Annie’s watch said it had been three hours. About every thirty seconds she would press the button to check, hoping 21 hours would have passed by. Of course they didn’t. The watch wasn’t really hers either. But that was a matter best left untouched in her mind…

Currently she was in one of the small dirt tunnels, bent over to keep her head from whacking a stone on the ceiling. Her thought process, as she nearly twisted her ankle in a hole, was that the dirt would muffle the sound of her movements, relying on silence to be her friend; And it worked until she would occasionally reach a stretch of gravel.

The announcement that had sentenced them to this fate still rang in her ears like a gunshot. Only a few screams had reached her ears, mostly the ones from the poor soul she had taken the watch from. Blood still stained her perfectly manicured acrylics, a constant reminder of the… wrongness that came from stealing from the dead.

Why is it, she wondered, when I decide not to think about something, it’s the only thing I can think about?

With one final slide across a mound of gravel she reached a crossroads. A concrete tunnel went to the left, another dirt tunnel to the right, this time even smaller. Without a seconds hesitation she got down on her hands and knees, crawling into the dirt tunnel, abandoning the high heels she had been carrying with her. Her life was worth more than any pair of shoes!

The ridiculous sundress she wore got in her way as she attempted to crawl up the tunnel, it’s white fabric with pink cherry blossoms hopelessly ruined. When did life go so wrong? Her feet were bleeding, her nails breaking… Why was she chosen for this sick game?! What did they all have in common? They had never met before tonight and even then they hardly spoke to each other when they darted into separate tunnels.

It was in these silent musings she heard it. A crunch of gravel from behind her. Annie froze on her hands and knees, waiting listening… the silence she had worked so hard to find and keep was beginning to work against her as she realized, her hunter could easily use the silence as well. Peering over her shoulder into the darkness revealed nothing… until suddenly there was no darkness. The tunnel was glowing a dim green from her stolen wristwatch as it began to shill.

The high pitched alarm did not echo but the small light would be easily visible. She frantically felt the buttons pressing them but the alarm continued to fill the tunnel until she ripped it from her arm and began to stomp it with her already cut feet. Tears ran down her face leaving streaks through the dirt smudges as dread filled her. She was a mouse in the gaze of a snake, a deer in headlights… and in the new quiet she heard that awful laugh.