The skull beast

Part 1: the beast

(All characters are adaptations of real people in my life and how it was portrayed from a nightmare that happened years ago.)
⚠️trigger warnings: death, blood, gore, unsettling scenes.

We are all sitting around the coffee table playing Cards Against Humanity and snickering at the card choices being read. Max cheers as his card is deemed the funniest while me and Leo groan because ours weren't chosen. Right as we are starting another round, we get interrupted by Gray's mom. This causes us all to groan while Gray complains to her.
    "Max, your dad is here to pick you boys up and take you home," she says, looking at the three of us.
    Me, Max and Leo all have frowns on our faces as we begin to help clean up before we leave. After cleaning up we grab our bags and give Gray a hug goodbye and say thank you to his mom for having us over. Walking down the stairs to his garage, I briefly glance to the wall on my right looking at the coats hanging and the shoes in their individual cubbies. I've always liked his house, it's like my second home. Looking back down at the stairs as I follow behind my two friends, I see a red truck parked in the driveway right outside the doors.
    "Hi Mr. Rush! Thank you for picking us up," I say as I climb into the backseat on the passenger side.
    "Yea, thank you Mr. Rush. We appreciate it," Leo comments right after.
    He just nods and says of course before telling us to buckle up. After we are settled into our seats, his dad pulls out of the driveway and exits the housing plan. Trees and houses pass us as we are driving back into town. As we get closer to town, the scenery, animals and even people are starting to look and act less normal. This is really giving me an uncanny valley effect. I nudge Leo's shoulder to get his attention.
    "Hey, Leo?" I whisper.
    "Yea? What's wrong" he responds.
    "Are you feeling what I'm feeling? Everything we're passing is giving me an uneasy feeling" I say letting the silence consume us as he thinks about my question. He opens his mouth to speak and then briefly closes it to gather his thoughts.
    'You know...this feels like that uncanny valley effect. I think you're onto something there Atticus."
    My suspicions were confirmed. It makes my stomach churn and I let out a shaky breath sinking back into my seat. I am sucked into my thoughts as I turn back to look out the window. The trees and houses continue to fly by my eyes as they are fixated in one spot. I am broken from my gaze when I hear faint conversations.
    Where are we?
    I come out of my thoughts and notice that we are now near a small plaza filled with stores. Max turns around to face us from the passenger seat and begins to speak.
    "Hey guys, we're gonna stop at the store real quick, c'mon."
    The truck stops and we all unbuckle our seatbelts hopping out of our seats. As we are walking through the store Max, Leo, and I bump each other's shoulders whilst we laugh and make jokes trying to make light of how we actually felt. We get stared down by the people around us. This causes me to swallow thickly and my face to grimace. They were just like the people I noticed on the way here. Max taps my face, scaring me out of my thoughts.
    "Hey bud, you good? You don't look like you're all there," he says as he points to his head as a reference to my own.
    "Yea...yea I'm good. I'm okay," as I give him a thumbs up.
    "Okay, c'mon we're going to check out now," he says, patting my shoulder.
    Walking to the checkouts we continue to talk. Only this time we're talking about what each of us is going to do once we get home. His dad pays and grabs his bag and we start to make our way out of the store. When we cross the threshold and out into the warm summer air, something caught my eye in the distance.
    Wha- what is that? Did I see that right?
    "What the fuck?" I whisper out catching the attention of my friends.
    They turn their heads in the direction that mine is in and see exactly what I'm seeing. The objects grow closer to us becoming more and more clear with each step. They look absolutely horrifying. I'm looking at them and I see that they have these deer-like skulls with these monstrously giant horns. They were kind of tall and bulky, almost like the stature of a giraffe but weirdly humanlike as well? I can't pinpoint it, but they don't seem to be wendigo's.
    They typically don't hunt in the daytime right?
    I feel this nauseating fear bubble in my chest and stomach. It makes my chest feel tight as I'm unable to tear my gaze away from those things. Turning my head to look both ways at my friends, I notice that they too are stuck in an unbreakable gaze staring into the voids of where the eyes should be. Mr. Rush starts to move in front of us acting as a barrier. But that causes the two beasts to snap their heads in our direction. A cluster of swears can be heard from all of us.
Right as they were almost on top of us, I shove Leo and jump to the right while Mr. Rush pulls Max to the left leaving the middle wide open. We all groan as we come in contact with the hard cement and we hear a loud crash that comes from where we were just standing. I scramble to my feet and grab Leo by his arm.
"C'mon get up! We need to go now!," I exclaim as I frantically pull him to his feet.
Max and his dad run in one direction while me and Leo run in the opposite direction. I look briefly over my shoulder and see that we lost one of the beasts and the other was chasing Max and his dad. Slowing my run to a stop, I fully turn around ready to start running towards my friend and his dad. Leo notices that I'm stopping and slows his run as well.
"Dude! Why are you stopping? We need to get to safety," he says looking at me like I'm crazy.
"They're being chased and we're not! We have to help them!" I say with a distraught expression.
"C'mon!" I grab his arm and pull him in the direction of our friend.
Our feet are pounding against the concrete as we make our way across the parking lot. As we are running my eye catches the beast that I couldn't find earlier. My breath catches in my throat as I realize the one that reappears is really close to Mr. Rush while the other one is still chasing Max. We stop running when we see this. Our faces are ridden with horror as we are witnessing the beast impaling him with its long horns and slamming him into various cars. His blood spraying the surrounding cars and leaving puddles everywhere.
I want to puke or pass out...maybe both? This can't be real!
    I turn my head slightly and see the beast make direct eye contact with me. There's barely any damage to that thing. Mr. Rush put up a fight even, and it's not even the tiniest bit scratched.
    What the hell even are those things!?
    We watch as his body slides off the horns and hits the cement below. The beast begins to charge at us trampling his body in the process. In the haste of things I get separated from Leo.
    Shit! Shit! Shit! I'm alone and I don't know where Leo is. This can't be happening.
    I can still hear the heavy steps and breaths of the beast but they sound distant. Peering over my shoulder I see that I'm completely alone. That means that the two beasts are chasing Max and Leo. I can spot the beasts in the distance and only Max is being chased. I trip over my shoe and tumble to the ground smacking the right side of my face on the cement. The pain pulsates through my head as my eyes screw shut from the impact.
    "Oww..." I groan bringing my hand up to where my head made contact with the ground.
    I open my eyes slightly dazed and push myself up to my feet. Stumbling a bit as I try to stop my head from spinning I see Max still running for his life. When my head calms down I start to run towards him to help but the situation takes a turn for the worse.
Right as I near him I stop in my tracks watching in horror as Max is being stabbed and pulled apart as if he was nothing to the beast. His warm blood splatters all over my face and body. I can feel every drop running down my face and dripping onto my shirt and shoes.
My jaw drops and I fall onto my knees. My guttural screams and cries can be heard everywhere echoing through the silence of the air. I collapse further, pressing my forehead into the cement and wrapping my arms around my body. Hot salty tears are streaming down my face and into a puddle as I feel a burning gaze into the top of my skull.
I look up and see the hollow void that is the space where its eyes should be. My face significantly pales at this sight and I realize that I'm next.
A quiet "shit" escapes my mouth.
I scramble to my feet, tripping slightly as I start to run in the other direction.
"I hope this is a good enough head start so I can get out of sight..."
I can hear the pounding of its feet and the low garbled sounds from its being. The sound of something breaking through the air is what I hear right before I feel a burning sensation in the middle of my back. This causes me to stumble a bit but I continue running, not letting up on my speed. I can feel it closing in on me. I can hear how close it is behind me. But nothing is as loud as my thoughts screaming that I left Max. That it's my fault he's gone.
I couldn't save him...I could've and I didn't. I was too slow. I am too slow. Stupid...stupid...STUPID! It should've been me, I should've been faster.
I am ripped from my thoughts as I am shoved to the side, my shoulder hitting the ground first and then the rest of my body. The force of the blow caused me and whoever pushed me to roll under a lifted truck that was parked.
"No no no...get off me! Get off me! I need to get to him" my wails filling the air as I'm thrashing around trying to get out of the unknown grasp. The tears clear from my eyes and I see that Leo is over top of me holding my arms down so I don't hurt anyone.
"Leo...is that really you? You're alive?" I look up at him with big eyes and a pained expression.
"Yea of course I'm alive, why wouldn't I be?" a confused expression appears on his face as he processes my question.
I choke back sobs but fail miserably whilst flailing my arms and hitting him in the chest repeatedly. My emotions are overwhelming as everything sinks in. Max is dead. I'm still alive. Leo is still alive.
"I hate you, I hate you. You left me, you left me you asshole." Tears are once again streaming down my splotchy red face
"He's dead, oh god he's dead!" I shake my head from side to side. "It's all my fault, it should've been me." My sobs are deafening.
He is silent for a moment before quietly whispering, "He's dead?"
My heart shatters more when I hear him say it back. I can see the realization hits him and he starts uncontrollably sobbing too. He lifts me up slightly off the ground and hugs me tightly burying his face in my shoulder.This takes be a second to process, but I soon wrap my arms around him burying my face in his shoulder as well. The minutes pass and our eyes slowly run out of tears.
"Atticus it's not your fault that Max died. You tried to get to him and that is all that matters. You tried, don't blame yourself. Max would punch you if he found out you're blaming yourself," he says breaking the silence between us.
He grabs my face and holds it in his hands getting me to focus on him and nothing else. My eyes are burning from the tears and my face is ridden with pure sadness.
"It hurts so much," I whisper.
"I know, and it's going to. C'mon let's get to somewhere safer and not so out in the open," he responds, crawling to the edge of the truck to check if the coast is clear. "It's clear, let's go." He holds out his hand for me to grab.
I mutter a small "okay" as I grab his hand getting pulled to my feet. We continuously look around for the beasts as we try to find a secure hiding spot. My legs feel like jelly causing me to stumble as we walk. Leo notices this and he puts an arm around and underneath my armpit holding me up. My head snaps in the direction of a sound. I look over and see not one but now two of the beasts.
They've regrouped. Oh shit! I think they see us!
"Uh...Leo? I think we need to move like now!" I say patting his shoulder with my hand that's holding onto him.
He looks around and sees the same thing that I'm seeing. We pick up our pace and spot a large crate filled with empty cardboard boxes. Jumping into the crate we cover ourselves with the boxes and cover our mouths to suppress and muffle our heavy breathing. My shattered glasses fog up because of our heavy breathing and the air surrounding us becoming hot and stuffy. We can hear the beast's noises and heavy footsteps in the distance getting closer. I widen my eyes and look over at him who is mirroring my exact expression.
I open my mouth ready to whisper something but get shushed. It sounds like they are right next to the crate. Suddenly the sounds stop and the air is deathly quiet, almost too quiet.
"Are they gone? What happened?" I mouth to him
He shakes his head lightly with a frown indicating that he doesn't know. I make hand gestures that signify that I'm going to peak out and see what's going on. He just nods and mouths "be careful." I shuffle my way through the boxes to the top of the crate and see an empty parking lot.
What the hell? Did they just vanish!?
Shuffling back down into the crate I tell Leo that they aren't out there and nowhere to be seen. He looks at me confused just like the look I had when I was up there looking.
"What do we do? Is it safe to make a run for it?" I ask him.
"Uhm.." he began, "If they aren't there, and nowhere to be seen...I think it's safe to say we can make a run for it," he responds, slight doubt laced in his voice.
We climb out of the crate with Leo leading the way. He gets out first and holds a hand out for me to grab. Grabbing his hand, he pulls me out, never letting go of my hand. By this time my legs no longer feel weak. We are starting to run towards the exit of this plaza when all of a sudden we hear the screeching of tires and the sound of a motor in the near distance. I falter slightly causing him to look back at me and squeeze my hand.
"You heard that too right?" I question.
He nods in response, "Yea, I think that was a car."
We look in the direction that the sound is coming from and spot a white car.
Is that my mom's car!? How did she know I was in trouble?
The closer the car is getting, I can confirm that the person driving is indeed my mom. I wave my vacant hand towards her. We are running towards her car and just as we are almost to it I can see my mom's face morph into that of a horrified expression. This confuses me and causes me to turn my head towards what was behind me.
"Mother fucker..." my face pales as I see one of the beasts barreling towards us, the other one not to be found.
I hear a string of faint curses from Leo but they fall deaf upon my ears. We are nearing her stopped car and he is attempting to open the passenger side door but gets pulled away by me moments before the beast smashes its antlers into the side of the car piercing through the back window and part of the frame. The beast's body begins to dissolve into thin air only leaving the skull and antlers behind. I am frozen in fear with my ears ringing making the screams of Leo and my mom dull and muffled. Too stunned to notice anything, I am suddenly being pulled through the now open door and onto the seat pulling Leo in with me. The car is older and it has bench seats so I sit in the middle with Leo sitting on the window side.
What just happened...Am I still alive? Or am I just dreaming?
My body feels tingly and nothing at the same time. None of this is fathomable at this point. None of this feels real to me and probably not to him either. I can hear someone faintly calling out. Looking around I see that it's my mom.
"Honey, are you okay!? Leo, are you okay!? Talk to me, what happened?" She's frantically asking us questions like any mother would as she's driving us out of that plaza as fast as she can.
We are silent, unable to speak. Everything is so overwhelming and doesn't feel like we've been saved. It still feels like we're still fighting for our lives. Just when we thought we didn't have any more tears, they start to stream down both of our faces again. I bring my hand up to my mouth to try and stop myself from breaking but that doesn't work.
"I–I miss him so much" I sputter, unable to catch my breath.
"I'm such a coward, I shouldn't have hid," he sobbed out.
We hug each other and continue to sob as my mom is asking us what happened. I tell her all that has happened and the loss of Max and his dad. She is distraught at the details but keeps her composure. Some time passes and we are no longer in that place, we are now on a long stretch of road. I don't know exactly how much time has passed, but when I came out of my dreamless sleep I saw that we are nearing an abandoned gas station. It looks so out of place, then again everything after today will look out of place. Looking over at Leo, I shake him a little and he wakes up slightly scared until he realizes where he is.
"Let's get you boys cleaned up a bit and bandaged," my mom says breaking the silence.
We just nod, not knowing what to really say.  She pulls into the station and parks the car. Getting out of the car she walks over to the passenger side and starts to help Leo out first and then me. We walk into the little store part and she goes and grabs some alcohol, gauze, and various sized bandages to clean us up. We all walk to the small bathroom in the back and she turns on the water and grabs some soap and begins to clean all of my wounds and bandages them before moving onto Leo. Once she's finished we all start to walk back through the store part.
"Grab some water and snacks if you boys want. I don't want you getting dehydrated or anything," she says looking at us.
We both grab what we want and start to head back out to the car. She starts the car and we are off again. Time passes and we start to see the town we call home. This time, it feels normal and doesn't feel bad or off. All of a sudden there's this loud siren blaring like those sirens for evacuations but it's just an ordinary thunderstorm so why would they be sounding the siren?
That's weird, I've never experienced this before.
I'm so preoccupied that I don't even realize how slippery the road is until we begin to swerve while trying to avoid falling branches.
"Mom, look out!" There is a big branch coming for the windshield.
She swerves, causing us to smash through the guardrail and tumble down the steep hillside that was on the right side of us. I can hear the breaking of glass and the denting of the roof and doors. Everything goes black until the car is no longer rolling and our heads stop spinning.