I just noticed the chapter 'More Than Four' was also Chapter 5. So...unintentional pun, maybe?

Window to the Past

Chapter 6: Nightfall

Grass. Sky. Distant mountains. Flower. Grass. More mountains. More flowers. No water.

Alice's feet were already tired when she came forward, so she assumed they had been walking for a while. The journal didn't have any sort of monumental update, so she knew absolutely nothing of interest has happened. And nothing of interest was happening.

Alice guessed nothing of interest would be happening anytime soon. The sun was still high, still beating down on her. She noted with dissatisfaction that she was sweating.

"Ugh," she groaned. "Gross..."

And yet she kept walking forwards, hoping to find some sort of landmark, something to tell her that she was getting somewhere, but she only saw grass, sky, and the distant mountains.

As the day dragged on, the five of them switched almost randomly. They all knew what to do without being told. They had to walk. To find someplace to stay, before the night came.

David looked up at the sky. It was tinted a pinkish orange from the sun setting in the west. His eyes begging for rest, David swept his vision across the meadow, looking for some place to sleep. His eyes locked onto a medium-sized tree ahead. Mindlessly, he began moving forward, his feet dragging against the grass. The tree loomed over him as he turned around and laid down with his back against the tree. His eyes closed, and David began to sleep.

You couldn't breathe. You tried to figure out why, but you couldn't breathe. Grabbing frantically at your mouth, you tried to pull away whatever it was that was suffocating you, but you couldn't. There was nothing there and you couldn't breathe.

Something cold was surrounding your body. Cold like ice, whipping you about like a rag doll in the hands of a child. Something hard hit your knee as pain coursed through your entire body. You wanted to scream. But you couldn't. Something cold entered your mouth, and you gulped it down. You still couldn't breathe.

Which way was up? Your body was spinning, robbing you of your sense of direction. Forcing your eyes open, you saw only blackness. Your head began to feel light as your chest started to scream for air. Your body spun faster and faster as the feeling of death was brought closer and closer.

Flailing your arms in a panic, you tried to grab onto something to stop your uncontrollable movement. Your hands touched stones, but as easily as you grabbed onto them, they slipped away. Without thinking, you started screaming again. Something cold filled your lungs as you began to choke. And still you were whipped about, and still you couldn't breathe.

Daphne gasped, filling her lungs with sweet air as she was jolted awake. Breathing heavily, she surveyed her surroundings.

It was nighttime, and stars once again filled the sky with their light. Looking behind her, she saw a small tree. Someone must've found it, and had decided it was a good place to rest. Daphne noted with disdain that the others had neglected to eat or drink. She got up, stretched, and sighed.

"Maybe there's some fruit in the tree," Daphne thought out loud.

With the grass rustling behind her, Daphne jumped as high as she could and gripped the trunk for all she was worth. Making sure she was secure, she began to climb. Upon reaching the leafy branches, Daphne frowned. Fruit did hang from the limbs of the tree, but whatever kind of fruit it was, it was obvious that it was unripe.

A cool wind blew through the tree, rustling the leaves and giving Daphne a chill. She shivered, then climbed back down. With nothing better to do, Daphne decided to write in the journal.

"Here's an update for the rest of you. Somebody found a tree for us to sleep under. The tree has fruit, but it's unripe, so we can't eat it. I'm getting hungry (I assume that means you are, too), and thirsty, so we should find some source of food soon."

Daphne sat back and waited. Maybe I should just go to sleep again, she thought. Her eyes slid shut, and she was lulled back to sleep by the rustling grass behind her.

Suddenly, she jolted awake. Something was behind her. Slowly turning her vision, Daphne saw darkness behind her.

Where's the tree? Daphne's eyes remained locked on the black mass, and as she clutched the journal close, she began to back up slowly. The grass crunched under her feet, but the black thing didn't seem to be getting any further away.

"What are you?!" she screamed. As if a gun went off, the darkness somehow launched itself into the air before rapidly descending towards Daphne. With a shriek, she took off running, desperately trying to get away from the malicious creature. Daphne heard no noise, except for her hurried breathing, her racing heart, and the frantic yet rhythmic thud of her feet against grass. Stealing a glance backwards at her assailant, she saw it...crawling towards her. Her eyes widened in fear as it began to jump again. Suddenly, her legs seized up; she could run no longer. Daphne fell to the ground and rolled on her back. The dark mass was descending upon her. She squinted her eyes shut and waited for the inevitable.

"Chaos," I said crossly. "You'd better have a way out of this."

Chaos nodded, waving my comment off. "Yeah, yeah. This time, I do. Don't worry your precious little head. I've got this under control; you go handle the other two stories. You're behind on them, anyways."

I huffed but said nothing. He was right. "I don't want to read this later and find out she's dead, okay?"

Chaos only gave a grunt of acknowledgement.

Something hard and wet hit Daphne hard. Somehow, she was swept up into the unknown object. Flailing wildly, she fought for her freedom from this mass of...water. It was water. Daphne couldn't breathe.

Her eyes stung, but she forced them open. She had to get out of here before she suffocated. Trying desperately to propel herself forward, Daphne kicked her feet spazmatically in the mass. She was getting nowhere. She was trapped here, inside this creature. There was nothing she could do about it. Defeated, Daphne let out a final breath and closed her eyes.

The first thing Adrian realized is he couldn't breathe. The second thing he realized was that he probably hadn't been able to breathe for the past few minutes. The third thing he realized was he had to get out of wherever he was before he died. Adrian was violently tossed and whipped, ripping away his equilibrium. For a few precious seconds, Adrian felt ground under his feet. Trying to push off of the rare solid surface, he restrained a groan of frustration when the possibility was ripped away from him.

He estimated he had thirty seconds left to live. Maybe less.

The final few moments of his life began to slow to a crawl. Adrain was able to sense things he couldn't sense before. He was in something black that was suffocating him. He could see some sort of soft light coming from the left. Forcing himself to the left by wildly grabbing for any sort of hold didn't seem to work. Then he slowly felt something solid press against his right side. Was it ground? It didn't matter; it was his ticket out. He twisted himself in the liquid mass and kicked the solid surface as hard as he could.

The next thing he knew, he was lying on the grass, gasping for air. The ground was wet and cold, but Adrian didn't care. Whatever had just happened was over. Until he turned his head to the other side. Whatever that thing that had nearly killed him was, it was coming back. And it obviously wasn't finished with him yet. But Adrian couldn't move. He was too exhausted. He was out of breath, unable to move a single muscle. But he tried. Mustering all the strength he had left, Adrian was able to lift himself to his feet.

But by that time, the thing was right in front of her.

Alice wasn't sure what the big black thing in front of her was. But she knew she had to avoid it. Just as it lunged, she jumped to the side, skidding on the wet grass below her. She stood back up and began to wipe off the grass stains, before noticing that she was covered in a strange black substance. She stole a glance at the huge black blob quickly advancing on her and connected the dots.

"What the heck did you cover me with!?" she screamed at the blob. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to register her comment. It launched itself into the air again, in another attempt to absorb its prey. Alice, seeing this coming, quickly ran under it, feeling the ground tremor as it landed behind her. Not watching where she was going, she slipped on the slime-covered grass. Her upside-down vision provided her the sight of the blob revealing one big red eye, focused on her.

Toby saw a threat. He didn't know what it was, but the red eye tipped him off that it didn't mean to sit down and play nice. Toby, quickly surveying his surroundings, noticed a few things. One, he was covered in black stuff. Two, the ground was covered in black stuff. Three, that thing only has one eye, betraying poor depth perception. Four, that eye was the only real light source anywhere near here. Toby, thinking quickly, began smearing the black slime on the grass all over himself. After verifying a good cover, he ceased all movement. Keeping his eyes slitted open, he watched the beast carefully as it swept its vision across the field. The black grass around him began to sting, but he ignored the sensation, instead keeping his attention focused on the immediate threat. Toby silently prayed in his mind for his prediction of bad vision to be correct as the prickling feeling grew more intense. Now, against the black sky, Toby could no longer see the red eye. He could only perceive a slightly more black outline against the sky. He took this chance to move.

Not getting up from his lying position, he used his short arms to drag him across the field as silently as he could. He noted grudgingly that the creature didn't seem to have a problem with moving silently. As the black outline grew smaller, Toby gained the confidence to stand up in order to bolt.

The red eye spotted him again, and he froze.

David, thrust into the situation, only registered one thing: fear. What was in front of him was the embodiment of fear. His eyes wide, his mouth frozen, his limbs stone. David was rendered immobile by the haunting red light in front of him. The light disappeared. David took the chance, and he bolted. His mouth still frozen, he could not speak. David was on auto-pilot, running as fast as his body would allow him to separate him from...that.

David heard nothing behind him. But he didn't look. He wouldn't look. He refused. He looked ahead of him as he ran, ignoring the burning sensation covering his body, ignoring the burning sensation in his lungs. Finally, something he recognized rose on the horizon. The tree.

The tree was safe. Right?

Before David realized what he was doing, he felt the strong texture of the bark pressing up against his body as he gripped the trunk of the tree for all he was worth. He would not let go. He would not let go. This tree was safe and he would not let go.

"Update, guys: we made it. I woke up this morning. That's really good. I had a terrible night, and honestly, I don't know how I got through it," Alice wrote.

"What do you mean, Alice? Could you be more specific, please?" Daphne asked innocently.

"There was...this big black thing. And it covered me in this slime stuff. It was super gross and it took me forever to get it all off."

"Big black thing? I saw it, too. Well...I was in it when I woke up. I couldn't breathe. But I got out, which was good. I guess," Adrian added.

"How many of us saw this thing, anyways?" Alice asked. "Other than Adrian and I?"

"I did," Toby answered. "It was looking for me. I...well...I'm sorry, Alice. I covered myself in the slime-stuff to hide from the black thing. And I think it worked.

"I saw it too! It was REALLY REALLY REALLY SCARY. I ran away really fast and I hugged the tree," David offered.

"And again, David, you're the one to escape. You're...not totally useless," Adrian wrote.

"Uh...okay!" David wrote happily.

"What about you, Daphne? Did you see it?" Alice asked.

"Well...yes. I did. I woke up from a nightmare in the night, and I was hungry. I climbed up the tree, and...that thing started chasing me. I tried to escape, but it caught me," Daphne said simply.

"Oh," Toby wrote simply.

Toby frowned at what Daphne had written. Something bothered him about that, but he decided to let it go for now. It was morning, and Toby was not going to spend another night like this one.

Ever again.

Okay. I finally got this one out. Goodness gracious, this one took longer than expected. Sorry for the wait!