The voices of her friends grew softer. It now sounded like it came from directly in front of her. They laughed and mocked her. She shook terrified as she tried to put the call on speaker. In her clamor she made a mistake. The screen went dark. The call was ended.
Another roar reverberated in the darkness. It came from behind.
Gina could hear it breathing. She had to exercise every ounce of control she had to pace her breathing, afraid to make a sound. She kept mashing the phone with her thumb to keep it from locking itself. The sound of twigs snapping came neared. The steps were measured, slow, and heavy.
Her shoelace came off just as she was able to get her phone back on the camera app again. She snapped pictures again, cringing every time she heard vegetation being crushed or branches snapping. Tears started rolling down her cheeks. It was starting to overwhelm her.
The slow approach by the monstrous figure only served to heighten her terror. Every time it moved, something broke, or got displaced, or snapped. She heard not only that, but also it’s grunts, and heavy breathing. Gina pointed the phone towards where she thought the figure was and fired it.
“Mommy!”
She screamed at almost the same time as the flash. The figure stood towering over her. The flash only lit the figure up to the lower part of its chest. It seemed to be regarding her curiously. Bring the phone close to her chest, she fired the flash again and whimpered.
The figure had bent down and had thrown its face level to hers. In the short time the figure’s face was illuminated, she saw that its skin rippled. Like its muscles kept continuously clenching and unclenching. It almost looked like its face had changed several times in the span of a few milliseconds.
Gina kept pressing the button, firing flash after flash after flash.
Gina was afraid, but it did not stop her from examining the ever-shifting face of the monstrous figure in front of her. The changing of its face began to slow down until it settled on one that she recognized.
“No!” Gina shrieked.
The figure stood up ang roared into the darkness. Jenna could not scream as loud anymore, her voice had gone too hoarse. The figure brought its gargantuan hands over her head and clutched it. Gina was filled with pain immediately. She screamed and screamed until she forgot how to. She felt something cracking, something warm oozing from her forehead and dribbling down her cheeks. She noticed her jaw opening by itself, her eyes losing focus.
Gina lost consciousness.
She awakened with a start. Her phone rang. It was a message from Emmy telling her that she would be arriving in ten minutes. She surveyed the classroom and noticed it was empty save for her. She checked her things, and her bags and went towards the door.
Do not go out.
~0~
The creature came into view. It was a tall, muscular, jet-black abomination. Its body was abnormally wide, its legs the size of tree trunks. She felt its every step through the bed’s mattress. Emmy found herself screaming again when the abomination swatted Gina away.
Gina’s body crumbled against the wall and feel to the floor. She appeared to have gained control of her body as Emmy watched her turn on her stomach and agonizingly started crawling with her remaining arm towards her. Emmy was still frozen in place.
The shade in a suit attacked first. Emmy saw its hand connect with the dark abomination’s chest. The smell of seared meat and burnt fur permeated the room instantly. On its second attack, the dark creature responded my meeting the shade’s hit with a wide swatting motion going the opposite direction. The shade was launched into the air with the force of the abomination’s counter. The creature caught the shade my its foot midair.
It proceeded to attack the now inverted shade with swipes of its freakishly wide hands. Chunks of the shade’s body flew off in different directions and sizzled into a cloud of smoke as it hit the floor. The shade fought until the end, searing different parts of the abomination’s lower torso with every hit its bony hands landed. Before long, only its foot, held by the dark creature remained. The creature let out a horrible howl and cast the foot aside. It too sizzled into a cloud of smoke. It wasted no time and turned towards them.
Emmy could only scream. Gina was directly in its path. The creature’s face continuously contorted, like there were things trying to break free underneath its skin. At times, its face would resemble a person, other times a horror. It walked forward and grabbed Gina by the hair and pulled her high up in the air.
Emmy yelled expletives at the creature, further straining her throat. Gina was severely weakened as blood continuously oozed out of the places where the insect-ridden white creature cut her. The jet-black creature responded to her yelling with a series of pant-like growls.
“I will fucking kill you! I will fucking kill you!” Emmy screamed with renewed intensity as the creature stuck its hideous mouth on the stump where Gina’s left arm used to be.
It drank her blood while Gina convulsed, her body unable to cope with the blood loss. As the creature sucked every last possible drop of blood, its contorting face started to slow down. It slowly morphed into a normal, human face. When it couldn’t feed off Gina’s blood anymore, it cast Gina aside. She could only watch as her daughter’s body crumpled like a rag doll. She watched in horror as the black abomination approached her, its face turning into a familiar face. A face she knew so well.
“You fucking fuck! I will fucking kill you!”
~0~
There are things in this world that are more powerful than you. The words of the old man, the man he called tata, his mentor, came back to him. It was ages ago, a lifetime for many, to him it seemed like yesterday. Everything seemed like yesterday to him. He viewed it as a blessing and a curse.
It was during his first time venturing out into the world, after he wiped out a whole garrison of Japanese soldiers. He had never given his name, so he went by the name tata, meaning uncle. That time, he took it to mean him, his mentor. He was, and always had been, more powerful than him.
You would do well to remember, it’s never a shame to survive. Over the course of his life and his thousands upon thousands of miles travelled, he began to suspect that his mentor was talking about something else. Or some things.
He had never encountered anything or anyone more powerful than him, but he always suspected there was more to every tale, and every story that seemed to hold a general theme and shared a ton of similarities despite being separated by literal oceans. Still, the absence of such encounter made it feel like it was all talk, so a part of him always chalked it off to nothing but talk. Until earlier.
After a questionably fortunate escape, he sped away in his rental shaken and depleted. He stopped by a 24-hour convenience store to buy two bottles of hard liquor and went straight to the motel where he stayed.
What the fuck was that things? He asked himself as he capped an empty bottle and extracted another from a paper bag. He sipped and reviewed everything he could remember. He shivered as he swallowed, but not from the alcohol.
The room filled with smoke as he, yet again, lit another stick. A pack lay empty on the other side of the small table. He had gone through it like it was candy.
He remembered the overly muscular dark creature. Had it not been for the saturation of his anchors, he might not have detected it, he mused.
Had it always been there?
He took another sip. It seemed to have no problem spotting and dispatching his well-placed anchors, something that only happened twice, the first time also recently. He shook his head remembering that encounter with the war veteran.
So many things happening in such a short time.
It bothered him that not only was it able to spot his anchors, or dispatch them, it also seemed to know how to cloud an area with a specific feeling. Just like he could, but somehow stronger. It knew where he was just like him knowing where it was. He asked himself a glaring question – was it always able to see him?
There was a reason he had lasted almost undiscovered for this long and was because whatever he did, no one could prove it. But now, now that he was shown otherwise, now that there exists creatures that can not only see his anchors but use them to hurt him, he was not so sure anymore. And that creature, it could go undiscovered for longer than him. He shuddered remembering how it only took a heartbeat for it to disappear from the house an appear in front of him.
And what the hell were those things?
He did not get a good look as he was busy protecting himself but the things he mistook as shadows were not shadows. He was sure of it now. It was only because of those that the creature’s attention was diverted, allowing him to escape.
He was drained, depleted. It only happened once before.
That bitch. He cursed, remembering the only time he’s ever come close to being this tired.
This night, it had almost gone worse than the first time. He was pissed that he lost his quarry. Quarries, as it turned out. The emanations were strong. Regardless if it lasted only a short while, he would have gained something no matter what. But, he remembered his mentor’s words and was glad he made it out. It did not help him calm down, but he was glad anyway.
That family’s going to break soon. Should I go back, or should I go visit the old man earlier this time?