images of the girl, being taken over by some rabid creature, killing her.

And just like that the shadow returns to normal. To the shadow of a human.

I let out a gasp and quickly cover my mouth.

The shadow begins to grow larger as the person nears the vent.

Quickly I scuffle backwards, my heart beating in my chest, and I lay myself flat against the vent's wall, just as someone speaks from the darkness, “Hello?” a little girl asks, her small, tiny, human shadow now dancing on the walls of the ventilation shaft. “Is anyone there?” There is a sound of clinking metal as she leans against the cover. “Come out and play,” she says in a low voice. She waits a moment and walks away.

I let out a breath. Slowly, I back away, farther and farther from the opening.

I continue crawl, letting exhaustion creep over my body, numbing the fear and confusion that has been running rampid in my body since I arrived in Storm City. Every move I make feels foreboding; like each breath I take and every thing I say is leading me one step closer to my death.