Hide (Sequel to RUN)

Preface

I jumped the last step lightly, landing on the floor with a soft thud. Lansing did not like it when I went outside at night. Not without him around. I'd found out the hard way that the last step creak a couple days ago. Also that Lansing is a very light sleeper. I was lucky the thud hadn't woken him.

Using the moonlight streaming in through the windows, I guided myself past the creaking boards I'd taken care to notice during the day. I opened the door with a sweep, smiling as it didn't make a sound. After closing the door behind me softly, I ran with a leap down to the very edge of the beach.

I'd made it.

I fell to my knees, digging my fingers into the sand. Lansing would be upset if he came out and saw me. He'd say I should be sleeping. That my body wouldn't heal as fast without rest.

Sleep is for wimps. I thought angrily, falling to my side to stare up at the stars. They were quite beautiful. Before the kidnapping, I'd never really gotten around to really looking at them. Spending four and a half months in a concrete bunker/bar had really increased my appreciation for them.

My eyes shut automatically, taking in everything that the world had seemed to forget. I fitted my body into the loving embrace of the beach. The waves lapped at sand not twenty feet away. I adjusted my position once again. The night air was warm, tickling my skin with the occasional breeze.

It smelled warm, as if when I opened my eyes the sun would be out. It felt as if a blanket was covering me. For one glorious second, I thought that the sand could pull me into a lull the bed hadn't.

My body started to relax as sleep started to take hold. I welcomed its warm embrace and felt subdued bursts of joy as I felt my consciousness retreating. And sleep was taking me.

No sooner had the eyes shut and sleep almost taken hold than my mind kicked in. The blanket that had seemed to cover me mere moments ago had become suffocating. The warm embrace of the sand had turned into constricting restraints, holding me down.

I screamed into the darkness of the beach, suddenly blind. The waves were now shouts echoing around on concrete walls, footsteps approaching. Coming back to get me.

My body thrashed in the sand, unable to move any more than that.

Unseen knives pulled at my skin, making shallow cuts. I screamed louder. The knives were everywhere at once, as if five people were cutting me up.

"Stop! Please!" I begged the knives. The footsteps were closer, pounding in my head. These ones were different, though. They weren't echoing like the others were.

"Make it stop! Please, just make it stop!" I cried, the hot tears starting to flow.

Rough hands grabbed me by the shoulders, their fingernails digging into the cuts the knives were making.

My screams rang out louder. A hand hastily covered my gaping mouth.

"Lekia, what did Lansing tell you?" a voice muttered into my ear. I could barely hear him as the sounds of the beach grew exponentially louder.

I was going into severe hysterics.

Spiraling farther and farther down into the chaos.