Fire

It was late–the dark sky dauntingly patterned with clouds that obscured all light from my vision. Walking home from Stephenie's house, I paid little attention to the path I was walking on. My thoughts consumed me almost entirely–only leaving me alert when I had to change my direction in order to arrive home. From what I had noticed, the road appeared to be void of any human activity: each amber leaf untouched, every fallen twig unsnapped.

How strange, I thought.

I had been sure that this road was treaded on regularly, for it was behind a school. I decided to let it go–it was close to midnight, and I didn't want to come across any trouble. I walked brusquely into a tunnel, only to regret it immediately. Violently, the ground began to shudder–as if a stampede were passing– and the tiny pebbles by the walls jumped up and down frantically. Was it an earthquake? I didn't know. I tried to reassure myself that it was nothing. The voices are making me imagine it all, I repeated over and over. I just couldn't make myself believe it. At that moment, I looked out to see water began to drip from the sky, pitter-pattering against the roof of the tunnel. As I glanced back, black, inky dirt began bleeding through the walls and began to form shadow like creatures. Clawing their way along the walls, they were seemed like evil from another world, ominously stretching their arms out to grab me. I took a hasty step towards the exit.

Just a bit too hasty.

They stretched out further for my neck, clenching their bony hands more tightly than a snake coiled around its prey. A single breath from one left an elusive stench, repulsive to the point that it made me feel the impulse to gag. Their arms flapped, and with each swish came a powerful wind, tossing myself around madly and contorting my body into inhuman positions. My back ached and my screams became more hoarse the more desperate I became. 

Leaves circled into tiny hurricanes, wrapping around my ankles and pulling them together. My balance was thrown off–I was trapped. The sharp winds forced me into the arms of the shaded creatures on the walls, allowing them to devour me. I struggled against the air, whipping my body back and forth trying to tear away. My hands were cuffed together by the torturous monsters looming over me. There was no escape. 

As I grew weaker, the nightmarish scene thrived. My back arched against the wall weakly. As they fed off of my pain, the light began to dullen, my breathing began to regain control. As much as I just wanted to fall to the ground and give in, leaving all the suffering behind, I couldn't. I saw my chance and seized it. For a moment, I felt as if I was capable of breaking free, that this nightmare was all an illusion. I shoved myself away from the roughly curved tunnel wall, scrambling into the middle of the path. The ground still shook powerfully, and I still felt the fear in my mind. The distorted shadows reached out from the wall–something I had thought impossible–and yanked my left arm towards it. I gasped for air once more, all memories of panic returning to me. My pulse raced, blood coursing through my veins. Desperate as I was to run, my feet were plastered to the ground, as if sunken into cement. The darkness and the wind continued to close in on me. Knees buckling beneath me, I prepared to say goodbye to the world around me. I covered my faces with my palms, not bothering to wipe away the tears that streamed down my face. Was this really how I was meant to end? I closed my eyes–at least I wanted my death to be serene. I didn't want to be the person that fought against the natural events of life. I accepted what was happening and just slowly waited for silence to come. The shaking around me began to slow, yet the voices didn't evaporate. I slowly opened my eyes. Nothing had changed. Everything was silent, the only noise coming from a distance away. 

It was a high pitched screech. 

A huge wave of understanding washed over me. There had been no earthquake–it had literally just been a train passing above my head. The screeching had just been the brakes drawing the transportation to a halt. I shook my head in disbelief, too overwhelmed with relief, but still somehow found the energy to chuckle under my breath. I dashed out into the heavy rain, still not eager to spend any more time than necessary there, all the while thinking, How could I have been so ignorant?