274 (Complex Series, #4)

With my cheeks flaming, I shut my eyes and wait for sleep to come. There’s no point in staying awake now. But, now that I’m allowing myself to sleep, it refuses to come.

I turn restlessly, unable to find a comfortable spot. I have no idea whether it is almost morning and time to get up or if I still have hours of night in front of me.

I swallow my pride and ask Tooth, “How long do we have left until morning?”

A soft laugh escapes Tooth, “Have you been listening to The Distress? In the Unknown there’s no such thing as ‘morning’ or ‘evening’. We just sleep until The Distress awakes and decides it’s time to move again.”

But, if there’s no night or day, morning or evening, how do you know when to wake up and sleep? How do you know when to eat?

I lie silently on the glow, staring off into the darkness.

Every single muscle tenses as I hear faint footsteps running down the hall. Tooth seems to hear them as well at hesitantly stands. He run sprints to where Greg is lying, shaking him awake. Greg groggily sits up, until he hears the footsteps. He jumps to his feet, joining Tooth. Together they awake The Distress as well. All without making a noise.

Greg and The Distress separate to opposite sides of the hall, flattening themselves against the walls. Tooth strides down the hall, closer to where the footsteps are going from.

Tooth lies down in the middle of the hall, clearly visible. His hands tremble against the glow. What are they doing?

 A silhouette turns the corner, several paces down the hallway. From the way it hungrily sprints down the hall, I can tell it’s not a human.

I swallow hard as the Thing comes closer and closer.

I wobbly stand up. Maybe, while their attention is focused on The Thing, I might have a chance at escaping. I inch along the wall, moving slowly as to not attract any attention.

No shouts ring out ordering me to stop. I continue inching away as the Thing barrels towards Tooth lying defenselessly on the ground. 

I make my steps slight longer as I get farther away. Everyone else’s attention is completely rapt on the approaching horror.

Ice slides over my skin as it lets out a shriek, like metal scratching over metal. It takes all my self-control to keep myself from sprinting away. I stride faster, my breaths getting shorter.

I glance over my shoulder and cover my mouth in horror. The Thing leaps through the air, landing on top of Tooth. Tooth lets out a surprised gasp, but doesn’t scream. The Distress and Greg jump forward the second it lands on Tooth.

They grab the Thing’s shoulders, wrenching it backwards. By now I’m several paces away, but I can still here the slam of its body hitting the floor.

I take off in a sprint. Their attention could fall away from the Thing soon.

Panicked screeches erupt from the Thing. I risk another glance backwards. The three boys are holding it down. The Distress appears to be completely calm, his barely visible silhouette bent over the Thing. What is he doing?

The hallway splits into to two parts. I dart down the nearest one, pushing myself to run even faster. My legs burn and sweat breaks out of every pore. My hair sticks to the back of my neck. If only I had done something besides undo my braid. I have no way of getting it off my sticky neck.

I force myself to keep running, my vision darkening and spinning. I only allow myself to take a short break when I find a piece of food littered across the food. I stop merely to shove it in my mouth before pushing myself forwards.