Descending from Ordinary

Chapter 17

Then the faint hissing started again, this time coming from the fog.

"Guys, I don't think that's good.."

Tom and Jacob bolted as fast as they could while holding Mateus over their shoulders, but they definitely weren't going fast enough. The hissing was gaining on them, nearing closer foot by foot. The pathway they were in never seemed to end...it was stretched on for what seemed like miles. It was surely a trap. Searching for the next turn, Jacob's eyes searched restlessly; he was admittedly desperate for a way out. That's when he saw it—a sight-for-sore-eyes right turn around thirty meters away. To him, it felt like sixty, but an escape is an escape, right?

"There! Turn right up there!" Jacob shouted over the wind loudly brushing past their ears.

Tom spotted the exit as well, nodding his head. "Use all the energy you have, kid! Go as fast as you can!"

He was, Jacob wanted to tell him. But he didn't. Instead, he ignored the burning of every muscle of his body, the aching of his chest, and the building pressure—both physically and mentally—on his shoulders and thought about nothing other than getting out of that damn passageway. He wanted to close his eyes, but he knew that would probably be the worst idea. So instead, he counted the meters. They were getting so close. Twenty-five meters. Poof.

The hissing behind them sounded odd at the quickening volume they were going at. He shook his head, wishing that it was all he would have to do to rid of the taunting noise.

Twenty meters.

Jacob's vision was still blurry from breathing in a bit of the mist from before. He was running out of stamina as well, so keeping himself upright was a growing challenge. He prayed on everything he loved that he would. Not. Fall. He turned to look at the mist again, and more than one face and set of fangs were visible. If Jacob couldn't keep himself upright, he knew it would be all over—for him, Tom and Mateus.

Fifteen meters. Ten meters.

They were almost there. Almost. The sound of blooming flowers sounded like a million plastic bags popping one after one. Jacob could just imagine how close that stupid mist was to them—but he wasn't going to let it consume them. They had to find the others and, in order to find them, they had to be alive.

Five meters.

The next turn was right there. The hissing didn't cease but increased at a horrifying rate. Instantly, one of the vampires jumped right behind Jacob, grazing his neck and sending shivers down his spine. But it didn't matter. They were there. They were at the next turn. Just as the three boys turned out of the contaminated passageway, one last flower managed to bloom right next to Jacob's face, causing him to inhale a good amount of the mist before they finally made it out of the passageway.

Zero meters. They were safe.

Plummeting full-speed into the new, flower-free passageway, Tom and Jacob collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily. The three of them lied there—Jacob, Mateus, then Tom—side by side and completely exhausted. They lied on their backs and stared at them, literally, never-ending sun, not bothering to say a word. They didn't need to. And, well...Jacob couldn't. The pale people stood in the mist, staring out at the three survivors. An uneasy, sudden silence spread between them, the fog covering most of the vampires, only a few red eyes were visible at the front. It was as if they couldn't escape the maze, and accepted it. They now stood and watched Jacob- only Jacob.

It was beginning to get scary. Then Tom was also staring, but at his neck.

"Jacob..." Tom's face was twisted with worry and anxiety, he stood still as a statue.

"Thomas? Is something wrong?" Jacob felt fine.

"Y-your neck." He stuttered.

Jacob reached and felt his neck, only to be greeted by a warm, gushing liquid, then the scent of copper protruded his nostrils, blood. Jacob flinched, then felt it again. His skin had been penetrated by fangs, the two holes resembled the bite-marks, but nothing felt out of sorts. He was about to turn and continue walking, but he couldn't. Jacob blinked once at Tom. He couldn't speak.

Jacob couldn't do anything, actually.

Then all he could hear was silence, and all he could see was pitch the blinding nothingness.

Sight? It was long gone as the empty blackness wrapped around him at a time that seemed over an eternity ago. Though, pulsing, random visions were constantly flashing around him.

Red, black, white.

Flashing like strobe lights.

As if Descending from Ordinary.