Karena suddenly realized how ridiculous it was that she had even for a moment considered accepting help from the headmaster. It didn’t make sense on so many levels. He was merely a recurring figure in her lives, and when she started over again he would forget all about her and his so-called desire to help her. So then why would he even bother helping her now? And how did he even know that her lives kept repeating if the only person she’d ever told was Shawn?
And then it hit her. He didn’t. Of course he didn’t. He may have pretended to not know who the Sandman was at first, but that was given away when he mentioned the fact that her lives kept repeating. These words weren’t coming from the headmaster at all.
“He’s speaking through you,” Karena said, standing up slowly, trembling. “He’s manipulating you just like I said he could!”
“What are you talking about?” the headmaster asked. “I just want to help you.”
“No you don’t!” Karena yelled, making the teacher, who was still sitting in the chair, flinch. “He has control of you, of all of you. Because you…aren’t…real!!!!”
“I’m sitting right here in this chair,” Karena,” said the headmaster. “Surely you can see that.”
“Yeah, well, you can’t believe everything you see.” Karena came to the realization that this whole time she been acting like she was talking to the headmaster, telling him that the Sandman was taking control of him, when really, because of the fact that the Sandman was taking control of him, it was the Sandman she was talking to, with the headmaster’s voice. The Sandman was actually speaking to her.
Karena switched her topic. “When are you going to let me out of this cycle?” she asked.
The headmaster, or the Sandman in the headmaster’s body, smiled at her. “So you want to accept my help after all?” he asked.
“Stop playing innocent!” Karena yelled. “You know perfectly who you are, whatever your real name is. And I asked you a question!”
The headmaster kept smiling. “I’m not playing innocent,” he said. “I genuinely do want to help you. But you have to accept my help first.”
Karena stood her ground, wanting desperately to back away but resisting, though she didn’t know why. “Give me one reason why I should trust you.”
“You should trust me because you have no other choice.”
Karena knew that this would be his answer, but she still didn’t know how to respond. Of course she didn’t have any other choice, but the idea of trusting the Sandman revolted her. But he was right, she had no choice in the matter. She had to accept his help, even though she knew that it would not help her in any way.
Karena sighed and gritted her teeth. “I accept your help,” she said. “Though I do so bitterly and for want of other options.”
The headmaster’s face’s smile grew broader. “Excellent. Now I suppose I should explain something to you. This help is not the kind of help you are looking for. At least not directly. I cannot help you in the way in which you wish to be helped.”
Karena began to grind her teeth in frustration. It was just as she’d predicted. Of course he wasn’t going to actually help her. He was lying about aiding her, and she’d known it all along, despite the fact that she’d accepted his so called “help.”
“I cannot tell you the way in which I will help you now because, as a matter of fact, that would render the help rather useless. This is all very confusing for you, I’m sure, but believe me, it makes perfect sense to me, and that’s what really matters.”
“Well that’s certainly comforting. I thought this was about helping me, not about helping yourself,” Karena said.
“A little bit of both, I suppose. In good time, however, you will understand all that I mean by the word ‘help.’ In any case, I should best be going now.”
“Why do you talk like that?” Karena asked.
“Pardon?” the headmaster’s voice asked.
“Like that,” Karena said. “I’ve seen you all my life, and yet you’re so polite in meeting me, almost as if you’re an actual human. Why?”
“Oh, I see what you mean. This is merely the body, you see. It converts my speech to the way that body would say it. As a matter of fact, I’m not trying to be polite at all. If you could hear what I was the saying in the way I would normally say it, then you would not feel so confident in speaking to me; let’s just leave it at that.”
“Then why don’t you just change your voice? I know that you have control of this body, so why don’t you go ahead and change it?”
“You are right,” said the Sandman. “I do have control of this body. And I can do that whenever I wish. I don’t currently wish to. Maybe some other time.”
Karena gritted her teeth again. The headmaster’s voice was creating the wrong impression, the impression that the Sandman was just like any other person. But in fact, that was far from the case.
Karena backed away from the headmaster’s body and went to the door. She turned around and opened it, but just before she closed it, she turned around again. The headmaster was slumped over his desk, unconscious. The Sandman must have left him. Karena closed the door and walked down the unlit corridor. She had a feeling she’d be seeing her tormentor again very soon.
46
The headmaster’s office was not somewhere where children in the orphanage regularly went. Actually, they never went there. And since the orphanage was such a very big place, it was quite easy to get turned around, especially in the dark coming back from an area of the orphanage where you’ve never been before. When one is guided through a creepy building in the middle of the night to a particular room, it is always a good idea to have your guide with you on the way back so that this problem can be avoided. Unfortunately for Karena, he mind was too focused on what had just happened to think about having the teacher accompany her. And that was how she got lost in the orphanage.
As has been said before, Karena was not afraid of the dark. She reminded herself of this over and over again as she wandered through the hallways, looking for something familiar. It did no good, because of course no one is really afraid of the dark. It’s what’s in the dark that they’re afraid of. And in Karena’s case, the thing that was potentially there was worth being afraid of.
Karena went from one flickering pool of light to the next, trying not to stay for too long in an area where she couldn’t see anything. But as she went on through the hallway, finding these areas of light was becoming increasingly difficult. Where on earth was the staircase? Hadn’t she walked down this hallway before? Or had it been the one going the other way? Turning around, she went back to the intersection in the corridor and looked down that hallway. She could scarcely see anything, but from the small illuminated area she could make out that this hallway was identical to the one she’d been in before. There was really no point in exploring it.
Karena ground her teeth in frustration. She’d already made several turns, and so had no clue how to get back to the headmaster’s office. When she’d left it she’d been too preoccupied with the conversation, and when she been coming to it she’d been too preoccupied thinking about what could happen. Fool. She was paying the price for it now.
Karena wheeled around and began walking down the hallway she’d been walking down. There was as good a chance as any that the staircase was this way as it was any other way. She’d have to try them all.
She walked down the hallway on light feet, half sprinting at times when she was in the darkest areas. The lights were weak, but they were her only source of navigation as she continued walking. Even in the darkest areas there was still some illumination up ahead.
She came to an intersection, which was exactly what she’d hoped wouldn’t happen. Now she had three choices, go left, go right, or go back. Karena turned left, and was instantly filled with dismay upon seeing the hallway. There was no lighting whatsoever. The hall was enveloped in a thick darkness. Turning around, she could see that the other hallway was enveloped in darkness too.
�
��I guess that means I’m going back then,” Karena muttered to herself, turning around to start heading down the hallway. She walked about 10 feet, and then stopped at an area bathed in a pool of faint light. A faint flickering light. Karena looked up at the lightbulb suspended from the ceiling, a bad feeling in her gut. She looked down the hallway at the other bulbs. The flickering was increasing, and some bulbs were going out for a second or two before coming back again.
One of the bulbs at the end of the hallway suddenly went out for longer than normal, and didn’t come on again. And then the next one did it. There was no doubt about it. The bulbs in the hallway were going off one by one, and in moments she’d be in pitch blackness.
There was nothing to do but stand there and wait for the black to envelop her. The lit area was now so small that she could not see but 30 feet ahead of her, and nothing behind her. Karena looked around one last time, seeing if there was something, anything, that could aid her in the darkness. And just as the absence of lights was about to reach her, she saw something glinting on the very edge of the hallway, about 10 feet in front of her, something she hadn’t seen before. She ran forward to try to see what it was, but it was too late. The lights all flickered out and she was left alone in the total darkness.
There wasn’t even the tiniest pinprick of light to guide her way, no illumination coming from around the curve in the hallway, or from the moon through a window, as there were no windows. There was simply nothing. Karena instantly stopped moving and stood stock still, breathing slowly. It was so silent that the sound of her breaths coming in and out sounded loud to her ears. She was careful not to turn around, for fear of getting lost, even though she already was lost. She thought about where the object on the ground had been in the millisecond before the lights all went out. After consulting her memory, she figured it couldn’t be more than a few feet ahead. It was a long shot that it would actually be anything of any use, but she decided that it was pretty much the only shot she had.
Karena slowly bent down to the floor and began to crawl, using her hands to probe the ground like a blind person would. The object would be there soon, whatever it was. She could only hope that it would be something worthwhile. She inched forward painstakingly slowly, making sure that she didn’t miss a single spot that was five feet away from the wall. She remembered that it was relatively close to that side of the wall, so there was no need to extend her reach further.
Finally, Karena found it. It was an angular, sharp object, with lots of spiky, protruding edges. Karena felt her way around the object and found that it was about a foot long, though she still had no idea what it could be. Could it , by some miracle, be a flashlight?
Karena continued to feel the object, looking for a switch or a button of some sort. Instead, she found a place near the back of the object where it abruptly rose up. That was strange, because Karena hadn’t remembered the object being very tall before, but then again, she’d only seen it for a split second. The rise was long, and it appeared to be a smooth surface covered with some sort of flaky material, though she couldn’t guess what it could be.
And then, a horrible thought struck her. Karena stop following the object’s path upwards and felt around on the floor near to where the object had been. There was another object, this one cylindrical, in the promising shape of a flashlight. Fingers shaking, Karena felt around desperately for the switch, knowing that time was of the essence. There was a button near the bottom and she pressed it. To her relief, a beam of beautiful light projected forth from the end of the flashlight, and she almost felt like kissing it. But instead, she grasped it in her hands and raised it up to look at the object she’d been feeling before.
It was a leg.
47
Karena gasped and reeled back, falling onto the floor and crawling away. She shone the flashlight in the other direction so that she wouldn’t have to see it, but she instantly realized that this was a bad idea, because the Sandman could then sneak up on her all the more easily. She shone it back at where he had been, only to find empty space. He wasn’t there anymore.
Karena slowly got into a crouching position, and then stood up, shining the flashlight in a circle slowly around her. She went around a full 360 degrees, searching everywhere, but he was nowhere to be found. She realized that he must be behind her, and staying behind her as she turned in a circle, taking advantage of the slow speed at which she was moving. Karena readied herself, and, after counting to three in her head, whirled around as fast as she could, shining the flashlight where she’d been sure he’d be. He wasn’t there.
And then the area before her went pitch black, and it took her a moment to figure out that the flashlight was no longer in her hand. She turned back around, but there was no beam of light anywhere. The Sandman had snatched it from her and turned in off.
Now she felt more vulnerable and exposed than ever. It was clear that the Sandman had no trouble seeing in the dark, and so she was as helpless as an upside down crab on a fishing boat. She slowly reached behind her and felt the wall, being careful not to make any sudden movements, even though she knew not doing so would make no difference at all. She found the side of the hallway with her hand and proceeded to move the rest of her body back so that she was flat against the wall. She then decided to go right, moving down the hallway slowly, figuring that getting back to the headmaster’s office was her best chance.
Suddenly, she bumped into someone, and she immediately recoiled, retracing her footsteps quickly back in the way she’d came. She didn’t even bother flattening her body against the wall this time, instead just keeping one hand on it as she ran along. She knew that he could teleport, and so she refrained from running at full speed for fear that she would bump into him at any second.
But she didn’t bump into him. Instead, she felt the bones of his hands grasping the back of her neck and pulling her back, abruptly stopping her flight. She felt herself being pulled towards him, and she could imagine the look on his face, though she could not see it. She didn’t need to.
But suddenly, she felt more hands grabbing her. In moments all her limbs were held and she found herself suspended in the air. What was this? Had the Sandman suddenly grown more limbs? Of course, this wasn’t beyond him, but Karena suspected that this wasn’t the case. There was something else going on here.
But she didn’t have time to stop and dwell on what technique the Sandman was employing now, so blind with fear and panic she was. She lashed out with her left arm, since her right was being held by a hand. She found the Sandman standing behind her and she connected with his rib cage, though not with the power she would have liked. It seemed to have no effect on him. Desperately, she thrashed wildly with all of her limbs, trying to break free from his grip, and she managed to get her right leg free, which she then used to kick the hand that had been holding her. Obviously, he could feel no pain, and so all she could try to do was to forcibly get him off her, which didn’t seem very likely.
Karena continued to kick and punch, but every time she got something free, something else was taken again, and she’d have to fight all over again to get that free. But finally, Karena managed to get both arms free, after much toil and struggle in the dark, and she managed to grab the bones of the Sandman’s arms, and somehow managed to hang on even as he tried to detach her. Since she was no longer entirely in the air, she used her own body weight, combined with the force of gravity, to pull the Sandman as hard as she could and send him sprawling to the floor. He landed partially on top of her, and Karena pushed him off, surprised to find that he didn’t resist.
It was then that Karena realized what was happening. Her legs were both still being held by the Sandman and she knew now that he must have duplicated himself rather than grow more limbs. Karena wondered why he didn’t just finish her off though. He obviously had the power to, so if he was trying to kill her then why didn’t he? There was no reason for it that she could see. And why was he letting her defeat him?
In minutes, Karena
was able to get her legs free and she jumped to her feet. Out of the dark, more hands reached for her, but this time they didn’t come as a surprise. Karena punched her way through the mass of Sandmen, knuckles ripping through their skin and colliding with their cold bones. They were all around her, a swarm, closing in quickly. And no matter how much she fought them, there were always more coming, and they would always get back up from the floor to rejoin the fight. There was an endless supply of them, and Karena began to wonder if this nightmare would ever end, her in the dark, fighting unknown creatures that could kill her at any moment, and the fact that they were simply choosing not to kill her somehow made the situation worse, more hopeless. There was no end in sight. And when the end finally came, it wouldn’t be good.
Finally, though, Karena somehow tore her way through the web of bones and found an area where there weren’t many of them. She was almost through. A few more collisions and she had broken free and was sprinting down the corridor as fast as her legs would carry her. She had no idea where the hall would end in the dark, but she couldn’t afford slowing down. Instead, she stuck her hands out in front of her to feel when there was a turn in the hall.
Her fingers suddenly jammed into something, and she realized that it was an intersection. Quickly, she turned left and ran forward, only to crash into another wall. Wiping blood from her jaw, she realized that it wasn’t an intersection; instead it was a right turn. She turned 180 degrees and sprinted once again, going down another hallway. There would be an exit somewhere. And then, once she escaped this place, she knew where she had to go. Back to the hall where all the children slept was out of the question; there was no way she’d be safe there. She’d have to get to Shawn’s house.
Karena crashed into another wall hard, and she was reminded of the time all those years ago when she’d crashed into the bus she’d been trying to catch, in order to save her parents. And yet, it somehow didn’t feel like it was that long ago, even though it was, quite literally, a lifetime ago. For her, events just blended together so that everything was a blur and picking out individual things was practically impossible.
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