10:02pm. Her head rested itself on her pillow as the lamp shed itself in her cotton corner. The old hardback’s yellowed pages had already crossed over, save for one. Abigail finished the final page, closed the book, and flopped it on the left side of her full size bed.
She let out a sigh. Two books in two days. Abigail stood and went over to her suitcase. She opened it and scrounged through it. No more books. "I knew I should have brought 'City of Bones'!" She groaned and plopped back on her bed.
The rain held a steady pitter patter outside her logged cocoon. Nothing else. She climbed in beneath her sheets and turned out her lamp. Her grandfather’s street light was just below outside and bright enough to cast a light on her bedroom floor.
Abigail reached for her phone. Still no signal. Placing the device on her stand, she rolled over and closed her eyes. No talking to friends tonight.
Lonely minutes passed by. Abigail rolled onto her back and gazed at the ceiling, listening to the weeping sky. Her mind wandered as the wind through the leaves. Is it always this lonely out here?
It was the last thing she thought…
AAAAAAAAHHHH! Sulfur. Waste. Earth filled her nostrils as she drew a breath. She coughed and sneezed and coughed again. Abigail pushed herself up from the damp ground. Her lungs were heaving, clawing for the next available portion of oxygen.
Her ears began to register the sounds.
CRRRRAAACKKK!! Shrieks of men. Abigail lifted her head to see smoke billowing from the deep mountain caverns.
Abigail mustered her strength and stood. Her eyes scrounged for any hint as to her location, only to find creatures she could not identify lying on the ground, lifeless. Her leather corset was soaked with black-red blood and sweat, dirt clung to its host like paint to a canvas. The stench of it nearly sent her stomach to the tip of her tongue.
Thunder rumbled through the blackened clouds as the wind began its attack, using the rain as bullets on her flesh.
More shrieks rose. This time they appeared to be more distinct, closer.
She shoved her physical discomfort aside and listened more carefully.
Another shriek. She rotated toward her right. Abigail identified where the anguish seemed to be coming from. The caverns! She thought. She sighed and hustled towards the orange-red, smoking abyss.
Suddenly, there was moaning of the rock beneath.
Abigail halted. Her pulse quickened as snake-like movement slithered through the foundation beneath her.
The movement came to an abrupt stop. Silence lingered in the wet, foul air. Moments passed. Abigail slowly released her breath and relaxed. All too soon, she was catapulted through the air and landed on her left side. Pain radiated through her shoulder and chest as she struggled to find air, even to moan.
HAAAAAARRRIISSSSSTTTTHH!
Abigail rotated to her back as the creature roared. She realized that the creature looking overhead was a snake, worse...a BASILISK!
The beast roared as it charged its jaws at her. She dogged it just in time. She rolled over onto a small sword, It will have to do, she decided. Quickly, she scrambled to her feet and dashed.
The basilisk chased her with its tongue barely a few inches from her heel. Don’t look in its eye. Don’t look in its eye. Don’t look in its eye. She turned and swung her sword, cutting off a small portion of its tongue.
The creature howled in pain as blood ran from its wound.
Abigail cackled, “Take that, mutant fossil”.
With a swipe, the beast swung his tail’s end and hit her right calf’s side, sending her through an airy summer salut, yet again.
Abigail screamed as she hit the ground, and this time, she was sure that she had broken something.
The beast slithered toward her tiny, broken body, ready for its feast of flesh. Its breath reeked, even from a fair few feet away.
She mustered what she could of any movement to search for her sword, but to no avail.
The basilisk crept closer.
Her heart began to pound again, harder and harder. Abigail crept backwards until she reached a large boulder. She searched for an out, but there was none. The basilisk had wrapped its large body around the perimeter. Abigail was completely trapped.
Death was taunting her now. The serpentine beast’s jaws moved in for the kill.
A voice called out in the darkness, over the hissing of the beast, over the thunder, over faint shrieks, over the near eruption of her heart. It caught the immediate attention of the basilisk.
The creature roared again, louder this time and with full hostility. It backed away and stood in full height, hissing. Abigail could hear the rumbles of a coming roar from within it. The creature released its bellow, but it was cut short by the piercing white light dismantling the darkness that made it up. The pieces fell and the ground opened up, carrying the late beast back to the abyss.
Abigail’s upper body shot itself into an upright position. Her heaving began to slow as she regained her awareness. She was back; back in her room and back in her bed, in her world.
The dawn was shining through her window, as radiant as ever. Pink and orange decorated the sky and mirrored itself onto her white sheets. The comfort of it washed over her as she gazed at it. But something else lingered there.
There was a presence in the room, hovering over it like fog over wet grass. Somehow, it felt real. But it couldn’t be...could it? Afterall, it was just a dream. She filed it all away and prepared for breakfast. Abigail sighed, No need to get worked up over something that wasn’t even real.
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