Short Story

I silently shot up the stairs slipping around a corner out of the slithering serpent’s sight. One glimpse and the gluttonous gargoyle would gobble me up like a gerbil. Every crack, every crevice is crammed with unbelievable creations, all chasing, clawing, creeping. No stopping. Stop. Silence .Heavy dark wooden doors that seem to stretch high above my head stand in my way. Why must those sturdy doors stand in my way, I have come so close and have once again been turned away. I hear a demon cackling near and I carefully blend into the shadows. Without sound I reach for a solid stone and silently await the beasts arrival, I am too quiet for any demon to hear. The abomination turns the corner wielding a wicked beam of fire. I lunge. So silently it never hears my swift motion. It rears its ugly head, but it is already too late it collapses in a heap as I leap over its vile carcass continuing my desperate search. Now hellhounds have joined the nightmarish chase snarling and snapping, sniffing and seeking. I love dogs, I had a very nice one until they dragged me away in the night, but not these dogs, no not these, they are the very embodiment of evil. I want to go home it has been so long, so very long since I slept in a soft bed, a nice warm, soft, comfortable bed.

How foolish, to fall asleep in such a situation, it is almost comical. Yes very comical indeed. What an absolute imbecile I am, to fall asleep when my very soul is at stake. The urge to laugh is overwhelming, almost unbearable. But I will not, cannot make a single sound. Silence is salvation. That is very good indeed, rolls off the tongue quite nicely, silence is salvation (Note to self silence=salvation, salvation=freedom, silence=freedom.) What a wonderful equation. A yes, back to the task at hand, escape! Fire escape, they always said I would never be a firefighter, and yet here I am fighting fire in the bowels of hell. Who’s laughing now? (No laughing, remember?) Right, silence is freedom and all that. Now to find the damn exit. Exit. Yes leaving would be nice now wouldn’t it? HA! How foolish of me there it is! Those bright glowing lights should have been a dead giveaway. I guess the fumes must be getting to me. I quietly, silently make my way to the door. A wave of sheer joy overwhelmed me as I opened the iron door and freed myself from the hellish prison. Suddenly a banshee shrieked nearly splitting my eardrums in half with its bloodcurdling scream. I sprinted faster than I thought humanly possible only catching a glimpse of a sign before diving into the shroud of the woods, disappearing forever. How clever, the devil hiding his fiery prison in an insane asylum.