Beyond The Realms

Chapter 3

I'm at the diner with mom in the evening. Her face is alight with happiness as she talks about the good news she had received today. Her excitement is shining through her eyes and it's nice to see her so happy. Feasting on the amazing pizza she asks me how things are going on with me and regular stuff about school.

" Everything is fine," I tell her with a smile of my own as I  avoid making eye contact with her under the pretense of taking a bite of the slice of pizza because if mom looks at my face for long she will know that something is up. She had always been able to read me like an open book.

" How is Naina ?"

" She's good "

" We should have asked her to come with us today," Mom says " She is a nice kid "

I nod " I had asked her to  but she said she has to  babysit her neighbor's kid today"

We both enjoy the mother-daughter time we get to spend together. I fleetingly wonder if we will be able to have times like these again now that she got promoted her responsibilities at the company will increase too and she might not be around as much but I stop this train of thought instantly because I know how much this promotion means to my mom and also that she loves me too much to let the shortage of time become a problem between us. Being a single mother she had sacrificed a lot for my sake when I was little and now that I have grown up I want to see her achieve everything that makes her  happy.

The diner is full of people this evening and it takes quite a while for the waitress to get back to us with our ice cream orders.

The sight of the double chocolate chip ice cream makes my mouth water and I waste no time in stuffing my face with it when all of a sudden I feel immense pressure in my chest and my breaths come out abrupt and short. My heart beats rise as a dark feeling of steep unease settles in my stomach and my hands start trembling.

It takes me a while to figure out that  I'm currently feeling fear, but it isn't something I'm personally experiencing. Sometimes I get sudden flashes of extreme emotions out of the blue that are not my own, but they still affect me.

In the past, I have experienced unexplainable degrees of panic, fear, and pain sometimes even wounds and scars appear on my skin for no logical reason.

It is freaky and it worries me a lot but I have no idea how to explain such a thing to a doctor without sounding crazy and ending up in a padded room.

I try to suppress the unexplainable bout of fear I'm currently feeling.

" Amelia are you alright ?"Mom asks looking extremely worried.

I open my mouth to assure her that I'm fine when just as suddenly the dark fear is replaced by an insane urgency to run.

A guy wearing a baseball cap that covers more than half of his face in shadow gets out from one of the corner booths.

" Get out now !"  A voice in my head yells with impatience.

The guy raises his head and our eyes meet. My blood chills

" Run !"  The voice screams.

  I grab my mom's hand and pull her away from our table.

My legs are rapidly putting distance between us and the guy.

" Amelia, what is going on ?"

" We need to get out of here !  " my entire being is filled with terrifying desperation as I see the guy break into a run to get closer to us. " Right now! " I scream while running like crazy towards the parking lot with my mom beside me.

"  I don't  understand what is happening ?" Mom is breathless as she fumbles in her purse for the car keys.

" I'll explain everything to you," I rasp regretting being lazy in the gym class as my heart pounds in my chest. I have no idea how I'm going to explain this to her, all I  know is that we need to get out of here right freaking now!

The guy gets into the parking lot just a few seconds behind us and he doesn't even look winded, instead, his entire body seems to double in size as he throws his head back at an unnatural angle and the baseball cap falls off revealing his face to us.

" What the hell !" Mom shreiks turning pale but manages to open the car door.

The man looks hardly human. His entire face is as grey as ashes and his features have a maniacal twist to them. His dark eyes shine with gleeful malice as he fixes them on me and a smile that is like the edge of a serrated knife stretches across his face sending chills down my spine.

" Finally " his voice makes the hairs on my arms stand, it's as if someone is dragging nails across a blackboard. The absolute fear I'm experiencing threatens to consume me turning my legs into jelly until the man lunges towards me and my fight or flight mode gets kicked into action as letting out a horrified scream I  jump into the car slamming the door shut behind me . Amidst my mom's panicked screams and my own thundering heartbeats and heavy breathing, I see the man's body stop mid lunge.

He literally stops in the air!

For a second the man looks like he is suspended in the air, stuck and unmoving but then his entire body goes crashing into a wall with such great force it shakes the very floor.

" You will pay for this " the guttural voice rips out of his throat as his inhuman face hardens with raw fury. Mom floors the accelerator her white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel never loosening as we zoom past all the cars in the parking lot at top speed as if we have demons from hell itself hot on our trail, which given what we have seen today can't entirely be wrong.

But just before we make our way out of the parking lot completely and onto the road my eyes flicker towards the rearview mirror and  I see a tall and broad silhouette of another man and a  flash of silver.

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