After Dark

Adrenaline.

"I'm sure your tiny brain can figure out the rest." He said cruelly.
       Without a second to spare I dragged myself back on my feet; ignoring the searing pain in my leg to try to make my way to the closest exit. I ran; if you can even call it a run, almost 100 feet before I'd found what I was looking for. The restrooms. All of the exits were locked undoubtedly since I'd checked them earlier and without the master key that I'd stupidly threw away with my vest, I had no way of getting out. The emergency exits were within a close distance but with my leg bleeding and hurting as bad as it was I'd never make it with the 3 minutes I had left.
Pushing myself into the bathroom I sighed with relief. The windows weren't too high up. I could possibly make it through. Climbing on the sinks countertop I could just reach the windows ledge enough to push it open. I'd managed to hoist myself up and get my torso partially out the window.
"90 seconds." His voice echoed in the bathroom.

Daring a glance over my shoulder there he was perched atop the opposite end of the counter. My stomach immediately dropped. I'd always pictured psychopaths to look like Jeffry dahmer or Ted Bundy. Hell I'd even been convinced that the prince of darkness himself Ozzy Osborne was a secret axe murderer but the man threatening to serve me on a silver platter to the green goblin didn't fit any of those categories. His only remotely suspicious feature was a long scar that went across his forehead. Honestly if he wasn't trying to kill me id ask for his skin care routine. He wore his long black hair half pulled up into a bun, a piece flowing freely in the front and was draped in a golden kasaya over a black yakata robe. At least he'd dressed up for my demise.
Shoving the mental image of him to the side I focus back on my escape. 90 seconds. Shit. I continue trying to pull myself through the window as quickly as possible. It's about a 15 foot drop but considering the angle I'm at I'll probably break my arm trying to protect my head from cracking open but it's better than the alternative. Reaching to the sides of me I use the window frame to support myself turning my body 180° then I reach above to grab the top of the frame to try to maneuver myself up into a sitting position. The adrenaline starting to wear off I feel myself getting light headed from blood loss. In the background I hear a snap, followed by the feeling of nails digging into my ankles.
"Let's make things more interesting shall we?" The man says in an apathetic tone. "You have 30 seconds left; but I'm not really in a generous mood anymore you see, chimp?"
I stared back at him, biting my lip to stop myself from crying out in pain. Gandalf was back and had been the one to dig his disgusting nails into my ankle. Tears threatened to spill over as I tried to yank my leg out of his grasp, only causing his nails to dig deeper. The taste of copper now coating my tongue as I bit down on my lip harder. Once more. I just need to kick him hard enough to loosen his grip so I can get the rest of the way out.
      "aaah" the man started again "I see....did you think I'd actually allow you to escape?" He laughed. "Of course you did.... and I'll admit, I didn't think you'd get this far but even still, I'm growing bored. I'd rather play a little more if you don't mind"

"NO STOP PLEASE PLEASE ILL DO ANYTHING JUST LET ME GO" I screamed and instantly regret it. A slow sadistic smirk made it's way to the mans face before he spoke again. "it seems a little monkey, has forgotten my warning earlier"

It was now or never. With my last bit of strength I kicked Gandalf in the chest, crying out in pain from the tension it caused in my wounded leg. Even worse is Gandalfs grip didn't lessen by even a little.

"as entertaining as that was, we're going to start our little game now." Standing up from the counter he walked over slow and deliberately. "I do recall telling you not to speak, I guess the fear of getting eaten alive wasn't enough motivation for you. You're lucky I don't want our game to end so quickly." He paused, reaching up and resting his hand on calve, slowly letting it guide itself my leg until his hand rested on my inner thigh.
   "instead, I'll leave you with a little reminder. Every time you decide to disobey or not follow the rules of our game, there will be consequences" tightening his grip on my thigh before I could register what he was doing he rips the glass out of my thigh and slams it down into my other leg. Immediately crying out I clutch at both my legs loosing my balance in the window, he turns to leave the bathroom with two final words.

"Drop her" and then I'm falling. Unable to try to lessen the impact I hit the ground hard. I mean really fucking hard. The pain in my head and back are nearly unbearable.  Even breathing makes me wish for death. With the glass free from its original place, the wound was now freely bleeding and with each passing second staying awake became harder and harder. Weakly I tried calling for help until my voice gave out. Darkness enveloping my senses with only a soft whisper lingering behind as I slipped into nothing.
"I'm not done playing with you just yet ."
***************
I had thought dying would be beautiful. Not in a fairy tail sort of way but the after. The transition from one stage into the next, I'd pictured it to be peaceful like sailing on the ocean with nothing but clear skies and the sun shining down on you, warming you to your core. Like the feeling you get when you're a kid and ride a bike for the first time. Just pure unadulterated happiness. That's what I thought. But of course like in most things in life, I was wrong. Dying was nothing like that. It was cold and bleak. There were no clear skies, no warmth, no happiness. There was nothing. Absolutely nothing but emptiness. Sadness that ran so deep it felt like it would consume me. A feeling I couldn't shake no matter how badly I wanted too.
     I wondered around aimlessly for what felt like years but could easily have been minutes or seconds. Time had a funny way of escaping you when there was nothing but darkness. Time. ha. The one thing I had the most of now in death was the thing that killed me ultimately. But no matter how much time passed or how hard I'd try to forget the bastard that sent me here, I couldn't. His words echoing over and over. The chill of his emotionless gaze haunting me. Once again I'd found myself running blindly trying to escape him.
"Running won't help you" his voice rang out

"You're not real." I replied out of breath, searching for something, anything that could help keep me sane.

"Then why are you running hmm? And might I remind you're breaking the rules again."

I could all but hear the smirk on his face. I spent too many days like this, running while he rambled on about how feeble my attempts were or how stupid I was for thinking I could do anything on my own. At first it had been terrifying. Hearing the man who essentially killed you over and over. Until eventually I'd realized I was already dead so what could he do besides be annoying, but at times, something just didn't feel real right.

"it's be 2 weeks (y/n) stop being so fucking dramatic and wake the hell up or so help me sky daddy I will ruin every show on your watchlist."

Frantically looking around and finding nothing I started to panic. It was the first time in forever I'd finally heard someone else's voice besides that pests.
I waited for what felt like eternity for it to come back. The emptiness that id been feeling finally starting to give way to something else. Longing. I missed my family, I missed my friends. I missed everything that I'd taken for granted and wanted it back desperately.

"Say it...Out loud." My voice weakly rose to just above a whisper before being bombarded with sobbing.