Silhouette

There was nothing but darkness and bleakness in the room. It was quiet and sombre in there. Finally, the shouts and the floor crumbling were over, and Hilary felt a chill as darkness engulfed her. It was the most piercing darkness ever-it was not merely the darkness that came out of an absence of light, it was much more sinister.

The pitch-black atmosphere was impenetrable and she lay rooted to the spot, trying to stretch her eyes as wide as possible but she could barely make out a feeble outline of some distant object. It didn't matter to her how painful she felt. She was more pained by being alone than by the deep ache in her bones or the broken pieces of the floor that were attached to her feet. She crawled toward the nearby thing that she thought might have been someone else with her.

"Hello..." she said in a whisper, "Are you okay?"

She got no response.

The person became more recognizable as she approached it. Her sight adjusted to the darkness. It was Xanthe, she knew that instantly. His eyes were wide with fright. His skin had turned pale, his hair sticking to his forehead as blood dripped down. Laying his head back slowly, he rested his eyes on the half-broken black ceiling. This is probably a store room, he thought. He lifted his hands. They were trembling, and blood was running through them. He tries to ignore the horror of the broken mop that smashed through his throat and several shards of glass are embedded in him. Before he closed his eyes for the final time, he smiled and said, “This wasn't what I expected. Soon he drifted off into an endless sleep, surrounded by darkness.

Despite her desire to scream, Hilary was unable to say anything. She wished that she could scream but couldn't. She wished to scream for help, "Aah..." her cheeks brimming with tears, "Xanthe....." but her voice was barely a whisper, fading away... A dry sensation ran down her throat. She looked around for help, but could not locate anything.

There was nothing warm about that place. An unfamiliar sound was heard. It creeped her out. She pushed the ground as she was sliding backwards. The sound got louder; it sounded like shoes scuffing the floorboards. She hit her back with a small stick. She tried to pull it out. It was stuck. She pulled it harder, and some floor fragments came down, making a sound. She turned around with bloodshot eyes, pointing the stick forward. The moment the sound stops and a nervous voice is heard, she can hear her heartbeat. She thought her heart would burst out of her chest.

"Is anyone there?"

Hilary perked up and replied immediately, "It's me, Hilary!" She almost broke down and cried. Her eyes tearing up, she sniffed.

Following the voice, Elisue slowly hit something. He got down on his knees. "Are you there? It's me Elisue" he said softly.

"Yes, it's me," she said in the most stable voice she could get out of her throat, "thank goodness, someone's out there."

Elisue nodded, though he knew she couldn't see him. He felt the same way, however. Both of them sat there, and a few minutes passed. None of them moved or said anything, grasping everything and making their heads clear.

"We should start moving," Elisue said pushing the floor with his hands and standing up. "We should meet with others."

"Agreed," Hilary takes the support of the things around to make herself stable, "but I won't be fast. My left leg is wasted completely and my right one is not pretty sturdy itself."

Elisue smiles and searches for her shoulder, "I am not good enough, but I can support you"

Darkness came like the thick velvet curtains of the theatre. They finally found their way to the door. As they beam, they hope to find more light. Hilary slid open the door. The light wasn't much but their eyes were scrunched. Slowly getting used to it, they made their way out of the room. Elisue looked around. The hallway was dark marble floors and white walls, with several handprints and scuff marks. The windows in front of them were almost broken, and glass shattered in the hallway. They carefully started moving to their right, because if this was anything like their school the stairs would be found.

Hilary gasped. Elisue stopped immediately, looking at her and asking "What happened?"

She didn't look his way. Her eyes were fixed on that particular spot. She extended her hand and pointed at him, "Something is there, you see that?"

There was a weird silhouette. It started moving. The stairs are probably there. The dark figure became broader and more massive. Both of them froze in their spot, gazing at the figure. As they approached the silhouette, their whispering became louder. The silhouette no longer existed; it jumped in front of them, with a decaying body and crimson-red eyes. That scared the living daylights out of them.

"Holy cow!" Hilary shouted as she hit Elisue's shoulder. "Run! Run! Run!" she yelled stumbling backwards.

The wild cougar screeched as it followed them. It moved swiftly. Its movement was not affected by the glass shreds. It continued to screech as its body was dripping with white and yellow substances.

With their injured bodies, none of them was able to run fast, yet they were trying their luck to escape that wild cougar. They were throwing everything that they could grab. Not like they had much in sight that could be of help. Hilary was shouting for help but no one was there to help. She saw a fire extinguisher lying down. "ELISUE" she shouted, as she bent down to pick it up, "DUCK".

Without thinking much, he ducked down covering his head with his hands. The cougar jumped on them, and Hilary threw the fire extinguisher into the air. The jump was broken at its midpoint when it hit the cougar's face. Elisue got up hurriedly and grabbed her hand and took her to the fire exit which was in front of them, in just a few paces. "Quick! Run faster!"

He was almost dragging her as her legs were at their limit. They made it to the door. He tried closing the door, but his hands were trembling too much to be able to do that. The cougar was on its move, it was closing the gap between them.

"MOVE!" Her voice sounded serious as she pushed him and locked the door just as the cougar banged on the door pretty hard. The voice was audible to them. The bang made Hilary stumble though she managed not to fall. The banging continued, and the screeching did not stop either. She looked for Elisue, but he was on the floor trembling with fear. He turned himself towards her, it made him blush as she was trying so hard not to laugh. He clears his throat and rises, dusting himself off. He made a clear statement.

"You just pushed me so hard"

She could no longer hold it in, she laughed out loud, "Is that so? Come on dude, man up!"

Her laugh was interrupted by a resounding bang on the door. Both of them flinched and looked at each other. They were reminded again of the dangerous situation they were in.

"Let's keep moving, we don't know how much longer this door can hold that weird beast" he looked at the stairs, "hope this will lead us to the rest of them"

"Wait," she grabbed his shoulder. "I think we should move downward."

He raised his eyebrows, "Why? Don't you want to meet with them?"

Hilary let out a sigh, "Do you even know how long we were passed out in that dark room?" she turns towards the stairs leading downwards, "Knowing them a bit, I think they will come to find us, but we can't wait here, so it's smarter to move down rather than moving up and finding nothing" she continues, "Don't forget this is actually the Cadet test."

He stares at her for a few seconds and says nothing.