The Skin-Man

It was around 6:00 in the morning when I heard a faint tap at my bedroom window, I slowly sat up and inspected the room. Nothing was out of the ordinary, or so I thought. I noticed that my closet door was open. “Wasn’t that closed?” I asked myself. I got up from my bed to close the door only to see two eyes staring at me. I turned on my bedroom light to see that it was only my Halloween costume from a few years ago. I closed the door, turned the lights off, and headed back to bed. “Must just be in my head.” I said before falling back asleep.

The next day I woke up to find my closet door was open once again. I left it alone and went downstairs to get breakfast before leaving for school. “So, Clay, you going to talk to your crush today?” My dad teased. “In fact, I am, I’m tired of being shy and if I don’t ever talk to her now, I may not be able to talk to her in the future.” I spoke. “Well good for you, hope it goes well.” My dad said as he was leaving for work. “Bye!” My dad walked out to his car, and I grabbed my bag. “Bus is almost here, time to brace for failure.” I walked outside to see that the bus had arrived early. “Usually, they don’t show up this early. Must be in a hurry.” I hopped onto the bus and sat next to my crush whose name was Isabella. We were both silent until I worked up the courage to speak. “Hello, I’m Clay. I said nervously. “Oh, hi. I’m Isabella.” I was surprised she replied, I thought she’d ignore me. “So, uh, how’s your morning been so far?” I asked trying to sound nice. “It’s been ok.” I noticed she seemed to be a bit upset. “Are you alright?” I asked. She nodded.

The bus eventually came to a stop. “Don’t worry kids, the bus just needs a jump start.” The bus driver got off the bus and opened the engine. Moments later she came back onto the bus, and we continued driving till we made it to the school. I noticed Isabella had fallen asleep next to me, so I woke her up and helped her. We got off the bus and headed to our classes. “See you later.” I spoke. She waved bye to me, and we both entered our classrooms. “Alright Clay, that went well, now let’s try talking to her after or during science and perhaps math.” I said to myself. I entered my English class and sat down. “Alright, only two class periods. I can wait.” I fixed the position of my glass and pulled my mask up.

After a while, English class ended meaning I was going to P.E. next. I ran up behind my two friends, Triston, and Michael. “Oh, hello Clay.” Triston said. Triston was a tall kid who supposedly had quite a bit of experience in self-defense. “So, what’re we doing in P.E. today?” I asked. “A sport probably.” Michael said. “Of course, I wonder if walking will be an option.” I spoke. “Most likely.” Triston said. As we walked to class, we heard some popular kids talking about something called the Skin Man. “Skin Man? Never heard of it.” Michael said. “Probably trying to scare people.” I spoke.

We sat down in our spots and waited for the teachers to walk in. “Hey Clay.” Michael yelled. Michael threw a bottle cap at me. “What was that for?” I asked. “I don’t know. I just thought it would be funny.” I rolled my eyes and stood tall. “Alright, are we walking or playing a sport?” I asked. “I’m walking so don’t expect me to have a part in this.” I added. “I’ll walk.” Triston said. We all walked outside along with other kids waiting to walk. “So, Clay, did you talk to Isabella?” Triston asked. “Yup, I talked to her on the bus only for a little while.” I replied. We eventually began walking only to come across a trail of dead squirrels and rabbits. “You don’t see that every day.” I said trying to make a joke out of it. “True, whatever did this was both hungry and evil since it just formed a line.” Triston said.

We eventually made it back to the school and got ready for third period. “So apparently people are calling the thing they saw outside their house the Skin Man.” I said after overhearing kids. “Skin Man? That’s a ridiculous name.” The three of us walked to our classes as soon as the bell rang. “Alright, I’ll see you guys at lunch!” I walked into my class to see something odd outside. “What’s that?” I looked at an animal with its guts scattered across the grass. “Something’s off today.” Kids came running into the room, almost knocking me over. “Alright class, let’s settle down.” The teacher came walking into the room. “Today we will be.” His sentence was stopped by the power cutting off. “Don’t worry, probably a blown fuse.” Suddenly, screams emerged from down the halls along with kids running out of the building.

We started to leave the room only to see a tall monster holding a teacher by the neck. The monster was about 12 feet tall, but its neck was insanely long. It was about the length of a giraffe’s neck but just a tad bit shorter. The teacher was begging to be let go but the monster didn’t budge. Suddenly, it threw them at a wall, and I think killed them. “Alright kids, just hide under the tables.” We all ran to the back of the room and hid under the tall tables. Isabella was crying and sat next to me. I put my arm around her and said that it’ll be ok. The monster then showed up at the door and was screaming to be let in. I grabbed a broken chair leg and prepared to fight back in case it found anyone.

Just then, it broke into the room and started making clicking noises like a crane. Then, a popular kid decided it’d be a good idea to throw a pencil at it only to get dragged across the counter and killed. I peeked over to see the kids jaw on the table. The teacher ran at the monster and tried to fight it so we could escape only for this monster to kill him instantly. “I want to go home.” Isabella sat near me and cried into my shirt. I then got an idea. I grabbed a computer mouse and threw it at the door to distract it. “I know you’re here little ones.” Me, Isabella, and a few other kids stayed hidden under the counter until the thing finally found us. “There you are!” The monster swiped its claws at us but luckily, I was able to hit it with the chair leg and we were able to book it.

All was going well until the thing grabbed me and held me by my neck. “You’re a feisty one, I’ll make your end swift.” The monster’s mouth opened wide, revealing hundreds of tiny teeth. Isabella stabbed the monster with a pencil as it collapsed to the ground. “Working in pairs now? This will be fun.” The monster smiled as its claws extended revealing blood being carried out by the bottom. The thing roared and charged at us. I pushed Isabella out of the way as it picked up a metal bar and impaled my chest. “You really thought I’d use my claws? That shows how much of a small mind you have.” The monster threw me at a wall pushing the spike farther into the wound. “I’ll leave you two to it. And for future reference, don’t ever try to fight back against me.” The monster jumped through the window and proceeded to run into a field.

“Clay!” Isabella ran over and sat beside me. “I’m so sorry.” She said crying. “It’s not your fault. I shouldn’t have tried to fight him.” Isabella moved my arm over her shoulder and laid her head on my shoulder. She was crying, assuming it was her fault. “Hey, it’s not your fault.” She hugged me and said that she was going to stay with me until help arrived. And that’s what she did, we waited until help arrived.

I woke up in a hospital the next morning to a doctor telling me I would’ve died if I had taken out the metal bar. Just then, I was told that I had gotten a letter from someone. I opened it, and it read, “Dear Clay, I’m so sorry for what happened to you. I wish I could’ve done more than use a pencil. Anyways, I just want to say thank you for keeping me safe, and for that, I’d like to give you something very special.” Just then, the doctor brought in a box. I opened it to find a ring. I pulled the ring out to see that it was the ring I gave her. I noticed a note in the box as well, so I grabbed it and read it. “This ring is a duplicate of the one I was given from you on my birthday when everyone else forgot. I cherish this ring a lot so, I thought I’d get you one identical to mine so we have something to remember each other by until you come back to school! Love you.” I set everything down in shock. I never thought Isabella would send me something. I held the ring tightly as I drifted off to sleep.

A few months later, everyone’s back at school from summer break, still recovering from the event though. Isabella saw me and ran as fast as she could towards me and hugged me. She was happy to see that I was alright. She told me what she had done over the summer as we held hands and walked around. I told her that all I did was sit around before I could go on my trip. She laughed, making me smile. “Hey, did you ever figure out what that thing was?” Isabella asked me as she held my hand tighter. “No, but I’m sure we’ll be alright this year. And if it shows up again, I have a plan to keep us safe.” I spoke. Isabella smiled and we kept walking around until we had to go to class.