Thanatophobia

16-Yikeydoos

I pulled the knife out of my ammo sack and bit my tongue. I haven't done this in a long while I thought as I drew the knife to my wrist. I tried to convince myself not to, but I just thought to myself a million times 'I deserve this'

The knife cut into my wrist with a bloody muffled groan. The blood started to run and I started to cry. Why would I feel so wrong when I felt so free? I buried my face into Taylor's hair as I drifted off to sleep in a cry.

"Oliver?" Taylor said as he walked towards me, his hand trembling as the void now only was shown in black, "What did you do?"

My eyes stared at the ground, not knowing what to say as he walked up to me. His eye held anxiety, like there was some type of blood-lust battle going on in the void, waiting to engulf him.

"I don't know!" I said, but immediately knew what I did. That one act of self harm led to this hellscape of a void. All the landscaping had decayed, and the sky was blood red now. I could feel a hand on my back as I turned around. To my horror, I saw my own self. Happy, brown haired, smiling all the time. And my mother, Tabatha, who just seemed to have renewed her vows with my dad. I saw my cousins running around, laughing as I ran after them, god, I looked happy. I soon was struck with tears welling up in my eyes as Taylor looked around me, terrified. The demon was shown in a tall figure. Its eyes looked at me wearily as it opened its mouth and started to speak.

"Olivia, you need to tell them." The demon said, "Tell them all what a horrible person you are."

'What are you talking about!" I screamed at the demon, "I didn't d-!"

"Nobody else pulled the grenade handles other than you." Taylor said, his gaze fixing on me, "You need to stop lying to us, Olivia Jane Xernom."

"Taylor!" I said, eyes screaming in tears, "I didn't mean to! I didn't even know what the hell I was doing!"

"Why? Was it your family's fault for leaving the grenade out in the open?" Taylor said, his voice distorting into the demon's, "When you climbed the counter to get to them."

"Taylor! Y-you don't understand!" I said, but was stabbed through the back. My shoulder-blades exploded as my back started to bleed profusely, causing me to blankly fall to my knees.

My eyes stared at Taylor with tears and confusion in my eyes as a hot-iron was placed onto my mouth. I screamed in pain as I was torn limb to limb. My blood ran all through my body, and poured out through my wrists, which my painful eyes were directed to. I fell to the floor, no arms and no legs, just pain as I felt like I was slowly dying. The last thing I saw was the red bodies of my cousins, dead at that one family reunion- the one where my dad left grenades on the counter- the one that he actually came back to celebrate.

My eyes opened to the sight of the night, the moon the was shown in the sky had now turned into a waxing crescent. I swore that when I fell asleep, it was a third-quarter, but I just shrugged it off, I had more important things to do.

I frantically searched around for Taylor, who was still stuck in the coma right beside me. I stood up, and my back felt sore, and so did my limbs. I pulled my dress-shirt sleeves up to my shoulders to investigate. To my shock, my calves were covered in feathers every color of the sunrise. My lower arm now had the consistency and look of chicken feet, some feathers frayed at the ends near my elbow. I felt my irritated back scream at me, so I decided to just feel down my shoulder-blades, and felt a lump-per shoulder-blade. It took one extra swipe to understand that there were some feathers now surrounding the lumps.

I got up, and accidentally touched the leaves that consisted in the tree, causing all the dew to drop down in a rain-like pattern. It hit my head with a few splotches onto Taylor's. I looked up at the tree with a dirty look and put my hands onto my hips. The leaves protected us from the rain last night, but the leaves couldn't put up with me any longer, and I couldn't put up with me either. I took a pause from being salty at an inanimate object and shifted my vision onto Taylor, who would know that having beef with a tree is stupid and a waste of time.

"Good morning," I said, looking at his closed eyelids, "It's not like you can hear me or anything, but I'm fine with that."

I started to walk away from him, but leaving him alone in the middle of the forest sounds wrong. Unable to fight for himself. This isn't going to work. I started to walk back to him, but I heard a strange noise coming from the bushes behind me. I picked Taylor up, and started to inspect the bushes. There were two dusty green antennae poking up from the bushes, twitching.

"Isie?" I said with an eye roll, "Where are the others? I thought one of your- uh- none ever told me about any rules, bu-"

The antennae slumped back down into the bush, but only to reappear, but this time, a whole body came with it. Her skin was dusty green and the figure had an open top. Her body figure was hauntingly similar to Isie's, Slim and petite, but muscular in the calves and arms. The lady's hair was very close to Isie's hair color, which was a dusty blond with hints of green. Her hair was so long, it touched the ground and covered half her face, covering her eyes completely.

Her height towered over me as I looked at her with a half confused, half terrified look on my scratched face. I honestly thought this was Isie, but now I could barely breathe. Her presumed glare was hurling intimidation my way. I clutched Taylor as I had one idea in my mind, playing over and over the moment I encountered the antennae. Run!

I started to run to the place I never thought to go back to, the lake. I ran there, half-tripping on logs and rocks on the way as I thought of how this anomaly was going to execute me. Would she rip me limb to limb like what happened in my dream, or would she eat me alive and munch on my screaming flesh with her fangs? She started to flutter towards me, her hair following as the gap between us was getting smaller and smaller. I had thought I had felt fear, but this was a new feeling, worse than fear itself. After feeling a sense of clarity, like she was really going to attack me, I stopped and turned to look at her. My starred eyes trembled as she stopped, her face showing confusion as she had seemed to stare at me. Starting at me AND Taylor. Gloomily.

"Hey, uh…" She said, her voice showing hints of concern as her deep voice followed to Taylor, "...Is he… Okay?"

"What do you mean?" I said, glaring at where her eyes normally should be, "I've barely met you, and you ask If one of our assets are okay. How do I know you won't attack the rest of us?"

"Uhm.. Well yikes.." She said, twiddling her thumbs, "I guess you've met Xalonder…"

"Xalonder?" I said, my face tensioning at that name, "Who the hell is that?"

"It's the thing.." She said while her lips quivered and her antenna twitched rapidly, pointing behind me, "...Right behind you!"

I swiveled around and saw the demon, staring at me with slitted eyes and a toothy grin. Its stinky breath was clouding us as we just stared at it. My eyes were held agape as I felt Taylor twitch, probably knowing that we were face-to-face with the demon. My body trembled as my shirt was being grasped by the grasshopper, pulling desperately as she started to open her mouth in an urge.

"Run!" She screamed as she tugged on my shirt in an urgent plea for me to run, "I have a place!"