Until Dawn - 5. Chapter 5

In the past, when I realized I made a mistake, I just fobbed it off and carried on. Troubled with what I had inadvertently gotten myself into, I could have shit myself there on the spot. I suppose I resembled a tasty Bud Light, just bobbing around similar to a cold beer when an alcoholic is lost and wandering the desert alone. Just over the mirage, I'd be there as the tasty brewski.

The werewolf's eyelashes lifted, and I knew it was intrigued by my presence. It wanted me, and I knew it. Odds are the creature would be faster than me, but that wouldn't prevent me from trying to escape. Not idling around to see what would happen when a werewolf set forth its fangs and powerful claws, I spun around and took off running. My heart swam in my chest. It was as if it could soar up to a blue sky on a sunny day.

Rounding the locker pillar, I raced by some of the private changing facilities. There were powerful thumps and clobbers coming from behind as the creature started to gallop. I was scared shitless that I was going to die, but then suddenly, I secured sight on the lifeguard office that overlooked the pool, and I ran toward the station.

Skirting around the corner, the werewolf in pursuit, knocked into the wooden stalls behind. When I glanced over my shoulder, I saw that he effectively demolished an entire cubical.

My legs were beginning to ache, but I didn't dare let myself lose any stamina. I powered through the pain, joined hands with the office door, and I was inside.

The monstrous creature was hot on my tail, and with hysteria and a heightened sense of agility, I tried automatically thrusting the door into the frame, but the brute lunged at the door, and I lost grip with the handle. I can't quite recall how it occurred, but I was flying for a short burst of time, and it filled me with amazement.

I was swept back, taken off my feet, then my calves slammed against the front of a steel desk. I was flying in mid-air. When I hit the desk, my feet dragged up onto it, propelling loose excel sheets and a single computer monitor astray.

I groaned out in agony as my body burned with misery. That was until I hit a solid object, my ass slid along the desk, and I fell backward out through the window overlooking the poolside.

Toppling hard onto the tiles, I rolled with the exploding glass on the ground until I skidded to a stop. My shoulder felt as if it had dislocated from the joint, but I didn't have time for an entire medical exam. Therefore, I hauled my skinny ass up off the floor and made a break for it.

The viewing bay was just up ahead, yet it barely looked like the spectating zone was there as the window was coated in an expansive layer of red blood that ran up the wall.

Skirting around the edge of the pool, I slid across the serum and left red footprints behind. Across the room, the doorway leading out toward the wading pool split open.

I skimmed over my shoulder, observed the werewolf race behind the pirate-themed play course. He cut out over the pool, using the dividing tile wall separating the children's wading pool from the main pool, and he smoothly came out onto the tiles on my side. The action was meticulous, and it was done error-free without judging if he'd fall.

Hammering to a stop, I reversed up, looking for my alternative escape. My heart was pounding in my chest, my eyes sprung wild in terror, then I barred eyes on the emergency door and ran for it.

‘Where was I going to go?’

‘How would I be able to get rid of this monster on my tail?’

‘More importantly, how would I kill it?’

Those were some of the thoughts that flashed through my mind. If I did live to see the morning, then I'd only laugh it off. Not from amusement, but from the anxiety-induced adrenaline I felt.

Thrusting against the exit handle, the door didn't seem to budge. The two doors crammed together as they pushed forward, but they just wouldn't separate. The wolf sprang its own attack and bolted for me, arms stretched wide, claws extended.

Backing-up, I charged at the door, and at the exact second, he arrived; I fell out the opening, the wolf struck out in a blind fury, missing me. I floundered into one of the scaffolding support bars that held up a platform on the side of the building. It had been there since July, the rec center was being expanded, but I didn't care about what new facilities the recreational hall was getting.

Ducking under a support beam, I headed for the ladder in the construction site and started climbing. The night was cold, dark, and wet; the rungs were slippery and unsafe for a teenager that wasn't confident with heights in the first place. But all the same, I ascended with fear leading the way.

Peering down, I saw the wolf try and take the same route as I did, but he simply could not fit. He latched onto the metal joists and scaled the side of the green netted partition. The whole structure wobbled from his abrupt jolting and jiving.

On the first level, I dipped around to the next ladder; the creature tore through the meshwork and snarled at me.

Keeping my back flat to the internal scaffold wall, I sucked in my chest and belly as I narrowly avoided his determined reach.

Spinning around, I started to climb up to level two, and the fiend broke through the remainder of the tulle, bent a girder beam, and the tower rocked as he launched himself up to grab hold of me.

Nearing the top, he took a firm grip on my ankle and tried to drag me down. The initial jerk didn't take me off the ladder, but my head walloped a rung and blinded me. I slumped, hugging the ladder. I was dazed, but the creature had lost his grip; he had knocked himself free from the assembly, and I clambered up the few remaining steps.

Staggering along the boardwalk and holding my hand to my head, it throbbed. It had just dawned on me how hard my skull hit the ladder.

Stretching out, with a spin, I kicked off the ground and mounted the final ladder. At the top, I was parallel with the flat roof of the swimming hall. I had nowhere else to go. This was it, I thought; I was going to die just like Jonathan said. I was going to die a virgin, possibly by being thrown from the roof after the beast drank my blood dry like a Gogurt Squeeze.

I subconsciously backed up as I listened to the groaning of the frame. The werewolf would be over that ledge any second. Yet, what I hadn't bet on was that builders could be lifesavers.

I almost tripped when I backed into a small pile of mid-section struts used for the scaffolding. My mind didn't jump to the conclusion of what I'd do with it, but I knew it would be better to have it rather than holding nothing when he came to kill me. Though at the last moment, while I was contemplating why I hadn't told Elliot how much, I liked him. I stood there, reeking of sweat, my hair damp from the gentle haze coming from the sky, and anticipating what it would feel like to be ripped open.

I took a step forward, I didn't have a plan, but I realized I had to do something. I didn't want to be one of those who didn't fight back, with them screaming for mercy in the last seconds.

Standing my ground, I waited for the werewolf, and soon enough, his hairy arm wrapped around the beam, and the nails of his other hand bore into the wood of the platform. Up came his head, his eyes lit up when it saw me, and in fear, I gripped my weapon tighter and sent it hurtling into his jaw.

One great howl erupted from the animal, then some loose spit ejected from his mouth. It was evident he felt the wrath of the bar.

It offered serenity in the thought that I could, in fact, hurt the animal. It felt pain in the same way that humans could feel it, but there was no denying it was tougher.

Not waiting for an invitation, drawing back the pole, I launched it, and this time his arm wrapped around the support to better his grip; yet, dislodged from the railing when I struck him again, and he slipped. The beast was left dangling, and he even tried to regain some ground by latching onto anything for help, but no matter how hard he tried, he failed. His eyes locked on mine, he looked helpless, and I felt bad. His fingers had embedded themselves in one of the wooden floor beams, but then the nails from the wooden board slipped out, and he fell. There was a second of silence, followed by an excruciating roar, and then everything became calm.

Dropping the pipe, it gave off a loud clank. Plopping my hands on the rail, I glanced out over the railing and down to the ground. Although it was dark, I could make out the creature, and he was impaled on what looked like rebar. I couldn't believe how easy that had been.

A long, exaggerated sigh left my body with relief. My heart sank at the thought of having hurt it. Except, if I hadn't done what I did, I wouldn't have lived beyond that scaffolding climb.

I needed to take a few seconds, so I slumped down against the metal support and calmed my rattled nerves. I was extremely thirsty; I would have drunk from a puddle on the side of the road.

For a few minutes, I listened to the sound of the poor creature below dying, and eventually, his cries stopped. Remembering that Jonathan was still in the locker, I stood up, brushed off my clothes, and made my way down the framework.

It didn't appear to me at the time, just how high I had climbed. All of that went out the window when you're running for your life.