Eerie

    I stood at the edge of the street, the streetlights flickering. I was leaning against a sturdy, black lamp-post. I could feel the cool touch of metal against my back as I texted my best friend. She was ranting at me over the phone, screaming with no sound. The night was quiet, that sort of quiet that felt so calm that it was creepy. But I didn't focus on any of that, my friend was my top priority.
   She told me the details of her terrible break-up with her most recent boyfriend. I saw it coming from a mile away, but she hadn't expected to be cheated on. I warned her that this would happen, but she ignored me. I sighed lightly, offering to meet up at her place and catch a movie. She agreed automatically and her mood peeked up instantly. The pixels on the screen felt more vibrant already.
   I pocketed my phone and smiled slightly to myself. I ripped my body off of the lamp-post and started to stroll to her house. Everything was fine at first, but something felt off. I had that eerie feeling of unwanted eyes following my every movement. Each corner I turned only made me more suspicious. The closer I got to her house the dimmer the lights got and the more they flickered; every step caused a cascade of newfound darkness.
   At one point I started to believe this was some sort of fever dream, a reality imagined by my subconscious. I would've held on to this thought had I not put my hand against another lamp-post. The lamp-post was as cold as ice. It felt like the metal was in a whole different season; as if a winter storm was brewing only moments before. Metal was normally cool to the touch - especially during the reign of the moon, but this lamppost felt frozen over.
    I slowly removed my hand from the lamp-post and continued to my destination. With every step my feet felt heavier, similar to the heaviness experienced with hours of exertion. I started to fight for control of my own body as it gradually became limp. There was an unknown pressure inviting me to lay down, limb by limb. As numbness took over each and every movement I made, I droned on.
   Eventually I fell backwards, my head hitting the concrete sidewalk with a thud. My vision blurred and contorted, zooming in and out and losing focus. The scene before my eyes was similar to that of watching a poorly filmed video, the camera was always slightly out of focus and zooming for dramatic effect. I felt like I was going to lose consciousness, but I bit my lip and focused in on that pain.
   My vision continued to swirl and mix together. I watched the lights in the sky dance in front of my eyes before their swaying was abruptly ended by the black background consuming them.
   As I continued to stare upwards, I felt a gust of heat hit my face. I coughed after smelling the rancid odor of the foreign wind. I vaguely watched a being of the darkest black I have ever witnessed and the purest crimson red I knew mix and melt together like ice cream on a hot summer day.
   A disgusting chuckle rang through the night and sent shivers down my spine. The laughter was the sound of nightmares, the embodiment of every night I woke up sweating in fear. The sinister, vile noise rang out through the street and didn't stop. It was unsettling and eerie, echoing forever.
   I slowly started to lose my mind. I could not listen to this madness for another second. I shut my eyes to block out the horrors of a creature I could not describe and attempted to move my hands towards my ears. It ended in failure and all I could do was lay down and feel the hot, rancid breath of this being slowly hit my face.
   After awhile, the heat stopped. The chuckle ceased its unending torture. My heartbeat started to slow down as my sanity slowly came back to me. I took in a deep breath and began to calm myself down. "Everything is fine, this is just a nightmare. I'll wake up in a few minutes sweating in bed."
   As my calm fully returned and I was ready to wake up, an agonizing pain coursed through my body. I felt the sharpest set of needles tear and rip through my abdomen. I felt like my insides were being devoured whole and all I could do is scream.
    And I did. I let out every ounce of pain in the form of sound. My throat ripping apart like my insides. I lost track of time as my lungs depleted from air and my throat became so sore that sound wouldn't dare escape my lips. It felt like I had been there for hours and the pain wouldn't go away.
   Then it all just ended. Everything went back to the eerie calm and the streetlights continued to flicker. The gorgeous hues of orange and pink filled the sky and life continued on normally.
   My name is Sophie Winston and there was no corpse for the police to discover the next morning.