13 Land of The Beast

It let out a wicked cackle, that defeated both the sound of a baby laughing and Cloey's earlier cackle. The creature's claws scratched against the floor, letting out horrible screeching sounds.

"An energised prey is way more fun to hunt than one that lays still!"

The creature ran after them, its hunger growing by every second.

"Cloey, has your brain been hacked?!" Peter ran as fast as his legs could bring him. His hand was firmly griping her hair, scared of the possibility of her doing something crazy again.

"Yes, by the beautiful princess who's chasing us now!" fear had her blurt out nonsense.

"Everything would have been alright if you 'proposed' to her like a normal man," she accused him.

"I don't think that's a female!" rage was boiling within Peter.

"If it weren't for you, I would have become the flower boy and you could have slid the ring onto his finger," he yelled. Little did he notice that he was replying nonsense to nonsense.

"Awww, which one of you wanted to propose to me? Was the ring actually a punch. That's so sweet!" they heard a dark voice from behind.

The beast had almost caught their back, it's claws were striking in excitement.

They were literally running in circles, which they knew was a big waste of energy. However, hiding in a room for safety was the epitome of committing a suicide.

Soon enough, doom was certain if they got too exhausted. The creature behind them was full of energy that didn't show any sign of deteriorating.

A stream of tears trickled down Cloey's cheeks, her legs were hurting badly. It was because of Peter that she hadn't stopped yet, the boy held her hair in a firm grip and pulled it along with him.

She glanced at him briefly. Through her blurred vision and the darkness, Peter looked like another monster. His brows were furrowed and his eyes seemed like they were closed shut, she couldn't figure out if he was blinking or not.

Screeching sounds of claws appeared slower and slower, but only Cloey noticed that. Peter was still running, as if a sprinter had possessed his body.

The sound gradually stopped.

"Stop!" she tried to gain his attention. She sensed that something was wrong.

He kept running, hoping to see a clear sky that never appeared. Cloey's desperate shout went unnoticed, for he had only one intention in mind. 'Run for your life'.

It was hard to tell whether the humongous stature of the building was something useful or it was a severe impediment on the little luck they had. One thing was for sure though, it was either cylindrical or geometrically attached to form a straight path that would always lead to the same place. Luckily their eyes had adjusted to the darkness, they were able to make out certain shapes and figures from a distance.

Cloey grabbed his shoulders, attempting to shake him to a halt. Peter was in no mood to listen, he pulled harder on her hair and kept on running.

Her mind was a mess. They were supposed to be chased, but why did it stop? What was it up to that she had failed to figure out? All this chaos taught her one thing, always be alert of your surroundings.

With her hand that was swaying freely on her side, she wiped the tears, that blurred her vision to the point of not being able to see anything at all in the dark.

The kinetic force and her resistance against it caused her to accidentally poke her eyes that sent a jolt of pain, heightening her senses and serving as a cold splash of water onto her face.

In the distance, she saw faint glows of light in mid air. Certainly, she didn't come across any hanging LED lights or lamps when scrutinizing the place with Peter earlier.

When they were near enough, her eyes widened in shock. She recognised the light that twinkled with anticipation.

They were running towards the mouth of danger.

"Peter.... Chicken!" she knew that it was close to impossible to get him back to his senses.

'Semicircular canals in the ears are responsible to detect the position of the head and balance the body. So, if I just...' (Cloey's thought)

Testing her hypothesis, Cloey got a good hold of his hair before pushing it forcefully to the left. Nothing else can promise a good response from him. Like a steering handle, he began running in the direction Cloey tilted his head. They darted into a pitch black hollow that was first visible to the eye.

Though the glowing eyes have disappeared, that didn't mean they were safe. Cloey accidentally tilted his head forty five degrees instead of ninety degrees to the left, which sent them dashing diagonally. Her eyes widened in fear of clashing with the wall.

It would be catastrophic if they bang the wall and fell unconscious, the beast would get a tantalising meal for free. Besides, entering a room meant that their time of being alive was about to end. There was no way of escaping, if the beast entered it.

"You are going in the wrong direction!" Cloey whisper yelled at him, scared that the creature might overhear them. It was futile. Although she denied to herself again and again, deep inside she was aware that it was impossible for it to have failed to notice the direction they ran.

Her efforts of tilting his head further to the side were pointless, he had stiffened his neck. She couldn't stop him either as his grip on her hair tightened each time she tried to bring him to a halt. Tears threatened to fall out from her eyes again.

They were running into their graves.

"You featherless chicken, you can't fly. If not, we could have went to the other room and jumped out from the window!" Peter's chicken incident always came into her mind each time he made her angry.

"It's impossible for us to survive!" she yelled after losing hope. She shut her eyes tightly. They were going to collide with something and she comforted herself that at least they get to die without pain if they lost their consciousness. Before dying, however, she had one last wish.

To get revenge.

Her hand flung onto Peter's face as hard as she could to satisfy herself.

Before he got to react, they noticed that the ground beneath their feet went missing. They landed on a very smooth surface and slid downwards in an alarming speed.

Peter's grip on her hair was immediately released, they were both swirling around uncontrollably.

He who seemed possessed a few seconds ago started squirming and waving his hands despite knowing the uselessness of it. Actions like that made him swirl around dangerously faster.

Cloey landed on the cool floor first followed by Peter who was thrown a bit further than her due to his vigorous wiggling. They were both wide awake, no sane person would have remained in a realm of his or her own sweet dreams in a majestical palace after being thrown onto an ice cold ground like that.

The thing that they had just descended in an unpleasant way was a slide, which they had failed to notice but didn't fail to recognise. Such manner did cause a bit of disappointment in them, as it was supposed to be something for fun and not to scare the living soul of a human. Certainly, a slide at this scary building can't be credited for entertainment purposes.

Cloey's hand felt a bit wet, which she only realised after completing their unexpected fall. Her first act of kindness was to help Peter stand on his feet. A blow as hard as that was a bit painful to watch, let alone the pain suffered by the victim.

Sobbing sounds that were filled with pain and hopelessness caught her attention as she approached him. Peter was crying.

'Is that why my hand is wet?' (Cloey's thought)

A slight tinge of guilt burdened her heart. She had slapped Peter and he had literally just saved her life through an unexpected discovery. For a while, she contemplated on what she wanted to tell him. Should she comfort him first then plan a way to escape or plan a way to escape first, then comfort him?

Gladly, she had kept her phone in her pocket before running out of the moon lit room. For assurance, she took her phone out. The screen felt smooth, which meant that it had suffered nothing serious. She switched on the flashlight and observed the surrounding area. They were probably on ground floor, or there might be many other floors below this one.

Directly further in front of where she was standing, there were bricks aligned on top each other, the below one sticking out a bit further than the ones on top which followed the same design.

Stairs.

The golden opportunity they were searching for before actually existed, somehow managing to conceal itself from their eyes during their brief 'tour' around. If they had known of its existence, they wouldn't have encountered today's situation at all. Cloey held her grudge.

No weird black figures, no strange noises and most of all, no glowing light far away from the walls in mid air. She resumed her motive that she had decided to do after ensuring their safety first.

Her legs slowly approached Peter and she got down on one knee, certain of the position of his head by the long grass-like thing that spread out to all directions.

"It's alright, we are safe now," she spoke softly.

Her mind was full of thoughts on how much of a scaredy-cat he was but she kept it to herself. Her heart didn't give in to hurt him further.

"I know, we're both dead. That's why you look terrifying," he sobbed even louder.

"But who knew that our souls would be sent to the afterlife on a slide. And something slapped me. Did I commit that many sins?" he made a whining sound. Talking to him wouldn't stop him from making any noise, his mental state was far from reality.

Cloey leaned in a bit closer and showcased all of her teeth which was sufficient to mum Peter. After practically spending hours in that building with him, she realized that only fear was capable of doing a miracle to him, which was to quiet him down.

"We are in the 'Land of The Beast'. Don't make any noise. In order to survive,we have to escape from that thing. If not, it will drag us to hell," she flowed on with what she thought was a simple way to explain what they were supposed to do to Peter, who thought they were dead. A soft chuckle escaped her lips, she said that to simply confuse him but she was aware that he would soon realise that she was just having some fun.

His gaze flickered from the surrounding to her hand, which held the phone.

"How in the world did you manage to sneak in your phone to the other world?" he whispered.

'Cool, he's actually continuing the flow!' (Cloey's thought)

"Because I kept it in my pocket," she replied calmly.

"That thing just now, it's a werewolf. I am so certain, I saw it's head, it's wolf-head! The one we see in fantasy stories. That same monster! It's real!" his voice was filled with thrill and fear.

"No wonder... When I heard the growling sound, I knew it must have been that thing because we humans don't growl like that. The only living things in this building besides us is that monster. Now, it makes sense. Who knew those things actually existed," she furrowed her brows in deep thought. Peter's observation did make sense. They had never expected to stumble upon such an existence.

"In that case, we discovered it. Wanna name it Cloeter or Petoey?" amusement was evident in her voice.

"It won't treat us like a pet does to its' owner. And why would you even care giving it a name?" he was shocked.

"Well, the elements in the periodic table are named after the scientists who discovered them. It is our right to name it. After all, we discovered it," she was thinking of a suitable name.

"Hah, what a super discovery that is capable of wrecking Earth! Maybe we aren't the first ones!" he mocked her. If that beast ever escaped, the mortals would be in great danger but for now, only the two of them were stuck with it. His statement too had a point. If some other person discovered the werewolf, they might have ended up as one of its dinner. That's why no one got a solid evidence to prove its existence.

"Your phone-" he snatched her phone before completing his sentence.

" You crazy girl. You put my life in great danger. Did you think that the sound of a baby laughing would scare it? You even laughed historically, which made me more scared of you than him....." he was grumbling with rage. She was probably the only one to laugh at a werewolf and still be alive.

He scanned her phone's screen. His eyes widened when he noticed a golden opportunity. The signal bar was full.

"No wonder, you got to play the video just now! There was signal reception." he exclaimed.

"Uhm, that was actually in my downloads," she muttered but she felt a wave of relief. They can finally call the cops.

However, their state of peace only lasted for a while. Strange sounds were heard.

"That's the sound I mentioned. Footsteps, but not from shoes," he whispered slowly.

Cloey knew that their whereabouts were hard to be concealed even if they whispered, sounds seemed to be amplified at certain places. If it were the sound of footsteps, it could only belong to one thing. The werewolf.

She took her phone from him and went to Notes. The strange sound got louder and louder.

After typing something, she shoved the phone into Peter's hand and tapped on the screen three times. Then, she pushed Peter forward and ran to the opposite direction.

He got startled. Was she running away without him? Instead of following her, he paused for a minute to view what she meant by tapping the phone's screen a few times.

There was a note:

'Run! Don't just stand there! We'll stick with Plan A: Running for our lives while executing Plan B: Getting help. I will distract it and bring it as far from you as possible. You call the police! Our lives depend on you chicken!'

"Hui!" he muttered soundly in anger before hurrying to the opposite direction. It was too late to turn back now. She had ran off leaving not even a single clue of her trail behind.

There were a few dark hollows, that indicated the entrance to another maze of rooms. He followed his instinct and entered the third one, but he hid behind the wall instead of proceeding forward. His curiosity was at the brim, he wanted to see for himself the source of the sound. Was it really it's footsteps?

He crouched down and peered out, trying not to reveal even the least of him.

There it was. A large figure could be seen stepping onto the floor after descending the stairs. It appeared as sticks, which looked like its hands and legs but the view wasn't clear and enough to satisfy Peter. It didn't look like the werewolf, or maybe it looked like that to Peter due to the angle he was looking at it from. Something long swayed at the top, blocking half of its figure. Furthermore, he knew that objects seemed smaller from a far distance.

Should he go near a bit? He hesitated at first before dismissing the thought entirely. It was too risky. He convinced himself that the werewolf had a cunning trick under its fur. It must have used a cloth, most probably its clothes that got torn, which were used to hide his figure. That was a terrible plan to Peter's eyes, for that cloth didn't do anything else besides making it to be spotted easier.

'That creature is one cunning fellow! What a genius plan!!!' (Peter's thought)

He tried hard to stifle his laughter. It probably thought that they were fools. It was supposed to know that humans are intelligent species.

Loud stomps were heard from the other side. They continued for a few seconds, successfully seizing the beast's attention.

'It must be Cloey!' (Peter's thoughts)

The creature that descended the stairs quickly dashed off to the direction of the sound. Peter knew that it was his cue to determine their fate.

He dashed further into the rooms despite knowing that he would soon lose his way.

Once he felt safe, he sat down and switched on the phone. If he called the cops, they would ask his address. Eventhough he didn't know it, they can trace his location. Another side of him felt worried. The police need some time to track a victim's location, and the signal reception might not last long. This place was really weird.

He opened the contacts list and saw a bunch of weird names.

Pretty Gazelle, Juke Box, Shy Shy, Chicken....

'Did this girl literally name everyone she knows? I'm sure she didn't discover them first!' (Peter's thought)

The name chicken caught his attention. Though he knew he was wasting precious time, he viewed the contact information of Chicken and found out that the number belonged to him. He vowed to himself to find a suitable name for her soon.

When Peter clicked the dial pad, he was about to dial the emergency number when realisation suddenly struck him.

"Wait, we're dead. What will I tell them? That a werewolf killed us in an abandoned building and is now hunting for our souls? Please rescue us so our souls can live happily in the afterlife? My friend and I have lost our real body, you can find it by tracking this phone number?"

****** Hi everyone!!! Thank you for reading. This is an extra long chapter. Please vote and share what you think by commenting. Your support is my motivation!