Time Left Over (Time Book 1)

Chapter 27

1:34 PM
October 12, 2019
The outskirts of Washington DC
9 Months and 6 Days Left

This room seems to be infinite, the only thing giving me any sort of reassurance is having Anna to talk to just to keep me from feeling lost in the immense cavern like room around us. With every passing minute I feel more and more like giving up. My legs are exhausted, it takes every fiber of my being to keep me on my feet. We have been wandering around the room aimlessly, while keeping a watchful eye out for Lucy and Adam. They have to be out there somewhere, I can't help myself from being worried, for all I know they could be dead or passed out somewhere in the middle of the room.

Out of the corner of my eye I catch something, something insignificant, a tiny sliver of movement pops into my conscience. My head snaps to the direction of where it came from.

"What is it?" Anna whispers to me confused as to why I stopped moving. I stare once again into the darkness looking for something, anything to indicate that anyone might be there. Before I am able to answer Anna's question, I see something, this time in the centre of my focus. There is a pale figure in tattered clothing standing in the distance just twenty feet away.

"Find something to defend yourself with." I urge to Anna keeping my eyes fixed on the creature looming in the distance. I notice the deep cracks that paint the skin of their body, almost giving them a demonic look.

I break away from their gaze to look back at Anna. She is frantically searching for some sort of reassurance in my gaze, as if that might ensure our safety. Without a word I look back at where the figure once stood, he has vanished from his position.

Suddenly completely drained of my energy the edges of my vision start to fade into blackness and my knees buckle and give out. I grip the wall to my right with everything I have left as I hopelessly collapse to the ground. I feel a pair of arms grip onto me before everything goes black.

*   *   *

I squint and rapidly blink my eyes as they adjust, I am still lying on the ground in exhaustion when I notice a familiar face looking down on me. It's Hunter, immediately recognizing him I scramble to my feet and take a few steps back.

"Jack wait!" Hunter says with an actual human sense of worry and urgency. Looking at him I notice that his eyes have retained their original color. I stop in my tracks waiting for him to continue. "I'm doing everything I can to control it Jack, but I won't be able to contain it for much longer. Soon it will consume me, and you've seen what it can do. Don't let me become that thing again, please!" He reaches in to his shirt pocket and reveals a gun. Every word and movement of his seems struggled requiring tremendous effort. "I want you to kill me Jack." He says offering me the gun, reluctantly I take knowing what he is asking me to do. "In a minute or so I'm going to turn back into whatever that thing is, and as soon as that happens, Jack, I want you to shoot me. If you hesitate then it will escape again and I might not be able to control it this time." He says his tone turning grave and his voice becoming less and less human. His head falls and his body starts to shudder and convulse. Then his head rises back to look at me, an evil smile spreads across his face and his eyes melt back into the demonic state they once held. Raising my gun to meet his forehead I deepen my stare and remove all emotion and sentiment from the front of my conscience. My index finger presses against the trigger somehow feeling comfortable in the adrenaline of the moment. The gun comes within milliseconds of firing when Anna crosses my mind. What we she think when she finds that I'm the one responsible for killing Hunter? How will she deal with that? What will she think of me after something like this?

Those seconds of hesitation is all Hunter needs to escape. While I am spacing out, he dashes out from underneath the barrel of my gun and vanishes into the darkness.