Hidden Darkness

Chapter 3

      I stared back into those deathly white eyes. Then Eric spoke. "Listen here, Emsly. I don't know why you didn't rat me out, but you better keep your mouth shut. Got it?" I mumbled into the tendril that covered my mouth. He rolled his white pupils and moved the tendril then said, "What?"
    "I said I didn't even see it was you that night and how am I supposed to tell the police I saw some guy use tentacle things to kill people? Oh yeah, also, what the hell are these things!" Eric sighs annoyingly and drops me to the ground. "Your guess is as good as mine, Emsly," he says while looking at the odd, dark limbs. "You don't even know?"
    "No. One day I'm Eric Sullivan, the next I'm some monster." I watched the tendrils slowly return to Eric's back and then his eyes returned to normal. "Well, why are you killing people?" Eric shot a glance at me. "None of your business."
"They're innocent people, Eric."
"There was nothing innocent about those men," He said, harshly. I sat there in the snow just staring at him. "Eric, they're people."
"No they're not. They're monsters, just like me. Except I'm preying on them so they don't prey on others."
"What do you mean?" He looked at me. His face went back to angry like when he had grabbed me. "Keep your mouth shut, Emsly. Or else I'll kill you." His eyes turned black and his pupils bright white and the tendrils appeared once again.
They reached out above him then pulled him upwards and, just like that, he was gone. I just stared up at where he had left, trying to process what just happened. I stand up and slowly make my way home. It was only a minute past my designated curfew by my father, so I won't get yelled at too much. I had a lot to think about, and I don't believe I'm going to get good sleep tonight.

I'm lying breathless on the snowy ground. Above me, bright gray clouds released snow onto my lifeless body. The police scattered around me, examining my body and the wounds that caused my death. I can see the crowd that gathered before the police tape. But I pointed out two from the crowd.
Amelia stood there with her hands over her mouth and in silent tears. Almost opposite of her, Eric stood with his nasty scowl. Amelia runs out of view and Eric slowly follows her. I couldn't do anything. I was dead.
The sirens started breaking into a pattern. A constant on and off noise pattern unlike the wavy way it usually sounds. Soon it turned into a shrill noise going on and off and that's when I awoke to my alarm. Like I had said, no good sleep. I clumsily slipped out of bed and into the bathroom to take a shower.
I just stood and allowed the warm water to run over me, thinking back to the night before. Eric had every reason to kill me. I was a witness, I saw his face, I recognized him completely, and he's a murderer. So why didn't he? After washing and rinsing myself off, I turned off the water, stepped out, and dried off.
Once I was dressed, I grabbed a pop tart from the pantry and left the house for school. I broke a piece of the pop tart and popped it into my mouth. As I chew I took out my phone and checked the weather for today. Right when I was about to open the app, I felt something tap my shoulder. Suffice to say, I freaked out and slipped on the ice and fell.
"Oh my gosh, are you okay?" I recognized the voice pretty easily. "Hey, Amelia, what's up?" I say while lying on the cold ground. She grabs my hand and tries to help me up but she slips too and falls right on top of me, elbowing my stomach. I let out a painful grunt.
"Oh my gosh, Matt, I'm so sorry."
"It's okay," I say through my teeth. "It's just pain, I can deal." I roll onto my hands and slowly push myself up. Once I was up I extended a hand for Amelia. She grabbed it and I pulled her up.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." I say smiling, mostly from the pain, but also from her. "Why are you so jumpy?"
"Eh, I had a nightmare that freaked me out."
"Oh? What about?" I thought for a little and decided not to tell her. "I don't really remember, I just woke up freaked out."
"Oh, okay." We start walking together. "What about you? Any dreams?"
"Yeah. Mostly about weird nonsense like flying and swimming and stuff." I nod and take another bite out of my now crumbly pop tart. Once I started chewing, I gestured the pop tart towards Amelia, offering it to her. She looks at it and says, "Oh, no thank you, I'm fine."
"Did you eat?" I say with a full mouth. "Well, no, but-"
"Then take it. You need to eat too. I don't want you to be hungry." She just looked at me for a bit and then at the pop tart. She smiled a little and took the second one from the package and began eating. "Thank you, Matt."
"You're welcome Amelia." I really like this girl. So we walk and talk for a while until we get to school, where we walked the halls until the bell rang. Once I get to first period, I sit down and start to relax. Partially listening to the classroom chatter. Then I heard it die down to dead silence.
I didn't even need to think about why. Eric and I share three classes. Four, if you count our spare period. In our spare period, we can go anywhere in the school or check out for a bit. I usually go to the library, I'm not sure where Eric goes. Once again, Eric walks in brooding like always.
Except this time I have a newfound interest in him. My mind kept going back to last night. His words, his threat. But most of all, who he is. And I'm the only one who knows.
But, strangely, neither one of us know what he is. Throughout the whole class I kept glancing back at him, trying to figure him out, but I couldn't. Once the bell rang I went to my computer class and started researching. I searched on Google, 'human-like white-eyed man' but only found drawings and pictures of creepy faces and some other websites made for a supernatural show. Then I typed in, 'people with tendrils on their backs' but still found nothing.
I searched for the whole period and even through a list of world-wide mythological creatures. The closest one I got to that involved those tendrils he had was the monster Scylla from The Odyssey. I couldn't find anything on what he could be. I didn't realize how long I've been searching until the bell rang for my spare period. I shut off the computer and left for the library.
While in there I spy Bobby looking over some books so I rush over. "Bobby." He looks towards me, waves and then goes back to roaming the shelves. "I have a question, B- dubbs."
"Shoot," he says not looking at me. "You ever heard of a man that has bright white eyes and has black tendrils on his back? Like, mythology or folklore stuff?" He gave me an odd look. "No. Why do you ask?"
"Project."
"For what class?"
"English"
"You're studying folklore in english?"
"Folklore around the world." Bobby nodded. "Cool. No I don't know anything about that stuff. You know crime and murder interest me."
"Well, yeah, but I didn't know if you knew anything that could help." Bobby reaches for a book off the shelf. A sherlock Holmes novel. "Another Sherlock book?" He lightly pats the cover of the book. "Absolutely. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to return to class. See ya later, Matt."
"Yeah, see ya, Bobby." Once again I was back at square one. I was stumped. Then I thought of an idea. Albeit a stupid idea, but better than nothing.
At that moment I felt watched. I looked around the library but no one was looking over. Then I looked out the window and saw a chilling sight. Eric stared at me sideways through the glass and our eyes locked. Then I remembered what he warned me.
I put my index finger and my thumb together and made a zipping motion across my lips. It seems he got the message and kept walking. I sighed in relief. So I've decided. I'm gonna follow him after school.

The bell rings and the school halls immediately fill with students. All I have to do is look for the one space where people do their best to avoid Eric and then follow him. It didn't take long. He walked down the hall with the students carefully avoiding him like I had said. They even allowed him to exit the doors without any trouble.
He has quite the power here. I do my best to slip through the crowd then I begin following him. At a nice, far distance. I follow him around corners and past shops and buildings. We walked over two hours. Judging from the burning of my feet and legs, I say we walked around all of Chicago.
All of a sudden he turned into an alleyway. I sped up my walk into a jog, against the wishes of my legs, and stood by the corner of the alley. I peeked through and didn't see anyone. I entered the alleyway and walked all the way to the back confused and wondering where he had went. That's when I felt something wrap around my waist and yank me up into the air.
I let out a cross between a yelp and a "Woah". Next thing I know, I'm hanging in the air staring at an upside down, white-eyed Eric. "Why are you following me, Emsly?" I started looking up, or in this case, down, and got the words scared right out of me. Then I saw the ground move away and replace with the roof of a building.
I look back at the upside-down Eric just in time to see him drop me. I hit the roof a bit hard and released an "oomph". Once I stood up, I saw the last of the tendril that had hold of me recede into his back. "I'll ask again. Why were you following me?" His voice became even more threatening.
"I'm curious."
"Of what?"
"Of you. Neither of us seem to know what you are, how you are, and that makes me curious. Not to mention you've killed so many people but spared me. Why?" Eric stared at me for a good minute. He opened his mouth as if to say something but closed it again, hesitating. "Last night you said that those men you killed weren't innocent. What did they do that made you kill them?" He stared at me more, probably thinking about if he should tell me or not.
"Why should I tell you?"
"Why shouldn't you?"
"Because it's none of your business." Right after he said that, he threw his hand to his head and released a groan. When his hand returned to his side, he looked back at me. "Fine, you want to know why I kill men like them? Meet me in the same alleyway I grabbed you from last night, tonight. I'll show you why." His tendrils appeared again, grabbed me, then lowered me down back into the alleyway.
When I looked back up to where he stood, he was already gone.