Dark Man

I walked through a cast iron fence into a desert. The ground was dry and cracked, no plants could be seen for miles. I was greeted by a man I could only see out of the corner of my eye, he was a black mass and was gone by the time I turned my head. Frightened by this strange man, I started running. This voice suddenly came into my head, I don't know where it came from and I don't even remember what the voice sounded like but it was so familiar. "It does not matter where you run, or how far. You are always exactly where you started" The air felt thick and my heart was beating slow. I kept running but there was no wind blowing through my hair. "Before you get too far, let me at least give you what you need." I was surrounded by the sand colored ground and a dark orange sky that seemed to blend into the earth. There were black clouds in the sky that blocked out the sunlight but it was not dark. I continued walking until I saw the ground starting to crack even more. Fingers appeared in the cracks then came a hand. This hand turned into an arm and a slender mans body followed. He had just dragged himself out of the earth. He crawls toward me and I kneel down. His skin is black and he has no facial features but I can feel his eyes on me. He reaches down his throat and pulls out this black thing that appears to be dripping. He throws his head back and screams and throws it at me. Suddenly his legs jolt backwards and he grips the earth with his fingernails. He is pulled backwards into the hole he had just crawled out of, leaving the scratches from his nails as the only evidence he was even there. He was gone but I could still hear the echo of his screams. "Do not take what you have for granted. This man is suffering for you." A puddle of black liquid is surrounding whatever it is he had thrown at me. I stand up and walk past it, not looking back. It feels like hours pass but the light in the sky stayed exactly the same. I look behind me and the black mass is behind me on the ground. The puddle expanding, just a few feet from where I stand. I turn around to face it and the man is kneeling on the ground beside it. "Do you come here often?" he whispers, not even looking up. I don't say anything. "He can pull me back down whenever I am touching the earth." I bend over beside him, grab his hand and we start running. Somehow, as if it were a miracle, there is a lake in the distance. As it comes closer I can see that the water is crystal clear. Almost enough to see the bottom. Without any hesitation, we jump in and start to sink. I start choking for air and I open my mouth. Water rushes in and suddenly I can breath. We sink to the bottom slowly, slowly. My toes touch the sand on the bottom of the lake, then the rest of my foot. A loud cracking comes from all around us, like a glass window has just shattered. The water from the surface breaks into pieces and comes flowing downward. I close my eyes as I can feel it pouring on us, then it's gone. I open my eyes and I see him kneeling beside the black mass on the ground. He looks up at me and lets out a scream as he is pulled into the earth again. The silence slips over me, and it's as if he was never there at all.