9

Nine Monday 9:30

Lily watched the door as she bit her lip. Her heart pounded out of her chest as she waited for Maddox to barge through the door with a pissed off Sage in tow.

She had been waiting like this for hours. Pacing back and forth, her lip between her teeth, while she rung her pointer finger.

She jumped at every little sound she heard no matter how small and insignificant they may have seemed.

It had been several hours since Maddox had left to look for Sage and she was beginning to worry. She'd called both of their phones at least 6 times each. The phones didn't even ring before sending her straight to voicemail.

For a moment, Lily stopped pacing and stared at the door.

She could see the stars twinkling just beyond the glass windows in front of her. The next thought that came to her mind was a spur of the moment decision.

Her feet made their way to the door before she had a second to think about what she was doing, yet the only thing that was running through her head was, 'I need to make sure they're okay'.

She ran as fast as she could to Sage's house, knowing there would be no way she would be anywhere else, she wouldn't take that chance.

Her body burned as she pushed herself to run as fast as she could. She didn't let herself stop until she had reached Sage's house.

All the lights were off, no noise could be heard from the inside, but her car was still parked in the driveway.

Lily knew it was a long shot; still, she walked up to the door like she owned the place and turned the doorknob.

The door stood firm in protest, refusing to let anyone without a key in the house.

Lily pounded on the door, much like her heart was doing to her chest. Her hand seemed to move in sync with her heart, making it sound like several loud bangs.

"This isn't funny Sage!" She yelled, not happy that her friend had bailed on her and now wasn't answering the door. "Open the door!"

The moon and stars above watched as a witness while Lily stood in silence for several minutes before giving up and decided that Sage just was locked away in the house somewhere.

When no one answered the door Lily began to pace again as she chewed on her fingernails. Tears began to well up in her eyes as she tried to think of a way out of this.

'Just go back home,' she thought to herself. 'Hide in the bathroom with your gun and you'll be safe. No one will be able to sneak up on you and take you away'.

Still out of breath, Lily began walking back to her house at a much pace than she wished she would have.

She was tired, her spirits were down, and she didn't know where her friends were.

Her feet dragged along the pavement as she walked without much of a purpose. A frown was prominent on her face while fear coursed through her veins.

The streetlights around her gave off just enough light for her to see. The moon seemed to put off more like the lights even though they were much closer to her.

It didn't matter how much light surrounded her though, she would always be able to the black mass stand out against the darkness.

It stood tall under a streetlight that was barely in front of her on the other side of the narrow road, closer to the grass of a yard than to the street. Though it didn't have any eyes or even a face, Lily could tell it was staring at her, calculating her next moves carefully.

Her breath quickened as she walked past the void in space slowly, hoping to not set it off in any way. It only watched her as she walked, her pace speeding up the farther away she got.

Just when she thought she was far enough away from the void and started to slow back down to a walking pace, it was back. It stared her right in the face as it watched from the side of the other side of the road again, only a bit closer than before.

It stood on the edge of the sidewalk; its toes almost hanging off the small ledge as it stared at Lily. The only time it moved was when she got out of its direct eyesight, even then it would only turn its head enough to keep her in its sights.

As her breath and heartbeat quickened so did Lily's pace. She forced her feet to push her faster in order to try and lose the dark void.

She watched it from the corner of her eye as she jogged down the narrow, empty, and dark street.

The second it was out of her peripheral vision it was in front of her again, not even giving her the chance to calm down or catch her breath.

The void mass stood in the middle of the road, closer to her than it had been before, only a few feet away from her now. Part of Lily wished a car would come speeding down the dead street and hit the mass before hopefully killing it but she knew that would never happen.

Seeing that she wasn't going to get out of this mess the pace she was going, Lily began to all outrun. Her arms pumped while her legs pushed harder than they ever had before.

Lily kept her eyes trained on the black mass by looking over her shoulder as she ran, completely ignoring the whole world in front of her.

The second she looked forward she had to stop herself in her tracks. Directly in front of her stood to avoid exactly like the one she had been seeing the past few days.

It stayed glued to the ground, watching her silently with a nonexistent glare setting on its face.

Lily's heart pounded in her chest as she stared at the tall silhouette in front of her and slowly took a few steps back yet she froze before she could get anywhere.

A sickening cold feeling began at the center of her neck before traveling through her in all directions. The hair on her arms stood up as the chill surrounded her like a cold, wet blanket.

She turned around with a pounding chest and a sickening feeling in her stomach. Looking over her shoulder, her breath hitched in her

A shadow identical to the one in front of her stood behind her.

Her chest rose up and down rapidly as she spun around to meet the new figure. Tears pulled up in her eyes as she looked up to meet his. Her mouth fell open without her consent while words began pouring out of her.

"Please just leave me alone," she all but whispered. The shadows didn't seem to care about her plead. They only stared at her as hey moved forward inch by inch.

Tears dripped down her face while her legs felt like they could give way at any second.

"I don't want to die. Please! I don't want to die," Lily babbled. Her vision began to darken and her knees slowly found their way to the ground.

While she kneeled in front of them, with her hands on her knees and her face to the ground, Lily pleaded over and over again.

"Just let me go. I won't tell anyone. I just want to go home. Just let me go home and I promise I won't do anything like this ever again."

The begging either fell deaf to their ears or they just didn't care enough to respond to her.

She pleaded against her will.

They listened without moving.

She cried at their feet.

They watched without caring.

Lily felt the one in front of her bend down to here level, its head still held high above hers. Its hand lowered to her head, petting it calmly before grabbing a hand full of her hair and forcing her to look it.

It's black, shadow-like hands disappearing entirely into Lily's golden blond hair.

Her eyes bored into a soulless, faceless, void of darkness that stood out in the small amount of light glowing from the moon, stars, and streetlamps. Tears poured down Lily's face rapidly before falling off of her chin without a care in the world.

The panic coursing through her body only flared up more when it's other hand drifted down her face, gliding across her neck before it began squeezing.

Lily flailed in its grip but its hold didn't falter. It only squeezed harder as Lily tried to getaway.

She gasped for breath as her head began to feel light and her thoughts became blurry.

The last thing she saw before she fell into the darkness was the eerie face of darkness.