Breathless

Ch.2 Hold You Breath

The strangers previous statements start to dawn on me as I connect all the loose pieces together. The strangely empty stalls, the exotic food, how abandoned it all is, and just the overall queasy feeling this place has.

I begin to panic.

Hurriedly I start to round corner after corner and from my peripheral vision I notice the starry night coming faster with each passing second and the darkness that is taking over all the stalls, but are instantly being replaced by bright and glowy lanterns that are lighting almost magically and neon signs that I didn't even notice from before seem to do the same. I turn my head to stare at the strange phenomenon and suddenly become face to face with a dark black mass with shadowy yet simple facial features, terrifying enough for me to let out a scream and shake my head to make sure any of this is even real.

How is any of this possible? What even are those shadow things, ghosts? What the hell is going on?!

"Mom?! Dad?!" I yell out in desperation between each shaky huff of breath. I take a set of stairs down onto the next strip of, now lit up, stalls and buildings noticing how familier it seems to look. Dark figures and dancing shadows are surrounding me. They make no effort to come near my running form, but they do watch me and my every move. To say I'm scared would be the understatement of the century. I've never seen anything like this.

I see the stall from before and run hysterically up to it and just begin to yell, my voice cracking due to fear, in the process. "Guys we have to get out of here, nothing seems righ-" I stop my sentence when I finally let my brain process what is actually in front of me. "Huh? Come on quit eating, let's get out of here!" At first I thought it was my brain playing tricks on my petrified eyes, but I'm so terribly mistaken. Mom and dad are no longer here, instead, in their places are large and plump pigs, who are currently indulging heavily on the generously sized ceramic serving platters; creating a massive mess of foreign foods and spilled sauces. "AHHAAHA!" From behind the counter a bulkier shadowed figure with faint details of a chef's outfit, begins to swat at the bulging animals, causing the grand bows and a couple of plates to come crashing onto the cemented and used ground, in a loud shatter.

Maybe they had gotten freaked out and are now heading towards the abandoned train station!

I make a beeline in the opposite direction, taking the correct way this time, and begin to hollar out for my missing parents. "Mom?! Dad?! Where are you!" The longer I run the less I see of the shadowed figures, which gives me some sort of relief. But the constant nagging going on inside my head is making it ten times harder on concentrating. Jaehwan, focus you need to find your parents. I begin mentally shouting. But what if those were my parents? They had the same aura and eyes... I shake my head at the sudden thought and continue forward.

I finally see the descending staircase that leads down to the boldered up revine and I get a burst of optimism running through my frighted veins.

A couple of more steps down, across the boulders, through the field, and into the station. Then freedom. I repeat this phrase like a metra or a prayer inside my frantic brain. Over and over and over-

SPLASH

"Water?!" I'm about waist deep when I trip into lukewarm water that is as dark as the night sky. I quickly escape back onto the grassy land and shake off the dripping liquid. I cautiously look back down at the water and notice ripples and faint colorful reflections, across the way about half a mile or so looks the be a brightly lit water port and a small city?

"What?" I softly breath out in confusion, as my heart rate increases drastically. "... I'm dreaming! I'm dreaming!" I tightly shut my eyes and bring my fists up and knock my head a couple times before opening my eyes to see if the site has disappeared and to my surprise, it hasn't. "Come on wake up! Wake up!" I let out a helpless noise and begin to feel tears threatening to spill. "Wake up..." I whimper out, crouching down to the ground in the process, and hiding my face into my cold hands and wet knees.