Shroud: Jinn

7 - Hazy

Marissa inhaled sharply and let out another cry. I rubbed at my eyes, hoping that the ghastly image would go away but the wet squelchy sounds that followed only confirmed the creature's horrid existence. Careful not to make a sound, I grabbed my kerosene lamp, stood up cautiously and walked a few steps forward to face Marissa who had tears streaming down her face. 

"Please...help me..." Marissa breathed out.

I can't just run.

I willed my eyes to look below her again and saw wisps of splotchy red mess curled around the spikes of tall grass that surrounded her. My shallow breaths quickened as the creature's bloody entrails cracked each stalk with a grating snap and my mind envisioned the sound of Marissa's bones breaking instead. I dove deeper into panic mode as the depths of my mind filled itself with the morbid memory of the creature wrapping its bloody intestines around my neck and I shakily touched my throat. Like a huge coward that I was, I staggered backwards, "I can't. I'm sorry..." I made a sharp turn and hastened towards the direction of my car, each step of mine much heavier than the last.

Marissa finally whimpered in between shaky breaths, "I'm scared of snakes." 

I stopped in my tracks, lurching unsteadily as the field swayed below me and I tried to balance myself amidst the dire situation. This field was notorious for sightings of the banded Malayan coral snakes. The nocturnal reptile possessed a toxic and potent venom that could prove deadly to its prey should it strike with a fearsome bite. Even though the banded Malayan coral snake had contrasting stripes of black and white on the underside of its body, it also had a reddish stripe that ran along the entire length on its top body and a bright red tail at the end. The floating head's bloody entrails could be easily mistaken for the banded Malayan coral snakes' bright red tails. That was the reason why Marissa was standing so still. She thought that she had stepped unknowingly onto a bed of banded Malayan coral snakes.

She had no idea.

My nagging thoughts repeated in my head as Marissa's desperate plea for help intensified into terrified sobs, slapping at my conscience. I searched frantically around the field with my eyes for something worthy to be used as a weapon - rocks, sticks, anything - but with the dim lighting from the kerosene lamp as a useless aid, the search was futile.

"Mustaqim-" Marissa's quavering voice called out to me.

"Shhh...don't move," I whispered with a hiss as I twisted around to face her and I staggered again, perplexed with what I saw. Both of Marissa's hands were covering her gasps as she looked over in shock. Nothing was between her legs anymore and her horrified expression was all that prepared me for the impending doom that was about to come.

The next thing I knew, I was clawing through the dirt in a desperate attempt to grab hold of anything that I could find as I was dragged across the field facedown. The turbulent speed at which I was forcefully dragged caused the grass around me to slash at my face, pricking me like sharp paper cuts that tormented me with each burning slice. As my chest hit a bump, my body flipped over to face the creature as it trashed me aggressively by my right ankle with a shrill hiss. A drop of its spit landed on my collarbone and I grimaced at the nasty burn. With my left feet, I kicked haphazardly at the bloody intestine that was coiled around my ankle but it only served to provoke the creature and it did not hesitate to fling me around like a rag doll.

My arms flailed wildly as I sought salvation at the grass patch around me and my left hand landed on a fallen branch. With one mighty heave, I swung the medium-sized stick at the floating head. The creature's eyes glowed with an intense red as it spat out a splash of venom at the flying stick and the stick disintegrated under a glob of neon green bile. As the stick disappeared into a vaporising heap, the remnants of the fiery green poison splattered on the grass patch with a melted sizzle. The creature laughed at me mockingly as it swayed left and right like a cobra entranced in a hypnotic rapture of an invisible spell. It continued its taunts. I threw at it whatever my hands could find - rocks, pebbles, mud and even dirt - but every time, the creature managed to dodge.