Leviathan

Run. Don't look back.

The dagger sunk into my father's chest. Blood began to spill over his white lips. He looked over at me, and his eyes screamed the words: RUN. DON'T LOOK BACK.

So I ran. I ran like Hell.

My legs were tired, but I forced them to push me further. I decided it was time to stop when little black spots began to dance in front of my eyes.

I sank down to the ground and ran my hands through my feathery black hair.

"Think, Josh, think." I muttered. "Think of someone to go to."

The only person I could think of was of the person who's number I hadn't called in two years.

Alister Morganstern.

Alister and I had been friends for years. Fourteen years. I met her when I was two in a sand box. We were together constantly, never left the other's side.

Until the monsters came.

The looked like humans at first, disguising themselves as girls or guys at stuff like clubs, and then, once they got the prey alone, the turned into slaughtering machines.

I'd lost Alister when she'd lost her mom.

"You can't go to her. Not after all of that." I said to myself.

But I knew Alister couldn't turn me away. She was kind. Too kind. Something I knew someday would get her hurt.

But regardless of all that happened before, I pushed myself up from the damp ground and wandered to her house.

              *             *            *             *            *            *

What I found when I reached 312 Clearview Boulevard, I'd lost all hope I had that she'd be there.

The house was in ruins, it was uninhabitable. Black spot streaked the windows, or what was left of the windows. Shattered pieces of glass scattered the lawn's dead, yellow grasses, that really needed to be mowed. The door hung crooked on the top hinge of the doorway, the wood dry and splintering.

I thought I should go until I saw a shape fly past the upstairs window.

Then Alister appeared in the doorway holding a bow, an arrow  locked where she knew she couldn't miss.

"What the Hell are you?" She demanded. I threw my hands up in surrender.

"Christ. A lot changes in two years." I said. she lowered the bow, tossing her head to get the light brown hair out of her face.

"Josh?"

"In the flesh."

She walked cautiously up to me, as if searching for a reason to shoot me.

"Your eyes are still brown." She said.

"And yours are still gray."

She broke into a smile and threw her arms around my neck.

I hugged her back.

And then a click click pop echoed from the forest behind us.