Go Away (#TheWattys2015)

Chapter 3: Nightmare

After class Tasha walked up to me. "So who's your boyfriend?" Tasha asked, bubbling with excitement. "He's not my boyfriend. We're just friends." "Mhmm, that's what they all say."
"Tasha it's nothing serious."
"Say that now and in a few weeks he'll be needing protection."
"Oh my gosh, bye girl I'll see you tomorrow." I started to walk off.
"See ya!" Tasha said waving. Then she added: "USE PROTECTION." I waved goodbye and walked off.
Today was awesome. My grin was spreading all over my face. Since I had something on my mind I decided to take a stroll through the woods. The smell of oak trees and warm whistling winds with birds chirping melodies and darting from tree to tree calmed me down and cleared my head. To me they weren't just the woods they were MY woods. I would come here when I got bullied as a kid and when i got into fights with friends at school and it never failed to cool me off. I would sometimes sit here in the summertime and draw it at different angles. It was a shortcut to my house anyways. But when I got towards the middle of the woods something didn't feel right. Everything seemed quiet. My heart began racing. My back tingled, the hair on the back of my neck standing straight up. I looked around. No one was behind me. The thought of running tugged madly at my brain, but I didn't want to start running for no reason. It could just be a squirrel, they were common this season. Dry leaves crunched under my feet making almost too much noise in the still quiet. The air began to feel cold. That wasn't right. It was supposed to be at least 60 degrees outside. Walking faster, I tried to brush off the cold and panic building up as I walked. The cold started getting more intense. Something was wrong. I hadn't even heard a single bird chirp or seen a rabbit jump by yet. It was as if the whole forest had been put on pause. A sudden snap came from behind and I whirled around. Nothing. I walked even faster now. Just a squirrel, I repeated to myself over and over. Another snap. Just a squirrel. A third snap. Okay that's not a stupid squirrel. The snapping got faster and closer. I turned around quickly and my blood turned ice cold, my body freezing in place. Someone, or something was standing about 20 feet away from me. The body looked human, but not the face. Or skin. It wore dark blue jeans, a leather jacket, a dark green shirt, and combat boots. Thats where the normal look stopped. The head was bald and shining with a thin layer of strange grayish-blue tinted slime, the lips ended directly under its curved, sharp- tipped ears, lined with razor sharp teeth protected by black lips. Blood oozed down its mouth. It's nostrils were slits that flared up and down as it breathed. It's eyes were giant pools of dark purple. Black talons sprouted from its pale, paper-white hands, dripping with clear liquid. A low rumble escaped its mouth. It grew louder and started to sound like laughter. My body was frozen to the ground, my legs shook threatening to collapse. The air was unbearably freezing. Goosebumps erupted along my arms and my teeth chattered so hard it felt like they would shatter into pieces. My eyes stung with cold and froze on the horrific sight. Every muscle in my body screamed at me to run. But they refused to move. I breathed in deeply trying to calm myself and move.The thing in front of me cocked its head to the side as if it were confused. It cleared its throat spoke in a bone-chilling voice that sounded as if it had the worlds worst sore throat. "Why so scared?" It asked devilishly. I didn't know if it expected an answer so I just kept my mouth shut. "Do I look that different from you,that you must be so scared?" I looked down. This thing was kidding right? "All you mortals are alike," it hissed. "So judgmental of everyone who looks different from you. You look down on others as if you're some superior god, when you are all just as cruel and evil." The fact that this thing was assuming stuff was starting to tick me off. I didn't even say anything to it and it started making assumptions. Its not my fault it looked worse than king-kong, godzilla, and medusa put together. I was about to protest how everyones different when it exclaimed out of nowhere disturbing my thoughts. "That's why you all deserve to die!!" The creature bared its teeth so that it's mouth opened wide enough for me to see its dark blue snake-like tongue slithering out of its mouth that looked like a wide gaping hole in the center of its deformed face. The skin on its face was wrinkled and covered almost completely in small multicolored spots It's knees bent which creaked like old stairs. At blinding speed the creature lunged at me. My muscles finally responded and I dropped to the ground just before the creatures talons could scratch me across the face. Praise the Lord for reflexes, I thought. I pushed upward on the creatures legs and managed to send it tumbling down a small hill just before it passed all the way over my head. With my muscles back to life now and filled with adrenaline I felt alive and ready for anything. I pulled out a pencil from my pocket. It wasn't much of a defense but it was the only sharp thing available. The creature abruptly stood and leaped high into the air and landed in front of me. It lunged at me with its claws ready. Instinctively I side stepped and quickly moved out the way. The creature roared in annoyance. It lunged again and I quickly hit the ground before its talons could slice my back open. It fell over my body. Moving quickly before it had time to rise, I lunged forward and stabbed my pencil right into its eye. The creature howled in pain. A sound that made my ears pop and burn. Black fluid poured out of its damaged eye and the creature collapsed onto the ground. I smiled, thinking I had killed it that quickly. I lifted my backpack up and set it comfortably on my shoulder and began to stride towards my house when suddenly a bubbling noise came from behind me. Clear liquid that looked similar to the liquid on the creatures talons, bubbled and popped oozing out of the rapidly healing eye. The creature began to stir. Seeing that it still wasn't fully healed, I took my chance and ran as fast as I possibly could and didn't stop running until I reached my house. Locking every bolt on the door I spun around and ran to every window in the house and slammed them shut. I used all the locks, and even the emergency locks on the back door, and pulled all the curtains shut. I ran upstairs to my room, slammed the door and started to breathe extremely hard. My heart thumped against my chest with panic, my veins coursed with adrenaline, my throat clogged up and hot tears of fear burned my eyes and rained down my face as I sat there helplessly rocking back and forth trying to calm down. No matter how hard I breathed, it felt like the air wasn't getting into my lungs fast enough. Dad wasn't going to be home for another 30 minutes, and mom was probably picking Bella up from school. I had never felt so hopeless and alone in my life. The walls of my room seemed to close in on me. I was alone and vulnerable and some weird thing was in the woods close by my house and I have no clue what it was or if it followed me. I knew I was making a terrible mistake. I knew could do better then sit and cry. Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

Sprinting down the stairs I rummaged in the kitchen looking around for the sharpest and biggest knife I could find. With luck my dads butcher knife was nearby. It looked like a little angel in this desperate situation which was strange because that thing usually scared me to death imagining what it was used for. Anything sharp usually scared me anyways. But after what I saw today, a few sharp things looked like toys. Grabbing the knife I slowly inched toward the door ready to leap on anything coming inside the house in a heartbeat. Speaking of heartbeats, my heart was pretty much pounding out of my chest and stinging my ribs. I took a deep breath trying to calm myself down. The knocking grew more impatient and loud. I stepped closer bringing my knife higher. Then familiar voices screamed "Daija open the door!" Bella and my mom shouted in unison. Relief washed over me like a warm summer breeze. Throwing the knife back into the kitchen I opened the door. My mom spilled in with groceries covering her face and my little sister skipped inside with the beads in her hair jiggling around. She looked up at me with her big brown eyes glittering with joy and happiness. "Daija!" she squealed jumping into my arms. "Hey Bella! How was school?" I asked taking her little shoes off. "It was fun! This girl tried to pick on my best friends so I spilled the teachers coffee on the floor and the teacher thought she did it because I put the cup on her desk. So she had to clean it up," Bella answered. I swear for a first grader that little girl was smart. She reminds me of Tasha sometimes. "Then I had recess, mommy packed me an awesome lunch, the boy I like said hi to me today and I felt really tingly." She finished with a smile. "What does it mean when you feel tingly Daija?"
"If you feel tingly towards someone you like that usually means that you like them a lot."
"Oh," she said. A smile was spreading rapidly across her face. "Well I'm gonna go watch TV in mommy's room. Bye bye!" She said kissing my cheek and running upstairs. That sparked something in the back of my head. I had felt tingly after fist bumping Zack. But I don't like him though. At least that's what I think. With Bella and my mom home I felt a lot better. No longer lonely and helpless.
• • •
I was walking through the woods skipping around holding hands with my sister. We laughed and talked. Just a normal good day. "When we get home i wanna eat a big rainbow lollipop. Its gonna have pink and purple and red..." her voice faded out and something tugged at my hand. I realized she'd stopped walking. She froze in place eyes wide with terror staring straight ahead. "Um, Bella?" I asked waving my hand in her face. She grabbed it and held it hard. A single tear ran down her cheek. "Hey what's wrong?" She pointed straight ahead. "Don't you see it?," she whispered, her breaths coming out shaky. I turned around and my blood froze. The creature from earlier stood a few feet away with its sharp teeth bared and cold blue tongue slithering around its black lips. "I see you've brought me a treat," it hissed looking hungrily at my little sister. I stood defensively in front of her while she trembled behind me, keeping a firm grip on my hand. "She's not your treat. If you want her you'll have to get passed me first." The creature laughed, dissolving all hope I had left. "With pleasure." it hissed. Before I knew what was happening the creature lunged at me and slashed me across the chest. Deep gashes lined my body. The clear liquid from the creatures razor sharp talons dripped into the open wound. I screamed in pain, rapidly growing dizzy. It slashed again. Blood poured from my wounds and gushed out onto the damp forest floor standing out against the bright orange and yellow leaves. I turned around just to receive another slash across the face. I fell to the ground clutching my face with one hand and holding my stomach with the other. Sticky blood flowed down my cheek like a red water fall. Sharp knives stabbed into my back and slid downward leaving my bloody flesh exposed and cold. "Leave her alone!!" Bella squealed. Pain erupted through my body. I counted to three and poisonous venom began taking over stinging me like needles, pushing its way into me, making my motions sluggish. White mist curled off of the gashes in my skin. Bella sobbed loudly in the distance. The creature turned toward her smiling cruelly. At one final attempt to save my sister, I jumped onto the creatures back throwing it down to the ground landing a solid punch at the side of its deformed face. But my victory didn't last for long. With blinding speed the creature stood up and round-house kicked me in the side. I crumpled to the ground. With the last bit of energy I had I pushed my head off of the ground, looked at my sister, and screamed: "Run!" Tears flooded down her face as he began to sprint across the woods. But the creature was too fast for her. My vision started to turn blurry.The last image I could make out was my little sister being dragged away, screaming at the top of her lungs. I tried to move but failed. My bones felt like noodles, flopping helplessly to the ground as I tried to stand up. My eyes began to close,flowing with tears as the final sound I heard split through the sky. My little sister screaming in agony stopping abruptly as a loud sickening crunch filled my ears. Then the whole world went black.