Annie's English Story

I was running.  I don’t know what I was running from, or where I was running to, so I stopped.  The cold fingers of Death were groping for me.  My eyes blinded with tears of fear, I spun around, summoning all of my strength, and sprinted off, into the blaze of fire in front of me.

Heat.  It washed over me like a wave.  I was burning, choking and gasping for pure air.  The fire, it scorched my throat, charred me to my very core and incinerated my fears.  I was scared of nothing.  I was slipping through the cracks of a dark eternity into the depths of a deep abyss.  The paralyzing agony then came.  The excruciating pain, it was white-hot.  It enveloped me, I couldn’t feel anything else as I tumbled into unconsciousness.

I felt the cooling touch of water.  Relief numbed my body.  Then, I realised I was trapped: a thick woollen blanket covered me.  I clawed weakly at its folds.  Then the events I remembered flooded into my mind.  The pain, Death.  Oh, what I had done!  Suddenly, I had renewed energy, bursting through what held me.  I hobbled toward the door, until, I spotted my reflection in the mirror.  I did vaguely recall in my past life that I could see energy.  I saw a shattered fragment of light, oddly next to a regularly pulsing, whole light.  It was only then I realised there was another with me.

I was exhausted, my body screaming with pain.  I dashed out, unable to take the relentless questions that would follow.

Delving far into the maze of tunnels, I finally found an irregular door.  Wrenching it open, I shrieked as darkness swarmed over my vision.

I groggily opened my eyes.  There was Elizabeth, chatting away like she always used to.  I let myself sink into the calming feeling.  Wait a minute, I thought, Elizabeth was lost in the…

I realised she was looking at me.  A cruel, merciless grin was plastered over her face.  Her eyes widened, then a thud of a hard object hit my head, I saw stars before passing out once more.

Walls.  An enclosed space surrounded me.  I pounded and battered against the walls.  After what seemed like an age, I heard footsteps.  Not just any footsteps, it sounded like they were pummelling the ground with thumps that resounded very deep into the earth.  I didn’t know whether to feel reassured or fearful.

The lid above me slid over, and a giant cockroach materialized out of the fog that instantaneously appeared in front of me.  I screamed and clamoured as those petrifying clicking things hoisted me into the air.  I was terrified of heights; I knew that at least.

Then, what must have been its mouth neared me, coming closer and closer.  I screeched in pure terror.  And it kept coming.

I awoke in a cold sweat.  Thank God, I thought.  I turned to leave – Elizabeth hadn’t taken any chances.  I was still her prisoner.