Gowan grabbed Elizabeth tightly, making sure they were both concealed behind the payment desk. He didn't need to worry, Elizabeth felt herself frozen again. She held her knees to her chest. The material from the emerald dress bunched around her legs to provide a soft cushion. It was the closest she could get to hugging a stuffed animal.

They could hear a scuffle echoing in the hall. Elizabeth put her head on her knees, so her tears could soak into the skirt. Footsteps began to approach their direction. They grew louder.

Gowan continued to hold Elizabeth tightly. He pressed his head on hers and felt the velvet of the bodice brush against his skin. They were foolish to let their guard down, but he would be happy if his last moments contained Elizabeth's smile. Even if it was just over some silly dress.

The footsteps continued. They were fast, and did not stop near the location of The Book Nook. Elizabeth and Gowan remained under the large, mahogany desk. The front panel and side drawers acted like a shield from whatever was outside of the bookstore.

They remained huddled in silence, just trying to listen for any clue as to what had been outside and if it was still nearby. Elizabeth's hands were icy and she had unknowingly began to shake. Gowan tried to put on a brave face as he prayed silently over them.

He simply started whispering in Elizabeth's ear, "Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. When I say the first part, I want you to breathe in, and when I say the second part, I want you to breathe out, ok?"

She simply nodded.

It was a trick that he had learned through a mentor of his. After the crash, after he returned to church, he had a lot of emotions and they all tried to come out all at once. Sometimes it was sadness, but mostly it was a twisted rage. It was aimed at himself and fueled by regrets, but it always appeared externally.

Whenever he felt this way, he was told to breathe in while thinking "Be still and know that I am God," then breathe out even more slowly to cover the words "I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Gowan enjoyed all the Psalms, but that one helped him the most.

He knew that healing was never as easy as people in church wanted to make it out to be. The amount of stories that the people in his young adult programs had where the advice for depression or anxiety was "Just pray about it" made him pretty understanding of why church numbers dwindled in youth aged groups. Especially because it often followed an anxiety that if they did try to pray about it, and they still felt that way, they were sinning by not trusting in God.

So, of course, Gowan made sure he took the time to give an ear over advice. He made sure to let the young people know he took them seriously. Then he'd make sure they knew that it was ok to not be ok. Only then, would he ask if they wanted advice or tricks that he used himself to get through the harder stuff.

In this case, Elizabeth wasn't one of the kids from his young adults groups. Nor was it the right time to create the space to share feelings in a structured way. Right now, he needed to get her calm. They needed to get back to the safety of the cinema.

After sitting in the stillness, he began to usher Elizabeth back up.

"We can't stay here. We've got the only knife left." Gowan grasped around to find the knife in dark shadows of the book store.

Elizabeth simply nodded.

As they contorted their bodies to get through the entrance, another noise rang out that made them stop in their tracks. It was coming from the other end of the shopping center. The end where they had left the woman.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

There was a gurgling. It sounded like someone was trying to scream again, but it wasn't quite coming out correctly. Gowan knew they couldn't just leave her if she needed help.

Even though every fiber of Elizabeth's body was crying out for her to stop, she held Gowan's hand as they walked in the direction of Moss & Fire. She expected to eventually see the glow of the woman's candles. Each step only lead them into more darkness. The only light was from their own candle.

They continued to get closer to the gurgling. It was broken up by wheezing and sputtering. When they finally came to the store, it was totally dark inside.

They made their way through the broken pane of glass in the main door, to walk to the center of the room. As the floorboards creaked to announce their arrival, the sounds became more frantic, but never closer to them unless the pair were the ones to move forward.

Elizabeth scanned the room before letting out a pained exclamation.

Far in the back of the store, the woman was hoisted to the wall. It was as if her body had been fused into the wall itself. Her hands were held up, almost like a crucifiction. The hourglass display had been broken around her and the shards of glass had been embedded into her skin methodically while the sands from the inside were scattered recklessly on the floor below.

Her stomach had a strange symbol carved into it, which Elizabeth nor Gowan was familiar with. The woman's mouth was bloody and she continued to struggle as the wall did not let up. Her body was covered in marks, as if something had tried to kill her.

"Please," the woman whispered, "let me die."

Her ribs were oddly shaped, as if they had been crushed by a large object. The lovely hair that once adorned her face was falling down limply as she struggled to keep her head up.

Elizabeth ran to the woman, clawing at the wall. She tried desparately to find a way to dig the woman's body out of it's wooden prison. In frustration, she slammed her hand against the wall.

"What happened?" Gowan asked, as he rushed to help Elizabeth.

"He said he needed to teach me a lesson, about," the woman let out another pain-filled scream, "snitching on the time."

Gowan's eyes opened wide. "What did he look like? Was he tall, skinny, young looking?"

"All the candles blew out. I couldn't see," a bloodied tear fell down her cheek, "sorry."

With a shallow gasp of air, the woman simply gave up. Within moments, lavender smoke consumed her body. The familiar smell of honey and vanilla filled the air.

For a moment, relief washed over Elizabeth. The lavender smoke was calming. She didn't understand it, but she knew it meant that poor woman was destined for a better place.

The shards of glass remained embedded in the wall, as did the blood stains, and an odd impression from where the architecture had twisted and warped itself around the woman. Metal rods jutted out of the wall and Elizabeth realized they'd have been speared inside the woman too.

Whatever had done this was not natural. It was clear that the demons were here. They knew their time of walking the halls in a silent comfort was over.

Elizabeth fell to the ground in a squat, trying to avoid the glass from the shattered hourglass display. She grabbed her hair forcefully. "Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!"

"We've got to get back to the group. They're going to come for us now." He prayed that Victor got back safe.

"But why?" Elizabeth asked, with tears in her eyes. "Why does it matter if we knew about the time? Don't they want us to know our time is up?"

Gowan pulled Elizabeth up excitedly, "You genius!"

He placed down the candle, hugging her so tightly that he lifted her off the ground. After placing her down, he grasped her forearms.

His voice had a spring in it that she'd not heard for what seemed like an eternity, "Lizzy, if we didn't know the three days were up, we'd still be waiting around. We'd still be in the room going 'one more day, one more day', until we withered away to nothing."

"But now we know the time is up," she stated, trying to anticipate his train of thought.

"Exactly. There's only one reason that would matter." He bobbed his head, waiting for her to catch his drift.

"That would only matter if there's still a way to stop this."

Gowan nodded and picked up the candle again. He held out is hand to Elizabeth, who grasped it with exhilaration.

Elizabeth held the bunched up skirt in one hand as they ran through the corridors. Perhaps she shouldn't have been smiling while there were demons lurking around, but she had been starting to feel like she'd never remember what hope felt like again. Her heart was pounding and she couldn't stop the joy spreading over her face.

Gowan squeezed Elizabeth's hand as they ran towards the escalators. "We're going to get Matthew to the hospital."

Elizabeth's face was flushed. She puffed, as they looked up to the cinema foyer above them. Step by step, she made her way closer to safety. "And we're going to sit on your crappy car and look at those stars!"

Elizabeth felt invincible. She was ready to finish this. These demons were working hard, but she was ready for her hope to work harder.