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Part 8
H-Hello? No response.
I tried again, speaking a little louder, again saying, Hello? Still no
response just a small breaths coming from the other side.
Hello!
Beau someone said in raspy voice. They sounded as if they had
just chugged a bottle of whiskey and smoked a few packets of cigarettes.
H-how do you know m-my name?
Beau...you need to try and go to sleep.
What, why?
Beau, please. You will see. I started to pick out that it was a
womans voice, after she cleared her throat. Her voice sounded a little
softer now, more human.
Why do I need to go to sleep.
When you wake up you will see.
Bu- she hung up, without out another sound. In that moment, there
was only silence, confusion, and a strange sense of being watched.
Who was
that? Should I listen to her? No. Yes. But no. Yes!
I decided to text Lauren
for some advice, as I slipped my greasy fingers out of the potato chip bag
that smelled of luscious butter and salt.
Beau the Beau: Hey Lauren

That one friend Lauren: Whats up?

Beau the Beau: Just contemplating the possible ways to escape from
my room with everything locked.
That one friend Lauren: Haha, why?
Beau the Beau: I just got a weird phone call from this woman.
That one friend Lauren: Why did you answer?

Beau the Beau: Good question. Anyway, she kept telling me to go to

sleep. I decided that she was a stalker and immediately locked everything.
Should I listen to her, though? You should help.
That one friend Lauren: First of all you didnt answer my last
question. Second, it was probably just a prank. Third, Im laughing my face
off, thanks for making my day.
Beau the Beau: Yeah, well. Maybe I should try and go to sleep.
That one friend Lauren: Ok, whatever. See you tomorrow I guess.
Beau the Beau: Yup, see you later! I bet something is actually going to
happen.
That one friend Lauren: Nope. Bye Beau.
Beau the Beau: Bye.
I pressed down on the power button. As it shut off, I placed it down
next to my half-full can of Coke. From behind the door, I pulled out my
peach colored sweatshirt. Pulling the hood over my wavy hair, I threw
myself onto my bed, bouncing off of it upwards once. The bed jiggled a
little as I turned over to flick off the light switch. Quickly, but slow enough
for me to see, the lights dimmed to a solid dark. I lay there, looking at the
glow in the dark planets that hung from my ceiling. They twirled around
slowly enlightening the room slightly. I stared up at them, following them
as the spun around in mid-air. My eyes started to droop feeling like thirty
pound weights glued to my eyelids.
My vision of the floating planets were fuzzy now. Down, down, down
my eyelids slipped over my eyeballs, partly covering my pupils. Each were
looking more like grey circles; like variations of grey moons. Finally, my eyes

were completely closed, and I was rapidly drifting away into an infinite
dream.
..
The same dream; the same one that made me feel like my heart was
about to punch itself through my chest. It was the same one that made my
head spin around and my lungs go numb. It was the same one that made my
ears bulge, burn. It was the same one where I felt I had to chose one; one of
the mysterious boxes that stared at me with their blank faces that said more
than the most talkative person in the whole world. There I was, right were I
left up before I woke up.
I sat in the corner, the boxes sitting there beckoning me to chose one.
My hand was stretched out, slowly shakily inching closer and closer towards
the boxes.
Stop, hand. You dont know what youre doing!
Beau, remember what the woman said?
No, she just said...oh.
Yeah, Beau she said when we wake up, we will see.
But, we dont know what that means. I dont want to touch a box.
You have to Beau, it could be for the better. My eyes widened as I
the boxes stared into mine, piercing deep within, seeping into the blacks of
my eyes. I could feel them, like needles slowly being pushed into my eyes.
Suddenly, I heard another voice. It was much like the voice I heard over the
phone. The same woman, that told me to go to sleep, was speaking to me
again. Her voice cracked through walls, but there were no holes in the
walls. The choppy breaths that followed every two syllables choked my
ears. It was hard to make out what she was saying, but a few words were able
to be processed.
Beau, she creeked.
Beau, Beau, Beau, like broken echos, they began chirping through
the darkness.
You need to chose one! I could make out a few chirps here and
there, but still didnt know what she was saying.
W-what do you want?

Beau, Beau Beau, her voice grew louder and clearer. You, my
dear, must choose one! Turning my head, I stared at the boxes; each and
every one of them with their different shades.
Bu-But which o-one? I started to shiver as my jaws buzzed up and
down.
Any, you must choose! Slowly, I crawled up onto my knees and
stood up as stiff as a stick, but feeling helpless like a noodle. Nothing was
my friend; my hand, my mind, her voice, the walls, the darkness, the boxes
fought against my fear. Though my fear felt consuming, everything inside
and around me choked me, forcing me to forget about it and just choose.
The echoes of her voice vibrated in my chest. It seemed as if the darkness of
the room, became brighter like a white light was reflecting off of every
surface. I felt beads of sweat almost as thick as blood, rolling down my
forehead. As it gathered in my pours, it became more sticky and slippery
like syrup. A few slipped down into the creases between the wrinkles in my
lips, to the small opening of my mouth. On my tongue they felt like heavy,
opaque dew drops.
My hand now was shaking out of control like I was being tasered. My
right brain was saying to go for it repeatedly while my left brain was trying
to resist. I was drowning in all of these voices and cheers encouraging me to
choose a box. They all screamed and yelled at me, these large voices. I
couldnt bare it any longer; I needed a breath of air. I had to do what was
being told of me. Releasing my spirit from the command of my fear, my
shaking slowly trailed away along with my doubt.
Beau, choose now, screeched the womans voice through the walls.
Choose, choose, choose, motioned to small boxes.
Come on Beau, choose, my hand tugged.
Choose! My brain bulged inside my head, pounding against my
skull, screaming at me to choose one. I was almost there, my hand was
almost there. The walls started to close in, the lights bouncing off the walls
were intensifyingly bright now and I was only a couple moments away from
reaching a breath. My hand wasnt shaking anymore, only tugging at my

body to move forward a couple centimeters. I pushed on and tilted my body

towards the line boxes, and extended my fingers.
Yes, yes, yes! Each voice cheered me on, as if their satisfaction was
soon coming. Though there wishes were coming true, my fears and doubts
were coming back. My hand started to shake again, not as violently as
before, but it still had a slight jig to it. When I heard the raspy cheers, saw
the piercing looks, and felt the pressure of everything closing in on me I
couldnt help but feel the need to shake, to scream, to run away.
My ears were now feeling numb, and I felt like screaming and
pounding my way out through the walls. I wanted to get out of there.
Thats when I realized my only way out was through the boxes. They were
what were holding me back, so if I stopped them, I could get out of this
chaos. The room now was heating up, feeling like the walls were paved in
thick flames instead of black paint. Thats when I realized the walls
were
now on fire. Each and every wall was bursting with furious flames. They
were not the kind of flames that grew by rage, but the kind that grew by
deepening fear; my fear. They blew up like mini volcanoes exploding with
every drop of sweat that rolled off my chin.
Just do it, Beau. You will see, the womans voice sang with the
dancing flames. Which one should I choose? The first? Second? Third?
Fourth, fifth, or sixth? All I could smell was smoke, as it dusted the air in
layers. I could feel the few extra degrees floating in the air, as they added
warmth to my bare, showing skin.
Suddenly, a screech cracked through the black walls, snatching me
from my observant state. I felt a rush of confusion swallow up the warmth I
had been feeling. I sat with my eyes as wide as they had been, rotating my
neck so I could see each and every black wall. I waited patiently, cautiously
for another screech to sound. The screech didnt sound like a real word, it
was just a loud sound. It was meaningless like I had once thought this whole
dream was. Then, I realized that this had to be something substantial. The
screech was something I could not ignore, so I waited for the next one to
come.

A silence and then there it went as it filled the room. Though I had
waited, it was still unexpected to me as my eye flinched and my hand
twitched to the right. It didnt take long for the next ones to sound. They
then sounded more like alarms. Were they alarms? They were, werent
they. I started to panic. My heart began to skip a few beats as if it forgot
how to pump blood through my body. Somehow, though, my bodys
temperature increased and I felt the tip of my ears bursting with heat. I
threw my hands down to the ground to be able to push myself up off of the
floor. I wanted to get a better look at the situation but there was nothing
except for the constant ringing of the alarms.
Whoosh! A flame spit out of the ground, cracking it straight open
effortlessly. My foot jolted upwards, my knee tapping the top of my chest,
almost jabbing into the bottom of my chin. The fire fluttered just where I
had been standing as if it were trying to escape from the grasp of the
ground.
Whoosh! Another, just under my other foot, snatched at my shoe
lace. The tip was on fire and it was quickly spreading. It had reached the
other lace before I could reach it. I rolled up my sleeve and draped it over
my hand. I patted down on the fire until it put out. All over, the ground
started to break open in random spots, yet so strategically. With three
bursts, a piece of the ground shattered and fell into the pit of fire that had
just been created. Sometimes, it only took two. There was so many openings
in the ground now, that there were only small islands of black ground. I was
on the biggest one. I stood cautiously and hopefully as I monitored the fire.
I watched as the flames danced and twirled like unchoreographed
ballerinas. They swayed their skirts and gracefully created an illusion as they
twisted and turned. Though they were beautiful on the outside, they were
out to kill and I didnt want to be their first and last meal. The vibrations
that I felt under my feet, I assumed were the flames of fire trying to push its
way through the rest of the ground. Gradually I decided to motion myself
down to sit, knowing that I would most likely never escape. A couple inches
I was from touching ground, so I turned around to place my hands on the
ground first before I could-

Beau! We have to go! I turned around and a woman with burnt

fingers, had placed her hands on my shoulders. Abruptly, she began to
shake me back and forth.
Beau, wake up, now! We have to get out of here. I tried to swipe
one of her hands off of my arm. This woman was now squeezing my
shoulder, as if she really wanted me to follow her lead, and listen to her
with both of my ears.
Would you stop touching me!
No, we have to go, now. She looked at me with firm, hard, strong
eyes. I didnt care, I just wanted her to get my hands off of me.
Get off of me, you crazy woman!
I cant, we have to go, Beau. We could potentially die!
Well, I dont want to die with you touching me! Get off!
And I dont want to die without you, Beau.
I looked into the womans eyes with fright, but when she looked into
mine I felt something new. A rush of chills, calmed me and I stopped
squirming. She slightly released her tight grip on my shoulder. I felt
something, like I knew her.
Beau, we have to go. Please. Its just spreading!
Is that you mom? The vision of her started to get clearer, and her
faces began to clear of burn marks. Her skin was seemed to be the texture of
an overcooked roast chicken that was charred in some places. Her nails were
chipped and covered in something dark and powdery. She started to shake
me again, snapping me out of my trance.
Beau, wake up, we need to go!
Mom? Whats going on?
Theres a fire. Get up, we need to get out of here.