Page 3 - Chronicles of Darkness

NOW...

“This is all your fault,” Dawn whispered.
They were running. Well, scrambling really, searching
for the safety exit Ximena had been so certain was
down this stretch of hallway.
“Well, you were the one who shined the flashlight in
its eyes. You woke it up.”
“You were the one who screamed when it looked at us.”
“I wasn’t expecting it to move! Besides, it didn’t even
have any ears.”
“Maybe you just weren’t looking closely enough. It
probably had, like, a hundred ears. And it’s chasing us
because you screamed at it.”
“Then why are we even whispering?” Mena huffed,
“It’s not like it matters. If it’s got a hundred ears it can
probably hear us everywhere. Dawn….did it look like
Mrs. Luz to you?”
“I hope not. If I just hit Mrs. Luz with a flashlight your
mom is going to kill me. Even if it was your idea to
come down here in the first place.”
“Yeah, well, let’s worry about how long we’re going to
get grounded once we’re definitely sure we’re going to
live long enough to get grounded.”
They skidded to a stop in front of a smooth metal
door and Mena cursed.
“Swearing is vulgar,” Dawn said, breathless and
bitterly disappointed. They’d finally found a door. But
there was no knob.
“You better run and go tell your mom, then. Don’t
worry about me, I’ll just stay here and get eaten by
something with a hundred ears while I’m waiting for
you to stop being a baby.”
Dawn crouched on the floor and peered through the
hole where the doorknob ought to have been. “And I’ll
know when it’s here eating you because you’ll shut up
for the first time in your life.”
Mena rolled her eyes. “You’d miss me so much you’d die.”
“Yeah, ‘cause that thing would eat me next. My last
few seconds of life would definitely be spent silently
mourning you, though. Not wondering why I let you
talk me into this.”