Chapter 4 Lost in Madness

Something pursued her with a single minded intent. There was no stopping it, all that
was left to do was run. Ten yards behind her, air shimmered violently, the sole visual
manifestation of her pursuer. A constant piercing squeal emanated from the torrent of
air. It was an unnatural sound, alive with warning. Eril leapt over a crevasse and
clambered over a large pile of detritus.
The concrete jungle bristled with hazards, working against her; confusing her, offering
pitfalls, snares and false trails. Everything was coated in a grey pallid dust which
seemed to speak of death. The taller buildings loomed over her against the backdrop of
a sickly yellow sky; their dark blown out windows making them look dejected in their
abandonment. As Eril ran past, the  towering empty vessels leaned towards her. They
hungrily reached out to her, a being which could give them purpose; return to them their
souls, their meaning for existence in this vast lifeless landscape. Bending at impossible
angles, they seemed to be on the verge of collapse. Yet, their crushing weight was no
where near as alarming as what followed in wake of the dust she stirred.

Risking a glance over her shoulder she saw the force was gaining on her. Instead of
going around obstacles as Eril had to; it simply ripped apart anything in its way, sending
shards, splinters and chunks whistling in all directions. She needed to get to clearer
ground, too many impediments lay in her path; they were slowing her down. If she
slowed any more- if it reached her, there’d be no defense from such destructive power.
‘I’ll be reduced to a bloody mist’. Eril pushed on harder, not willing to accept such a grim
fate.

She spotted the westbound freeway through a chain link fence; just what was needed to
put more distance between her an it. ‘If I can make it there I might be able to outrun it.
Dodging and weaving through all this mess will be the end of me’. Ahead an overturned
bus sealed off the intersection she needed to get to. ‘Where did that come from? it’s
completely blocking my way!’  The force drew ever closer, the terrible noise it emitted,
so loud it was maddening. Eril was quickly running out of options. She was almost on
top of the alleyway when she saw it to her left. The decision was instantaneous but
changing direction at such a speed proved more difficult. She managed to slip into it’s
opening but her momentum threw her into a crusty brick wall. Bouncing off, she
recovered her balance and resumed her flight, at a speed that could only come from
great urgency. Eril flew past twisted, lurching fire escapes and corroding bay doors,
knowing they offered no chance of escape.  She could hear the thing as it chewed
through the building she was running past.


The wall exploded directly behind Eril. Large chunks of brick slammed into her back,
almost bringing her down. The thing was quite literally cutting corners, now just a few
feet behind.
Eril ran faster. A swarm of shooting, stone fragments assaulted her at every step. A
stinging promise of doom. Up ahead her alleyway ended abruptly in a dead end. The
wall of another building loomed before her. There were no adjoining alleys and no
doorways into the three converged structures. A window roughly 8 feet up the wall,
offered the only path forward. Eril went for that window. It was the only option she had. It
seemed humanly impossible to get up to and through it in the allotted time. Her mad
dash through the alley had only gained her several more seconds. Drawing closer to the
window brought a pile of old skids into view. they lay nestled against the right outer wall.
They did not lie too close to the window, nor were they even stacked very high but they
were her only chance.

Praying they would not trip her up, she jumped onto the skids; landing at a run on the
wobbly surface, filled with treacherous gaps. her legs worked in a wild skipping stumble.
It was a queer dance where balance was the key and losing it would mean her death.
Reaching the end of the skid with still a good two yards between her and the window,
Eril took another gamble. Instead of leaping for the window, she pushed off the edge of
the final skid and twisted to plant her feet on the wall. Eril managed four critical steps:
running up and along the flaking brick wall. The instant gravity began to pull her down
Eril sprang away from the wall and towards that window. She closed her eyes and hit it
with a crash. instinctively tucking in and rolling with the fall. glass tinkled and clattered all
around her as she hit the floor.  

Something was different... Eril tried to get to her feet but failed. The floor sucked and
pulled against her futile efforts, not willing to relinquish it’s grasp. Her sense of alarm
grew as she realized she could not go on, could not escape the thing that pursued her. It
was right behind her- in fact, it should have been on top of her by now. Lying there on
the floor, she realized the only sound was her heavy breathing. Why couldn’t she hear
that horrid squeal ? All had gone silent, upon entry of the building.  Finally managing to
roll onto her shoulder, she looked back through the window frame and the remaining
jagged bits of glass still hanging there like so many cruel teeth.

Eril expected the thing to rip through the surrounding wall and finish her any second
now. Waiting for the hammer to fall was agonizing, as the seconds ticked by. So riveted
was she by the window, so focused was she in spotting the shimmering onslaught,  that
Eril was slow to notice a strange blue mist curl and flow out of the window. She looked
around and realized it drifted all about the room. There was something quite different
about the place. As she took more notice of her surroundings, Eril began to feel a subtle
yet odd vibration in the air. Did it come from the peculiar mist? “Get up Eril.” The voice
jolted her, at first with its startling arrival and then with its familiarity. ‘That voice- it can’t
be! ‘

“Get up Eril, you must go, it is coming again” Propping herself up on and elbow she
looked wildly about the room searching for the source of that voice, not being able to
believe it was truly him. And then she saw him, standing in the corner, the blue mist
swirled around him, almost seemed to be coming from him. Why hadn’t she seen him
there a moment ago?  “Dad- It’s you! How can it be? Oh I missed you so much- why did
you leave me? I need you, I can’t go on by myself.”
Her father looked down at her with a disapproving scowl as he moved closer.
“There is no time for that now, you must go before it returns” Eril tried to get up but the
simple action seemed impracticable.

“I can’t dad”, she whined
“You must!”
Eril looked down at her body, she was bleeding everywhere from hundreds of little cuts
and scrapes. She whimpered at the unfairness of it.
“It’s all been so terrible, I cant get up, I’m too weak- it’s hopeless!”
“Eril...if you stay here you’ll die. I know it’s hard to understand, but listen... You are all
that survives me,” he looked on her now with tender eyes. “You must go on to fulfill the
potential I’ve always seen in you. You have much more to do, to experience. Now get
up!  

‘He’s right, he’s always right. It can’t end here, not now! there is so much more beyond
this.’
She finally understood. Eril made a mighty effort to gather her strength and move, yet all
she managed was to get to her knees.

The squeal became audible again. It was somewhere off in the distance but she knew
that would soon change. Her weakness sharpened the wretched terror Eril felt. “I need
your help dad!”
He held out his hand, “Take it now then, there is no time.” As she took hold of his hand
the mist coalesced around thier grasp. It began to roll and twist down her arm where it
reached her body and soon enveloped her. A strength surged through Eril, her fathers
strength. It was his identity, his indomitable will. Eril stood up. “Now run!” He held on
tightly and as they plunged through a doorway, the mist thickened about them to the
point where Eril couldn’t see through it. There was no way to tell where they were going
and yet, as she ran holding tightly to his hand, she knew that she would be safe.