Retreat! (RP)

"No, don't leave me!!" she reached out to Persephone as she flaps her massive wings and rises into the darkness, but it is already too late, and she vanishes beyond the reach of her light. Her heart pounds faster as the stench of rotting flesh and blood overwhelms her senses. She feels a chill down her spine.

She knows she has to pull herself together, has to focus, but her mind can't find anything to anchor her.
What could she possibly do? How could she wake up from this nightmare?

As the 'heavy foot falls' approach, she closes her eyes, and clicks the heels of her shoes together, whispering quietly in the darkness:

"There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home...."

While it was true that Emma could be a little vain, this time she (also) genuinely believed it was all about her.

The cult couldn’t have known Persephone would crash the party tonight. The scavenger hunt, the careful planning... it had all been set up before in advance. And she remembered now; Lawrence calling Percy back. Sin delaying Kat. Reginald panicking, shouting about someone "spoiling everything" right before the ground swallowed her whole.

She was the one who was meant to be here. Alone.

The low, rumbling voice from the tunnel sent a chill through her, but it was almost comforting compared to snarls or growls. If it could talk, then maybe it could think. Maybe it could be reasoned with. Or bargained with.

They brought me down here like a piece of meat. Like something.... disposable. I am not going to die like this. I’ll show them. I’ll show them all!

"Who are you? What do you want from me?" she called into the darkness, but even as she spoke, her eyes darted across the cavern, using the light of her phone to sweep right, and left, scanning for something, anything, that might help. Someone had to have come here before her. Some other sacrifice. Maybe they left a clue behind, some way out

Because running blindly down a dark tunnel, away from the voice, didn't seem like a good idea right now. It couldn't possibly be that easy...

Emma’s knees gave way the moment the demon stepped into the pale circle of her phone’s light. She tumbled backwards on the floor, gasping as the breath was knocked out of her. A primal fear surged through her, and all she could think of was to escape.

Crawling backward like a cornered animal, gagging before the sulphurous smoke. She wanted to scream, to run and vanish into the darkness of the tunnel behind her. Maybe she could run away, before it reaches her.

She stopped herself cold before moving more than a feet away, shivering as the creature loomed above her.

If it wanted to kill her, why hasn’t it?

"Benji! Pers! Please! Do something!!!" her voice was part a call for help, part sob. Instead of retreating, her hands fumbled in the darkness to try and grab something, anything, to keep the monster at bay, at least for a little while.

"No, Pers" she calls out to her, before she actually takes the demon for its word "It WANTS us to leave. It isn't supposed to kill us"

Emma stood frozen for a moment as she tried to catch her breath. The stench in the cavern was still oppressive; the smell of rotting eggs now added to the stench of rotting carcasses. She fought the urge to puke. She didn't know why someone would even bother with a demon. The smell alone would be enough to drive her away toward one of the tunnels...

"I think..." she tried to breath through her mouth "I think it was supposed to chase me"

This wasn’t what she expected of a demon. The tone, the uncertainty. Barely a threat. Her readers probably wouldn't like him either. It seemed to fit more in a children's book than a horror novel. She decides to ignore it.

"..which means" she completed her thought, "That whatever is there, is either immobile, or too big to fit through the tunnels. This might actually be... the safest place we’ve got right now" she stood up straighter, finally reclaiming a fragment of composure.