Chapter 34

Screams. Screams everywhere. I run. I don't know where I'm going, I never do. I just run. It's always the same route, I should know it by heart by now, but I don't. My mind can't seem to pin it down. I run and run and get caught up in thorns. I always do. It's catching up, I feel it, I don't even have to look behind, but I do. I always do. I don't even know who's screaming, it might be me. I feel its presence getting closer. I don't know where its eyes are, I don't know where its mouth is, how it could kill me. It just would. It always gets closer and closer and closer until it's a second too late. I exit the wood. There's a small parking on my right, a gate on my left. The horse and goats which are usually there aren't there, but I can hear the dog bark. I don't know where it is. I don't know where this place is, I just know that if it were to exist in real life, a horse and goats would be there. I think this place exists in real life. It's too detailed, too perfect, too real to be all in my head. I look around. Usually I don't hesitate, I just run straight, past the houses, past the factories, into the fields and just when I'm about to reach the nearest town, a place I have never been to but know I could hide in, it's too late. It's too close, I would never be able to outrun it. I always see a little abandoned church in the middle. It looks peaceful, it's just between two roads who end up crossing right after. I know that church is my safe place, I know that church is the beginning of my infinite number of hiding spots. I am always anxious, I am always panicked, until I see the church. Even when I know it's too late, the church brings me bliss. I think I would die there peacefully, even if it were for the globe behind me, I would be okay with it, as long as the abstract arms of the church hug me and slowly bring me to sleep. A sleep I would never wake up from. Everything's as dark as Black 3.0, everything's scary, everything is threatening. The globe too, though per se it doesn't feel like it. It feels harmless, naïve, but its intentions are to kill me. If I weren't to cross the fields, but instead to follow the road, I would probably get to the church on time. I would definitely get there…

But I'm far from the church and I've waited too long. I never ever hesitated before and I don't know why this time it's different. I have no time to go to Him to ask for help, no time to hide. If I hide at the fountain it'll find me, same goes if I go to His house. I spot a little opening between the trees just after the car park. I dart towards it. It's close, but I feel its confusion, not expecting me to go that way, I think it even proceeds to hover in the usual direction for a second, before re-routing. I never did this before, this never happened.

I dart. Scratch that, it's faster than darting. I never ran this fast and I'm suddenly full of energy, all the fatigue vanished. I feel like those super athletic outlaws you see in cartoons, the ones who can just about do anything. I can't afford to push my limits. I see a little road on my left, but I would have to climb, and since it's floating in the air and it would require it no effort at all, it would be a disadvantage to me. So I follow the main road. I follow it on the turn and I'm met with a steep descent. Being in the woods, the floor is all made up by rocks. I have to be careful. I continue to run.

As if on cue, two steps and I slip, landing flat on my ass, and then roll down the hill, if you could call it a hill. Bet I don't feel so powerful now.

Once I finished falling, I'm back on flat land. My head hurts and all my body is on fire. I'm lying on my stomach. I put a hand in front of my face, noticing scratches all on my arms, and force myself to pull my body up. I see it take the turn and come towards me. Shit. I stand up in a rush. I am at a crossing. In front of me there's a road, it looks quite easy but narrow. On my right there's a more open road, the kind of wide ones you find at the exit of a forest, while behind me another one, a bit less defined, brings deeper into the woods. That one is completely out of consideration. If I go straight, it might be too small for it to pass, but there are lots of leaves in the way so it might stop me. It could also fly higher, though I never saw it do that, so there's that. Next time. I settle on the one to my right. I dash, running hard. It hurts so bad, I am completely out of breath, but not the kind that makes you feel good. The kind that makes it nearly impossible to go on, the one where you know, the second you stop, you are done, you will collapse. But I can't collapse, if I do it'll be the definite time. Definite defeat. I can't.

I run and soon enough, I'm out of the woods. On my right there are tall, horizontally striped black and white walls. I don't know how, but I know it's a cemetery. I run past it and I think I'm in a town. The road I'm on brings to another one, and I run to my right because it looks like it goes deeper towards the center. It's farther behind compared to before, so I use that to my advantage and go into another road, a private one, I think, when it can't see me. The drive passes through a house, as in the house is a kind of bridge on top of it, so it will only be able to see me if it passes right in front of that road. I can feel it's confusion, it doesn't know whether to go right or left. I run up, climbing halfway up the hill. I am passing right in front of a riding school. It reminds me of something, it brings back memories but I don't know which. I feel a ringing in my ear. I can't let anything distract me. At the top of the hill I see other woods. A chance to hide and go back home, though I have no idea where home is. That's my chance to escape. The sound's getting louder, it's pulling me out, but I can't let it, I'm almost safe.