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yggwinder · 5 years ago

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“I remember a few things from when we lived in the city.

”One, that the buildings are tall. Impressively so. Like the kind of skyscraper that breaks clouds down into little wisps of their former selves. I think I liked that as a kid. It was jarring, seeing man-made structures that big, but I liked how the glass buildings looked. Reflecting the sky which they shattered, it seemed like an addition to the skyline, not something that ruined it. A pleasant mirror image.

“And, that some of the overpasses were used more than the ground roads. That left the pavement underneath in a sort of permanently cracked, decaying state, since no one bothered to maintain something that saw what was basically one car per year. It was fun playing on that, since it was always shady, and the chunks of tar from the road broke apart nicely if you threw them hard enough. I can only imagine how many of our hands and feet were scraped and bruised thanks to that, but we were kids. It was good fun.

“Speaking of, the others. No names really pop out, but there were the kids of everyone else who lived in the apartment. I knew all of them, the same way you might know everyone in your class, and I really only talked with a few. It was nice, though - being able to walk out there and being pretty much guaranteed to find a playmate.

“But there were definitely some days that you kept me inside. I never got why, since I could look out my window and tell it wasn’t stormy, or even gloomy, but . . . it just wasn’t a good neighborhood, was it?. I think they had more than a couple of people who slept outside. Not all of them were bad, of course, but I don’t think that’s a risk you’d like to take.

“Speaking of, there were days where it rained. Really rained.

“I loved those.

“We would gather in the kitchen, make hot chocolate, boiling the milk in a little pot on our stove. Our building had cable, so the little dinky TV in the kitchen worked well enough, and we’d pull up chairs from the table to sit closer to it. Couldn’t always find one, but sit-coms were the family favorite. Dad would choose the channel, the show, while you got our favorites mugs out, filling them to the brim.

“It was always a bit too hot the first time I sipped it, but that didn’t really stop me from drinking it all in a minute or two.

“On an unrelated note, you taught me that milk soothes scalded tongues.

“Sometimes the electricity would drop, and we’d all sort of move to the living room. Pillow forts were always going up as soon as the lights went out. Everyone had a flashlight, too, so we could make our way around in the dark. I think mine was baby blue, with a little wrist strap. Didn’t really work all that well, if I might add. But I didn’t really need it. Sitting under the blanket-roof, listening to the rain roaring outside, that was my favorite place. The occasional rolling crack of thunder. Maybe a quiet, muffled conversation from you and dad. Messing with Adam. It was nice. We were happy.

“And then we moved out. I can’t recall the reason, but we started packing one day, and we were out by the end of the week.

“I liked the new place, don’t get me wrong, but . . . it took a long time for me to really consider it home. It didn’t have the same comfort as the apartment in the city, and being so far away from the next farm over really put a damper on everything for a while. As if the sudden addition of chores wasn’t enough to sour the place.

“Our second day there, I asked you when we were going back. You just pursed her lips and turned away, before saying that we were going to have a better life on the farm. The farm, you said, not ‘our new place.’ Not ‘our new home.’”

“I didn’t ask again after that.

“I guess that’s why I’m heading back. I want to see if it still feels like a place where I belong. I wouldn’t say I’m an optimistic person, but I do hope that it hasn’t changed much. I don’t plan to have that same apartment, but I don’t think it was really the apartment that made it special. I just like the busy-ness of the city. I think I do.

“I’ll see about it soon.

Love you, Ma.”

Sera took a deep breath, leaning on her car as she scanned the transcript of the message. She didn’t listen to it, she didn’t like the sound of her own voice when it was played back, but she needed to make sure it was okay. Well composed.

Not betraying the fact that she was a bit nervous about disappearing without a warning.

Sighing, she just pressed send.

She guessed it wasn’t leaving without a warning if her dad knew what she was doing, but the guilt, like a pit in her stomach, didn’t leave. Her mom was always the one who worried about the kids, who was a bit more strict, which is why Sera knew that all of this - moving to the city, with barely anything to her name - was not something she’d approve of.

Which is why she sent the voice message.

Maybe this was a bit rushed. She could always turn back, delete the message before her mom could read it - her mother only checked it in the morning, and before she went to bed.

No, no. This was the best thing she could do. Farm life was nice, but she didn’t get what she wanted by fixing up the occasional machine at the house, nor from the ”neighbors” that were twenty miles down the dirt road. So she was heading to the city. Either she’d find something there to hold her over, get her to stay, or she’d catch a shuttle to somewhere else. Another city, country. Continent. She just knew that leaving home was a top priority.

Even so, the guilt didn’t dissipate.

She just needed a walk, that was all.

To clear her head.

Thumping her hand against the car’s door in a rhythmically comforting way for a moment, she started to walk down a little path between the rice plots. Fifteen minutes, just fifteen minutes and she’d get back on the road. It was about forty miles till the city now, and her watch said the time was three-thirty. Not a bad pace.

Well, she did go about twenty over the speed limit. That probably explained it.

But the afternoon was calming enough. The weather wasn’t horrible, even for mid-spring. It couldn’t be more than 70 right now. Even the bugs were at an all time low for the season. Her anxiety about leaving was still there, still heavy, but her mood improved. It was hard to think that things could take a take for the worse when a breeze rustled by her. When the sky was a comforting shade of blue, and crickets chirped noisily in the grass. When it was peaceful.

Until they did.

Maybe it was the sound of something running behind her, or the sickening wheeze of its breath, but Sera knew something was there before it reached.

And then it struck.

A sudden deep gash down her calf. White hot pain accompanying it like an uninvited guest. Sera wasn’t able to stop the gasp that escaped her, and she fell to her knees. Her mind, even in a time like this, tried to find a way to describe it, the wound. How it felt.

It hurt like hell, that’s what it was. It hurt like hell because the thing that faced now had to be a demon, a devil, or some sort of bastard between the two.

Taunt, leathery skin, colored black and purple, stretched over its body. The tendony arms and legs, muscle hidden somewhere underneath her.

Long, hooked, and blood-slicked claws. Her blood. That had shorn right through her.

And that head - just an exposed animal skull, the empty, pitch black sockets staring straight at her. Through her.

It almost stood like a wolf. She could only hope she didn’t seem like a bunny to it.

Her breath quickened, and panic set in after the intial shock left her, and she quickly stumbled backwards. After it attacked her, the creature had walked in front of her, as if it wanted her to see it, to acknowledge its presence. As if gloating.

Sera was frozen in place as it stepped close to her, her arms refused to lift her off the ground; her legs ignored any plea of hers to get up, even just to move. To twitch.

And then it was in front of her, the head of it just a few inches away from her own.

You might expect a skull to have an empty mouth, but it didn’t. A row of savage teeth lined the thing’s jaw, and a long, black, nearly reptilian tongue crept out of its mouth, tasting the air in front of her. Saliva dripped from it’s ugly maw to the ground, a toxic looking purple that matched its skin.

She swore that it almost smiled as it closed its mouth.

Fear overrode whatever had her locked in place, and the drum tattoo of her heart drove Sera on as she lept to her feet.

What was this?

Whatever it was, it had claws.

Why was it here?

Didn’t matter, it had teeth.

Did it want to hurt her?

Her calf screamed yes. She had a one track mind during that dead sprint back to her car.

Run.

Breathe.

Look back

Breathe.

A few more steps, another desperate breath.

Check for it.

It couldn’t catch her, it couldn’t. It was obvious how this little journey of hers would end be if she was too slow.

Even then, the adrenaline was barely enough to get her through the sprint when she spotted her car, hastily opened the door and slammed it behind her, nearly catching her ankle in the door.

Still in a panic, Sera was grateful for the fact she left it running as she peeled out, spewing gravel behind the vehicle. As it started to accelerate, her eyes flicked to the rear view mirror.

And it was standing there, watching her flee.

Still, the skull seemed to mock her in a gruesome post-mortis grin.

Twenty miles later, she pulled the car to a stop. Her hands and arms were shaking too much for her to drive any longer. Screwing her eyes tight, Sera fought back the tears that threatened to surface.

She was fine.

She was okay.

She would have loved to believe that.

But her calf was still bleeding, she could probably bubble in a scantron just by trying to put the pencil to the page, and she couldn’t stop the tears.

She wasn’t okay, she was scared. More than scared. She was terrified, and she didn’t even know of what.

It took a long while, but eventually Sera raised her head out of the ball she had curled into, wiping her damp cheeks with the back of her hand. Her breathing was still shaky, and she felt paranoid as she stepped out to grab the first aid kit out of her trunk.

What if it came back? What if it didn’t just try to get her leg this time, and she never made it to the city?

Would her parents know?

Would she be missed?

She normally had anxiety, this didn’t help. Even as she took care of it, she could imagine the monster finding her again, tearing into her arm, her neck with those wicked teeth. Would she be able to fight back if she saw it again?

As soon as she finished, she clambered back into the car. Taking deep breaths, Sera managed to get music playing softly through the radio, and she tipped her head back against the headrest, trying to calm down.

It would take time more than relaxing playlists to get her back to normal, but this helped.

She could almost imagine being home on the porch, listening to whatever radio talk show her dad had on while her mom prepared dinner. She was just always the better cook in the marriage.

She missed them.

She was able drive now, even if just because it would take her farther away from that thing.

Away from her house of the last fifteen years.

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