Our Tumbledown World

Chapter 4 Forever Changed

    Frozen in place, I watched with my breath held as the person just stood there, not moving an inch. Could they see me? I didn't think they could, all the lights were shut down, and the window was fairly far away to see through in the dark.

    Then, slowly they started to turn and walk off to the side. I stayed my ground as they walked out of view, and towards the steps to the driveway.

    Then, just before I started to breath again, a loud knock against the front door made me jump in place for a moment. I internally debated if I should answer or make my way back upstairs to hide. With the gunshots earlier, I wasn't looking go outside for anything.

    But what if they saw me?

    As I debated my options, the knocking came again, and I made my mind to at least see who it was before I did anything else. Placing my phone on the charger, I slowly made my way towards the door, trying my best to not make any sound. Eventually, I got there, and slowly leaned into the spy hole to see out onto the deck.

    At first, I didn't think I could make anything out it was to dark, but as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, the figure moved slightly enough for me to see who was standing on the deck. It was my neighbour Jack Fyrr.

    He looked dishevelled, his hair was a mess standing up in random spots, and his clothes where rumpled. He seemed to be out of it, starting blankly at the door and lightly swaying side to side.

    I found that my hand had reached to grab the door handle without thinking about anything. I hesitated.

    I knew Jack, I had for years. He was a decent guy from what I knew, quite mostly, but friendly. He would always smile and say hello when I saw him. Now here he was, on my doorstep at the dead of night, knocking on it. Do I open it? Call out to him to ask what he needs?

    Do not let anyone in. That's what the warnings said. Not to let anyone in, even if you knew them. Even family.

    Jack certainly wasn't family, or a friend really. I barely knew him, the only times I even spoke to him was when he was chatting with my dad. If he was still here, would he let him in? Even after how bad he had gotten?

He was banging on the door now, like he was trying to wake me up. Maybe he thought I was asleep. How long would he try for? IF I stayed put, would he give up? And why me, we weren't close, and my house was at least five down from his.
   
Before I could make up my mind, he stepped forward and banged on the door again. I went to step back, but stopped when I noticed something on his shirt, it looked like something dark was staining it, seeping out from underneath it.

    Was it blood?

    I went to open the door. Now that I knew he was bleeding, I made up my mind, I had to help. I reached for the lock to help him if he was hurt, before two things happened. First I had another thought about the message on the tv.

Do not let anyone covered in blood inside.

Secondly, Jack apparently heard something behind him, as he turned around so fast he almost fell over. I started at him as he darted his head around like a crazed animal searching for something in the dark. He found it. And he started running towards it, making a silent, painful screaming sound.

As he took off racing down the steps like he was on fire, across the street, I saw people running under the street lights. I couldn't see what they were running from, or how many there were, they ran quickly. But one of them tripped on the sidewalk and fell face first down.

To this day, I can never forget what I saw.

Jack had been running towards them, and once he was near the one who fell he collapsed on his knees. My first thought was that he was trying to help him, get close to him to see the damage. If only. His back was to me, and I couldn't see what he was doing, until the guy tried to get up. Jack reached out, grabbed his hand, and forcefully pulled him on to the ground again. Then he moved on top of him.

Even though they were over fifty feet away, I could see it just as clearly as if I stood next to them. In perfect details crystal clear, seared into my head forever.

Jack grabbed his face, pulled it close, and took a bite out of him. The guy pushed him away, but to no avail, Jack started biting at him more and more, especially on the arms trying to push him away. His screams echoed in the night, louder than any sound I had ever heard. I watched it happen for I don't know how long, nothing outside the nightmare happening across the street seemed to be real. I stood frozen, wanting to move and turn away, but unable too. Some part of me just stared, like watching a train crash happen. At some point the screaming stopped. The sidewalk under them started to turn dark red. Jack was now covered in blood from head to toe. I could help but notice the patch on his shirt looked black compared to the rest of everything. Didn't the tv say something about not touching black blood.

I became aware of something wet on my face, it took at least five minutes to notice they were tears.

I don't remember what happened next, aside from running to the bathroom and vomiting. Than collapsing on the stairs going up to my room.