My eyelids flew open underwater when I came too from the hard throbbing pain in my head, and gasped as saltwater scurried into my lungs. I tried to cry out for help, but only more water rushed into my system.

I was drowning for sure.

I swung my arms and kicked my feet, dying for breath, while my claws only cut the surface of the strange water above me. My jaws open wide to scream as I swung harder, yet nothing managed to break the water's calm surface.

You're afraid... The voice of the clock sneered in my mind, Good...

With a wild random kick, I somehow managed to squeeze my snout out of the water and gasp for air through my flared nostrils. My eyes popped as I inhaled the cold air, but my lungs thankfully opened up to allow the essence in. I kicked again, and my full head came out of the water, along with my body as I struggled to shore. Or wherever shore was. I dragged myself to the black rocked earth, wheezing painfully as blood stained the rocks red. I was terrified now, so much that I couldn't control it. When I had the chance, I just ran. Ran to nothing. It was black all around me, just darkness, the feeling of earthquakes, and the air smokey and hot. I slipped as I ran, tumbling a bit, but kept going, not knowing where I was heading.

Aww Whiteclaw.... The voice continued, sounding as if it was behind me, You can't run from fear...

I heard a hiss grow into a growl behind me, and I flung around skidding to a halt.

There was nothing there.

I inhaled once, out of breath, then turned around....

Only to get caught by the neck of a red-eyed monster.

I had no time to cry out or attack whatsoever, and my heart skipped a beat as his claws sank into my neck. A chunk of meat from the right of my neck, not so deep to be fatal, got swiped out from the attack, and even more pain was added to my wounds.

I can control you now, It clicked, there's no escaping death...

"Stay away from me!" I croaked, juddering with my claws, "STAY AWAY!" His jaws lunged out, only to snap in mid air with a pop as I slithered away. But his tail swipe threw me away violently, like a rag doll into some strange mist, and when I popped out, my spine hit solid earth, then scattered into another hallway. I trembled to my feet as my alternative self popped out of nowhere, snarling at me.

And then came out another. But that wasn't me this time.

"Blackclaw....." I trailed off as I saw my brother's ghastly body down the hallway. Another hiss came from my left, which turned out to be Drexel apparently. Brownclaw and Amberclaw came from where my other self stood, and Sky and Razorclaw....

"No..." I shook my head as I stepped back, literally watching my friends and family approach me, "No, it's just a dream, it's just a dream."

Oh it's real alright.

"You're not real!" I screamed, bumping into a wall with wide eyes, "None of you are real!"

You let us die

You let us die

You let us die.

"Please...." I began to weep, "It wasn't all my fault." As I backed up faster, they began their movement towards me, from a small little trot to a full out sprint. And quickly, I began to sprint too. My heart pounded as I raced through the slippery hallway, feeling the smoked breath of death behind me, then pulled away from them after turning some sharp turns at certain intersections.

My body slammed through a doubled door area, and quickly before I could see who or what was still after me, I picked up a long wooden stick in my mouth, and slid it through the holes of its handles, barricading the exit. A large boom made me flinch, which did pose the idea that I did a smart move to save myself.

But it wasn't going to last long, that's for sure.

I found myself in a bigger room now, surrounding by more human toys, large ones on circular shapes, and sharp with a soulless glow. They had that new aroma smell, it was a strange smell indeed, and it scorched my nostrils with the new taste. The cries of the shadows faded for a few seconds, and for that moment only, I felt safe and secure. But I didn't know that some of them went in another direction.

The first thing I heard was scattering feet. I lowered my head below the machines, yet I didn't see anything. So I deemed it nothing for now.

Then came the chimes of metal in the ceiling. That made me panic.

But the third physically crushed me.

Blackclaw's shadowy body rammed me by my broken rib, lifting me up, and I felt my body get thrown right into the front glass of the metallic object. The wheeled object jolted from my impact on the window, which threw tons of glass into its interior, and a loud beeping noise mixed in with the shadow's blood curling screams in my ears. I rolled off the object to face off with Blackclaw's shadow. He first lunged with outstretched claws, but I hopped out of the way into a corner, watching him slip and slide out of my oblique vision.

Run! I screeched to myself in my head, agreeing with my thoughts for once, and padded away, rushing through the linear slants of the objects. I crashed through another set of doors, and found myself in yet another room.

"There's gotta be an ending!" I cried, looking around, "How the heck do I get out?" I fumbled with my tail in worry, then decided to take a small little risk to walk back out the doors. But something made me freeze in my tracks.

"Going somewhere?" A voice hissed. I spun around, seeing myself once again, standing there in the corner. This time, I didn't hesitate to attack him, and tail slapped his face into a circular jutted object from the wall. It hissed when he crashed into it, and a small hole opened up between a crack. I grabbed him by the throat, sinking my teeth into his hide and growled,

"You better tell me how to get out of this place, or I'll do the same thing I did with your arm to your head."

"Threats don't scare me."

"Well you should be scared of me!" I snarled, tightening my squeeze harder than ever before. Why wasn't it killing him?

"No...you're the one who's scared Deinonychus," The clock hissed through my shadow's teeth, "I could see it in your eyes. You've seen things that terrify you. But you won't admit the truth, will you?"

"Oh Shut-up!" I yanked at his neck with a growled, and felt a horrible pop in the air. I almost gasped and cursed at my doings, but the fear inside subsided for now after the action was fulfilled. The shadow's head was in my jaw, mouth hanging squalid, open and lifeless, while its body laid on the floor 3 feet away. My jaw dropped open, releasing the head of the shadow to roll silently on the floor to a stop. For seconds, I just stood there, lost underneath the shell of my body, searching for some meaningful, something hopeful. But terror dragged me deeper in the dirt despite my fightbacks. I sighed, closing my eyes, then slowly made my way to the door.

But I knew that escaping would be impossible. Especially since the shadow I killed was rebuilding itself!

I first heard a gurgling noise, then twisted my neck to watch the head of my enemy and body snap back upon each other. I couldn't decipher if it was disgusting or just plain scary, but I was speechless either way. The red eyes returned back to its eyes, and its voice came seconds later.

"You're a fool for thinking that you could kill me," He grinned evilly, "But I know, and I think you know too, that you aren't like me." He went for some strange human built object with a metal bent tubing at the front, the pressed a button, illuminating a dark blue flame from its top. I backed up a bit, wondering what he'd do, and put my claw on the door wall.

"Let's see how indestructible you really are Whiteclaw," He hissed, then lowered the flame onto the hissing container. My eyes widened. He was going to kill me.

"WAIT!" The first thing I saw was a spark of the flame rushing into the box. They flowered into a flame, then evolved into a huge firestorm in a matter of seconds. At the final moment, a huge explosion rocketed from the box, ripping apart the entire room, and my own body. The first blast wave knocked me off my feet, then the second rocketed me and everything else nearby, backwards. I got tossed far into a wall, then felt a burst of fire burn my whole body. As I fell back finally to the floor, debris cut my scales with ease, then fell upon my back, legs and arms to kill me. The ground shook violently as I landed, and vibrated for minutes until everything settled back to silence. Darkness clouded by vision as everything shook to a stop, but the pain didn't until moments after, when a puddle of my blood formed beneath me. It was then when I realized that I couldn't feel anything at all. From an explosion like that, the pain should've killed me by now. So why hasn't it?

Then I noticed that I couldn't move.

I couldn't speak.

I couldn't smell.

I couldn't feel.

I couldn't breathe. No....I wasn't breathing!

My heart beat was silent!

My body just laid there, while I stared horrific of the fact that I was limp, utterly useless and doomed to never move. I heard the sudden noise of scraping metal and rocks, and the debris above me got pulled away from my body. And yet still, my limbs were still dysfunctional. I saw myself in an awkward position on the ground, my tail curled a bit and facing away from me. My legs were bent in and my arms were on the opposite side of themselves. In a death-like way, my claws were open and pointed up, silent like the little fire bits that floated above me, then descended as ash. A shadowed foot propped up in my vision, toe claw tapping in wonder.

"Huh Whiteclaw...." His voice sounded echoed and muffled, "I thought that you were going to survive, not end up like this pile of fresh-kill meat."

What did you do to me?! I tried to scream, but nothing came out. The Clock/Shadow of me lowered his head to my view and grinned.

"To bad you won't be able to save those friends of yours," He chuckled, "You were close." He extended his fingers and lowered them a little ways apart from each other, but just as a clarification of what he meant before my dead eyes, "Very close."

I still couldn't believe that I died. I never thought it would feel so painful at first, then subside into nothing. Or even the fact that I could still think and see, but never move. Or that it was way to quick for me to react from. He pulled up from his crouch, and I saw his huge jaws snatch me by the tail. And like a dead carcass, I got dragged away, a trail of my own blood spilling behind.

Then everything faded back to darkness for the final time.