Shortcut

The blue light of the TV shifted in the darkness. I observed the changing shadows, the outline of a man in a dark driveway watching me from the screen. I glanced down the hall at my bedroom door, telling myself I should go to sleep. But my shallow breaths and the vibrating air told me that wouldn’t be possible.

I placed my feet on the ground and stood, turning the TV off. I shook my head at myself as I put on my coat and grabbed my keys and my phone. My shoes were already on. I didn’t know where I was going at this ungodly hour. I just needed to go somewhere.

I locked the door behind me and started walking down the street. My footsteps echoed in the darkness, the only sources of light being my phone and sporadic streetlights above me. The sound of crickets kept my pace as I walked. The misty air enveloped me like a blanket. A man in a baseball cap walked by on the other side of the road, strolling through the night.

            A couple minutes later, a solitary car drove by going way too fast. I turned my head to watch it pass, although I kept my pace. A gust of wind from the car blew my hair across my face as it sped by. It turned a corner and disappeared into nothingness. I started to turn back until I noticed him. The man from before with the baseball cap. His figure outlined faintly by the streetlight behind him, he was now turned around, walking the same direction I was.

            I turned forward, and focused on the street ahead of me, my heart a booming drum. My breath fell out of my mouth and onto the dirty ground. I left it behind, walking faster now. The chorus of crickets became silent to me as I strained to hear footsteps other than my own.

            A minute later I glanced back, never slowing my pace. My heart jumped when I saw him, even closer now. I lost all feeling in my arms and legs. My mind became a bad-ending generator, spitting out horrible scenario after horrible scenario of where this could end. I’m going to be abducted. No, murdered. No, raped. No, raped then murdered and left in the forest. No, I’ll be turned into a drug mule and forced into the mafia.

            I tried to take a deep breath but my chest was frozen in place. I glanced back again. Baseball cap was still following me. I turned forward and saw Joe’s house. We would always go through his yard as a shortcut to the church; it led straight into the parking lot. It would be pitch black going through the forest, but I might be able to lose the creep behind me and get inside, off the streets. Going around the long way would have street lights, but it would also be six more minutes with him behind me, and he could catch up in that time.

            My hands started shaking, so I tightened my grip on my phone. I ran across the street to Joe’s driveway and kept running until I was under the cover of the trees. I turned back and caught my breath, peering through the spaces between the leaves.

            All warmth left my body. He was there, standing, looming in the darkness at the end of the driveway, staring at the forest. I couldn’t feel my brain.

I didn’t wait to see what he would do. I just ran.

Branches grabbed at my limbs, trying to hold me back, but I didn’t notice. My foot caught on a log forcing a sharp breath out of my empty lungs. I didn’t stop.

The trees parted into a sea of fog. The outline of the church floated in front of me. I forced my legs to move faster and I flew through the parking lot.

Five Eight Two Four. I prayed they hadn’t changed the door code. A tiny green light flashed at me and I shoved the front door open with all my weight, then pushed it closed again until I heard the click of the lock. Only then did I allow myself to pause. I backed up slowly into the foyer, placing a hand on my chest as if to check if I was breathing. My eyes scanned the shadows of the empty parking lot, searching for any form of movement.

A ghost-like figure appeared out of the trees, walking straight towards the church. The dim streetlights in the parking lot illuminated the brim of his baseball cap. My heart jumped in to my throat. I pivoted on my heel and sprinted in to the sanctuary, the doors making a crash that could’ve woken the whole neighborhood. The lightless stained glass above the stage was a sheet of black, dried blood full of cracks. The pointed ceiling and wooden beams stretched into shadows, the white walls in between. I felt like I was in the ribcage of some dead animal’s carcass.

I ran down the left side of the sanctuary, avoiding the windows on the other side, and went backstage. Cold sweat ran down my back as I waved my phone’s light around the room. The circle of light fell on the utility closet and I gasped, seeing the door that lay behind it in my mind. I slipped through the closet door and past the boxes and buckets until I came to the half-door floating in the middle of the wall. The wood creaked as I pushed it open, revealing a black hole that smelled of mildew. I placed my phone in it, then heaved myself up. The almost-door shut with a thump behind me as I picked up my phone and began up the winding stairs.

The attic was rotting and dusty and full of old candles and bibles and baptism robes. But most importantly, it was hidden behind one and a half doors and had no windows. I squeezed myself into the darkest corner behind a stack of boxes and turned my phone light off, blackness rushing to fill the spaces where light had been. I didn’t move. I didn’t breathe. I just listened to the groans of the old walls of my sanctuary and the faint chirps of crickets on the ground below the other side of the wall beside me.

Each second felt like a year. I had no idea how long I had been there, crouching in a rotting corner. I may as well have had my eyes closed with how dark it was. My heart pulsed in my ears as I strained to hear any sound.

The crickets’ song died and I could feel the world end when I heard the distant thud of a door closing.

Originally published in Sequoya Literary Magazine 2019.