I
The voice in my head, normally so calm and controlled, had been screaming at me to run. And I had. I had ran as if my life depended on it, because it very well might have. I had run, through the darkness of the night as fast as my legs could carry me. The Thing behind me was faster than any man I’d ever seen, and moved on unseen legs. When I had caught a glimpse of it, all I had seen was a large mass of darkness covered in the likeness of a cloak, it’s black, gaping mouth open in a silent scream. A thing I knew would haunt my nightmares and maybe even drift into my dreams.
What I think was something close to a half hour ago, I had left my small cottage on the edge of town to buy the food my sister and I needed to get through the week. I had drifted from the familiar cadence of the marketplace to look for the thread my sister had required I get for her. Moving down the dirt paths it had seemed as if dusk had descended upon the world within seconds instead of hours. The newly formed shadows drifted along the walls with mock arms, as if taunting me; but the arms were not fake, nor was the taunting a hoax.
The arms had come first, clawing out of the wall in a frenzy of desperate grasps. That’s when the rest of its body had begun to take shape.
It’s also why I am holding my breath, and keeping my body taut and unmoving under the loose planks that the floor consists of, in the modest church that resides in the center of our town. It was the one place I knew to hide, the one place I might be safe against something of its nature, whatever it was. I wait, unmoving, for what feels like hours.
And then it came.
The door swings open on creaky hinges from some supernatural gust of wind that sends shivers down my spine. It appears in the doorway and gazes into the church. And then it smiles. When it smiled, it’s wretched teeth seemed to appear out of nowhere, uneven and crooked. It’s teeth were pure white, almost shining in the darkness, a stark contrast to the layer of gloom that seemed to cover everything.
It’s black, beady eyes searched the church with a quick glance before it started to advance towards me. It smiled because it knew it had found its prey lying helpless. Why I am it’s prey is yet to be determined, but I doubt I’ll ever find out.
I don’t know how it saw me through the small crack in the board, but it did, and it knew I had nothing to defend myself with. It didn’t make a single noise as it closed in on me, even it’s cloak didn’t swish in the wind.
As it reaches down with one scaly, clawed finger, I kick the board up as hard as I can so that it flies, spinning up towards the things head. It moves at the last second so that I only score a glancing blow off of it’s shoulder. Still, it screeches in rage, a high-pitched, inhuman sound that sets my ears ringing. I crawl out from the floor of the church and half-run, half-fall away from it. I stumble outside of the church and fall to the dirt, landing on my elbow. I hear a hideous cracking sound and know that I’ve broken bones.
I feel a hand on my shoulder and scream, but realize that the hand is not digging into my flesh with clawed talons but with the soft, but calloused pads of human fingers. Instead of the darkness and cold I feel when I’m around that Thing, I feel warmth and concern. I look up and see a menacing looking man with his hand on my arm.
“Who are you?”
“No time, we need to go,” the man replies. He has light brown hair that’s clipped near his head, making his expressions look more stern. His eyes are brown as well, a honey brown, and his eyebrows are scrunched together in concentration.
“No. I’m not going with you until I know who you are and why you’re here.” I demand, even I don’t know why I’m arguing with the man who might have just saved my life. Why did the Thing stop chasing me?
“I can tell you that I’m not the wraith that’s chasing you. I’m also here to help, so you can continue your whining and become that. Or, you can come with me and you’ll have a chance.”
So the Thing has a name, a wraith. I frown at him comparing me to a stubborn child, but nod and let him help me up. Plus, he seems to know something about why I am being attacked by a supernatural being.
I let him drag me along behind him for a little while, before I stumble again. I fall to the dirt and really don’t feel like getting up. I sit in the dirt and stare at my hands in exhaustion.
“Where are we going? I need to get to my sister, I also don’t think I can run much more without collapsing.” Despite the fact that I’d collapsed already.
“We’re going home, it’s not much farther.”
Is he talking about my home? How would he know that? He’s not some creepy stalker that knows where I live? Right? Well, stalker or no, he had saved me from the thing, the wraith. The Thing hadn’t made an appearance since the man showed up..
Instead of saying anything else, he just picks me up as if I were a sack of grain and throws me over his shoulder, then he starts running.
I must have dozed off for a little while, because when I wake up I’m sitting on the hard ground, my arm burning in pain.
“We’re here.” I look up, and see the man looking down on me from where he stands. I look around to see where “here” is, and see that I’m sitting right in front of the house I share with my sister.
“How do you know where I live?” I ask, even though I’m really to the point of not caring anymore.
“I know things.” He answers cryptically
“Like a stalker?”
“No, well, maybe, depends on what qualifies as a stalker.”
“You’re a stalker.” I get up from the spare patch of grass on the ground and move towards my cottage. I mount the old, creaking steps and crack the door open to see my older sister, Sula, sitting in the rocking chair in the living room. Her body looks drained, and the whites of her eyes are nearly blood red.
“Azra! You’re here!” She tries to get up from the rocking chair, but instead ends up falling onto it.
“Are you alright?”
“Am I alright? Are you alright? It took you forever, you were supposed to be here hours ago, I wasn’t sure where you were and I didn’t know what to do.”
“What?” It had felt like only an hour. How long had I been gone?
“What happened to your arm, it’s bleeding, and who’s that man behind you?”
I had forgotten about him.
“It’s a long story,” I turn around and look pointedly at him and add, “and I only know half of it.”
