It wasn’t sleep. He was too frightened and uncomfortable for that to happen. But when he next looked at the phone, it took his eyes a moment to focus, and the syncing bar was up to double digits. On top of that, his everything ached enough to tell him he’d been laying on the stone for a long time. Long enough help should have arrived, and certainly long enough that if he was out on the streets he would have been noticed or run over by now.
Which meant he had to still be in his apartment, and no one had heard him.
Or...he hadn’t gone insane.
There was a certain banality to his surroundings that was helping to abate the fear. The stone walls weren’t shifting, the altar’s symbols hadn’t changed, there was nothing moving in here. The only sound was silence. Whatever had been dripping had stopped, and the wind outside had died down.
Julian stood up, his muscles protesting the motion, but it was time to stop wallowing and to start moving. Holding his phone screen outward, since he couldn’t turn the flashlight on, he turned around towards the source of the wind.
The path leading towards it was less worked than the area he was in. A natural cave. He started to walk in that direction. It had to be safe, he reasoned. There was no other way in and out of the room, and someone had come in here at some point to build that altar. He’d probably end up moonwalking or pacing in a circle or walking into a wall without moving.
He’d look like a moron, but at least he’d survive.
“And if that doesn’t sum up my life,” Julian muttered, “then I don’t know what does.”
Find the full book on Amazon!
