Empty.
Tears welled up in my eyes as I gazed in disbelief. I looked down at the box in my lap and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Sarah's box, the container that she kept everything cherished to her in, was empty. My eyes couldn't hold any more tears and they streamed down my face, landing in the box. I can't find words to describe how I felt. I didn't want to believe what Double-D said, but the proof was sitting in front of me slowly filling up with tears. My attention slowly turned to the nearby stairs where I could hear footsteps and stern voices growing louder and louder with each passing second. Out of reflex I dashed to the elevator, leaving Sarah's box behind. I pressed the button for ground floor and watched the doors close. As the elevator reached its destination I could hear more running footsteps and voices coming from the stairs next to me. Without a second thought I ran. I ran down to the lobby, out the door, and away from the hospital. I felt like I was in a daze; I could still see and hear but nothing ever really registered in my head. All I could think about was running. I ran past the ruins of the cul-de-sac and towards Lemon Brook. I felt my stomach churn as I started to run out of adrenaline and collapsed on the ground. I started to feel dizzy and I couldn't reorient myself enough to get back up. From there I crawled.
I crawled along the ground littered with giant sunflowers and I realized I'd been there before. I remembered how the Kanker Sisters tried to use us as slaves to find the Eds when they'd gone missing. And when Sarah used all her bravery and might to free me from their grasp, we ran to the sunflower patch to hide.
Sarah. The thought of her glowed in my mind and I found the strength to get back up again. I heard the footsteps and noises behind me and for the first time since I opened the box I had a plan of escape. With Sarah's memory still keeping me going, I climbed up one of the seven-foot tall sunflowers and quickly squirrelled myself on top of it. The plant bended down slightly from my weight but it was enough to keep me from being spotted by the men below. I watched as they scouted the area, searching for the crazy boy who thinks that he can talk with a dead girl in his sleep. As I looked, my eyes widened as I saw something strange about one of the men.
He had no face.
I couldn't help but let out a small gasp that alerted the men to my hiding place. As they turned to look at me, I saw they all didn't have faces. I forced my breakfast back down and quickly jumped from my sunflower to another one. Fortunately, the springy nature of the flowers helped me jump far and fast as I hopscotched my way out of the field.
Unfortunately, some of my pursuers caught on and got to the top of the canopy of pedals to catch up to me. I found the edge of the sea of flowers and hopped off. I hit the grassy field below hard; maybe a little too hard, because I saw the ground cracking from under me. I quickly ran but I looked back and watched in horror as the ground crumbled and feel down a bottomless chasm, taking all of the men without faces with it. The chase was not over, however, because the chasm started to widen as more earth and foliage fell into the endless abyss. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me over the field an into a nearby woods. I dodged trees and shrubs and stumbled deeper into the labyrinth of wood, running from the hungry trench behind me. I slowed down when I heard the rumbling of the pit die off and I eventually came to rest at a large oak tree.
While I was catching my breath, I felt my consciousness slowly fade away from exhaustion. Soon I found myself hovering in blackness with nothing around me. I knew it was a dream, but it felt strange. The darkness was cold, colder than I ever felt before. But something came from behind me. I turned around in midair to see a bright, glorious light in the near distance. It radiated warmth that brushed off the cold of darkness as it beckoned me towards it. I felt myself drawing closer to that magnificent, wonderful light. But as I neared it I heard something. Or, I thought I heard something anyway. It sounded like a sort of ring, steady and quiet, but still there. Along with that ring I heard voices. I could barely hear them, much less make out what they were saying or who the voices belonged to, but they sounded strange. They sounded worried, almost. Quiet and infinitesimal the ringing and voices seemed, they caused me to panic and I quickly flew away from the light. As the glorious warmth drew father away from me, so did the sounds.
"Jimmy....Please wake up, Jimmy......"
"Sarah?"
I felt reality come back to bind me and take me away from my dreams once more as I woke up. I thought I'd heard Sarah just then, but I woke up before I could see her. I rubbed my eyes to clear my vision up and looked around. I had no idea how long I'd been sleeping, but the rumbling of the chasm was still gone and the sun still hung in the middle of the sky. I was about to get up when I noticed something. There was a deer some ways in the distance, but that wasn't what caught my attention. Next to the deer was a crack. The split in the ground weaved around trees and shrubs and I couldn't tell where it started, but the end of it crept up to the deer slowly as if it was stalking the animal as prey. The slowly moving crack in the ground suddenly darted beneath the deer and opened wide, causing the animal to fall down into the blackness of the newly-formed chasm. Horror swept across my face as the crack thinned back out and started slithering along the ground again, looking for another victim. Wasting no time, I quickly ran as far as I could. The crack "saw" me and gave chase, zig-zagging back and forth and winding around trees and plants like a serpent as it chased me through the forest. The area around me started to grow more abstract as I dodged flailing tree branches and hurdled over roots and low bushes. The horrible sound of earth ripping in two stabbed my ears as my pursuer chased me with determination. I turned around to see the crack gaining on me and I was about to pick up the pace when my face flattened up against the wall of a large cliff. The new addition to the ever-present pain was soon forgotten as I felt myself get swallowed up by the chasm of darkness.
