Run like hell

You dare not turn around for fear of slowing down, but you hear pounding footsteps from behind you. Your bag bangs against your side with every step, but dropping it now would unbalance you, and you can’t afford to lose even a split second. You feel like the library is impossibly big; you’re nearly out of breath but you push yourself on. Finally you reach the fire exits in the study area.

You push the lever to open the doors, throwing your whole weight against them, but they fail to move. You look down through the glass set into the doors, and see that some of the rubble from the physics building has lodged itself against the outside of the doors, which open outwards. You pound your fists on the glass, but it’s too tough for you to break. You turn around, cornered as the demon approaches.

It stalks towards you more slowly now, seemingly enjoying your terror. You try and pull yourself together; perhaps if you attacked the young man, who has followed the monster here, it might weaken the creature. However, as you survey the situation, you realise there is no way for you to reach him without throwing yourself right into the demon’s grasp. Slowly, it sinks in: you are going to die.

Panic grips you, then anger – how could you have come this far only to die cornered and weak? You think back over everything you’ve achieved in your life: despite turbulence at home, you’ve always been the best in your year in nearly every subject; you’ve got yourself a place at Cambridge; you’ve gained a huge amount of skill in martial arts. Most of all, you’ve survived the appearance of a mysterious and terrifying creature in the middle of your normal and rational life, and instead of running like a coward, you’ve stayed rational and even ventured out of the shelter of the chemistry block, despite the fact that your exploration into the unknown was entirely alone.

A last defiant surge of pride flows through your veins; you will not die a coward. In fact, if you have any choice in the matter, you will not die here at all. Your gaze locks on that of the monster before you, challenging it. It tenses its muscles, ready to lunge – but before can do so, something attracts its attention. It turns its horned head to look at something in apparent surprise.

You follow its gaze; what you see both amazes and confuses you.