Faetality |✓|

1.3 //Lights Out//

Remembering all the awful things that could happen in the dark, and Lana's strange advice, I scrambled for my locker. Objects spilled from within as I fumbled for my cell phone, but nothing was louder than the rise of devilish growls in the dark. I heard other noises too - things rustling, scraping, clicking, slithering, moving all around...

"No-no-no-no! Where's-the-light! Where's-the-light! Where's-the-light!" Finally locating the phone phone, my hands scrambled to hit unlock. Fingers shaking, I swallowed and pressed the flashlight button - illuminating the monster before me, it's face hardly a breath away.

Registering fur, dripping fangs and hot, acrid breath, I screamed. Tripping on my feet, I fell backwards, looking up into the eyes of death, witnessing my mortality firsthand.

My phone, my phone! But it had landed too far to reach. Though I couldn't see the monster, I could saw his outline--a great hulking shadow towering above me, with red eyes that glowed like the dozens of others cropping up in the hallway.

Fingers helplessly extending, I watched, terrified, as the shadow descended...

"No-no-no!" All I could do was cover my head for protection, and wait to die.

A ringing sound erupted in my ears, not painful, but loud. Wondering if this was it, if I had finally made it to the afterlife, I let go of my head and sat up in surprise.

The air had grown cold and thick and gray, as if all the world had been swallowed by a giant, angry cloud. Presumably, I was still alive and kicking, while every monster in the hall seemed frozen in place - almost. Like glitches in a video game, they flickered in and out of existence

Confused, but finally able to breathe, I rose to my feet, turning in confusion. So many monsters... What kept them from killing me?

Spotting movement down the hallway, I frowned, squinting at the figure materializing through the haze. Not a beast, a man.

Strolling a confident path through the field of monsters, he seemed to be lighting a cigarette.

Deciding not to stick around for introductions, I swiped my phone from the floor and took off the opposite direction. Feet and heart pounding, I ran for my life, skidding to a stop at the mouth of the hall, debating which way to flee.

Left-or-right?! Left-or-right?!

Right!

Bursting through the double doors, I expected to enter the cafeteria. Instead, I re-emerged where I began. To my left was the hallway of lockers. Straight ahead were the doors to the cafeteria.

"What? Impossible..."

Left it is.

I jogged through the new set of double doors, assuming I'd end up in the hall leading to the gym. I almost laughed at the sheer hopelessness as, once again, I wound up back where I started.

Right, left, right, left, left, right, left, right. It didn't matter which way I ran. I always ended up in the same place. Eventually, when I was too tired and too angry to run any further, I jogged back to my locker, where the monster was still glitching, hands on my knees as I fought to catch my breath.

"Seall ort a 'ruith mar dandy!" The goading Irish tones and the chuckle that followed beckoned me to turn and acknowledge the man smoking a cigarette as he leaned against the lockers. "We're in the gray, darlin'. You can't escape me in the in-between."

The tall, black-haired man with twinkling sapphire eyes snapped his fingers and every monster in the hall exploded in sparkling dust.

"You're a jerk," I said, holding the stitch in my side. "But I'm pretty sure you saved my life."