The Rune

Sory for my poor english. But I was asked to make this affort.

After walking a bit, Selena stopped. It was the same building. She had seen it so many times that it was simply not possible to make a mistake. Every time she closed her eyes ...

- Do you really want this? – said a voice behind her. The girl shivered and pressed her hands to her chest.

- When do you leave me alone? - Her jaw clenched so hard nodules were on her cheeks.

- Naive. Do you really believe in that? - sounded right in front of her face.

Her skin was chill. After waiting a few seconds, she took a step inside. Ahead were a few dark and cold concrete floors, lifeless windows. Although most of the glass was still intact, several upper floors were completely destroyed by fire. Destroyed windows, like black eyes of the unknown beast looked at the tiny figure of a girl standing at the main entrance.

No more thinking, Selena pushed the front door, and it opened without much resistance. In the face blew cold. The legs gave way due to emotional tension and sleepless nights. Tranquilizers prescribed by doctors have not helped , and the night turned into waiting for another dose of sleeping pills. She could not continue this way anymore.

- It`s cool in here, don`t you think? - she heard from behind and the front door shut with force. If Selena hasn`t been depleted to the point of exhaustion, she would undoubtedly have jumped in surprise and fear. But not now.

By trembling hands she turned on the flashlight she brought and took a few steps inside. The silence seemed full outside, now became tangible. It became even more noticeable because of the voices sounded around her. Selena never understood the meaning of the expression "a ringing silence", but now, it seemed, she began to understand the true meaning of those words. So quiet that the silence is almost enveloped her. Making a few steps, she heard a broken glass under her feet. Hands haven`t obeyed, and her legs were more like crazy springs that flexion and extension by the will of some mad puppeteer. The girl was scared and indifferent at the same time. She already didn`t understand nothing, she just went ahead, fighting the rising nausea. She somehow knew that up there, she will get rid of everything that was going on in her head.

- And you're the brave. Aren’t you afraid that you will not like what you're looking for? Unless, of course, you will find it, - laughing around her was unbearable. It circled around as if it were running some crazy clowns from the old carnival, where she was once a child. Scary, scary clowns with their blood-curdling laugh.

After a few flights of stairs, she stopped, trying to overcome a popping-up heart out of her chest. Leaning on the railing, she felt her legs give way. For a moment she almost lost her balance and if her hands hadn`t tightly clutching the handrail, then, most likely, she would have fallen.

- Just close your eyes, is it so hard to understand? - over and over again the voice were saing.

Standing a little more and breath, she went on. Step by step, pushing her own unruly body forward. "A few floors .. just a little bit"- she repeated almost in a whisper, fearing her own voice, that wasn`t  similar to the one used to be. Ears buzzed harder and bouncing light from the flashlight was even more nauseating. On the steps began to come across signs of a fire. At first, it was only a few charred pieces of tissue, then here and there were traces of the tragedy. Suddenly dizzy so much Selena led the way. She held a hand to lean against the railing, but, apparently, not calculating the place , her hand clutching the emptiness. For a moment she thought that she froze in weightlessness, and then with tremendous rate she began to fall . Putting both hands toward the unknown, she expected to feel the pain just by them, but she made ​another mistake - her hands  slipping past the bars and she hit her face with full force right on one of the metal rods. Her eyes flashed stars, and her head exploded.

- Clever! - Voice swirled around in a solemn dance.

Not knowing what was happening, it felt like something grabbed her leg and pulled down. Turning under the influence of an unknown force, she felt stairs by her back. Leg pulled so hard that she hit the back of the head by the next step, triggering another outbreak.

- You see , it's so simple, you just have to close your eyes, - she heard from below. Then she was dragged over the two legs and her head galloped up on the stairs like an inflatable ball. Selena moaned and then screamed. Having recovered from her own scream she tried to open her eyes. The pain was too strong, and salty taste appeared in her mouth. The right eye didn`t listen and remained closed. Left somehow complied and showed  stairwell, destroyed by gluttony fire. At the same time, grabbing her strength was gone.

She tried to lean on the arm and back up. Her head ached so hard it was not bearable any more. If all these weeks she felt head ache from the inside, now it hurt even from outside. Not understanding more where she was and why , Selena just crept up the stairs. Her head throbbed with pain and only one single thought was inside of it – “just go”. Helping herself with hands, only one floor were separating her from the target. Now there was ash under her knees and palms. And everything around her were more like underground darkness . It seemed there were no more walls. No more nothing. Her mind has long abandoning her, submitting to a glimpse of a tired mind. She just went over her hands and crawled. Now her eyes drifted images, fragments of old memories, someones' faces , voices, and it was not clear whether it was her imagination playing tricks on her, whether it were them. All mixed up in one continuous whirl. Her head was buzzing horribly .

Suddenly, her hand touched the part of the broken door. Pushing herself to the side, Selena crept in,  turned on her back and fell down. Her hands shook so badly that crawling became no longer possible.  "Just don`t close your eyes " - the only rule, she was living with the last few weeks. Continuing jerky breathing, she tried to look up. She almost made it - left eye listened and looked at the starry sky through the burned hole in the roof . The right eye didn`t open, and the entire right half of her face seemed to become one continuous throbbing wound. Back of the head, was all single pain too. At first, Selena has not given importance, but now she felt that the shirt has long stuck to the body. Raising her right hand to her face she tried to touch it, and she was horrified - the right part of her face was badly swollen and her hand become as sticky as her T-shirt instantly.

- Why? .. What have I done? .. - She moaned.

- You didn`t have to do anything. Have you ever thought we just… like it? - And again this terrible malicious clown laughing.

After lying a little and gaining a deep breath , she tried to roll back on her stomach. This was reflected in a dull pain throughout whole her body. Helping herself with her elbows and pushing naughty feet, she crawled forward. There, where it all began.

She had to be careful, because of many holes in the flour, made by tremendous fire. The fire destroyed almost everything. Suddenly she felt something like something smooth and flat were under her palm. Having brought it to the left eye, she could hardly make out it was one of the runes. Now it doesn`t look white as moon. Now it was black and burnt . After cleaning it at the front with the thumb, she looked on it again. Heart sank, and nausea was not bearable and she vomited. Stomach had shrunk so much that it seemed, her insides now turned inside out and come out through her mouth. Cramping pain in her head became so severe that Selena had fallen on the left side directly into a puddle that a few minutes ago, was the contents of her stomach, and before that - her modest dinner. She pressed her legs to her chest, her arms around her knees and cried. Tears streamed down her cheeks mingling with the current blood from her face. Her body was shaking because of the tormented stomach cramps and sobs that now hold back did not make sense. Her teeth were chattering, body shaking.

- Well, would you mind to deliver us pleasure? You're a good girl, aren’t you? - was heard just above her head. - You found something... But we kind of have not gone away! Ho - ho - ho!

- Oh, yes! She, she is so lovely! And so naive! - heard another voice from somewhere in the room.

- I wish all of you are dead ... - Selena whispered.

- Oh, yeah! And we now think that the concept of "death" applies to us unlikely! - continued the first voice.

- Because we are - it's you! - repeated the second voice.

- And you - we are! - laughingly repeated the first.

The skin was covered with goose bumps again, but this time it was really cold. Only now she noticed a buzz in her head joined by a sound sobbed several times, Selena listened. That's right - the room was full of different sounds, they now heard everywhere. They grew and grew louder and louder. Selena looked around, but her eyes still didn`t see nothing, as her ears distinctly heard voices swirled around her, the clatter of dishes and steps. It looked like the life never stopped, and all these people continue to go about their mundane chores. Now it wasn`t the sound from her head, now they were everywhere. She even felt the air moving from the woman passed by alongside she had heard but not seen. "I`m going crazy " - she thought, and closed her eyes accidentally. At the same moment Selena was hit so hard on her shoulder, that she was thrown against the wall , and the shirt was torn in a half. Horrified, she opened her eyes again.

- You finally decided? - she heard it almost in her ear. Again, leaping aside, Selena pressed back against the wall.

- Come on, do not be afraid, close your eyes, shut them already, finally, because it is impossible not to sleep forever? - now sounded right in the front of her face. She even felt the cold breath on the skin of a cheek. - Are you afraid?

She clutched in her hand the rune and crawled to the balcony.

- And don`t you know? - now another voice said from somewhere above .

- I know ... - pulling her body to the door of the balcony, barely whispered Selena .

- Of course, you know! And why else would you come here - the voice now sounded over her head. Selena looked up, but there was still nothing. - Come on, close your eyes! - now the third voice came from somewhere on the right.

- I know ... - she said, and grabbed the balcony railing .

- Come on , surprise us? Tell us, tell us, tell us! ... And close your eyes! - voice swirled around her , repeating the word endings and creating an echo.

- You wouldn`t leave me alone? – seating on the railing and facing the balcony door, Selena whispered.

- We`ll leave, of course, we`ll leave you! Just close your eyes! - the voice sounded so close to her ear that she felt her hair moving.

- I thought so - she whispered as she opened her left hand holding the handrail. For a moment, she felt  the weightless again. The starry sky has moved only by a millimeter when her body rushed down towards the concrete pavement, as her right hand continued to squeeze the found rune. Her eyes remained open.