Free Creeping Shadow (The Rise of Isaac, Book One) by Caroline Peckham Page B

descent just enough that he had only bruised a few bones.
    He stood and blood dripped from the laceration on his palm; he sucked the wound until it stopped bleeding, feeling shaken.
    He looked up, taking in the square room and, as he swung around, blinked in realisation. He was back in the centre of the maze and a new exit had appeared opposite the one he had entered through; the words on the walls had vanished. He hurried forward through the exit and heard a rumble of noise as it closed behind him.
    The corridor stretched into the distance. It was a narrow alley of dark, dewy walls and a damp floor that was coloured a murky green. There was no fire lighting the space, only a milky glow of what Oliver would have assumed was moonlight if he hadn't known he were inside a cave.
    He wondered how long he had been in the maze and panic flooded him as the possibility entered his mind that the challenge could last for days.
    He rubbed the sweat from his brow and resolved to continue on. As he stepped forward, a strange noise sounded somewhere ahead: a long scrape followed by a clack .
    It grew closer and Oliver shrank into the shadows to conceal himself, taking slow, shallow breaths. He spotted openings set along the corridor that were barely distinguishable in the gloom and, as he squinted, noticed each one was flanked by a bell.
    The noise grew louder and a disturbing figure emerged out of a passage several feet away, swathed in darkness and moving in a slow hobble. The apparition dragged one of its legs, scraping it along the floor behind it. The other foot dropped to the ground with a clack as if it were made of wood. The figure limped across the alley disappearing back into the labyrinth through another opening.
    Oliver's heartbeat quickened and sweat gathered in his palms, making the cut on his hand sting. He hurried forward and darted down a passage on the left away from the sound of the terrifying being.
    He met a dead end and cursed, spinning around in a panic, desperately wanting to put as much distance between him and it as possible.
    Oliver walked purposefully toward the exit then stopped dead as he heard the being approaching once more.
    Scraaaape. Clack .
    He cursed internally, backing up against the wall and pressing a hand to his mouth to silence his erratic breathing.
    The sound grew closer and he watched the space intently, expecting a shadow to cross its path at any moment.
    Scraaaape. Clack .
    The noise set his teeth on edge as the scraping ended with a sound like a knife slipping across porcelain.
    Oliver stopped breathing as the figure appeared in the exit and paused, lingering in the doorway as if searching for something.
    He waited for it to move, the seconds stretching on until his lungs burned for air.
    "Oliver," a raspy voice sounded, making a chill run through his body.
    The shadow turned slowly, its leg dragging in a sweeping arc behind it, and tipped its chin upwards so the hood fell back off of its head.
    Oliver was suddenly face to face with the vision of his father from his nightmares: a skeletal form that looked as though it were decomposing, its bloodshot eyes glaring at him from oozing sockets.
    "You're not real," Oliver breathed, though his voice quavered as he spoke, fear inching into his body like needles.
    It stepped toward him with a clack and Oliver spotted the bloody, footless stump of bone that hit the floor, making his stomach churn violently.
    Oliver sidled along the wall in a panic, unable to take his eyes off of the corpse that was pursing him.
    The slime on its bare bones and remains of tissue hanging from its face made bile rise in Oliver's throat and sweat stream down his back in rivulets.
    "You're dead," Oliver whispered, clawing his fingers into the cracks of the wall as he moved along it.
    His fingertips touched something coarse and he wrapped his hand around it, feeling the rough hairs of a rope.
    A gurgling sounded from the deathly creature in front of him then words formed from