Go Away (#TheWattys2015)

Chapter 9: Surprise

The next day at school Zack noticed how I looked extremely tired and down. So throughout the whole day he tried to cheer me up. He even sat at my lunch table which was usually just Tasha and I and some other girls. I got to know a lot about him. He liked to play basketball, watch movies, and hangout with his friends. His dad disappeared when he was 5 and he lives with his mom alone. He had had one sibling but he went missing shortly after his dad. In return I told him about my sister in the hospital and how I was bullied last year (since that was the saddest thing I could think of). Also how I like volleyball, a little bit of basketball, reading, writing, and hanging out with Tasha. When school was over, Zack walked with me downstairs and we just talked like good friends. He was a really good listener. We made it to the door and he asked me a question I had hoped he wouldn't. "What was it like when you saw your sister? Did she look, y'know, okay?" I thought about her and my eyes started watering. I cleared my throat "Um, it's not really important you know she just was laying in her bed, she's fine now," I lied. "I'll see you tomorrow okay." I hurried towards the door and nearly made it outside until he grabbed my hand and held me back. I turned to stare into his eyes and I instantly wished I hadn't. They were soft and gentle as though I could tell him anything. "Come on Daija, you can tell me. It seems like this has been bothering you a lot lately. Maybe talking about it could help. I won't tell anyone, I swear." I shook my head. "It's not like a huge secret its just difficult to talk about without crying, y'know? I'd hate for you to see me like that." Zack gave my hand a gentle squeeze, and looked into my eyes. "Trust me, I won't mind." I stared into his eyes. So understanding, kind, and unbearably hot. I sighed. "Well alright." So I told him exactly what happened at the hospital and how my sister looked like the life was slowly leaking out of her. By the time I finished all the details and how the doctors said she might not make it, everyone was gone so we were alone in the hallway. My eyes burned as I fought back tears and bit my bottom lip as it started trembling. My eyes filled up with tears and one managed to escape down my cheek. I put my hand up to wipe it but Zacks hand beat mine and he wiped it away with his thumb and held my chin up. "It's alright Daija, if you feel like you need to cry, just cry." That's exactly what I did. I let my tears fall and rain down my face. Zack pulled me into a hug and let me cry into his shirt. He gently rubbed my back and whispered things like: "There you go, let it all out" and "Everything is going to be fine," and for a second, I actually believed him. I took in the delicious smell of his cologne and savored the moment. His muscular arms felt so strong and secure around me that I could have stayed there forever. Safe and warm. Butterflies wildly flapped around in my stomach. He pulled away after what felt like 10 minutes and wiped my face with his sleeves. "Sorry about your shirt." I apologized looking at the little smudge of water on his shirt. "It's no problem."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah it's fine, really. Are you feeling better?" I thought about it surprised that I actually did. "Yeah, much better." He smiled down at me and I smiled back. "That's great. I'm glad I could help."
"Thanks. That was really nice of you." He smiled again. That flawless gentle smile that made me want to melt into the floor. "Really it was no problem." Before I knew what I was doing I threw my arms around him and squeezed him tight. I was about to pull away, when he suddenly hugged me back tighter, lifting me off my feet. We stayed like that for a little bit until he gently set me back down on the floor and awkwardly stepped back. "Um, you should probably get going it's getting a little late. I don't want your parents to worry." I smiled at him. "Okay." We stood there staring at each other wondering what else to say and I fell into a kind of trance looking into his beautiful eyes. "Sooo, I'll see you tomorrow?" I snapped out of it. "Yeah, yeah definitely." I started walking backwards out of the door. "Thanks again." He smiled. "Your welcome. Oh and Daija?"
"Yeah?"
"Might wanna turn around."
I spun around and found my face centimeters away from the wall that separated the two front doors. Wow, smooth Daija, just smooth. I smiled at him and said "thanks" just before pushing open the door and stepping outside.
When I got home I threw my backpack to the floor and replayed the conversation with Zack in my head. Over and over again until finally, sleep took over and I fell asleep.

I woke up in the middle of the night shivering. Something was tapping at my window. I looked around my room. A thin shadow streaked across my window, sinking threw the curtains. I figured it was just a tree branch shaking from the wind. Pulling my bedsheets tighter around my body I tried to go back to sleep. My body still wouldn't stop shaking. It felt as though the cold was burying itself inside of me. The tapping on the window wouldn't stop. Curling up into a ball I put my pillow over my ears and tried to get warm. But the cold just got worse and the tapping just got louder. The shadow by my window seemed to grow bigger as if the tree was getting closer. I sat up in my bed and looked towards the window. Did that tree just grow another branch? I peered closer and saw a second long shadow spread across my window. Wrapping myself in my sheets I slowly walked toward the window afraid of what I was going to see. Taking a deep breath, I grabbed the curtains and tugged them wide open. I nearly had a heart attack. The weird demon from before stood outside my room with its two of its sharp talons tapping on my window. It's black lips opened into a murderous smile. Fresh, ruby red blood poured out of its mouth and a chunk of meat slithered out of its mouth, moving down the river of blood trickling down its chin, and landed on the ground with a nasty splat. Moonlight danced on its slimy bald head making it sparkle. Its dark purple eyes looked black. My bedsheets slithered off my shoulders onto the ground allowing the cold to completely consume my body. I stood there frozen wishing that my voice would work so that I could scream for help, wishing that I could run, wishing I wasn't all alone. It took one of its talons and scratched a message into the window. In scratchy, barely legible, letters it wrote: I SEE YOU. Well no duh. It scratched something else on the window. DON'T TRY TO FIGURE STOP ME. STAY OUT OF MY WAY OR ELSE. Or else what? My question was answered when out of nowhere the creature smashed his fist through the glass and punched me right in the face so hard that I spun around and landed hard on my stomach. Glass shattered everywhere and some cut me. Pain rippled threw my face and I crashed to the ground, with shards of glass that had beat me to the floor stabbing into my stomach and my sides. For a moment my body unfroze and I screamed at the top of my lungs as pain overcame the cold. Warm blood ran down my nose and small streaks of blood sprouted around the rest of my face from where the glass had scratched it. I could feel my cheek beginning to swell. More blood seeped through my shirt and began to pool around me while large shards of glass stuck out of my stomach. My vision was getting blurrier by the second and my body felt weak but I kept screaming. My parents ran into my room and looked down at me bleeding, crying, and screaming in pain at the top of my lungs with glass sticking out of my body. They looked around the room searching for the cause of my pain just to find a broken window letting in a cool breeze and the sight of an empty moonlit night.
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