I'd like to say that was the only encounter I had that day but cycling home at 1am was like walking to Mordor.
The shadows taunted me, enticing me to take just one look. No matter how hard I tried to focus on the roads, each alley way whispered my deepest desires, my inner fears. I could feel every hair on my body raised, goosebumps tickling my arms. The hoards hidden in the depths of the winding side roads challenged me to look. The rain had started to hammer down calling for my attention to remain on the roads.
Turning the block just before the home stretch usually gave me a second wind, carrying me back to those four warm walls, my shelter from everything and everyone. That's when I heard a piercing scream, it wasn't just calling for anyone either...it called me by my name.
"Stephen, please help!"
I slammed on my brakes almost flying over the handle bars and just stopped for what felt like forever. Scanning the area like a captain with his periscope.
'Stephen!!"
A chill ran down my spine and didn't stop till my whole body shivered. It was right behind me. Not in one of the den of thieves shrouded in darkness, but what felt like two feet behind me.
Every logical part of me was telling me to go, don't turn back, get home, bolt the door and hide. After a age of deliberating, I slowly craned my head around, right foot resting just above my pedal ready for a sprint.
There she was, it was...Mrs Peters. Those same vile eyes staring me down, consuming me. The flickering street light barely illuminating her corpse like body but there was no mistaking those eyes. This time I could see further into them somehow, as if the darkness of the night enveloping around us gave them more strength. I hadn't noticed at first but she was completely bare. No clothing, nothing. Her feet dirty and black from the gravel. You'd think that was enough to unnerve me and I suppose it was. That's when I noticed the skin on her body. It sagged but not like it naturally would through old age, it was as if it wasn't hers or at least, wasn't whatever was stood in front of me. I've never seen skin so white and devoid of life. I didn't wait to see what she had in store for me. She started to reach forward, as if begging for help again, just as she did at work. Before her hand had lifted even an inch I threw my right leg forward pushing down on that pedal as if my life depended on it. I didn't stop, I barely even took a breath till I saw my front door. I ran in, hearing it again.
"Stephen, it's me"
This time I couldn't decipher where from but I didn't care. If I got inside I'd be safe right?
Throwing the door open and slamming it behind me, I heard nails clicking along the old pine flooring. At first slow, now sounding to gallop towards me.
The image of the woman running towards me, skin trailing behind her like a flag, flooded my thoughts. I started to run and just as I got to the foot of my stairs, something lunged on me. Making me collapse to the floor. My head thumped off the floor, throwing me into a state of shock and without thinking, I covered my face fearing the worst. Praying to god to make it quick, don't make me suffer.
YOU ARE READING
Storm of the Century
УжасыExperience Stephens wild visions and haunting nightmares. During the midst of a lockdown, he starts to see, hear and feel things which terrify him to his core. Will he make it through? Or will the demons of his past catch up to him? Ranked in the t...
