I stop for a moment, lean against the wall and catch my breath – pulse running wild, breathing heavy and muscles on fire. Knowing what I’ll see, I look over my right shoulder along the endless stretch of grey. That thing is still coming. The dark, closing in without slowing, without stopping. It has the empty patience of the one who knows it will win eventually.

I gasp for another breath and renew my determination to make the chase as long as I can. The running is part of me now, the fear also. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t running. Perhaps there never was. Perhaps I’ve always been in this endless corridor. For sure the beast has never left me.

My pulse slows a little, the pain in my legs fades quietly away. I stand and salute the oncoming darkness with my back and the soles of my feet. The hunt is on once again.