LIMINALITY

Chapter 3.

Everything was dark.

Sadie didn't know what to do..

She was laying on some kind of...damp carpet.

"Where the hell am I..?" She muttered and stood up. She found herself in an empty place, surrounded by walls with dirty yellow wallpaper and bright, fluorescent lights that flickered occasionally. She looked around for any sight of human life. "Is this some kind of dream..?" She stumbled around, struggling to walk since she had just regained consciousness. "Where's Ivory?" She asked frantically, half expecting an answer. She heard the sound of footsteps and someone..crying. "H-HELLO?" She called out, "SADIE?" She heard a voice similar to Ivory's say.. "IVORY, IS THAT YOU!?" She yelled, "Y-YEAH, IT'S ME!" Sadie noticed a shadow appear on the walls, and soon enough; Ivory appeared. She ran over to her and hugged her tight, "Where are we?" She asked, confused. "I-I dunno..." Sadie replied and let go of her, staring at her for a bit. She looked pale, paler than usual. That normally happens when she gets really scared, "Ivory, don't be scared.." Sadie comforted, "I'll try... um, what do we do now..?" Ivory muttered, looking around, "try to find a way out." Sadie said and began to walk around. Ivory followed her with caution, taking in everything. It felt as if they were in the back of an old retail outlet. Their shoes sank in the damp carpet with every step they took. Sadie wondered what was saturating the carpet, but she just assumed it wasn't consumable. They wandered around for a while, trying to find some kind of exit. Occasionally, Sadie would feel like she saw bugs in her peripheral view crawling through the wallpaper, but when she turned to look; they were gone. "I'm just hallucinating..." She thought. The constant hum of the lights were deafening and very aggravating. Sadie covered her ears, but it didn't help at all. She noticed Ivory also tried covering her ears at times, but to her dismay; nothing could suppress the noises. Sadie felt bad, Ivory was sensitive to stuff like that and hated loud noises, so it must've bothered her a lot. Seconds felt like minutes, and minutes felt like hours. Time felt like it was warped, Sadie stumbled, almost losing consciousness. She regained her balance by putting a hand on Ivory's shoulder. "H-how long have we been in here?" Ivory asked, "I'm not sure.. but I feel like we're getting closer to the exit.." Sadie replied.

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"Haven't we been here before..?" Sadie sighed, getting even more lost in these rooms by the second. No two rooms were the same, it was weird; Sadie thought. But, the situation they were in was weird, so she didn't have time to worry about that. Ivory shook her head, looking around. The room they were in at the moment was filled with pillars and the same dirty yellow wallpaper that they saw with every corner they turned. Sadie looked over at Ivory and noticed glistening tears running down her face, "Oh, don't cry, Iv.. I'll get us out of here." She said, trying to make her friend feel better. She hated seeing her cry. Sadie didn't understand why every time she saw Ivory sad, it made her feel the same. She gave her butterflies anytime they were around each other, and every time they held hands, it made her nervous. Sadie loved protecting her, it made her feel worth something. "T-Thanks, Sadie.." Ivory hugged her tightly, not wanting to let go. Sadie's cheeks glowed in a pinkish tone as she wrapped her arms around her. They just stood there for a minute or two, embracing each other. "I feel better now.." Ivory sniffled and rubbed her nose with her sleeve, "that's good." Sadie smiled and continued walking. A few minutes passed and Ivory froze. "Iv..? What's wrong..?" Sadie asked cautiously, kind of freaked out by her actions. "I-I swear I just heard something.." Ivory said, trembling. "I'm sure it's nothing, you're probably just tired from all of this walking...." She replied, trying to convince herself that no one else was around besides them. Tap tap tap. Sadie paused and looked around, "M-Maybe- It's just- the wind..!" She stammered, the sound of footsteps and buzzing lights blaring in her ears. Unfortunately, there was no wind in the place they were right now, so Sadie had no ideas on how to convince herself that they were safe.

Everything went silent for a moment. Just a moment..

But then..

The lights began to flicker faster than they usually did and the two girl's vision blurred for a minute before they saw it. A tall, black entity with incredibly long thin limbs with a cable-like string wrapped around it's whole body. It looked like it stuck a security camera on it's head to work as a makeshift skeleton. Sadie stared at it in shock for a second and blinked a couple of times to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. She realized it was real, so she grabbed Ivory's arm and ran. She ran as fast as she could. The lights were flickering at an alarming rate and the sound of them were unbearable. They've become louder before, and the scent of the damp carpet was disgusting. Though, Sadie didn't have any time to think about this stuff now. All she needed to worry about was keeping her and Ivory alive. She ran until she couldn't no more. She was dizzy and out of breath, and the last thing she saw was Ivory before she collapsed again.

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