I sprinted through the dark, underground streets. Barefoot, I paid little attention to the slivers of broken glass and rocks that tore at the soles of my feet. I could hear him not far behind, as he steadily pursued me. Frantically, I searched left and right for places to hide.
I quickly stole a glance behind myself and I couldn't see him anywhere. I dove down the closest alleyway on my right. Scooting in between a wall and a dumpster, I waited.
Adrenaline coursed through me and I was shivering uncontrollably. I desperately tried to pick out footsteps in the dark, but I could hear little over the pounding in my head.
After several minutes, I decided he must have passed me by and I could make an escape, I moved away from the dumpster and peered around looking for a way out. Silently, a hand clamped around my mouth from behind, muffling my startled shriek.
Sweating and gasping for air, I sat bolt upright in bed. My throat was sore and I realized I must've been screaming in my sleep. Outside my window was a gloomy and overcast Saturday morning, with a storm not far off on the horizon. My room was dark and it did little to settle my nerves after the nightmare.
"Ahh, Get it together, Clair" I scolded myself, throwing my legs over the edge of my bed and began turning the lights on in the room, trying to brighten my mood as well. I made my way to my bathroom, fumbling through the dark hallway.
As I began my morning ritual, an icky feeling of dread and excitement mixed into a knot in my stomach. Last week, my friend Drew suggested a trip to Hades, a bar in the underground city of Underaan. The place was well known around Davens, but none of us had ever been. Underaan in general was regarded as a strange place that attracted even stranger people. It was sort of an unwritten rule among our parents that we weren't allowed to go there. But Drew insisted we go at least once, just to see what it was like.
I spent over an hour just picking an outfit out for the bar. Nothing I owned could be considered sexy but I knew the girls would be looking their best, and I wanted to at least fit in. I settled for a cute top I had borrowed from my friend Elisa, and I set the clothes out on my bed. Pulling on some jeans and a shirt, I went downstairs for breakfast.
My parents had left town for work the day before, so I had the house to myself. Grabbing a bowl of cereal, I plopped on the couch in the living room and turned the TV on. Flipping through channels between mouthfuls, I soon found there was nothing on and turned it back off in frustration.
I finished up and was rinsing my bowl in the sink when my cellphone rang.
"Hey! Did I wake you up?" Elisa chirped in my ear.
"Nah, I was just eating breakfast, what's up?"
"Are you excited for tonight?!" She questioned breathlessly.
"Yeah, I guess. More nervous than anything," I responded.
"Well, I think it's going to be really fun. Hopefully there's tons of hot guys, and they don't all fall over themselves when they see Drew. She always steals the ones I like," Elisa said.
"I'm not really interested in finding some weirdo to date down there," I laughed, "But maybe I could get some inspiration for my writing," I said.
My dream was to become a professional author, but all my teachers before had told me my stories were flat, and lacked excitement. Maybe Underaan was just the place I needed to see, outside my bubble of a world, to get really inspired to write something worthy of print.
"Yeah, that's an idea. Well, I'm going to get going. My mom wants to do some shopping this afternoon and she's dragging me along because she can't go anywhere alone!" Elisa sighed.
"Okay, see you later tonight then." I hung up and slid the phone back into it's normal spot in the back pocket of my jeans.
The rest of the day dragged along. I spent most of it in my room, brainstorming over story ideas when I looked over at the clock and realized my friends would be showing up soon. We planned to meet at my house beforehand because my parents weren't around to ask a lot of questions about our plans. I got ready as fast as I could and was barely finished when the doorbell rang. Taking one last look in the mirror and sighing, I ran down the stairs to the front door.
I let Drew and our friend Apollo in, and shortly after, Elisa showed up. Before I knew it, we were speeding towards Underaan in Apollo's old Charger. With the window's rolled down, I breathed in the cool, damp air, letting the smell of the coming rain calm my nerves. I wasn't normally this wound up, but after the nightmare this morning, I had been on edge all day. Just because I dreamed of underground streets, and that was precisely where I would be tonight.
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