My chest rises and falls, I look around with icy eyes, I can't even close them. I start to sob in search of answers. I... I fell. I was running, I stumbled, I fell... I've already said that... So, what happened? Why was I running?

I drag my body along the ground but something heavy on my wrists prevents me from continuing. I try to see despite the dense dark mass of the room, I can barely make out that they are chains. On my feet and hands. That suddenly slaps me in the face. So, I've been kidnapped... Tyler had the balaclava, was he one of them? They've managed to trap me. I curl up and close my eyes tightly, bringing my hands to my chest and limiting myself to silently wait for the tremors in my chest to stop. Every single one of my thoughts is subject to my worst fears, to the "what now?" that paralyses me.

···

I think I've slept for too long. I can't keep trying to avoid the man who appears only to leave me a glass of water. If something has been done to me or they are waiting for a response from me, nothing good can be said. Other than the feeling of having my brain crushed and compressed in a box, there is no possibility of a single rational thought entering my mind to make me plan an escape or act on whatever it is. This is my end. These stories don't have a good ending.

I'm scared and I just tremble incessantly as if I were prey, alert to every noise. What should I do? I've tried to think even in my dreams about what I'm doing here, but I can't. It all must be a mistake because I'm the last person anyone would want to kidnap, especially knowing that nothing is being done to me and I'm alone in the dark.

I can't distinguish the colour of the walls or if there are objects around me. I often lean hoping to touch the large dark mass that surrounds me, and fear creeps into me when I do. A limited emptiness in an unknown space intimidates me and subjects all my movements. Anything can come out of here, and that only makes me curl up more in my place.

···

"Ah!"

I gasp at the scream that is heard again.

I don't know exactly how often this happens, but in the torturous silence, I hear groans of pain coming from somewhere very close to where I am. Although I force myself to believe that I am not alone here, between the cold and the sepulchral silence, I doubt it when one and only one groan is heard. Am I going crazy? Is this silence affecting me?

I cover my face with my hands in frustration, making my chains rattle. I need my mother, my heart hurts thinking about her worry, it angers me to have failed her. She's right, I'm not independent. This is how I've ended up not taking her advice seriously. It burns me inside.

When I can no longer bear this feeling of bitterness, I hear the door open. I immediately hide my head between my knees and cover my head with my arms. Very subtly, I hear the door creak shut and those calculated steps in my direction. Why wasn't it as abrupt as usual?

"Hey, it's me, where are you?"

His voice. It can't be. I dismantled the barrier in surprise. All the effort I've made to try to see in the darkness has served me to distinguish his silhouette. Tyler.

"You've come back for me," I sound breathless. I forget about the pain, the theories, and stand up so he can find me.

A torrent of emotions overwhelms me. I had never been so happy to see someone. He remembered and came to find me. Several tears escape me as I grope towards him.

"If you hadn't run away, we wouldn't be here," I feel my hands being freed. "They won't take long to realise I escaped and so did you."

I rub my wrists with desperation. Hope, already dead, is reborn in me like the sun in the morning.

"How will we escape?" I whisper.

"That I don't know," he replies.

And hope dies again.

"What do you mean you don't know? Where are we?" I ask nervously. In time, I feel his hands on my ankles, followed by a click. I'm now completely free.

"I think we're in an old factory or hospital," he holds my shoulders firmly. "The only option is to run when we see the opportunity, understand? Will you trust me this time?"

I'm not concerned about proving his trust at this moment, but rather what he just said. I swallow hard. Will my life depend on how fast I can run?

"Tyler," my voice breaks.

I'm so confused. I don't feel happy about being rescued... but what am I saying? I mentally hit myself.

"Just trust me. We'll get out of here, okay?"

I just hope I don't have another strange episode at this moment because I couldn't handle it. I look at what I suppose is his face and smile with my mouth closed. I take a deep breath before stepping out the door, knowing we're exposing ourselves to the unexpected. Immediately the abysmal cold envelops us like the unopened letter of a soldier dead in battle in the hands of a widow. Our fingertips freeze instantly, and our noses are tempted to sneeze.

The place looks spooky, the walls are worn, and everything seems like it's going to collapse at any moment. Terror is nipping at our heels at the possibility of a man coming out of any door and catching us. Slowly, I regain the normal circulation that was lacking in some parts of my body, and we start to run with great care. I don't care about the pain or the dust in the air when I see the light coming in through an open window.

"Tyler, wait. Look," I whisper, pointing out my discovery. We stop.

"It seems we're not the only ones trying to escape from here," his comment leaves me thinking. It's true, are we the only ones? I don't think so. Who's doing all this? Who have they mistaken us for?

We stop in front of the window with broken glass, breathing heavily and our hearts pounding like a locomotive. I look over my shoulder out of habit and distinguish with poor quality small lights of a peculiar color. My skin prickles with fear as I see a pair of gleaming fangs shining in the darkness.

W-was that a-a...? I can't even think properly due to the surprise.

"Tyler..." I say with doubt. I look at him uneasily trying to convey what I saw with my eyes but he waits attentively with a concerned expression for me to continue, but I can't say anything.

He doesn't insist and diverts his attention from me.

"I'll go first so I can hold you when you jump," he tells me before turning around and disappearing.

My breath catches in my throat and I clench my fists in fear. His agile jump makes me doubt if I'm tall enough to jump through the window like him.

"Take my hand," he reaches out and a soft breeze from the trees with a scent of... animal fur? What's wrong with you, Chlorine? Since when do you know what the fur of a wild animal smells like?

I take a step forward, I have to stop thinking such absurd things. I stretch out my arm and try to grab his hand, but before I can even touch it, Tyler is already being pulled away from me. This property is haunted!

"No!" I gasp, jumping out of the window in desperation. But I don't get very far, a cold hand grabs me by the neck. I struggle, throwing punches at whatever is doing this to me, until I realize that there's no one there. It's as if they're invisible.

"W-what's happening?" I manage to say with the little oxygen I have left to breathe.

"Chlorine, don't talk to it!" Tyler's warning in the distance scares me more than I expected.

"You see it too?" I ask, still frozen. Every second, the grip gets stronger and the blood stops flowing to my head. I can't feel my limbs and I don't have the strength to fight. I see Tyler being hit by something invisible and I turn my eyes to what's suffocating me, trying to free myself, but the millions of red, green, and purple dots blur my vision and keep me from my goal. The pressure in my head holds me back and I can't do anything.

"You have to close your eyes!"

I look towards Tyler to confirm that it was him who said that. It reminds me of what mom said when I had that intense dizziness in the garden. It takes me a while to follow his advice and I close my eyes not because I want to, but because I'm too weak.

A cold tear rolls slowly down my cheek. And the grip on my neck quickly releases. I fall like a dead weight onto the grass. It doesn't take long for me to cough, my throat starts to hurt fiercely. I put my hands on my neck, fatigued by the pain I feel, and shake on the ground, trying to get rid of the horrible feeling.

"We have to go quickly," he stumbles until he's fully standing. Nothing is trying to strangle us anymore, everything looks calm, as if nothing had happened. It's absurd. I look in horror as he walks towards the forest, I look behind me and a shiver runs down my spine. It's a haunted property...

Soon I'm at his pace, I don't know where we're going because I don't know where we are, but before that, I would like to understand why Tyler and my mother got me out of trouble in the same way. By closing my eyes.

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