Don't Look

Don't look.

Closing my eyes didn't kill the fear. The silence of death surrounded everything.

I walked through the empty streets, hugging myself. Fear had a way of wearing you down until it feels like you're brave. But it's not bravery.

Because there will always be something scarier to tear you down.

Something shifted in the shadows of a building. I hyperventilated and turned away.

Maybe I'd be safe if I didn't look.

A scream pierced the silence. I turned my head toward a loud rapping at the left and caught the sight of a woman banging frantically at the window. My body tensed, torn between the desire to help and the fear of the consequences.

The woman froze as we stared at each other. Then her body was ripped down by the claws of unjust death, disappearing as if she was never there at all.

Leaving me alone in the graveyard of the world.

Guilt ate away as I stumbled over to a car. My heart sank at the sight of a dead body slumped over the steering wheel. Part of me just wanted to leave the car.

There was nowhere to go in this world of death.

The insidious urge to live overwhelmed reason. I broke the window and winced at the sound of glass shattering.

I've heard that sound too much.

I slowly reached inside the window. Then I froze. A discordant noise rang through the air, a sound that foretold death.

And the head started moving.

I yanked my hand back but caught my breath at the sight. The head twisted to an unnatural angle, a face of death staring at me.

The face of the desperate woman who banged at the window.

Her head jerked back and forth as she slithered through the broken window. She fell to the ground, but no thud echoed.

"Please..."

I'm not even sure if I spoke. All I could hear was the pounding of my heart.

The drum roll to my death.

Words were lost on the injustice of death, an injustice that wreaked its revenge on nearly the entire world. The unnaturally pale body lurched forward, at a speed beyond the ability of a person.

Giving up would be easy. Numbness consumed me since losing everyone I loved.

But one look at the dark eyes of death and the need to flee burned into me. I turned to run, but my feet wouldn't move. Suffocating fear paralyzed me.

But nothing happened. No shadow darkened around me and nothing touched me.

Maybe my mind was playing tricks on me. Maybe the guilt and loneliness had worn me down.

It couldn't hurt to look.