Encountering Darkness: The Great Pursuit (Book One)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Amy awakens in a daze and tries to move her body, but she cannot. With her head also fixed in place, she can only move her eyes. Her legs are sprung high in the air with her head close to the ground, but she is off the ground. She is at a 45-degree angle to the ground with her body being straight. Amy moves and tries to cry out, but her lips do not move.

Her body makes its way into a room and she can see an end table with a lamp on top of it. Footsteps are heard from a distance and then two human legs appear in front of her. Amy can only see from the knees down. She hears a voice say to her: "Do not listen to your advisers."

With a startle she awakes on the cold floor. Amy grabs her head, and tries to remember where she is. She lifts up from off the floor. As she stumbles to her feet, she realizes that she can now see everything in this hallway. She looks all around her. In every direction she can make out the floors, the walls, and the ceiling. Amy looks at the ground, finds the shield, and picks it up, but this time she notices an inscription on the back of the shield.

The shield glows in time of need and gives light to shadows. Be wary of the shadows, for you cannot fight them and the shield cannot help you.

Amy puts the shield back on her left arm and moves on to the door at the far end.

After taking a step she stops.

Amy wonders, The hallway is not that large. I felt like I moved for hours before and never made it to the door, but now the door on the opposite side is only a few feet away. What could make this so?

Amy then thinks of the strange dream she had. I feel like the dream was real, but who are my advisers?

Amy shrugs off the thought and opens the door. The light from the shield fills the room and she notices a table in the middle of the room. She walks to the table and finds a necklace on top. Amy grabs the necklace off the table and feels a warm sensation go through her body. She looks at the charm that is on the necklace, but there is nothing special about it. It is a standard necklace and she puts the necklace around her neck.

At once, in front of Amy appears a door. She moves to the door that stands right in the middle of the room and looks at both sides. There is a door handle on either side, and Amy wonders which end she is suppose to go through. As she contemplates, her neck begins to burn. She grabs for the necklace, but finds it is not around her neck; it has burned its way into her skin.

Amy now in extreme pain, is on the ground and screaming. She tries to get the necklace off of her.

At once the pain stops and she grabs for the necklace around her neck, but still cannot find it.

Amy sighs and pushes off the ground. The doorway with two entrances is still right in front of her.

She opens one of the doorways and steps inside.

Her body twists and warps as she enters. She feels a quick cooling sensation and recognizes she is moving into a different world. This world differs from her own, and she is not sure what the different buildings that are forming in front of her are, but soon, the buildings disappear.

She looks at the ground she is on and realizes it is firm. She cannot remember ever stepping on this type of ground before. Amy notices that the color of the ground is black. The smell coming from it differed from what she had ever experienced. She looks about herself and finds she is in the middle of a long stretch of a black surface with yellow line marks.

Amy, bending at her knees, reaches down and touches the ground. She is in awe, and has a shocking expression on her face, as she looks from the ground to the surrounding area.

She steps to the other side of the black surface and stops in front of a sign. The sign has a drawing on it, and as she continues to stare at it, she begins to remember she use to know what the drawings meant.

What was this called? This must be a type of way for people to write down what they spoke. Like what her tribe would do. Although, the words are all strange and don't look like anything she has ever seen before.

Turning to the left and right, looking past the sign, Amy sees only a long stretch of nothing. On either side of the black path are trees, which slope down from the path.

Amy turns around and heads towards the middle of the black path and turns right, when, there is a loud noise to her left, and then silence.