MY SHORT STORIES

INVISIBLE BEAST

I made my way through the dark forest mentally scolding myself for being so stubborn. It was dark and the deeper I went into the forest the darker it became.

"Why didn't I just let Mary and her brother walk me home ?",
I muttered to myself pretending to not have an answer to that question even though in the back of my mind, cowering in that corner was a voice whispering "pride". Sure if I had let them walk me home they would never let me forget it, they would have called me "scared", and doing this was proving to them that I was not weak. Besides I have travelled through these woods my entire life and knew them in and out but the thing is I've never walked through this forest at night.

As I made my way through I could not help but notice how this once beautiful forest looked so sinister, the vegetation was now a sickly grey and the tree roots were protruding like hands of the living dead waiting to grab their dinner so I used the moonlight to manoeuvre my way through.
"Hands of the living dead ? Way to go Caro, you say that you are not weak yet you are getting paranoid. Let me guess, you would be thinking about werewolves next and rustling of trees",
I muttered under my breath. Then it hit me, rustling of trees, I froze.

There was a sound of trees rustling behind me and the sound was getting closer. The first thing that came to mind was "RUN", so I did just that. I have heard of people doing stupid things and things that made them feel super human when adrenaline kicked in. That's what was happening to me, during PE I am usually the last person to cross the finish line but at that moment i was actually sprinting. The sprinting is the superhuman part and the stupid part is (a) not thinking about what I was running from (b) the bigget animal in these woods was a rabbit.

But to be honest after thinking about zombies and werewolves I didn't want to know what I was running from. So I kept running. My muscles started to ache, my lungs protesting from working overtime while my throat was on fire. The rustling was coming closer and along with it came what sounded like a distant howl. I was on the verge of tears, my chest was heaving and my gums were hurting since I was breathing through my mouth.

What ever was after me was pretty fast, so after a couple of seconds of sprinting I reasoned that I couldn't outrun what ever was after me so I figured that if I couldn't run then I should definitely try hiding and hope for the best.

So I darted behind a tree that looked like a promising hiding place and I waited. I tried to be quiet but I was hunched over with my hands on my knees and literary panting like a dog. Something warm started sliding down my cheeks as a sound of drums kept playing in my ears and I was afraid that my heart would burst.

As the sound of rustling trees and howling came closer, I stood up straight against the bark of the tree while holding my breath and hoping that whatever it was did not hear the beating drum in my chest. The sound came closer and closer while big fat tears kept rolling off my eyes so I decided to close them shut, not wanting to see. After a few seconds the leaves of every tree around me were rustling.
Then I felt a cold breath on my neck and an icy touch trailing the trail of tears on my face. Since I had my eyes closed my mind started working overtime piecing some details together to help me figure out what I was dealing with,
'icy touch, cold breath on my neck and am waiting for a bite ?. It's... it's... But that can't be right, it's a its a vampire.'

I was literally trembling at that thought but I decided to open my eyes, if it really was a vampire I wanted to see it, anyway how many people got to die in the hands of a vampire?. Slowly opening my eyes I found nothing except for the trees surrounding me. It did not make any sense since I was expecting to see fangs but then it dawned on me that the trees where still rustling and I was still trembling but not because of fear but due to the fact that I was cold.

A few feet ahead of me was a clearing which meant that I was almost home. So I moved away from the tree I was leaning against and walked into the clearing which led into my backyard. Quickly wiping away my tears I started chuckling as a thought came to mind
'Caro, you just tried to outrun the wind !!'

"Stupid Invisible beast", I muttered.