Chapter 4
The foul creature sniffed the air. Its trunk retracted for each time. Hard steps into the ground at you. A reek of sweat and filth form its dirty skin. You backed away, by instinct. Panic struck you down. Your heart beat faster. The alley closed in on you. The cold in your lungs, the heat of sweat in your face. You had no room for doubts. Make a choice!
You ran.
Your hand tightened in a dead man´s grip around the umbrella. You only see this narrow tunnel. You prayed in silence that the monster wouldn´t follow. The infernal noise from your cell phone raged in the pocket and filled the dark tunnel you ran through. Echoes which bounced between the walls and scratched your mind as long nails on a chalkboard. You watched with eyes wide opened.
A weak thump behind you.
Followed by another, this time louder.
You threw a glance over your shoulder. Only for a second.
You saw it. It ran. On all four. And it gained in on you.
The heavy thumps of the creature chased after you. You could feel the vibrations send tremors into the grounds. The wheezes of its breath. Each thump got louder and louder. Your cell phone screamed like a banshee.
Tears of fear built up in your eyes.
The exit of this tunnel looked so far away. You couldn´t breathe. Each attempt only sent a cold taste on your tongue. Despair. You knew a creature like that couldn´t be real. But panic clouded those thoughts as your will screamed inside your head. You didn´t scream. You couldn´t. Your throat had an invisible hand around it. All that came out was your wish to not die. The tunnel grew darker, tighter, threatened to swallow you whole. Your body turned numb, ignorant of the fire that burned within your legs.
No sign of fatigue from your stalker.
You couldn´t outrun it. You couldn´t call for help. You knew that.
The open street welcomed you as the tunnel opened up and the grip around the umbrella tightened. Teeth clenched together as the thumps behind you increased in strength. You hesitated. Your legs burned in exhaustion. Yet you could not even make up your mind of which direction to go.
You tripped.
Time slowed down for your eyes. The fear took the better hand. You no longer had the option to run. Concrete quickly approached your field of view. The cold pushed up against your legs and hands. You avoided a broken nose.
The thumps behind you approached. Fast.
Would you stand there on the street? Would you let this monster, this molester, have its way with you? Would you allow it to happen? To take the unfair punishment and lay down? Again?
Blinded, deaf, mute, insensitive to your surroundings. Your fear of the inhuman creature filled you with the will to survive. You had not traveled for hours, only to die now. You grabbed the handle to your umbrella. The wheezing noise appeared. The vibrations of its steps rushed through your knees. It was so close. Your heart thumped even louder as you opened your mouth and screamed in fear. Swung the umbrella as you turned around on the spot.
It hit.
Thin metal, draped in black, against foul flesh of its left leg. It grunted, jerked and stopped. But only for a moment. It went straight at you again. You were terrified. Aimed the sharp point of your weapon and stabbed it right in its face between the legs. Through one of the black eyes. It popped like an egg.
White sludge poured out from the wound and a distorted squeak, the voice of a man, left the snot. It backed away, rubbed its legs together over the face as it whimpered. The umbrella, still stuck in the wound, got pulled along. You refused to let go off it. You couldn´t do it. Without weapon, your chances of survival would be equal to zero.
You got back up on your feet. Everything turned into a blur as your mind didn´t think. The umbrella slid out from the injury and the creature spread its legs again. You screamed. Raised the umbrella as a lance and stabbed the creature in its abdomen. The steel tip vanished and in the edges of the circular wound, only more white sludge came out. It reeked like a corpse. It grunted in pain. Anger. You screamed as you filled with panic and attacked the creature relentlessly.
Again and again.
White liquid came up through the snot in its face. It tried to move away. You didn´t stop. It raised its head and trunk at you. Disgust filled your body. You pulled out the umbrella.
You stabbed through the base of its trunk.
A pained grunt in response as it fell down and convulsed into spasms. The white filthy sludge pumped out and over the street as it moved the body faster and faster. You pushed the umbrella deeper, half way through. The muscles in the creature´s body stiffened. It lifted its head high jerked one last time. Back bent as tightly as a fiddle´s string.
Only to fall down powerlessly into the concrete.
You let go off the umbrella. Stood with a straight back in the mist. Stared down at the creature in front of you. Without any emotions in your face. Only silence with the exception of the distorted whisper in your pocket. The thick sludge poured slowly out from the stab wounds.
Your hands shivered.
The thoughts swarmed like flies along with your short breaths.
You have killed it. You killed a living creature. Even if revolt over it filled you, you couldn´t deny that it was alive. Your hands grabbed around the sides of your head. The tears of fear in your face. A pain in your body. It hurt to breathe.
You tried to convince yourself.
It wasn´t human.
It wasn´t human.
It wasn´t.
A weak moan from the creature. Your eyes went wide open.
It wasn´t dead yet.
To your cautious shock. It didn´t came from the bug-face. But from the far back of the monster. You lifted your feet. Slowly moved around the body as it would leash at your presence. The body reeked even by the distance. You reached the far end of the humanoid thing.
And covered the mouth in horror.
There, at the end of the shoulders, a human head rested with the side of it in the ground. Covered by a thin organic surface, not any different from a stocking. Two dark spots for the eye sockets. A dark gap for the mouth. It looked at you. Even without eyes you could feel its blind stare into your soul. You stared down with the breath in your throat. The conviction staggered in your mind like a broken record.
It wasn´t human.
It wasn´t h-human.
It wa-wasn´t hu-
It raised one of its infected arms with great effort at you. The rotten limb shook greatly and stretched slowly as the mouth opened beneath the skin. It opened and closed. Without a single sound. Your mind filled in the message for it.
"W…h…y?"
Your mind ceased to play the record. The cell in your pocket whispered. You couldn´t think. The rotten hand of the creature slumped down on the ground. To rise up again as a silent plea appeared in the dark sockets. It couldn´t move. It couldn´t harm you. It only moaned helplessly as you stared down on it with fear in your eyes. You could kill it. Here and now. A life in the palm of your hands. Would you clench the fingers and snuff it out?
What will you do?
You shook your head. Whispered only. Backed away. Step by step.
You ran.
And left the creature in its silent pleas of pain.
You stopped further down the street. Fell down on your knees. Shivered uncontrollably. Your chest hurt. Your legs hurt. Tears flowed down your cheeks. The cell phone still whispered in your pocket. You wanted to puke but couldn´t. There was nothing inside to come up. Your sobs filled the empty street faintly. Disgust over what happened. The shock which finally subdued. The mist around you remained regardless.
You couldn´t do it.
Despite the disgust and revolt. Despite of what it wanted to do with you. You couldn´t bring yourself to do it. Are you that indecisive? Can´t you make up your mind? Why show empathy for something ready to kill you? Why can´t you make your own choices?
You beat yourself up over it. Can´t stand the thought.
It was a living creature.
And you refused to kill it.
The cell in your pocket won´t go back to sleep. A faint pattern in its whispers reached through you. You left your umbrella with it. You ran. You took off from the path and you are alone here.
Why? Why? Why? Why?
No answer came. Fear of retribution from the unseen force you up again. You couldn´t stay here. You need to get out from this town. You need to run. That was your only plan.
Neely´s would not be much farther ahead. Your only lead awaited your arrival. You couldn´t afford any distractions. You needed a way out. The sobs stopped. You can´t do anything. If you don´t kill it then leave it. If it´s not blood on your hands then it would be fine, right? You can leave it. It wouldn´t be that hard.
You had done this before.
You moved forward. Empty handed. Nobody waited for you. The panic eased as the distance between you and it increased. It was the only thing you could do without hesitation.
The whisper in your cell phone faded away.
Died.
Author´s note: sorry for the late update, been buried in work.
please review.
and I will update when I can.