Analiese’s chest burns from lack of oxygen as she turns the corner of the dark church hallway. Her thoughts spiral as she runs towards the end of the hallway.
Am I the only one who can see this thing?
**Why is no one helping me?
Sweat slithers down her spine as she dares a glance behind her. The coast seems clear. At the end of the hallway, she finally comes to a halt. It’s gone; she’s found reprieve. She leans against the wall, steadying her breath before looking back where she’d come from. To her surprise, it’s no longer empty; her mother, Romona, is standing behind her.
Romona’s salt and pepper hair appears to be more salt and less pepper, but is it the dark hall or the strange being chasing after her first born child? Nevertheless, the nagging fear that drove Ana’s feet so quickly subsides at the sight of her mother. Her arms wrap around Romona tightly. “I’m so tired. What is it? What does it want from me?”
Romona’s arms encircle her without hesitation. “You. It wants you,” she responds, making Ana pull away from the embrace. “We should leave. We can take Nana’s car and get you out of here,” she suggests, as if this thing wouldn’t bother hurting Ana’s grandmother.
Ana thinks about it for a moment before shaking her head. “We can’t leave her here. We don’t know if this thing is dangerous.”
Her mother all but rolls her eyes before shoving her hand into her back pocket and pulling out a set of car keys. “Here, you hold the keys and I will go get her.” Analiese nods and takes the keys, nervously shaking them. The clinking sound of the metal keys calms her; it sounds like safety.
“Okay, and you’ll meet me at the car?” Ana asks as they walk slowly to the front door. There is solace in the soft sound of her mother’s footsteps behind her as she waits for a response, but there isn’t one. “Or, I can wait in the foyer?” Anna suggests, but again nothing.
The comfort washes away by dread as fear trickles back into her body. She slowly turns around to check if her mother is still there, but as she does, She’s faced with an empty hallway-- just the wall she had leaned against but no sign of her mother anywhere.
Except these keys.
Anna nervously shakes her hand to hear the comforting sound of the chinking metal, but they’re gone. Her hand is empty.
Fear consumes her body instantly at the realization, and just as it does, the echoes of growling fills the space around her in the hallway. Ana freezes at the sound, not daring to look back at the darkness at the end of the hallway again until she realizes the growling is growing closer. She turns around to face the creature, backing slowly away from it as her eyes adjust to the darkness and she can see the source of the hostility: two large dogs, as tall as her hip, standing side by side in the dark. Either Ana’s eyes adjust to the darkness to allow her to see the spiked collars and drool pooling in the corners of their mouths or she can simply imagine it -- either way Ana knows for certain, by their tiny steps towards as she shuffles back away, that they’re here for Ana. They’ve been sent by the thing.
Finally, her feet get the message and Analiese takes off. Exhausted, she runs down the hallway, turning down another in an effort to get away from the carnivorous beasts, but the barking and growling at her heels and the nails scraping the tiles of the floor don’t fade away. Even if Ana does find safety, manage to escape from this shapeshifting monster and its guard dogs, she’d be in so much physical pain it might feel better to simply die— if that’s even what will happen if that thing gets ahold of her.
“Please, please, please, please…,” Ana mumbles helplessly. Tears slip down her face as she whispers what had become somewhat of a song, a prayer, but on its face value is simply her dropping her guard and begging to any higher being that could offer aid.
Analiese wipes away her tears and decides to find my grandmother so they can get the hell out. “Nana?” She calls out as she runs past dark room after dark room, no longer echoing the sounds of the beasts chasing after her . She risks a glance behind her to see nothing but the dark, empty hallway, but when looking around her, she’s met with even more confusion. Everyone in the dark rooms seems to be frozen in time. They are sitting in the rooms, not paying attention to the screaming and frantic running. They don’t seem to notice the ongoing chase happening around them, or they simply didn’t care.
“Nana!” Analiese calls louder, nearing the end of the hall when sheI hears a voice beckon her from the last room.