I was running as fast as I possibly could. Running from what lurked in the darkness behind me. I couldn’t see anything in front of me, I didn’t even know where I was going. All I knew was I needed to get away from it. My legs ached from running and my throat burned from breathing so hard. I started to slow down but I kept running. I pushed myself to run faster knowing that if I couldn’t get away, I would die. I heard a deep growl from far behind me. It was gaining on me, it was catching up. With a new flush of adrenaline I sped up and the growling faded. I wanted to stop, I wanted to just give up. But knew what I had to do. I was the one who was chosen for this job and I was the only one who could complete it. I had to find a way out of the darkness, out of the danger of this...thing. No one has ever seen it and no one has ever wanted to, but in order to complete this job I had to break out of it’s prison and run. Which meant I had to to see it’s hideous appearance. Breaking out of it’s prison was not easy, at all. It was complicated and brilliant. I had never thought of breaking out, I never thought anyone would try. The man told me that there was a way out and I was the only one who could find it. I was supposed to be the savior of our people. This was huge and I didn’t know if I could do it. But if I declined this job I would live in regret for the rest of my life. If I didn’t have the strength to press on I was going to die trying. I am not a person to let down the entire human race.
After an hour of running I knew that the monster had given up. How did I know? I didn’t, I just felt it. I felt that it was time to slow down, gather my thoughts, and look for a way out. I scanned the darkness and lost almost all the hope. I started to tremble with fear. The monster had given up for now, but it would come for me eventually. Then I saw what looked to be a glimmer of light in the distance. The man put his hand on my shoulder.
“It will be a few days travel, “ he said.
“A few days!? It will definitely find me by then!” I said, frantically.
“Not to worry, you have entered my realm. You are safe here. That is why it gave up on the chase," he explained.
“How do I get there?” I asked, changing the subject.
“With this--” he pulled a small locket out of his bag.
“How will this help me travel?” I asked, confused.
“You will learn when the time is right,” he said, then disappeared. Once again leaving me in a swirl of a thousand questions. Why couldn’t he just give me a straight answer? He said the same thing when he came to me in the monster’s prison. You will learn when the time is right. What was I supposed to learn? The only thing he told me that didn’t seem like a riddle was, “You have to find a way out!” This one phrase was repeated in my head about a million times before he showed himself. After that he just rambled on and on about how I was the ‘chosen one’ and that I had to free everyone locked in this cold, dark place.
Anyway I should probably tell you a little bit about myself before continuing. I am fourteen years old, I’m pretty sure...maybe fifteen? I’ve been trapped down here for so long I dont even know what year it is, pretty sad, right? I have long, black hair and dark blue eyes. I hate being alone and unfortunately that’s how things have been, since the human race was captured. Alone.
As for this place, I didn’t know what to call it other than The Prison. Even though it wasn’t really a Prison, we weren’t locked up in cells or anything. We had limited space. There was a large wall, about twenty or thirty feet tall, surrounding an extremely vast space of nothingness. I know, I know. What’s the problem if you had so much space to roam around in? I’ll tell you the problem. No one could see anything. Well you could see, but only if something was about two or three feet in front of you. But you could still hardly see a thing. So this light must have been really bright to cut through the thick darkness.
A chill went up my spine and my body flushed with relief. I started walking directly towards the faint light that could possibly be a way out of the worst place on earth. Were we even on earth? Whatever, I didn’t care. All I cared about was that there was a way out, and I would stop at nothing to get to it.
