The change comes to suddenly.
I am running as fast as my legs will allow. I know something is chasing after me--it's too fast. I have to focus on swinging my arms faster to drag my legs forward with them. Now, dammit.
I could go more quickly if I wasn't hesitating ever so slightly to land each step; moving so fast feels like a gamble on the slick, wet stone. What is it? What is pursuing me? I don't dare look out of fear for slipping or slowing down. Its presence is made painstakingly obvious by my turning stomach and chilled spine. I think I just have to keep going forward. I don't see any other options offered by my surroundings. I'm unable to find any other escape other than the tiring repetition of running straight. This hallway is never going to end.
Just as my ankles are giving out, I find I am wrong--or maybe I was right but I just failed once again. One moment, I was doubting I could run away any faster, and now I am doing just the opposite; I am laying down. I'm on my back facing what I can only imagine is up. The hallway is gone. So much for never ending.
I've returned to the darkness and, again, find myself staring into nothingness. I was just running, though. Did I get caught? I don't even know what was after me. I quickly sit up and my eyes dart around in search of my parent's door. It's gone. Alternately, I suppose, I could be gone. This begs the question: Did I start over?
My painfully accurate memory of what I have just gone through suggests that I haven't. If I really started over, I think I'd stand forgetful again.
I pull my legs into my chest to be still for just a moment more. I rest my chin on my knees and close my eyes. Upon opening them, I am reminded that this isn't a time for rest. I am back in the stone hallway. To my surprise and relief, it doesn't seem that I am being chased anymore. Silence and warm light surround me in the thick air. I make an unenthusiastic motion beginning to clamber to a standing position. I brush myself off, giving the kind of body language that reluctantly reads: "Alright, what's next?"
YOU ARE READING
Chimera
Short Story"When you know where there are walls and floors, where there is sky or earth, where you stand in relation to literally any object or being, you are already infinitely more found than I am in this moment. " After a long history of sleep paralysis an...
