The Twilight Zone

Chapter 18

Noah and Lily sat together in the woods. They had been searching all night, but Amelie was nowhere to be found. Noah was only eleven, Lily sixteen. She was almost old enough to move out with him and Amelie.

Almost old enough to get away from their mom, who didn't love them anyway.

"Imma go get some wood and flint." Noah's light hair and pale skin made him look almost ghostlike in the darkness. Lily had to reach out her hand to make sure he was real.

"Okay, start a fire. And no matter what happens, It's going to get better, I promise."

"I'll be back."

Noah left, his footsteps trodding away in the utter black.

Lily shivered in the dark, wrapping the disheveled, rough blanket around her shoulders. Even though her brother was younger, it still felt nice to have his presence there-another person.

Noah was still trodding along, his boots getting stuck in brambles. All of a sudden, he came upon the hole. A ditch in the ground, thousands of miles deep and held shut by an iron trapdoor. The gateway to the Twilight Zone.

The door was open.

He started to breathe heavier, started to rip furiously at the vines entrapping his legs. All of a sudden, he could feel breath on his shoulder. A man's voice, raspy and shaky sounding, rang in his ears. The voice sounded slightly senile, like it was tipping off of the edge of something insane.

"Noah. Hello, son."

"Yes, father?"

Noah hadn't seen this man in a long time-he'd been in the Twilight Zone since Noah was a baby. Yet, somehow, Noah knew that the person was his father.

Rollo Kray.

He had something-Fur? Over parts of his body.

His hands barely looked human, covered in the stuff surrounding his body. His fingernails were long and seemed to be doused with something brownish at the tips. Noah almost hurled as a churning sensation ripped at his stomach. BLOOD.

The thing that used to be his father smiled as he ran his pointer across Noah's chin, leaving a scrape. He lifted his hand to it, wincing. It hurt-and was probably contaminated-the thing looked like it hadn't bothered to cleanse himself since he'd been sent to the Zone.

THE SCRATCH, Noah thought. THAT'S WHAT I'LL CALL HIM.

"I need a... favor." His voice was gravelly. It gave Noah chills. "Your sister-she's here with you?"

"No."

The Scratch looped around to look Noah in the eyes.

"Yes, she is. Don't lie to me, Boy." He licked the tip of his fingernail with Noah's fresh blood on it, then came closer. "Here." He handed Noah a knife. "Go, use it."

Noah looked up at him, his eyes widened in fear.

"Use it? How?"

The man-creature came closer to Noah, leering in his face. His breath was rank and musty.

"On your sister."

"She's strong, she'll be able to fend me off if she wants. I don't know how to use it, and I wouldn't if I could!"

"You use it like this." He took the knife and stabbed it into his own arm. Noah flinched. IT COULD HAVE BEEN ME HE DID THAT TO. 

"Now go," The Scratch pushed Noah forward. "Or you will both meet an end."

Noah didn't know why he decided to do it. He had only just turned eleven, and he didn't think that he could kill Lily anyway. One stab, and that was it. One stab, no matter how hard, and maybe they could both be okay. Maybe Lily would even forgive him. He tried to rationalize it, tried to tell himself that his sister would have wanted him to survive, and it was no use in killing them both.

He trembled as he headed back to his sister. Her back faced him, and she didn't know he was there. Didn't know she was going to die. Noah held the blade above his head, and swung it downwards, cutting through Lily's body.

The only sound that a nearby village would have heard would have been a piercing, distant scream.