Shadows

Chapter 13

The loud hoots of the owls woke me up from the deep slumber I was in, which was strange since I've never heard their hooting from my dorm room. Letting out a yawn, I start stretching my body; however, I quickly notice that I was not sitting on the softness of my mattress like I'm used to. Instead, I'm sitting on something damp. Damp lawn to be specific.

That's strange. What is going on?

It takes several moments for the fog clouding my mind to lift and for me to realize that I'm in a clearing in the middle of the woods. Now once again, this is strange because I don't remember going into the woods last night. Still disoriented, I slowly get up and think about how I'm going to make my way out of here.

Things would've been much easier if I was in one of the trails that I've come to know well, but I was in an unfamiliar part of the woods with no recollection of how I got here. Noticing that there was a trail leading out of the clearing, I start to make my way towards it, but unfortunately,  I'm quickly stopped when I get blinded by a bright ray of light passing by me.

It's a ghost, boo!

Yes, this is my internal voice mocking me. Ever since I was a young child, I never really believed in ghosts that haunt humans and stuff like that. It doesn't even make sense because why would a ghost spend their time trying to torment someone? The only creatures capable of tormenting humans are humans themselves.

Suddenly, the ray of light stops a few feet in front of me drawing me out of my thoughts. When the brightness finally dies down, it reveals a human. Alexis to be exact, making me look at her confusedly. Where did she come from? And why was she running so fast that she somehow managed to generate light?!

"What are you doing? Run! The monster is coming?" she shouts at me before sprinting once again.

It takes a few moments to register what just happened, but as soon as I hear a loud growl from somewhere behind me, my instincts kick in. I have to say that I'm not someone who you would consider as a fast person, but for some reason, I find myself running so fast that a light forms around me as well.

Look who actually has superpowers? Looks like you finally found something that makes you different like you always wanted to.

It's safe to say that I'm really confused right now. Do I have some kind of superpower that I am unaware of? That would honestly be a shame because I could've benefited from this when I raced against Lacey and lost in middle school. She made fun of me for the rest of middle school since I was the one who challenged her to that race.

That seems like you. Always trying to be the best person in the room.

I ignore the voice for the thousandth time today and think about how cool I'll be when I tell everyone about my superpower. I even bet that international film makers will want me to make a film with me as the hero who saves the world at the end of the day. Ah! That would be awesome.

Or you could be the villain... So delusional.

Anyways, in the time that I was dreaming in, I was still running so I managed to catch up with Alexis in a short amount of time. However, bearing in mind that we were both running, I wasn't able to ask her all the questions that were crowding my mind.

Where am I? And how is she here? Also, how are we running this fast? And most importantly, who is this monster she was warning me of? And what does it exactly want?

But instead of spewing out all of these questions, I just keep running while ignoring all the tree branches that snap against my skin cutting it. We must have been running for a while because I can see buildings in my sight, and if my calculations are correct, we should reach them in less than a minute.