• She backed up with a whimper, feeling the wall against her back. The shadows advanced, looking like gremlins. They were all either black or some variant of gray, with white holes for eyes and a gaping white grin for a mouth.

    They crept closer and sniggered, an ugly noise. That's when the first line leapt, screeching out a loud, painful note.

    She smirked and the fearful look was wiped away as the girl's arm swung from behind her back, wielding a viciously large knife. It but the assailants to bits, black liquid matching the color of the fiends spurting out each wound with a squelching sound.

    The second and third waves jumped on the girl in her corner all at once, and her shape was lost among a writhing mass of shadows. There was the sound of knashing teeth, starved demons as they prepared to dine on the pure one's soul as well as flesh.
    Angry, frustrated sounds came next as did the noise of splashing, sticky liquid hitting bodies and animal squeals of repulsion.

    Of course they were repulsed, being bathed in the blood of their brethren. After all they were, cannibals wasn't on the list. Usually. As shadows fell back, the form of the girl reappeared among the rioting mass. Her knife was coated, as well as her clothes and hair, in black blood. She was not grinning anymore, but instead catching her breath.

    Wave after wave lunged, and each fell. Bodies lay in heaps all over the ground, stickiness flooding the surface of the slick floor. The dead mass seemed to quiver as more of the creatures grined, cackling and drooling. These ones didn't approach, they stepped aside. A tall figure walked through them to the girl, who's eyes were narrow.

    The new figure was black as the shades. grin white as his eyes. He chuckled and the girl stepped back, back to the wall again. The masculine figure chuckled more as the young lady took heavy breaths. She was lucky just to make it through the shadows this time, and was all but ready to pass out, her eyes clouded. As they cleared, her breathing changed and it seemed she had forgotten the man was there, for the look she gave him now seemed different than before. She looked fearful, suddenly sounding like she would break and start sobbing.
    He strode closer, taking lazy strides until he could have touched her, had he willed it so.

    The girl gazed at the floor now, deep breaths making her lungs swell with more panic than air. The man crouched to be face-level with the young woman, and she quivered, forcing her gaze to stay glued to the floor.
    A snicker from the man, and then he brought his hand up to her cheek, forcing her to meet what were supposed to be his eyes.

    A moment of silence, followed by a dark chuckle. Then a roar of pain. The man staggered backwards, tottering with the hilt if the knife protruding from his forehead, the creatures serving him retreating somewhat in shock.

    His hand was closed over the weapon, thick black liquid pumping heavily from between his fingers. He fell to his knees with a groan.

    The girl looked on, too shocked to move. She'd..Done it. She'd gotten him...She was still shaking, every nerve of her body was shot and a new spurt of blood was on her face.
    Lowering her head in her hands, she tried calming. As long as the creatures stayed away, she'd be fine now.
    As she brought her eyes back to the world, head cleared, the fallen man was hafting himself back to a crouch, empty white grin in place.

    She screamed. Crying out, she tried putting distance between them but found she was still against the bloodied wall. She panicked more openly, scratching at the wall with blunt fingernails, her only weapon lost, lodged in the beast's face.

    Chuckling, a sound like that of rattling bones, came from the shadow man's throat as he fully righted himself. The girl turned slowly, shaking, the light of fear clearly present in her eyes. She watched, unable to turn away as the man reached up and slowly withdrew the knife from his wound, making a noise so sickening it would make your stomach lurch.

    He approached the young woman again, and this time the creatures joined him. They were no longer frightened of this harmless, helpless child. She mumbled nothings, maybe prayers, so inaudible some even inclined their heads to hear. (just to find it in vain, they still couldn't understand)

    Knife bloodied with his own gore in one of his hands, the "man" knelt near the violently shaking young woman once more, and brushed aside her hair, leaning to whisper in her ear. The frightened woman was paralyzed, and knew that whatever happened next would cause a repeated event.
    The same thing would happen that had happened yesterday night, and the night before that, and the night before that. Every night she could remember, always basically ending the same way, just to have her repeat it again, despite how much longer she'd survived, how much further she'd gotten in this horror.

    The breath that touched her ear, her neck wasn't warm, like a lover's. Wasn't warm like any living person, for that matter. It was a rank, cold whisper laced with blood lust and malice and evil.
    Smirking, the man grinned and brought the knife up to the young lady's chest, whispering four simple words before running her own blade through her heart.
    "Time to wake up."

    As a searing pain entered her chest, her eyes flew open to reveal a normal 15-year-old girl in a normal purple bedspread, just before morning. She was shaking, though, and unlike most "normal" teens she brought her knees up to her pounding chest and pressed her fingers up against her skull. Her heart was overexerting itself and she was sweating.

    She still felt the press of her own blade, the chill of the dark thing's breath, and wondered how far she'd progress in the nightmare tonight, before being slaughtered.

    Hoping to catch a few moments rest before the alarm screamed, she took a breath, glanced around her room and let her eyelids slide closed.
    At least she knew the things could only reach her at night, as it was now dawn.
    The only other comfort was that she did, infact, always wake up.

    Just before unconciousness claimed her, she heard the cold whisper, "Not this time."
    In the corner of her room, she didn't notice the shifting of the shadows nor hear the click of a lock.



    The alarm went off, waking the young lady from her lousy slumber. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and groggily processed that her clock said it was morning,
    "Is it really morning already? It''s still...Dark..."
    the last word came to an abrupt stop as she came to realize the shapes of the shadows in her room were irregular. A lanky shadow in the empty corner of her room...

    "Good morning, my dear." A chill trickled down her spine.


    It only took a moment for her to understand that she was, indeed, awake.
    She screamed.