Nefarious
Afraid of the dark? No, not me anyways. My name is Alex Wayle. I live with my grandparents in the old town in Kentucky called Dame. Dame was a calm town, it was quiet and foggy in the mornings. The nights were quiet and even more so as of recently. Nearly no bugs chirping, no animals scurrying. It was night.
Now recently I had heard of several gruesome murders in other houses on my street, each of the bodies of the victims were stripped of all flesh and most blood had been somehow sucked away, nowhere to be found. This left only bones, a tiny bit of meat, and a few ounces of blood. I had been staying inside and keeping close to my grandparents while this was going on, in case this killer would ever find me.
Tonight I sat in the living room, reading a book. As I rocked back and forth in my rocking chair, I seemed to fall deep into my imagination with this book. There were two lamps lit in the room and the TV was on, but muted so I could read. I liked to have the TV on, but I didn’t like the noise while I was reading. I’m weird like that.
As I kept reading, suddenly one of the lamps flickered, and returned to normal. The other mimicked the first. This caught my eye, and I looked at them in wonder, thinking perhaps they had shorts or maybe the bulbs were going bad. I returned my attention to my book. I kept reading and reading, a few hours had gone by. The next time I glanced at the clock, it was about ten minutes past midnight. I am glad that it’s Friday, I can stay up late and sleep in tomorrow morning.
The lights flickered again, this time in much different way. I don’t know what happened, or why, but I suddenly got a strange feeling. A weird mood set into me and a heavy tone of uneasiness hit my stomach. I looked around the room, seeing nothing. However the hallway was dark. I heard a faint noise from my grandparents’ room, both of them moaned--or yelped maybe--with suddenness and then everything fell silent. I peeked my head up, trying to see if they were okay.
The door of their room slowly creaked open. I didn’t see either one of them come out, but I saw a dim light in their bedroom from the moonlight cast in by their small window. Part of it was open and something was covering the frame that looked burgundy, maybe brown, no… red.
The lights went crazy, flickering, going out, and coming back on again. I kept glancing down the hall, I heard the floorboards creek down there. It sounded like something was stepping around, coming towards me. I looked over at the carpet in the hallway, something was soaking it and spreading. I quickly grabbed the flashlight out of the cabinet of the stand next to the chair, turned it on, and shined it down the hallway. I shined it at the floor and noticed a scarlet fluid rushing from the door of my grandparents’ room… blood…
My heart skipped several beats, I had to be hallucinating. I kept glancing at it, it seemed that as soon as I shined the flashlight at it, the spreading stopped and it stood still and lifeless. I took the flashlight away, and it seemed to spread once more. It looked like it was forming a sort of stream, a straight, narrow path of blood. My stomach got upset as the smell of blood stretched from the hallway, the dark hallway. I stood up, shining the flashlight down the hallway. The blood stream stopped again and I started to walk forward… No. I stopped. Something seemed to be making a strange sound from down the hall. It sounded like heavy breathing, panting, whispering… something.
I kept shining the flashlight around, I sucked up all courage I had and walked down the hallway. Nothing was there. I walked into the room of my grandparents and looked over at the bed.
Red. Red. Red. Red.
Everything was red. Bodies lie on overturned sheets, gnarled and eaten up, flesh ripped and chewed. Blood sucked out, only a bit remaining, stained on the covers. I screamed, walking back up against the wall and dropping the flashlight. When it hit the floor, the light went out. Something began to breath heavily, and move into the room. I saw the wallpaper on the walls, suddenly rip as if someone was taking a knife to them, but nobody was there. Suddenly something emerged from the door, it was a figure wearing a long black cloak and a hood. The figure had a whitish gray face that was pail and unsightly. Its eyes were white and eerie, they were outlined with black shadows.
This… thing smiled a wide smile that was red and dripped blood from inside its mouth that slipped out of its lipless mouth and slid down its chin, then dripping off onto its chest and cloak. I screamed, moving back. The monster was covered with blood, the cloak was dripping of blood and a trail of blood came with it as it walked. It had long grayish claws that were also drenched in the thick crimson fluid. I flattened myself against the wall in fear, screaming as true terror overwhelmed my heart.
The thing moved closer to me, very slowly and very quietly. It smiled at me, its eyes were wide and open. My chest heaved heavily, I was sweating all over. The creature stepped around the light on the floor from the moonlight, and stayed clear of all flecks of light from it. I noticed and quickly ran to the window, climbed up and jumped out. I fell nearly seven feet and I seemed to have hurt my ankle when I fell. I half limped, half ran, running and running as fast as I could.
When I had reached the rest of the town, I sat on a bench on the sight of the road. It was quiet, and I sat crying. That image… that terrible image suspended itself in my head, that gory scene of my grandparents, their bodies torn up and ripped apart, mauled and eaten. I don’t know how they didn’t scream every moment of it. They had to have been killed quickly for it to remain silent, then eaten soon afterwards. I simply sat looking at the road, the street lights, and the more I thought and looked around, the more I became frightened.
I kept looking around, a mist was rolling in. I looked straight ahead, across the street. Someone stood on the other side, behind one of the benches facing me. It was that creature… that black cloaked figure. It smiled and waved at me, blood oozing from its mouth which was barren and lipless. The blood that drizzled forth itself seemed to become the “lips” of this creature. I had no idea what this thing was. It was tall and bipedal. It had two arms I knew, but I didn’t see its legs under the cloak. It had a head and hands, but there was no way it was human.
I was at the edge of my seat, it turned and as a car passed by, it was gone. Suddenly tapped me on my shoulder and I turned around, screaming. My grandfather’s friend, Jared backed up. “Whoa, it’s just me Alex!” he remarked. I relaxed, breathing heavily.
“I thought you were someone else” I said. Jared got a confused face, raising one eyebrow and looked at me. “What are you doing out here this time of night? Surely your grandpa wouldn’t let you out so late!”
“Well…” I began, my voice disappearing. “Well, what?” Jared asked. I simply looked up at him. Something moved behind the glass of the knife shop behind him. I saw it, a shadow passing by. “Hello!? Are you there boy? What are you doing out so late?”
I stuttered and suddenly the man began screaming, “AAAAAAAAUUUUGGGGHHHHH!!!!!” he shouted, stomped, and pleaded. He fell to his knees as suddenly red slices struck his cheek, spilling blood. I got up and suddenly, his entire head cracked with a loud snap as it was twisted completely around. He fell over, dead… The body began to rip and tear, blood coming out and flesh coming forward. The flesh pieces drifted up into the air and vanished in thin air. I blinked a few times, looking at the strange scene, and fearing whatever was doing this. I glanced back at the spot where the creature once stood and then back at the body… As if by some magic the creature was standing over the man, eating him… scooping up organs, flesh, and bone… eating it all and lapping blood with its immensely long tongue which was colored blackish gray with flecks of white. I breathed heavily, red, red! Everything was red! Everywhere! Everything! It was all covered in blood, a river! A river! A river of scarlet fluids that reeked a stench so foul that would singe your nose once smelt. I could not bear it, I had to move away and run, the creature slowly dissipating and disappearing with the mist, leaving the body which was eaten so fast and now was merely bones.
I moved back to the park, a playground in which was always full of children. To be honest, it needed work done to it. The swing-set was always rusty and old, the chains rotted and weathered. The plastic slides were chipped and faded and the tire swings always had something broken on them.
Somehow the swings were swinging all by themselves, but only barely. They slowly swung back and forth so eerily. I kept a close eye on them and suddenly something appeared behind them so fast that I did not see it come.
The creature… it was protected by the night it seemed, the moonlight did not affect it as much, but the figure seemed to like staying in the shade. The fog however cast menacing shadows over the park, keeping it hidden from the dim light. I blinked, as soon as I did two children had appeared on the swings. Two little girls, they looked about seven or eight. I breathed heavily. Where did they come from!?
The figure outstretched its clawed hands and began to push the two girls on the swings, slowly and gently. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Heart pounding. Forehead sweating. Knees shaking. Spine tingling. My body surged with fear, my face drained of feeling, my palms going numb. I looked forward, watching as the creature smiled and pushed the girls. His smile was so friendly looking, but everything else about him suggested differently.
“He’s gonna get you! He’s gonna get you!” the girls sang. I stepped back, tripping on a stick and falling over. I looked back up as soon as I could and looked at the swing set…
All three people had disappeared. I looked back over my shoulder, BOOM!!
He was right there! I moved back, crawling, trying to get up. Something pinned my feet down to the ground, but I couldn’t see what it was. The figure seemed to spread into empty darkness, disappearing. Spiders crawled up my arm from the moist, dewy, fog-wet grass and crawled into my shirt. I screamed, trying to shake them. I felt bites and scratches that hurt so bad, I shrieked and shouted. Why didn’t I just go to the police office instead?
It might have been the fact that it was possible that it was closed, but you never knew sometimes. I never paid attention. I looked over and saw the creature again standing behind a tree, both its hands peeking out and gripping the sides of the tree. He peaked his head out of one side, smiling at me; blood all over his mouth and chin. My heart was racing, I crawled back.
“I’m gonna get you…” the thing spoke without even opening its mouth. My eyes widened. Its voice sounded eerie, soft, and gentle. It sounded almost like three voices speaking at once, warped and morphed sounding. It vanished and suddenly appeared again in front of the tree, looking down at me. It opened its mouth, a sort of half-smile, half-hiss. I looked at the mouth in horror, my own jaw dropping open.
It was terrible. From its mouth… a river of blood… fangs that belonged not to a human, but of some evil creature of pure darkness. Long fangs, inches long and drenched in scarlet fluids. A few pieces of flesh were wedged in them and blood poured and poured out of its mouth, seemingly never to end and drenching its chest and the ground beneath it. I gasped and gasped, and finally the creature gave me a goodbye wave as suddenly I felt a quick pain in my neck and soon my body went numb, and I saw nothing but black and red as my world went dark and cold and I breathed no more…
"Sweet dreams..."
