My Flesh and Blood
Celebrating Halloween with my first short fiction on Medium
[Midnight]
A final tear drops to the ground as deafening cries of agony echo in the darkness.
[11:59pm]
Run…
“Please…no…”
Go. Run, …
A cacophony of blood-curling shrieks and guttural growls drowns out the name that follows.
It lets out pained grunts, then whimpers.
Run. Get away.
[muffled screaming]
[11:28pm]
The shadow gradually engulfs the girl’s silhouette. It mindlessly spreads like an ink blot dripping onto a white cotton dress. She is too terrified to move. Her knees have locked. Her shoulders are frozen in terror. There is nowhere to escape. It is a dead end.
Feebly, the girl turns around. She recognizes those moonlit eyes. They are sunk under cancerous growths and folds over its eyelids. It is dark, but she can smell the acrid pus leaking from its cloudy, jaundiced eyes. It is a familiar pungent odor.
[11:13pm]
Run. Please... You must run.
The girl stands motionless, staring at the encroaching shadow growing on the wall in front of her. Her shoulders sink in defeat and despair. Her cheeks show streaks of dried tears. She can no longer cry. She has spent all her tears.
[11:11pm]
I can’t stop it. Get out of here…
[10:57pm]
Hoarse screams of anguish and horror fill the air.
Long canines sink effortlessly into the now lifeless torso of the elderly dog owner. Razor-like incisors tear the victim’s flesh into shreds. Volumes of festering blood ooze out with each puncture. Creature’s frothing saliva drips onto the corpse’s fresh wounds and pavement below, coating them like snail slime.
Restless feet shift. Even wind-rustled leaves fail to drown out the disturbance by a frightened human in hiding. It alerts Creature. It pauses, with its dilated eyes still fixed on its mangled prey, clutched underneath its jagged claws.
It suddenly raises its deformed head. When light flashes from a flickering street lamp, she catches her blurred reflection on its scarred and enormous, bulbous forehead.
[10:39pm]
An elderly man walking his pet cavalier stops to smoke his pipe. The girl sees him tying the lead to a stop sign.
“Now, Tobee, just sit there like a good dog while I have a few puffs. And don’t you tell Iris now. You know how she nags. She’ll blame you, too...”
Within seconds, the girl suddenly spots a shadowy mass sweeping over the oblivious senior and his helpless pet. The man has no time to react before he is lifted into the air like a Raggedy Andy and lands on an arm-length talon. It pierces out from above his chest, ripping out his vital organ from below his ribs with demonic force.
The girl instantly covers her mouth, stunned and terrified. There is no trace of Tobee. His torn empty leash lies tied to the stop sign.
[10:26pm]
I can’t… can’t hold it back any longer. You have to run before…
[wheezing and coughing]
“Before what?”
Get out of here. Run far from here.
“I don’t know where to go. I can’t leave you!”
Run. Just run.
“Come with me!”
I can’t go with you anymore. It’s too late.
“What do you mean?”
I just can’t. Just go. Go as far away as you can. And don’t look back.
“No! I can’t leave you here!”
Go! Now! Run! Please, do this for me.
“I…I don’t understand. Why?”
It’s too dangerous to stay here. It’s coming. I can’t hold this…thing… any longer.
“What are you talking about? Holding what? You’re scaring me!”
I know, sweetheart. I know. I’m so sorry.
“No, I want to stay with you.”
You have to trust me. You’ll be safer.
“No.”
Maddie…my sweet…
[10:21pm]
“Why are we stopping? We have to keep going.”
I’m not feeling well. And the itch is worsening.
The girl unhesitantly places her hand on the forehead.
“You’re burning up. It’s so hot to the touch.”
Maddie, I… I just realized something. I…
“I can get you to a hospital.”
No. You need to listen to me. I can’t go.
“What are you saying?”
I think it’s got me.
“What’s got you? You’re not making sense. We need to get help for you.”
The abdomen jolts and twists. The face contorts from insurmountable pain.
[10:01pm]
“Why do you have blood on your shirt?”
Where?
“On your back. Wait, you’re still bleeding where it’s torn here. Doesn’t it hurt?”
I don’t feel anything. Maybe some itch, now that you mention it.
“You don’t remember getting it?”
Just last week, after I took my annual leave, a colleague at my workplace texted me about a peculiar lab macaque. It was displaying a habit of scratching itself incessantly until the skin broke and bled. Then, what followed was confidential, so she couldn't elaborate. She suddenly vanished after that. No messages. No trace. I went to the lab this morning to see if she had returned. But the place was empty. All the lights and computers were left on. It was an eerie feeling. I didn’t see anything, but now I’m starting to recall getting a sharp sensation just below my right shoulder blade. When I looked back, there was nothing there.
[24 hours earlier]
The world is going mad. People are turning into monsters, terrible monsters. Children are murdering their parents in their sleep. Parents are willingly eating their children. People are raiding their neighbour’s homes and exterminating entire families. Even the police and military have turned merciless, shooting at innocent citizens and at each other.
Maddie, we have to get out of here. As far away as possible.
“I’m scared, Daddy.”
It’ll be okay, sweetheart. I’ll protect you. You’re my flesh and blood.
