Cookies And Cream

Shadows Till Dawn

I struggled to keep still as the noormbie drew closer. They were not the brightest of monsters nor did they have the best senses, but a sense of torture, yes, they did.

  The noormbies were a cursed creation and, up until a month ago, just myths. We don't know where they came from or why they settled for this town especially, but we know that they have come to stay. Though 'stay' is not quite the word I'll use for our increased depopulation and their unnaturally acquired size.

  I shifted again when I realised a stream of dimmed sunlight was pouring from the cracks onto my shoes and quickly pulled them in.

  The noormbies did not just kill for survival, as was what we thought in the beginning. So we avoided them. Wherever they were, we were not. Until more people started, not just dying, but disappearing. Until the monsters started coming to our assigned areas instead of just staying in theirs. Until, the mayor's teenage son was eaten on live television.

Then all hell broke loose.

  A low groan forced me out of the past. I checked to see if any cracks illuminated my skin. None, thank goodness. Before I could breathe out a sigh of relief, the creature put its nostrils to the cracks. Their sense of smell wasn't at all good but that did not stop them from using it. I prayed with all my heart that I did not smell in any way as another noormbie walked in front of the bus stand. I moved slowly, like I wasn't at all, into the corner I was huddled in. One wrong move and I'd be torn to shreds. Just like mama was.

   She saved us that day. My mama. Saved me and my twin brother. We were being chased and she hid us. I remember clearly like it was yesterday. They were close, I remember, and she lied to us. She said she was too old to keep running and if she was with us, we'd all die. She left us and we understood. She looked at us from the other side of the road and smiled. "Hey. Come here." And all we could do was stare. We could not cry, then her death would have been in vain.

  The shadow of the noormbie filled the cracks. Blocking the little light there was, obscuring me, gladly, from the view of the other noormbie ahead of me. I waited a few minutes more and, finally giving up, the noormbies moved on. I sighed leaning against the metal back of it.

   With that done, I had to continue my search for my brother. I prayed to God.
Please remind my brother: No shadow should show.