One update, right on time. :)

Our conversation at lunch continued to haunt my thoughts for the rest of the school day. Was I just imagining things? I was pretty sure I wasn't. Maybe I was just overreacting. But there was just something about this guy that seemed…. Sinister. I was so distracted that, in 7th period English, my teacher wanted to know just "Why was I more interested in the wall then in the wall then his lecture on the benefits of reading Shakespeare to infants?" Honestly, it was pretty easy to zone out in that class on a good day. Don't get me wrong, I love the subject, but not when it's being taught by someone as interesting as drying paint. I was anxious for the bell to ring. I wanted to get home and away from the madness trying to work its way into my thoughts. But going home might mean seeing that man again… The bell rang, interrupting my thoughts. Only one class left….

The bell rang to signal the end of my 8th period art class and the end of the school day. I slowly made my way to my bus, filled with dread. Please don't be there. I thought. Please just leave me and my thoughts alone. After what seemed like a lifetime of waiting and nervous thinking, the bus finally pulled up to my stop and I got off. Apparently, everyone else that got off here wasn't on the bus, because as soon as I cleared the bus it pulled away. I looked around for the guy, worried about running into him by myself, but he was nowhere to be seen. I started off in the direction of my house, the woods boarding the sidewalk to my right seemed less threatening in the afternoon light. I was sick of worrying over what was probably nothing. It was then that I decided, that if I was that man again, I would go and ask him who he was and who put him up to task of scaring the crap out of me.

It was in that mindset that I found him, standing at the end of my driveway, leaning against my house with a smile on his face that could only be described as smug. I got angry at the sight of him just standing there, smiling at me. How dare he stoop to trespassing just for some stupid prank! In the next moment I did what was possibly the stupidest, most poorly planned thing in my life.

I yelled at him. "Hey!" I glared and picked up my pace. If possible, his grin seemed to grow larger, and he stepped around the corner of my house and out of my line of vision. In moments I was rounding the corner, only to jolt to a stop. Where did he go? I heard laughter behind me, and whipped around to find the source. The man was standing at the edge of my yard, right along the tree line that marked the beginning of there our property ended and the woods began. I blinked, perturbed. How had he gotten over there that quickly? An unsettled feeling began to worm its way into my gut, but I quickly shoved it down. I was not letting this creep stay in my thoughts any longer than necessary. So I began to run toward him. I was about 15 feet away when he disappeared behind a tree. As I reached the spot he had been standing in moments ago, I saw him step out behind another tree, just far enough away to make me wonder how he moved so fast. I smiled. This guy may move fast, but I know these woods like the back of my hand. No way he can out run me here. I hopped over fallen trees and ducked low hanging branches, never wavering from a path I could walk in my sleep. This was the exact way I had walked whenever I was stressed, for as long as I can remember. There was a little nagging voice in the back of my mind saying, How does he know this path? Why haven't I caught up to him yet? But I ignored it. In that moment, nothing mattered but catching him. All other thoughts were pushed from my mind. But he always was out of reach, disappearing behind one tree or bush, only to pop out from behind another a little farther off. I was so absorbed by the chase that I failed to notice that the path I knew was slowly disappearing….

I slowly stepped out of the trees and into a clearing that I had never known had existed. But that's impossible! I know virtually every tree in these woods! I would know if this clearing was here! The little nagging voice was back and my creepy stalker was nowhere to be seen to distract me now. The feeling in my gut began to grow again too. What made this seem like a good idea again? Where did Mr. Creeper go? A quick look around told me he wasn't in the small clearing I was currently standing in. However….

What on earth is that? My face scrunched up in confusion as I walked to the center of the clearing to examine a rather large hole in the ground. It was roughly four feet in diameter and in the shape of a perfect circle. What kind of animal digs a hole like this? I knelt down to try and see the bottom. The walls of the hole had bits roots and rock sticking out and clumps of grass hanging from a few straying tendrils of root, and they appeared to carry on for some time…. I couldn't see the bottom. I wonder how deep it is? I remembered something I once saw on TV, something about dropping a rock and being able to calculate how long a drop was with some calculation involving the size of the rock and how long it took for it to hit the bottom. I wasn't sure about the calculation bit, but I was pretty sure I could make a good guess if I did drop a rock. So I reached into the hole and pulled a rock from the side. It was roughly the size of my fist and a dull grey color. I studied it a moment longer, and then reached over the hole and unceremoniously dropped the stone into the darkness. I started counting. One Mississippi… Two Mississippi… Three Mississippi…..Thirty Mississippi… It still hadn't hit the bottom. What the hell IS this? I leaned a little farther over trying see the bottom that seemed not to even exist.

That was the second stupidest thing I have ever done. It was while I was leaning over the hole, with my hands using the edge for support, that I was shoved from behind. I began to fall in head first, when instincts kicked in, and I wildly grabbed for something, anything, to stop my fall. That "something" ended up being the edge of the other side of the hole. A moment later I was dangling from a tree root sticking from the side of the hole with my backpack making it very hard to pull myself up and out. It wasn't happening. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It's ok. Everything is gonna be O.K. Suddenly I felt something crushing my hand, and I screamed in pain as I heard a sharp crack that seemed to echo in my ears. I opened my tearing eyes to see a dark shoe pressing down on my fingers. There was no doubt as to who that foot belonged to.

He crouched down until his face was inches in front of mine, his foot never leaving my hand. I could now clearly see that he had platinum blonde hair and somewhat pointy ears. If I had more time to process it, I would've said that they looked like elf ears. He was still wearing his glasses that distorted my reflection and masked his eyes. And then he reached up and pulled them off.

His eyes were the greatest shock. They were what me and my friends called "ghost eyes". A steely blue so pale they were almost white. And so full of a crazed madness that I gasped, and he chuckled at my expression. "Almost thought I lost you back there." He said, so quietly I almost thought I imagined it. Despite the rest of his appearance, his voice was bland, almost monotone.

"Who the hell are you?" I screamed in his face, "What do you want?"

He chuckled. "Touchy." He stood up. "You'll find out soon enough."

"Why? What's going on?" Tears were running freely down my face, making it hard to see. Unexpectedly, he lifted his foot from my injured hand, and I let it drop to my side, leaving my left hand the only thing keeping me from falling. And it was quickly losing strength.

"Oh, you'll see. Have a nice trip." My eyes widened, and before I had the chance to yell, he kicked my hand off the ledge, sending me plummeting into the hole.

The wind whistled past me as I fell. Darkness closed in from all sides. At first I screamed, but that clearly wasn't doing me any good, so after a while I stopped. I was terrified. The walls were so close I could hear them as a flew past. And at the speed I was falling, it would probably break something. Then they seemed to widen out. It didn't get much lighter, but enough that the darkness wasn't pressing anymore and I could kind of see the sides better. I started flailing, trying to break my fall with something. Then my foot hit the side.

I started flipping and turning out of control, my backpack totally unbalancing me. One moment I was head first, the next facing the ground, almost like a belly flop. On to dirt. And rocks. Then it started getting lighter.

I frantically tried to angle my feet toward the ground, the way I had originally been falling. I thought maybe, just maybe, if I hit feet first, I could try to roll when I hit the ground and lessen the impact. If it didn't kill me instantly. But all I managed to do was roll over so my back was to the ground, and I would land on my backpack.

I could no longer see the ground to know how close I was to impact. The tunnel was much brighter now and I could see the walls very clearly. I knew it was only a matter of time before I would hit. There was nothing left to do but brace myself. I tensed up my muscles. Please let me survive this…

Then I hit the ground with a sickening thud and the world went black…

Cliffhanger! xD lol, sorry to whoever's reading this. I'm just a sick and twisted author who lets her readers angst over the fate of the protagonist.