Screw this! I immediately grab ahold of Mary, throw her over my shoulder and begin to run. She was astonishingly light, had I been stronger I am sure I would have thrown her across the room. With that random thought out of my head continuing to sprint down a random hallway with no plan in mind. Yet it did not matter, for my mind was made up and my racing heart was there to support me. I am getting as far away from that thing as I possibly can! AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! My mind hollers at the top of my theoretical lungs, my mouth parts but no sound emits. Curse this darned hat, I have a mouth and I wish to scream yet I cannot.

“My my my, how lively you are.”

My head jolts upward to meet the source of this voice hovering just above me and I see it. The dark figure hovering effortlessly above me. I could hear it begin another sentence, but my mind immediately blocked it out as I searched for a way to get some distance between us. I spot an open door and jump inside while shutting it behind me as quick as possible. I lean on the closed door as I begin to catch my breath repositioning Mary. Mary still dazed and emotionless I can hear her faintly whimpering and mumbling words, but before I could try and make out what she was saying another voice overpowers it.

“Heeeeey~ you forgot about me!”

That thing’s voice again with its cutesy inflection in its voice. Just how demented was this thing talking to me with that cooing voice in this situation. My entire body shifts, as I feel the door being forcefully opened despite all my weight pressed on it. I peer over my shoulder and see it peeking around the door as it pushes it open. My face, inches away from this sinister thing.

“You know if I didn’t know any bet-“

Before it could finish whatever statement it was saying, I slam all of my weight into the door and begin punching the ever-loving crap out of it.

“OW! YOU LITTLE SH-“

It jolts back from the door, and I slam it shut and I quickly begin to scan the room for any way out. I see an open window and immediately run to look out of it. A shear drop to the ocean that surrounds this school, but just below it a ledge just wide enough for a crazy person to try and shimmy on, or someone like me who is in a life or death situation. Before I could even psych myself up into committing to climbing onto the ledge, I hear the doorknob jostle and I instinctively jump out the window. I land on the ledge but because of my momentum I slip and hang on with one hand as the other was occupied holding Mary.

I hear the door fly open, desks shuffling, and chairs scraping across the floor. Soon enough the sounds erupt into a roar of crashing and smashing. I could only imagine it was the chairs and desks flying around the room.

“Just where in the hell did that little… Ooooo when I find him I will reprimand him for sure for this. Just how rude can one be and after I dressed all nice for this occasion!”

The cacophony of chairs and desks repeatedly meeting and crashing into one another continues until finally I hear.

“Dammit he got away, I’ll have to search this entire facility at this rate! Hmph~ and just when I got to see him up close… oh well.”

The sound dies down in the room as I hear more desks and chairs scraping briefly until the sound of a door closing ends the chaos. I lie there motionless as trying to restrain my breath as I hang there listening to the silence. I begin to prop myself up onto the ledge as I check on Mary. She is holding onto me still, but she is no longer making any sound. Her head lay motionless on my shoulders, but I can hear her breathe, her body is frigid and her breath is like a freezer blowing onto my neck. I am able to rest on the ledge on the window as I look back down to the drop. I see the waves crashing against the side of building. I am sure the drop would kill me, I wonder if it’d kill Mary, would she fall or would she just float. Could she float in the state that she is in? I grab onto the windowsill and

“JUST KIDDING!~”

The dark figure’s face meets me eye to eye as its nose almost kisses mine, with a smile etched onto its face meeting ear to ear.

“GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!”

It grabs me by the neck and hurls me across the room. I tighten my clutch onto Mary as I slam into the wall. Hrk! The wind knocked out of my lungs, I try and recover as they begin begging for air causing me to gasp and wheeze. My grip on Mary becoming weak as hers begins to loosen as well.

“You know what you did was very rude, you should know that a man of my talents wouldn’t be harmed by such actions, but it still comes off as brutish you knooooow~ Ughh and look at you, look what you made me do to, TCH ughh just what are you making me doooooo~”

It begins to berate me as I continue to recover from that brief flight across the room. I fix my grip on Mary and I immediately bolt to the door and open it.

“OH NO YOU DON’T!”

Yet, as quick as I had opened the door, I just as quickly felt its grasp on my neck. He lifts me up into the air as Mary falls off my shoulders. He pushes me through the door and he has me lifted up in the middle of the hallway. My already desperate lungs become even more desperate as my neck is being strangled with such strength.

“LISTEN YOU! I AM TIRED OF THESE GAMES! YOU’RE GOING TO MAKE ME ACT OUT DO THINGS I DON’T WANT TO DO NYA~”

It begins to reach its arms back as its hand balled into a fist, a gesture I could immediately recognize as my face tensed up bracing for the impact.

“HE’S HERE!”

The hallway is suddenly bathed in a white as a voice booms from down the hall.

“ALL UNITS RALLY ONTO ME I HAVE IT IN MY SIGHTS. I REPEAT SUBJECT BOOGEYMAN IS IN MY SIGHTS!”

The thing immediately drops me, and it begins to crack its neck and knuckles.

“You things are really starting to annoy me.”

Its voice dropped in tone and lost its cooing voice. More guards start to show up and the room is caked with more blinding lights, they are all shouting at each other giving out commands. The thing turns towards the crowd and ushers those words. He looks over his shoulder and winks at me before returning his gaze towards the crowd and promptly begins walking towards them.

“OPEN FIRE OPEN FIRE OPEN FIRE!!!!”

Just then the room was bathed in yet more lights that were accompanied by deafening explosions. I clutched at my ears to try and drown out the ear-piercing sounds. I closed my eyes and let my legs take me. I do not know where I was going I just knew that I did not want to be here, near that thing, or the bloodbath that was happening in that hall. My heart racing, I stood a good bit of distance down a separate hall from the fight. I can hear the distant explosions happening, and visibly see sparks flying from the hall accompanied by screams that are soon abruptly silenced.

My attention is ripped from the horrendous sounds when I hear a loud mechanical whirring sound coming from over my shoulder. I look and see that the laundry room is not too far from here and that the door was open. Light bleeds into the still dark hallway, like a beacon of light I feel a tugging on my back. I look down and see that my tail is being pointed towards that room. As I neared the door the mechanical whirring got louder, it then occurred to me. It’s the vehicle that Mary had been waiting for, it became clear when I saw. There she was standing in the windowsill. As if she heard my thoughts or felt my presence, she stops and turns to me.

“…”

She says nothing but her eyes spoke a thousand words, the somber look on her face, her furrowed eyebrows along with an unblinking gaze. As if she was silently asking if I was coming. I approach her and stop till I am stood in front of her. She reaches out her hand and I grab it. My mind is foggy, and my emotions are wild. The only thing on my mind is running, and her offering hand screamed of safety and serenity. I look down at my tail as it floats pointing in the general direction of her wrist, it seems I don’t have much of a choice either way. I grabbed onto her hand and squeezed with everything in my being and climbed onto the windowsill.

“…”

We both pause and stare at the shear drop, the waves crashing into rock and a vehicle suspended above the water having various blankets thrown into it. I look at her and then she looks at me, her eyes were glossy. She gives a wry smile and I give a nod. We both jump for the vehicle. We land on our backs on top a pile of comforters. They reek of sweat and other ungodly fluids I didn’t wish to think too much about. We both lie there briefly staring up into the sky. My mind slowly trying to piece together all things that happened over the course of the last hour. The vehicle takes off from the school and I watch it grows smaller and smaller as we gain more and more distance between it. I watch and see a dark figure stand atop the windowsill we once were and fall into the crashing waves below.

I feel a cool sensation work its way up my torso, its Mary. She grabs at my shirt and plants her face into my chest. Her breathing becomes sporadic, and she begins inhaling sharply. I knew far well what was happening with her, as my vision began to blur, and my breath joined her in the erratic rhythm. The vehicle began to close the open hatch we had fallen into and soon we were surrounded by darkness. I clutched onto Mary and her grip on my shirt became tighter. Tears forming in the inside of the headpiece. Surrounded by complete darkness on top of a mountain of dirty laundry and crying into each other’s arms. This is how we escaped Outward Phoenix.