Belief

The next thing I saw was a green-colored smoke with the smell of rotten eggs flooding the vents. I crawled for my life, scraping my knees against the rough vent flooring.

While I was scurrying around trying to escape the gas, I heard a harsh, dry cough on the other side of the walls.

"Are you sure that's not contagious?" The voice of the Father emanated through the walls.

The cough intervals slowly grew wider and wider until the man cleared his throat.

"I've done plenty of jobs like this, and none of my clients have ever gotten sick." A weak and sickly voice barely emanated through the walls.

"If you have an air converter turn it off and get a new one. I can't draw more attention."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll do that," my father replied.

~~~~~~~

I crawled and crawled in the vents, trying to think of a place to hide. I could feel my knees losing more and more skin as they scraped against the rough vent flooring. The mysterious green gas had finally reached me, painting the surroundings a light green.

My throat began to dry and irritate, and with every pained breath, my lungs ached as if they were roasted over a fire.

Blood leaked from my knees as I remembered something—a hidden spot—that he would never think of.

I continued crawling in the vents faster than I ever had before. My crawling speed became slower and slower as my eyelids slowly started to close on me.

After crawling for what felt like hours, I saw my salvation: the vent cover to my father's closet was right in front of me.

I forced my body in front of the vent and used every ounce of strength that I had left to push it open.

The vent covering silently fell as it landed on a pile of women's clothes.

I crawled my way into the closet, lifted the covering back up, and closed the vent covering.

~~~~~~

I opened my eyes back up as I stared at the opposite wall.

I made it through. I can make it through this. The fear and anxiousness in my heart decreased a fair bit.

I can do this. I can do this. I repeated these words in my head for a while, trying to calm myself down even more.

I was so focused on trying to calm myself down that I didn't even try to look in the direction of the front door.

Other than the words I kept repeating in my mind, the apartment sounded so quiet.

It was kind of peaceful.

It even felt as if a gust of wind had just pushed me.

But how could that happen?

My words of self-assurance disappeared from my mind in a flash as doubt and fear took their place.

My body turned, and my eyes flashed as I looked through the beaded door and saw him.

The front door was wide open as light flooded the room, but an ominous shadow loomed on the ground.

A giant man stood in the door's passageway.

Long purple hair flowed down to his chest, and his muscular upper body bulged out of the white t-shirt he wore.

Two stern legs were held in black jogging pants.

His fierce purple eyes looked forward with a menacing gaze. His eyes ignored the destroyed living room and kitchen and looked at the beaded door.

His eyes opened wide in surprise.

A psychotic smile grew on his face.

The man lifted his giant left arm and shoved the front door back.

The door slammed back into the frame. 

The beads shook, the floor quaked, and a man roared.

I FINALLY FOUND YOU!