Water drops gently hit the bowl in the kitchen sink, causing gentle ripples that slowly spread out to the inner walls of the bowl. It was a silent night at exactly 12:04 a.m., the night breeze blowing gently on the dried leaves of the old but sturdy fig trees as the grey full moon soared high in the star filled sky.
Annabelle was asleep, when all of a sudden, strange banging noises startled her. She was 17, and didn’t believe in the strange stories of creatures attacking people at night.
Maybe the neighbors are just playing their usual pranks on me since it's Halloween night, she thought, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. The pounding on the front door persisted, with each sound more intense.
“Ok that was really creepy,” she muttered fearfully. She got out of bed, bright moonlight pouring through the windows, as she quickly grabbed onto a baseball bat she usually kept by her side before she went to bed every night.
The staircase screamed as she snuck down, heading towards the living room. Her heart fluttered violently with each step she made, as she approached the light switch in the poorly-lit living room. With her finger just a hair’s breadth from the switch, something dashed past the window, too fast to see.
Anna screamed, and flipped the switch, but it would not come on. A feeling of dread washed over her, frantically flipping the switch as if her repeated efforts would make any difference.
“I…I…I have a bat and I’m not afraid to use it,” she stammered, stepping back, tightening her grip on the baseball bat, her eyes darting around the living room.
“Mom! Dad!” she called out, just when she remembered that her family members, the Petersons were out on a vacation to Florida.
I’m a big girl; I can handle this, she thought, gripping her bat even tighter. I just have to make my way to the door and see what it is. With each step, her feet got heavier. It took more effort to move forward and an even greater amount to stand still. At least, that’s how she felt.
Heartbeat getting more intense, palms sweating, she opened the main door.
“Of course this is a joke, I must be losing it,” she remarked, trying to calm herself, realizing there was nothing on the sliding glass door but a smear of blood. The neighbours must have placed it there to scare me. Afterall, it’s Halloween night.
Standing there, she smiled, wishing she had gone to Florida with her parents. Maybe it wouldn’t be so boring here. Just a stone’s throw from where she stood, something caught her eye. There was something outside sitting in the lawn. She stepped closer to get a better look.
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“It’s just a bunny,” she sighed, but something else got her attention. On the bunny’s side was a word written in red. She leaned closer, her face just inches away from the glass, trying to make out the text on the bunny’s side. Fortunately, the bunny wasn’t moving. She squinted harder and, “R U N” she slowly mouthed the letters.
Before she could process what she had seen, something slammed against the glass door. It looked like a tall man covered in blood, but it wasn’t a man; at least it didn’t look like one.
Annabelle screamed, making a beeline for her bedroom, running up the stairs. She slammed the door, and hid under her bed, her heart racing. She tried to slow her breathing but her body felt like it was on autopilot, oxygen rushing into her lungs to the point that it started to hurt.
Anna barely got a good look at the figure before she ran but she knew humans did not look like that.
“I should have followed them,” she said as tears ran down her cheeks.
BANG…. BANG…BANG the creature hit the glass until it shattered. Slowly, it approached her bedroom, like it knew where she was, and she could hear every slow deliberate step it made up the stairs.
“I should call 911 right away,” she said to herself, trying to remember where she left her phone, only to be washed with absolute dread when she remembered leaving it in the living room while chatting with her boyfriend.
“Is this how I am going to die?” She whispered shakily as the creature gently pushed open the door of her room, littering the floor with blood. Its feet looked like human feet but with absurdly long toes, almost like the toes of a bird. The feet were covered in short dark fur which was bloodstained.
It took slow but very deep breaths as if it were too tired to breathe. Anna tried to hold her breath as it carefully searched for her throughout the room. Her heart pounded so loudly that she could hear it. She had maintained absolute silence until her baseball bat slipped off her hands due to her sweaty palms and rolled towards the feet of the creature.
I’m definitely going to die here; maybe I should run, Anna thought, tears welling up in her eyes. The creature reached under her bed, quickly grabbing her by the arm, crushing her bone as it effortlessly lifted her off the ground. Anna screamed in pain, thrashing around as it lifted her to eye level, but her movement made it hurt more.
It was a 7-foot-tall creature with the facial structure of a man, but features of different animals. Its eyes were bright red, with dark snakelike pupils. Its earlobes fell like that of a bloodhound. It had holes where the nose was supposed to be, and its tongue was very long, hanging out of its mouth, dripping saliva. As for its teeth, they were long and sharp, like long yellowish canines. The skin on its face was covered in fur but the rest of the body was covered in feathers, with two huge wings flowing down its back. Its hands were like that of a man, only bigger, with dark bloody claws, measuring at least six inches.
“Heeeeeellllpppp!” Anna screamed, crying as she struggled to break free.
“Don’t worry dear, I’ll only eat your heart,” the creature said, its red eyes burning into hers. Annabelle tried to fight back but the difference in strength was overwhelming, and she had already lost a lot of blood because the creature’s claws dug deep into her arm.
It put one hand over her mouth, muffling her screams, as it leaned her against the wall and sank its claws into her chest with the other hand. Annabelle was then dropped on the floor like a wasted piece of rag as her consciousness slowly faded away. Tears filling her eyes, she caught a glimpse of the creature, seeming to smile at her as it walked out of the room. Then, she blacked out.
