I shivered violently, shifting each leg forwards, as though they were lead weights. It was pitch black. No light. Nothing, but the sound of the violent storm through the cracked walls.
As I had taken six painfully slow steps I thought I could hear the creaking of the staircase. I shook it off and continued down the long corridor. Seven, eight… I heard another creak, this time I was sure. I looked round. Nothing.
Nine, ten, eleven… I felt the presence of another body in the hallway. He can’t have found me. Fifteen, sixteen…. I heard footsteps …nineteen…the creak…twenty-two, I felt as though He was here.
I began to run, but each step made the next feel near death. Twenty-five, twenty-six… He must have been close now; the sound was ringing in my ears… twenty-seven; I let out a shrill scream as I tripped on the wretched floorboard, I crawled forwards. The utter indignity of it all. I could feel him laughing manically but it was silent in the passageway. Now the creaks were softer but much more frequent and I could quite definitely tell it was Him.
I slithered towards the wall; I could feel the thousands of doors on both sides closing in on me. Overwhelmed with claustrophobia I groped for a handle, but it was no use, I hauled myself up and again I was running. Thirty-three, thirty-four…He was so close that I could feel his hot breath on the nape of my neck, so scorching hot I felt as though I would burst into flames. Thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine…. More doors, but not yet there… Forty-one, Forty-two, He was there now, I could feel his long, unruly hair against my face.
I couldn’t stand it anymore, I reached the end of the corridor, but He was there first, I turned to the door that He had blocked and knocked with all the strength I had left, my bruised fists pounding with pain. The door opened and I ran in, blind with fear…but No! It was all a sinister plan, a horrifying trap, I knew as soon as I saw that He had followed me in. She was there. She stood in front of me with my dripping trench coat.
I could feel his slimy, cold, long fingers maliciously twisting my aching arms, I couldn’t fight back; every muscle in my body had turned to ice as She lifted the trench coat over my head. I fell to the ground; slowly suffocating in the wet darkness of room Seventy-three.
