The Twilight Zone

Chapter 14

The cell phone screen flashed.

On, off, on, off.

"Give me that," Amelie swiped the phone from Ellie's hands. She observed the device, but no button seemed to reverse the flashing. Finally, Amelie chucked the phone over her shoulder.

"Hey!" Ellie yelled, "We could've used that for light."

"And get caught? No way." Amelie stated.

"Caught by what?"

"The Scratch!"

"But Noah said-"

"Noah doesn't know everything. If he did, then-" Amelie stopped speaking. She exchanged glances with Noah.

"Then what?" Ellie questioned.

"It's..." Alex began, "It's not a story you want to hear." She tucked a stray lock of fiery red hair back into her ponytail, held taut on her head. The group sat down, silence consuming them. Scratching noises filled the air, like a lion's claws scraping against a chalkboard. 

"What's that noise?" Ellie asked.

"It's...It's the Scratch." For the first time ever, Ellie heard Amelie's voice tremble.

Alex was already up, with a small knife in hand.

"What are you doing?" Ellie hissed, a sort of whisper.

"She's-" Noah hesitated to tell Ellie. Alex went around the corner, holding her finger tip to her mouth and the knife by her side. "She's going after it."

"That's stupid as..." Amelie trailed off. "But I know why she's doing it. She has to. We can't even look it in the eye."

"She's stronger than you?"

Ellie looked at Amelie and Noah, their features suddenly becoming illuminated. They had similar faces, but their coloring was almost opposite. Amelie's hair was a black tinged with the blue of the Twilight Zone, her eyes so dark they were almost black, while Noah had blond hair and eyes that were blue like Ellie's. Ellie herself had brown hair, lightly colored. She didn't look much like either of them.

Amelie shook her head. "We'll tell you when she comes back. She'll tell you." Something snapped in the near distance. The branch of a tree.

The scream that erupted from Alex as a pair of claws unsheathed was bone chilling. It lasted for what seemed like an eternity as long claws dug into flesh.

It was nothing compared to the silence afterwards, the feeling that something was entirely off, the suspension hanging in the air after the ear-piercing scream had gone that turned Noah's pale face even whiter.

Alex wasn't coming back.

Ever.