Linked

Crescent

I woke up feeling very light-headed and dizzy. My eyes scanned around the familiar room of my apartment. My apartment?! I sat upright. What? How? I looked around. I looked down and moved my hands against the covers. I then pressed my two fingers against my other arm and pinched myself. Yeah. This was real. Last night was a blur to me. Everything was fuzzy. I remember falling last night. I looked down and sighed in relief. My arm wasn't covered with any scars. In fact, nothing showed signs of anything from last night. I laughed to myself. I must have been drunk. It was all a dream. I looked around my room again. It was sloppy and messy. It looked like I had just thrown my clothes everywhere and left them. I got out of bed and found myself looking into my mirror. I sighed as I gazed at my face. I wasn't the prettiest or most handsome of men. But I also wasn't ugly either. I began to wonder if my parents had never done what they did, If my dad never gambled, if my mother never died, if I never had to work at that stupid cafe, what would I have become?

I sigh and shake my head. There's no going back now. What's done is done, and there's no helping it. I began walking to my bathroom. My head still felt dizzy. I turned on the light in the bathroom. I looked in the mirror for a brief moment before turning on the shower. I checked the water with my hand and pulled up my shirt. My eyes widened in fear once I looked into the mirror again. A crescent. I let out a frightened scream. I backed up in fear. My bare back hitting the cold bathroom wall. I looked down at my skin. There wasn't anything there. This was all so weird. I am beginning to wonder whether I should go to the hospital or not but...no. I'm so low on income that I wouldn't even be able to pay at all. I sighed. I slid down the wall and hid my face in my hands. I didn't know what to do. Everything's been so weird since last night. Did it all even happen? What is this weird crescent on me? What happened truly last night? Why is it that I can only see this weird marking on my stomach when I look in my bathroom mirror? I suddenly raised my head and widened my eyes. I should call Leah and explain it or...what I could explain about it.

I sigh and realize there's nothing I can do. If I call the police they'd think I'm crazy! If I go to the hospital, not only would I have to pay a thousand dollars because of the medical bill, but I'd probably be called crazy by them too! I ran my fingers through my hair. I glanced at the mirror. My eyes went to the crescent first. It was a dark black color. It looks like a skull but with a star behind it. I furrowed my eyebrows as I slowly looked up at my face. I looked exhausted. Which, I was. This wasn't any normal experience normal humans have. At all. I quickly got out of the bathroom went to my bedroom and began looking for my phone. I found it in the covers, it must have fallen out of my pocket. I dialed liliah. She took her good sweet time to answer too. Once she said hello I practically cut her off.

"Liliah, I need to talk to you. It'd extremely urgent." I said, my voice quiet and filled with concern. The other end went quiet for a moment.
"What's wrong? What happened? Did something happen last night?" She asked these questions rapidly and for a moment I lost my train of thought. I quickly composed myself.
I gripped my phone tightly. "Um, I...there's something on...er..." how in the world do I even explain? I took a deep breath and began telling her everything. I even told her everything I could remember from last night, although it wasn't much.
Silence. There was silence on her end and for a moment I thought she hung up until she began speaking, "Okay....um, Kita?" Her voice was quiet.
I stared off into the distance. I didn't know what she was thinking and frankly, I didn't want to. "Yeah?" I asked. I awaited her answer.
"Have you been taking drugs?" She asked suddenly. My eyes widened and I sighed and clamped my thumb and pointer finger over my nose bridge. "No. I'm not. Liliah, please. You have to believe me!" I pleaded.
She went silent. "Have you looked it up? Like your symptoms or the crescent? That's what most people do nowadays whenever they have something wrong with them."
I went silent. I didn't think to do that, it didn't sound like a bad idea. I went to my desk beside my wardrobe and pulled up my laptop. I got it for free from a friend. Which I'm grateful for. I wouldn't have been able to afford it otherwise. I typed up weird crescent marks on my skin. The sound of the keyboard makes me weirdly anxious. Several websites popped up. "Uhh, nothing much. They all talk nonsense. Some don't even match up! My girlfriend cheated on me....making crescent marks with my knife?" I raised my eyebrow in confusion.
"Keep scrolling!" Liliah's voice said in my ear. I sighed but did anyway. My eyes narrowed as I came across an unusual site. "Hold on, I think...I think I found something. It's called, demon markings? Demons? Is this a joke? I'm beginning to wonder if you're right Liliah, and I'm just really high right now." I have been known to take drugs but not a whole lot. I dialed down a lot once I hit the age of 23.
Liliah didn't say anything. "Wait, read the article out loud." She demanded.
I rolled my eyes and sighed. My eyes went to the first word. "Very rare sightings and cases of these strange crescent marks have led to the idea that demons are around and roaming the earth. They mark these humans with these strange crests for unknown reasons. Many of these humans have been found dead within the week of being found out with the mark. Most cases have been of suicide." As I read on, my humor about all of this changed. Even though this wasn't a very popular website and seemed to be on the verge of being lost media, these sounded real. Very real. I looked up some of the names and my face paled. The cases of these people are true. The crime photos of these humans with these crescents were different than mine. In fact, all of these crescents were different. I began to wonder if it was the same 'demon' doing all of this or different ones. I shivered at the thought.
"Uhm, hello? Are you still there? You went quiet on me after you read the article, not that I blame you either...that sounded intense." Liliah's voice made me snap back to reality.
"Uhh..yeah. I'm still here. I just...-" "Kita, this isn't very funny anymore. I'm worried now. I'm looking at the same website. The crime scenes are real. Like actually fucking real." She said cutting me off.
I trembled a bit before gaining my composure. "I know, I looked them up to...I just...I don't know what to do! I'm so fucking scared right now..." Liliah went on and on about how I should contact the CIA or something like that, but that wouldn't work. They'd probably murder me and frame it as suicide. That's probably how all of those poor humans died as well. Her voice started to grow more and more distant as I began getting lost in my thoughts. Something between now and last night happened. I strained and set down my phone for a moment and rubbed my temples with my two fingers. I sighed. Suddenly, I began to have a blurry image of a small creature and...something else? Wait, I...fuck. I remember now. There was a huge foggy...creature...no...no...it was most likely a demon. A foggy black demon was there. I remember...he...he used his hand to touch my head and then I remember being in excruciating pain. Then I blacked out. My eyes widened and I moved my hand to grab my phone. She was quiet. "Liliah! I remember everything now! I remember!" I exclaimed.
Liliah suddenly began asking questions, "What happened? Who was there? Was there something there? Or something else?"
I clenched my jaw and then relaxed it. "I remember there being a creature! Then this foggy black creature!....I- hello? Liliah? Hello?" My phone suddenly began making this loud crackling and static sound. I took it off my ear and looked at it. "Liliah? Hello!! Can you hear me?!" I began to yell but nothing was heard. I sat there in silence for a while. My eyes were wide as I made eye contact with a poster in front of me, hanging on the wall. I was scared. I didn't know what was going to happen. I didn't want to know. When I was about to relax I suddenly jumped. My eyes caught the sight of my computer signaling in and out until it turned to multi-colors and said no signal in the middle. It made a loud static noise. I gasped and screamed. I panicked and rushed out of the bedroom. I went into the kitchen where I took a kitchen knife out of its holster from the counter. I looked around. The only sound I could hear was my heartbeat. My forehead began to sweat. The thought of being the only one in a house, with an alleged demon crescent, can do shit to your mind. My breathing became uneven. After a few minutes, nothing happened. Nothing. My eyes furrowed and I slowly placed the knife down on the counter. I sighed in relief and I wiped the beads of sweat off my forehead.