Missing on the Edge of Darkness

NB: This is an excerpt of a chapter from the novel that I am currently writing. Please do not reproduce or copy without express permission from myself. Thank you.

It was like he was sleep-walking in a trance state and he couldn’t get out of it. She led him into the woods and suddenly he fell over as if coming out of the stupor. When he looked up next, he was in a field, with an unfamiliar street behind him. He turned around and took in the looming building, illuminated by streetlamps, and he could see it was under construction. He stumbled forwards into the broadening shadow and lay still on the cold grass. He didn’t know where he was, or what he was doing there.

He tried to get up, to walk into the street, but found his legs would not carry him. It was if he were chained to the shadows invisibly. He felt around his ankles to make sure he wasn’t tangled in any thick roots or brambles, but found nothing. Confused and tired, he made one last effort to walk towards the menacing house, but ditched the idea, when he still could not lift his feet from the shadows. He felt the blackness of the night and the shadow of the forest closing in on him, squeezing his chest, making his limbs heavy. He could just be imagining it, but he wasn’t; he was now missing on the edge of darkness.