I woke up but it was different this time. There were no birds chirping or my soft down pillow under my head. My room didn’t greet me. Tall crumbling buildings that creaked with every whisper of wind did. With a swift movement, my feet were under me. Every sense on high alert.
“Where am I…”
Taking a few tentative steps forward, I was standing in the middle of a now abandoned intersection. It was silent. Too silent. The only sign of life was my own heart beat vibrating my ear drums and the crunch of my last step echoing down the streets.
“Honey? Is that you?” Whipping my head to the side, there he stood. My dad. The man who raised me. Standing in the shadows. Wearing his favorite teams jersey and his khaki shorts with the matching typical dad shoes that he was buried in 8 years ago.
“D-dad? Am I dreaming?” Tears stung my eyes as my feet carried me towards him with speeds I didn’t know I could reach. Crashing into him, the warmth I expected wasn’t there. “Dad where are we?”
“I’m not sure.” He said, stroking my hair with a deep breath. “I just know there’s a path down behind me that I followed here. Where I found you.” Taking me hand he started to show take me down the street away from the open street. Before us was an alley way. The end of it was unnaturally dark. A dark that makes your legs stiffen up. The dark you saw in your closet as a child.
“No. Dad stop. Somethings wrong.” He ignored me. His grip tightening on my wrist making me cry out. “DAD STOP!! YOU’RE HURTING ME!!” Digging my heals into the cracks of the street, I tried to fight my way out of his grip but his grip wasn’t normal. Wasn’t…human.
“Shut up and keep moving.” He growled at me in a voice that most definitely wasn’t his. I had to get away. Quickly thinking, I saw a fire escape coming up to our left. I forced myself to relax which in turned made it relax it’s grip on me. 5 more steps…4 more…3…2..1! Jolting to my left, I ripped my hand from its grip and jumped. The rust of the ladder bit into my palms as adrenaline pulsed through me. An ungodly inhumane noise rippled through the stagnant air. “NO! YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO LEAVE” Searing pain surged through my calf as I heard my skin then my muscles rip causing me to loose my grip. My stomach crashed into the ground causing any debris under me to embed itself into my flesh. It flipped me onto my back, my once short plump dad was now towering over me. All his limbs stretched and contorted like he had no bones. His warm smile replaced by a gaping hole of rows and rows of teeth that spun like blender. “You can’t leave here…” lurching forward his teeth came in-contact with my chest, drilling in.
Lurching up in bed, the restraints kept me down. A bright light blinded me. “Shit she’s awake! Nurse! More anesthesia! We aren’t done!” My eyes darted to the lady next to me then down at my chest, my heart beating in the doctors hand. “You can’t leave here…”
I woke up and I wish I hadn’t.