Boom

*Thump*

Wha-...What was that?

I wake up from a dreamless sleep just in time for the second blow.

*BOOM*

The walls shudder and suddenly I'm on the floor, gripping the carpet fiercely as the room rattles around me. I shut my eyes tight, hoping for the worst. Then, all of a sudden, the shaking of the house comes to a complete halt. No aftershock, no rumbling. Complete silence.

I stand up, dazed and confused, as I hear a small patter down the hallway coming towards my room. Scared breathless, I had no idea what to expect. Was someone trying to bomb us? Had someone broken in our house? I had no time to think.

The room was pitch dark, so I felt down the plaster walls frantically, circling my bedroom until I found the closet door. I opened it slowly and jumped inside, leaving a small crack to observe the inside of my dark room. Sitting down amongst clothes and other personal belongings, I waited silently in a blanket of darkness.

The patter I had heard down the hallway became muffled steps as they roamed and searched the hallway for something. They would pause now and then, stopping at each door until they finally reached its wanted destination. My room.

I cradle my legs, holding back a whimpering cry as my bedroom door starts to open slowly. The small crack allowing me to search my room from the safety of my closet is though too small for me to see who –or what, was intruding. I didn't dare open it further, so I listen intently as my ears guide me in the midst of utter silence.

Then I hear it: First, the slow creaking of my door left swinging, then the flicker of lights turn on. Other sounds followed that left chills of fear even trying to describe. It sounded like worms gliding and slithering on the walls, outstretching up and over them until they reached the ceiling. Then, whatever it was, taking a few steps into the room with graceful steps until stopping in the center. The wriggling worms, however, didn't stop sliding across the room, searching endlessly for something. Inside my mind, I prayed to every god-like entity I could think of that it wasn't searching for me. Or worse. That it would  find me.

I almost scream as one of the tentacles comes around the side of the closet door, coming into my view. It was black, thin, and sharp, and had the appearance of some kind of wire. It had the movements like no animal I've ever seen in my life, scanning the corner of the room with almost human-like intelligence. It looked so unnatural, so vague. So demonic.

It suddenly stops, and retreats right before the closet door bursts open, and my eyes are naked to wretched horror that looms before me. A solid black figure towered over everything in the room, its long snake-like tentacles protruding from its back. But when I saw its "face", every scream I had held in escaped my throat in one loud burst, my voice piercing the insides of my skull.

Blank. There was nothing.

<span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">No Eyes, No Mouth, No Nose, No Ears.

<span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Nothing.

<span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Why this? Why couldn't the intruder be something else? Why did it have to be Him? I should've just jumped out the window when I had the chance...There was no escape now. <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">A low murmur of a disembodied voice rumbles from within the creature, and I let out another scream. Dear God, why? Nothing but this! No, I couldn't die like this! <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">I had no choice. It was all or nothing.

<span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">I closed my eyes and sprinted to where I knew the door was, and ran down the hallway like a bat out of hell. It took all my concentration to keep track of where I was going, tears flooding my eyes. I could literally hear it, no,  feel<span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;"> it, as it chased me. I ran faster.

<span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">It was a meaningless effort. As soon as I hit the stairs, its arms coiled around my legs, and I fell face first to the ground. My forehead nicked the sharp edge on one of the stairs, and a wet, warm substance trickled down my face.

<span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">I could feel myself fading out, my eyesight blurred and I barely made out the monster as it enveloped me in darkness, its featureless face right in front of my own. <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">Closing my eyes for the last time, I let myself sink into my own inevitable death.

<span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">-- <span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">--

''Thinking back now, I have no idea why I wanted to run. Why I wanted so badly to escape a reality like this.

This is the better road. My fellow ones and I agree.''<span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">

<span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">I stare at a reflection in the mirror. For a while I have no idea if it's my own, or another's. All I know is that I'm a newborn, and for now, I must obey the ruler. Our Ruler. The Operator.<span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;"> What more could anyone like us want?

<span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;line-height:19.5px;">I slowly put on the Mask, and the power I'm so addicted to returns to me. I'm ready again.

"Time is up. I'm coming for you, and you will lead me to the ark."