The Dream Weaver

[Dan]

First light spilled into the graduate student’s apartment, the sounds of clinking dishes, stumbling, and a, “Oof!” Spilling out as the student’s body stumbled over her pile of books on the ground. She quickly recovered and threw her coat on. Her third alarm going off on her watch, eliciting her anxiety to fill through the roof. She shut it off, grabbing her bag, and then leaving her apartment altogether. Once out of the complex, she rushed through the sea of early commuters on their way to work/school.

Nearly missing the last morning bus to the college, her hand jammed in between the doors. Muttering an apology before paying and made her way toward the back of the bus where she took the seat on the left side. In her commotion to head to the lab, she’d forget her mobile. The student chided herself, her shoulders deflating into the uncomfortable seat. The rumble of the bus chugged down the 4-lane road, making multiple stops before she finally arrived at her destination: The University. Which one? Oh, the one that allows her to continue her studies in Science and Psychology of Dreams.

The student departed from the rumbling bus. It hissed away as church bells going ringing out in the background. Most of the campus is already abandoned. Though her first class doesn’t start till noon, she still commutes to an early schedule for the paid position she scored at the beginning of the school year: Lab Assistant. Out of habit, she stuffed her hands into her coat, already forgetting the mobile she left at home.

She made her way across the quad, noting the many buildings around her. But the one she was headed toward was a smaller one behind one of the taller, older buildings. The student was ready to head around the building when her name is yelled out behind her.

“Leon!” The unfamiliar voice rings out.

Leon turns, seeing a female run toward her. Mildly interested, Leon’s ready to leave when the female finally gets to her, gasping for air, and leaning on her knees. Leon quirks an eyebrow, ‘What’s so important this stranger couldn’t wait to-‘

“Professor Jennings won’t be in today. You can head home.” The female said between loud gasps for air. Once she caught her breath, she stood upright again, and let out another breath of relief.

Leon nods to the female, ready to head out to the library instead. Since the Professor was out for today, she could catch up on reading needed for another class. When the female from behind stood in her way, “Aren’t you going to at least ask me for my name?”

“Waste of time.” Leon puts it. She steps around the female and walks away. Until the female catches up with her.

“Well, I’m Alice Kensington. You’re welcome. Your friend, Estee, sent me after she didn’t get a reply from her texts. She thought you must’ve left it at home again, and she was right. Looks like I’m owed $50.” Alice says happily, like she didn’t just run a marathon to deliver a message.

“Right.” Leon’s words are short and clipped. Not because she wanted to be cold, but it was a disappointment that the Professor wouldn’t be in today. It messed with her schedule and found it…annoying.

---

@nico ​

 

[nico]

Kana was heaving for air as she ducked behind yet another wall. She berated herself for her inability to keep running, not that she was able to get much distance from the creature that followed you. As she looked down at her body a sense of unfamiliarity washed over her. This was not the body she had come in with, but it reflected just how long she had been on the inside which worried her.

Kana imagined her poor mother desperate for her daughter to return to her. If it weren't for the guilt of leaving her mother behind, Kana probably would have given up by now. Deep down she wondered if she was even still alive or if with her passing she had gotten trapped here for eternity. The time she had been inside wasn't truly known to her, but it made her realize that if she would've mentioned her ability to conduct her dreams maybe her mom would've believed her. However, it was much too late for that, and that thinking got her nowhere.

Before she had the chance to fully recover, she heard heavy steps pounding into the ground which let her know the creature was closing in on her. Never had she been caught by the creature, but she knew that it was the reason she was here. What it wanted with her wasn't entirely clear, but she knew it was nothing good. As a child, she had been afraid of this thing, and there must have been a good reason. Outside of the creature's looks, his demeanor and the way he looked at her let her know that his intentions were far from being good.

Her legs burned as she began running again. Kana had been running without shoes to make her footfalls quieter, but he managed to find her no matter what. The lack of support caused Kana's legs to ache when she put a large amount of pressure on them, but they had become stronger as she became faster. She wondered if that reflected on her body where ever it was, and she wondered if changes to her body on the outside reflected on her inside form.

The hallway in front of her had no visible end though it contained many shoot-off rooms and hallways for her to escape into. "Five doors down, open the door on the right, go in the left," she mumbled to herself., and that's just what she did. As she heard the heavy footsteps go to the right she knew he had fallen for her tricks. It wouldn't keep him gone for long, but once she could no longer hear his footfalls she was safe to start screaming again.

It had never gotten her anywhere, but Kana continued to do it. If she continued to scream out for help she figured someone, anyone, might hear her and be able to save her. "Please!!" she screamed, "Help me!" Between each scream, she would allow herself time to listen to the world around her. This not only let her see if someone was coming to her aid, but she would be able to hear the creature returning. Knowing where it was was very important because when he got close to her it was harder for her to keep going as if he had some sort of Kana magnet pulling her towards him.

@Dan​

 

[Dan]

Her day ended abruptly, turns out most of her classes were let out in memory of a well-known faculty member, turns out it was her Professor. David Jennings. Guilt gnawed at the pit of her stomach as she trudged up the steps toward her apartment. The feeling of losing someone you’ve seen on a day-to-day basis for the past two years was a hollow and numbing one. She fished the keys out of her coat, unlocked her front door and entered.

“Mobi, I’m home~” She sung out to her feline companion. The black oriental shorthair cat came cat walking in from around the hallway. He rang out a ‘meow’ as a greeting before rubbing himself against her legs. Leon slipped off her coat and shoes, abandoning them at the doorway. She gave Mobi a few scratches before filling his eating station up with cat food and water. After feeding him, she went through her own fridge to see what she had available, mostly water and condiments.

“Take out, it is.” She shut the door and bounded for her bedroom. Inside the messy studio bedroom, she found her mobile still on its charging port.

Leon took it off to see the many messages and emails from The University students, and her family. She dismissed them to order from a local Chinese take out place, getting her usual; chow mein and spring rolls. After ordering, she scrolled through the many messages. Most were pity messages regarding Professor Jennings. She let out a sigh, copying and pasting the same message over to them all. Then, she got Estee’s messages – her best friend – and found the messages that Kensington spoke of early morning.

After some time, her food arrived, and she paid with the usual tip. She returned to her bedroom with the bags, setting them on her study desk, where she turned the lights on and pulled up her paper due within a few days. The study of Dreams and how/why they happened was what she was writing it upon. Setting up the food around her papers, she took a bite of the chow mein, and looked up at the monitor. The document she opened up only presented her name, the date, and the title of what she was writing it up on.

Truth was, she wanted to bring up her theory up about astral projection. The only problem was, she couldn’t. Leon noticed ever since she joined University, her ability disappeared entirely. Whether it had to do with the fact that she was senile, or she recently made a large decision in her life, she didn’t know. With another enormous sigh, Leon went to working on her paper, mostly researching on the net again. It didn’t take long before she fell asleep at her desk with the empty take out around her and a few energy shots she bought when she took a break around eleven o’clock.

When she opened her eyes again, Leon found herself in a different place entirely. It didn’t take long for her to figure out that she was dreaming or astral projecting again. The student picked herself up off the ground, the only sounds of her moving to get up. Then, out of nowhere, screams for help. Leon’s hair stood on end. Who the hell was screaming for help? With caution, she moved around in the darkness. Leon felt like she was in a video game, the part where the player’s in a dour place, but only an orb of light guides them.

She stopped in her tracks, suddenly finding herself in a corridor. The screams were getting closer as she moved again, her throat bobbed as she gulped down her spit. Anxiety built inside her as she turned the corner, expecting to see something horrendous. Instead…she found a girl. She was screaming her head off. Not only was she there, but there was a dark figure in the other end of the corridor, gaining on them fast. Leon quickly moved to the girl’s side, her hand grabbing the girl’s shoulder as she kneeled beside her.

“We have to go.” She spoke to her.

 

[nico]

Kana nodded in agreement, grabbing the girl's hand tightly as she stood up. "I will let you go, but stay close to me. He's not after you, you have to trust me. I know this place, but there's no way out. We can talk again once we have found another temporary safe space." She dropped the girl's hand and nodded, her way of accepting the sudden change.

"We have to go into the main hall which means he will see us, and it'll be easier for him to follow us," her heart pounded in her ears as the heavy footfalls came closer and closer. Without a second thought, Kana ran for the door, her bare feet hitting the ground harder with each step as she attempted to put more distance between herself, the girl, and the creature.

'Finally, someone heard me, finally, I will get to go home. The only issue is that she could be after me too. A new tool to gain my trust only to place me in its hand.' She took a right into another adjoining hallway. There was practically a map of the place in her he's at this point, but she never truly knew if this was all the same as she remembered or if the place was just built to seem that way. 'I will just have to make sure to grill her, and if she can't keep her distance while answering my questions I can just run off without her. All these years it's been just him, but maybe this was the plan all along. If he has heard my screams all these years he has probably figured out a way to get to me, and she might be that way. After all, she just appeared as if there was a door in, and there isn't. I have looked all these years to find a way out for nothing. She just gets to show up out of nowhere, and if she is real and wakes up I will be alone again. Stuck in the purgatory my own mind has entrapped me with."

 

[Dan]

As the female took her hand to stand and explain about the ominous figure following her around. She dropped her hand, a look of puzzlement on Leon’s face. Just what was she talking about? Of course, there was a way out. Before Leon had the chance to respond to the mysterious female’s words, she was already racing down the hall. The slaps of her feet against the ground matching the pace of the heavy footsteps coming toward Leon.

Adrenaline started up in Leon’s veins as the footsteps gained momentum. She headed the opposite way, not able to recall where the female just went as she stood there dumbfounded for a moment. Leon ran down several corridors, went through a blur of doors before stopping into another gloomy hall to catch her breath. She noted no more sounds of the footsteps, where could have they gone? While she calmed her erratic heart, she took this miniscule time to think about the female’s words more, ‘Who is he? What is she so afraid of?’

 

[nico]

Kana tucked into a tight crevice in the wall, no footsteps to be heard which meant not only had she lost him, but she had lost the girl. Maybe this was proof that the girl didn't really exist anywhere but her mind. She whistled to hear which direction it echoed in and if the sound would bring anything towards her. After moments of silence, she managed to un-wedge herself from the crevice and turn back the way she came. She figured if she went back this way she would have a chance of running into the girl.

As she walked the halls she hugged the wall behind her, and each step she took was slow, soft as to not make any unnecessary noise. Being out in the open was dangerous enough, but being in the open where she had only minutes earlier been running away from the thing that stalked her made the stakes a little higher. This showed just how desperate Kana was for a way out. After all these years she figured anyone would be, and she had a way out. Although she wasn't entirely sure how dependable this other girl would be since they knew nothing about each other, not to mention that if this girl wanted to leave she was free to do so whenever. Kana didn't have that privilege, so she would be extra careful when she finally did deal with the girl as to not scare her off.

 

[Dan]

Leon’s moment of relief passes at the sound of heavy footsteps in the distance. She near stopped breathing for a second as she stood there, lending her ear to the sounds of the darkness. Before the steps stopped altogether. The eerie silence that ensued had her hair standing on end. And Leon’s gut feeling to run came to light when the door opened beside her. Without looking back, the student fled away from the spot she was hiding in. Her shoes making the only noise aside from her heartbeat in her ears.

Leon slid around the corner, the footsteps around were picking up again. ‘Just how the hell does a person survive this nightmare?’ She wondered for a split second before she went around another corridor. Leon realised she could figure a way out of here, but four years without astral projection was like lighting a fire to wet wood – it wouldn’t work. Before she knew it, she ran into a tall object, causing her to fall back onto the concrete floor.

Leon looked up to see the drab figure that was chasing the other girl before it came for her. The student’s eyes grew wide at the face before her. It wasn’t the figure at all – it was the girl again. She let out an internal sigh of relief before helping herself back to her feet. “What the hell is this place? What were you running away from?” She asked in a low-whisper, unsure if the figure was still after the girl or her.

 

[nico]

"I don't know. I started having nightmares where I was trapped in carnival mazes years ago, but it all felt real. When I told my mom she thought I was just a child with a super active imagination and sent me to bed. One morning I just didn't wake up," she choked back tears as she continued to speak. "I don't know what he is or what he wants. I don't let him get close enough because there's no way that that would end well. You saw him, but you haven't been trapped with him for years."

Kana extended her hand out to the girl to help her up. "He's giant, scary, gross. He's never said a word to me. The only noises that come from him are the cement footfalls and the scraping when I'm behind a door. I wanted to give up a while ago, but I know somewhere my mom is crying for me to come home. I fight for her, but I have no way to escape back to the outside. We are just stuck in my--," her eyes widened, "in my head.....How are you in my head? Who are you?"

 

[Dan]

As the girl was telling her story, Leon kept her ears out on any approaching footsteps of this mentioned, ‘man.’ The student didn’t know how to comfort the crying female, but gladly took her hand to help her back up off the ground. “Wouldn’t it be easier to confront this… man if you’ve been running for years?” Leon logically put it. She thought how illogical it was to keep running away from the muted, giant man. What if the girl was running away from help that she needed? But she thought back on the girl’s words of her never waking up after falling asleep again. She most likely never knew she had the ability to astral project.

Leon tilted her head, “You… are aware that you’re asleep? You never knew there is—” But she’s cut off at the sudden realisation of Leon being in her head. “I do not know how I got into your ‘head,’. But I’m Leon and I haven’t had the ability to appear into others dreams for the past four years now. Well, technically this is my first time appearing in another’s… dream.” She eyed the girl, “What’s your name?” She inquired back. “Also… I’m assuming you don’t know that we’re not in your head. We’re in the dreaming realms.” Leon motions around her. How dark and dreadful this place was. “We’re in the dark plane the dreaming realms. I could—” She’s interjected by the sounds of footsteps picking up rapidly.

“Is that your… monster?” Leon asked, turning her head down the direction of the steps that were coming closer and closer. There was another thing, Leon just realised herself, that she wasn't wearing her sunglasses. She'd been looking at this unknown female with her ruby red eyes this entire time, it was likely freaky to her. Either way, they wouldn't have much time to talk about it as the steps came closer.

 

[nico]

Kana backed up. "It's Kana, and I know he's dangerous because the day he touched me, even though it was only for a second, I became trapped here. I just thought that if I ran far enough there would be a way out, a way back to my mom. I've been here since I was a child," she pointed in the direction they should run, "I don't know how long it has been, but it's obvious to me that I am no longer 8 years old."

If she's just here to call me stupid and tell me I have no idea what I am doing, why even show up? Obviously, if I knew how to get out I would. "We can stick together and run, or we can split up and you can get out of here. I'm used to being alone so either option isn't an issue for me. There will never be an opportunity for us to pause and have a deep conversation, there's never much time, but we can use the small break between his appearances to figure out what exactly is going on."

 

[Dan]

Leon didn’t know how becoming a Prisoner to the realms was like, but if Kana matured this quickly mentally and physically. Then, it was likely that she already had some assumption about her physical body in the actual world. Either way, Leon was still unsure why she was pulled here the moment she fell asleep. The University Student watched her get ready to run while looking out for the alleged monster.

“What’s your last name?” Leon could only ask for that. Perhaps when she awoke again, she could do more research online. After all, she was doing Uni to better understand the realm of dreams and how the brain worked. Leon shrugs her shoulders at the two choices of either sticking together or splitting up, “If you’re used to being alone, then let’s split up. I’ll distract him away.” She ends the conversation there and jumps out of the crevice in time for the figure to be at the other end of the corridor.

“Yoo-hoo! C’mere!” Leon yelled at the ominous figure as it started running after her. Leon turned, her legs taking long strides as she sprinted away, her heart racing again. The pace picked up and heavy footsteps followed her down the corridor, away from Kana and around the corner after Leon.

 

[nico]

Kana silently thanked the girl as she slid out of the crevice moving in the opposite direction. She could only hope that they could bump into each other one last time in case it was the last time Kana would see anyone. Her brained toyed with the hanging question "What's your last name?" What would she do with that? Of course, Kana didn't fully grasp the idea that there may be articles surrounding the mystery of her body's state. That idea was thrown out along with the wonder of what would come to her should her mom decide to give up on waiting in order to keep Kana from destroying herself while inside.

The fragment of her mind that was trapped in this realm could shatter should she choose to focus in on such negative things, and the effect that could have on her both inside and outside was a scarier thought than the rest. If she kept her head, kept her strength, maybe one day she would truly get out of her. Leon came in which meant there was a way out, and she felt like Leon might be the way for her. If she ran back into Leon she wouldn't offer to split because now Leon was her way. Her long-term goal of escaping seemed possible now thanks to Leon, who became the focus of her new short-term goal.

 

[Dan]

Leon’s boots skidded around the corner; she felt the brush of fingers on the hem of her shirt collar. That’s all the confirmation she needed to get her adrenaline rushing. All the corridors were all the same, no matter which she went down. And the guy was never far from behind her either. She could feel her heart race. The Uni student had never run this much either. Her breath hitched in her throat as she bounded around yet another corner. Only this time she was at a dead end.

She turned around in time. Her eyes grew wide at the glint of a knife and felt it plunge into her chest. Which would ultimately shake her awake from her deep state. She inhaled a gasp of sharp air; her skin was sweaty and clammy. Leon immediately got up from her study and looked at the clock, 03:33 AM. Letting a hand run down her face, she took this moment to close her eyes, slow down her breath, and do the exercises to calm down her racing heart.

When Leon placed a palm over her chest, she felt a bump. Her eyes opened. She got up and moved to the body mirror attached to the back of her door. Flicking the light on in the process and yank down her collar to see it; a large, red scar healing itself over right in front of her eyes. Leon was intrigued yet horrified that she died in her dreams. Which brought the memories of the girl back to the surface, “Kana… is real?” She questioned herself.

 

[nico]

Kana allowed herself to relax a bit as she weaved through all the identical corridors, tucking away in halls that she thought would take her in a big circle to the center. The atmosphere was falsely hopeful, but she didn't yet know of its lies. She hoped that Leon was okay. It takes a lot of experience for somebody to be able to make it in there, and Leon didn't have that experience despite her otherwise promising nature. The guilt of leaving her alone weighed on Kana, but Leon had agreed to do so.

Her steps slowed to a walk for a bit, and she was -- for the first time -- able to take in a bit more about the labyrinth she had come to know as home after all these years. If only that feeling of familiarity wasn't a curse. This quiet moment didn't last long as footsteps clunked nearby, familiar footsteps. He got her. Subsequently, she began to run again. The all-too-familiar cycle beginning again. Again, she was alone. It was her fault for suggesting splitting up when Leon knew nothing about what she was walking into, all Kana hoped was that she made it out. If Leon died because of her she wouldn't know what to do with herself. Not only was she back to square one as far as finding a way out went, but she might have killed the only person who had been able to find her, and at this point, she didn't know which was worse.

I just thought, for once, I had a fighting chance and someone to fight alongside me, and I messed that up. I just hope she made it out, I hope she's still alive. I'm sorry Leon for dragging you into all of this, and I'm sorry for leaving you alone. Thank you for showing up, even if it got neither of us anywhere, at least I hope both of us are just back where we started. You at home, or wherever you were, and me here for the rest of eternity. Although, yelling out to someone worked once, so maybe I could try that again. If you come back I won't let you go off alone, we can figure it all out together. She turned into a room and slammed the door, heaving the bookshelf to the ground in front of it before beginning to move everything else in the room over. It was a mystery how he always skipped over her just to come back and find the exact door when she had heard none of the others around her open. Maybe it was all a part of the game, and no matter how much he wanted to catch her, he also wanted a fair match. If she was in a room the period between him passing and returning always seemed like the same amount of time, but she hadn't really thought about it until now. The real question was, was he letting her rest or was there something he was doing to keep her around?

 

[Dan]

Following the next few hours, Leon’s books were sprawled over the floor of her bedroom. Her computer had various tabs of information up – on dreams and people named ‘cana’ – but in the end, Leon couldn’t find anything connecting exploring dreams and humans being in coma’s, if that was what that girl was in. On top of that, she was struggling to finish a paper for a project she had due the next day which rendered a halt on her personal research. Leon had turned the project in by noon and basically had nothing else to do for the remainder of the day since the passing of Professor Jennings. She figured she would do the rest of her time to research on any individuals who were in coma’s for a long time.

 

[nico]

Kana's chase seemed at a slower pace than usual, the breaks between coming back for her were larger than usual. Maybe something about Leon's departure -- Kana had come to the conclusion she was no longer on the inside since they hadn't crossed paths on her rounds -- had satisfied something within the creature. While the change of pace had its charm, it also made her stomach squeeze. What had he done that had been able to satisfy him to this extent? Maybe Leon was right when she had said the creature may not be dangerous, maybe he was the way out, but she was still unwilling to risk something so serious.

Besides, Leon had made it here without the creature which set her apart from Kana. The creature was nothing more than a villainous captor to Kana and rightfully so. It seemed to see her only as prey, but Leon wasn't here because he wanted something from her. Kana had been the one to invite Leon in which could have also scared him off a bit. If she could get in Leon what else could she do in order to help herself escape?

 

[Dan]

Leon had found several articles and patients who were pronounced brain-dead after a certain amount of years of living on machines, but couldn't find anything connecting astral projection to coma's. She knew the two had a connection, but it looked like it was a unique situation that only pertained to those who held the ability from a young age. Frustrated, the student eventually cleaned her things up, including her computer and decided to check her phone for the first time since waking up. While passing her mirror in the corridor, she got a glimpse of her scar on her chest in the reflection - it was gone. Leon backed up, brows knitted together as she pulled her collar down some more and found no scar there, not even a pink line of where the gash would've been.

Dismissing it, she answered a few messages that had come from other students and Professors before getting to her email. All of which were regarding her Professor's passing a day ago. What caught her attention was an unknown email that was sitting in her inbox since the moment she fell asleep yesterday. Intrigued, the moment she opened it up, it downloaded only a photo of her... in a dark hallway and her face frozen mid-scream as a knife came down toward her chest. Leon checked the email address, it lead to a dead website and whoever sent it couldn't have known that she was in... Kana's mind? Without thinking further about it, she sent the email to one of her tech-savvy friends and told her that he would get back to her on it. Throughout the rest of the day, she remained home and continued her studies - which would eventually lead her to conspiracy blogs. Once evening fell again, Leon was beginning to struggle against sleep and the ticking clock in the background wasn't helping either. Soon enough, she'd fall asleep again, only to find herself back in that same dark realm. Why was she back here again?

 

[nico]

Kana neared the center of the labyrinth for what was probably the millionth time as the footsteps thundered towards her. Was he moving faster or was he just walking heavier than usual? The consistent steps paused momentarily before resuming their rhythm. Odd. Everything that happened here had a certain rhythmic nature that had never been disturbed until earlier that day when the creature returned its focus to her. If only there was some sort of catalog of this creature's desires, abilities, and end game, but no one should be fortunate to find something like that in a situation such as this. If it was that easy he would have changed his ways and come at Kana with different things all the time, but this cat and mouse game never seemed to change.

His touch was what trapped her here, and he had done something to get rid of Leon, at least that's what she assumed happened. If he touched her would it result in her survival or would this game move into a deeper level of the purgatory it operated on? With a sharp turn into a hall, Kana slammed into the far wall which knocked her off balance. The footsteps sounded closer than they had ever been before which encouraged her to run even if she wasn't entirely in it again.

 

[Dan]

A cacophony of footsteps bounced off the walls, it was like skipping a stone on the surface of water; the ripples went out in waves off the walls before breaking once catching up to Leon. The student was thrown off by the noise, it overwhelmed her senses for a brief moment before she regained control again. Then, she heard a large crashing of sorts, it was far, yet the sounds travelling off the walls made it sound like it was near. It was eerily quiet before the footsteps picked up traction again, Leon kept looking in each direction. She had already figured she was back within Kana's mind, but why? or how? She wasn't doing this of her own volition, it was a mystery to her as to how she was drawn back in the dark realm.

Her thinking broke when she heard footsteps again, this time more frantic as if something were chasing after the victim? Or was it the culprit? Either way, Leon wasn't going to wait to find out. The student ran on her own, this time she was wearing slippers - those which she fell asleep in - making her footing more padded and silent, yet you could still hear the light taps of her soles as they hit the ground. The wind was whistling in her ears as she made turns down the same, dull corridors until she found a crevice to shove herself between to catch her breath. Her heart wasn't used to all this running nor was her body.

 

[nico]

Her unbalanced gait urged the creature closer than she was comfortable with, and without another second Kana had speed up even though her running was still a bit shaky. Her heart was in her throat, and the sound of it beating in her ears made it seem like it was trying to climb out of her body altogether. Their regular distance resumed, although the creature seemed to slow at some points before picking back up at normal, what she presumed to be, full speed again. The soles of her feet shot pain up her legs as she ran, and it seemed like there was no good way to close her self off for him yet.

The turn into another hallway allowed her to zip into a slightly adjacent door before slamming it behind her and shoving everything nearby behind it. She had to take a break, but all the adrenaline rushing through her body was encouraging her to press further than she had previously been willing to do. The fight or flight that kicked in when the creature had gotten close to her still hadn't fully erased itself from her mindset, and instead opted to making up what seemed like a billion different schemes on where to go next, how soon to go, and what leaving would mean. Flight it seemed always took hold because fight never seemed like it had any chance at success.