The serpent’s eyes glowed. Then it glowed some more until they appeared like fire. Fire that leaked molten metal. It flicked its tongue rapidly. Then, it attacked her, its maw going for her face.
Jean cringed in pain as the serpent attacked her, but she did not cry out. She closed her eyes. She suffered through the searing heat and the stabbing pains as the snake’s fangs bore into her face. She had to be strong and fearless. She heard a mighty roar.
A strength, overwhelming and energizing, coursed through her. She had never felt like this before. The hairs on her skin stood up from sheer joy. She was so strong. And that made her very happy. When she opened her eyes she saw that her arms glowed.
Around her, the earth was burnt. With her newly gained power, she cast her eyes towards where the rabbits were and she cried out in rage. The lion cub was feasting on the poor rabbits. Although some of the small ones were able to scamper away, the large ones, the parents, were lying underneath its paws. She went berserk.
Jean screamed at the top of her lungs and sped towards the cub. The lion instantly dropped its kill and backed away, roaring at her, fangs bared. It crawled to the side while keeping its eyes on her. It was not going to give up its kill.
She went for it. The cub had killed the cutest rabbits she had ever seen. She was going to keep them as pets and now they were dead. The lion cub needed to be punished. The predator needed to die.
It growled a low growl that seemed to shake the ground. It roared as she approached then pounced at Jean. She was ready. She caught it midair, her hands catching it by its mouth. The lion yelped as it burned in her arms but it could not get away. It roared and fought and squirmed in her strong arms.
Jean wrestled the creature to the ground, the smell of seared fur permeating the air. She delighted in the suffering of the predator that killed the fluffy rabbits. Her eyes burned, her smile curved wickedly as she pressed the cub into the ground.
The cub roared again but she did not care for it. Its roars were nothing to her now. She maneuvered her hand to its jaw and tore it apart like it was made of paper.
Blood spurted and gushed along the lions neck but she was not done. She threw the singed lower jaw to the side and stuck her hand on the open cavity where the mouth was supposed to be. Jean pressed the skull into the ground, crushing it with the barest of efforts. Then, she raised the carcass as high up as she could and tore it apart again. She flung both pieces away, as far as she could. It landed out of sight.
~0~
She took her backpack and fumbled for her phone. It was a hand-me-down from her mother. She unlocked the screen and turned the brightness all the way up. It was several years old and didn’t have the torch function. The brightness from the screen only illuminated a foot or two ahead.
As her surroundings turned completely dark, she remembered something. Although the phone was old, it was among the first to have an actual flash. She opened the camera app, impatiently waiting for it to load. The responsiveness was already sluggish with normal use, when apps were loaded, it became even more sluggish. Worse, while it loaded, the screen went completely black.
She randomly pressed different parts of the screen to bring out the menu she was looking for. The app loaded in landscape or portrait mode without a seeming pattern to it. if she did not interact with the screen, the menu buttons were not visible. Gina groaned in frustration as her inputs made the screen phone even more sluggish.
She shivered. It was getting colder. She was finally able to locate the menu to have the camera always flash whenever taking pictures. With that done, Gina took pictures, turning where she stood then checked the camera roll. The paths she saw just seconds ago were no longer there.
She cried. She went back to the home screen intending to dial Emmy’s number. The call did not go through. Looking at the top of the screen, she saw that the icon for the signal was showing an X. The singsong manner in which her friends called to her became louder. It now sounded like they were calling from the top of the trees.
Desperate and scared, Gina answered them, begging them to come for her. When it seemed, they did not hear her, continuing their eerie calls, Gina screamed for her friends. They did not acknowledge her. Instead, they started laughing.
Fear started to cause Gina’s heart to pump faster. She became keenly aware of anything her senses picked up. She heard rustling of leaves, the strong woody scent, and the temperature dropping.
Keep going. Do not stop.
She squealed. The voice sounded like it was commanding her, there was a weight to it, like it was on the verge of anger. She turned her head as if to look for the source, snapping pictures as she did. Checking the camera roll revealed nothing.
Her terror mounting, she decided to go between two trees that she captured on her phone. He brought the phone up again and started snapping. Once a familiar picture briefly showed up onscreen, she headed in that direction. She counted her steps. Every six steps, she took a picture to see what was ahead.
Keep going. Do not stop.
Hearing the voice that seemed to come from inside her head made her jump and skip a few steps. She snapped pictures in succession to compensate. The cold made her skin crawl. Every sound she heard made her look towards it but her eyes only found darkness. Her friend’s voices amplified.
~0~
There was a growing shadow in Jeans room. Emmy noticed it when Gina’s immobilized body floated through. The shadow darkened and assumed a form right behind Gina’s body. Halfway through Jean’s room the shadow formed a complete image. Emmy screamed.
She watched in horror as the figure raise a hand above her daughter. The figure was startlingly white. Its skin was like porcelain peppered with small, regular holes all over. It stood tall, only a feet away from the ceiling. Its muscles rippled nonstop. The figures face was a blur. Emmy could make out where the eyes, nose, and mouth were but the proportions were off. The eyes were huge, the nose was almost just a point, and the outline of its mouth stretched way into the side of the cheeks.
The grip on her shoulder tightened even more. Emmy cried out as the long, hard, and pointed fingers dug into her skin. She felt something warm trickle down towards her clavicles. The growling was coming in shorter and shorter intervals.
The stark white towering figure opened its wide mouth at her. Emmy saw hundreds of thin, pointed teeth lining up its jaws in double rows. Its tongue lashed out, spraying saliva all over. Gina’s body stopped, still suspended, just when it reached the area where the wall between theirs and Jeans room was. The sickeningly white figure stopped too.
It motioned with its large six-fingered hands above Gina and a long pointed nail slowly lengthened in its forefinger. Green blood dropped from where the nail protruded. It hissed when it hit the floor. The figure pointed the lengthened nail towards Gina’s neck and lowered it.
“Stop! Leave my daughter alone!”
The figure only stared at Emmy while it traced a path down, straight down through the middle. Emmy watched in horror as the figure did the same movement from below Gina. Her daughter’s clothes started to slide. When they fell to the floor, Emmy saw traces of blood on the edges.
Utterly repulsed, Emmy despaired as she recognized the signs. Her body was still responding to the ministrations of the figure that pinned her down. She struggled deep inside to keep the unwanted sensations at bay, all while watching her daughter watch her. Gina’s tears flowed involuntarily. It pooled on the floor. Crimson colored tears. Blood.
She held her daughter’s gaze as her body spasmed uncontrollably.
Gina’s eyes spoke volumes while the towering figure scratched her skin with its razor sharp nail. Emmy watched hopelessly as her daughter’s exposed body was filled with crisscrossing wounds. Wounds that bled heavily and dripped onto the floor. The figure walked to the right and leered at Emmy. It slowly nudged Gina’s feet apart.
“Noooo!” Emmy screamed as the figure’s slithering tongue waved erratically in the air.
Gina’s bleeding eyes flowed as the figure scored her legs and her thighs. The figure hissed, its shoulders heaved. The tiny uniform holes on its skin seemed to pulse as it inflicted the wounds on the young girls flesh. It seemed to heave and bent forward, then threw its head back. Small, wriggling white, insect-like creatures emerged out of the small holes and crawled all over its body. It raised its finger with the sharp nail high up in the air, its pointed end aimed directly at Gina’s abdomen.
Emmy screamed and cried, sputtering gibberish in a pleading tone. Even as she was horrified, she could not tear away her gaze. Her baby was being cut into ribbons while she watched.
Just when the figure seemed to bring its finger down, something emerged from the right side of Jean’s room. It was preceded by heavy footfalls that made the floorboards creak. Emmy’s eyes followed the sound and she caught another strange figure arrive. It was the woman in her nightmares.