The adventures of ShanDrew!

haha OK this was just something fun I did for Andrew as an anniversary gift! He loved it! I know it isn't my best writing, but I think since I knew it wasn't going to be judged I just had a lot of fun writing it.. heh Maybe I will hon it later so that it is grammatically correct and all that, but I just loved writing it so for now I will keep it as is! Enjoy.. =)

The Adventures of ShanDrew

Chapter 1

                There was once a girl named Shannon. She was pretty happy with her life, or at least she thought she was. She was in school, taking English classes, she was in Colorguard, having a blast, and she had a boyfriend, Stan, younger than her but seemingly as mature as her. On the other side of town, there was a boy named Andrew. He also seemed to be pretty happy with how things were going in his life; he was going to one of the best colleges in the country, having parties with his buddies at his apartment and dating a hot, albeit a little crazy, girl, Heather. Things could not be better for the two of them!

These two people, although they did not know it at the time, were destined to be together. As it happens, Shannon knew Heather. They were both in Colorguard together and had become very close. One day Heather thinks it is a good idea that Shannon and Andrew should meet, because, why not? What girl doesn’t want to introduce their boyfriend to their best friend?

Heather decides to throw a little party at her house to celebrate the New Year and thinks that this would be the best time to introduce everyone to her man. She goes on and on about him and shows his picture around so everyone is extremely curious to meet him. Is he really as great as she says? In his picture he is cute enough, but what is he like in real life? The day of the party draws near and excitement starts to mount. No one can wait to relieve the stress that is school at this party.  Finally! Party time! Everyone is dressed in their best, sipping wine (well Shannon is sipping sparkling cider, none of the hard stuff for her, thank you!) and having a great time. Andrew finally arrives at the party and when he steps through the door, his eyes almost immediately fall upon Shannon.

Chapter 2

“Wow… he is really cute!” Thinks Shannon.

“Ah man… she is hotter than Heather!” Thinks Andrew.

Neither of them let these emotions show on their faces, however. They are both taken after all! But they greet each other and become fast friends. They have a lot in common with their love for reading and comic books. They are both easy going and love going to the movies. They both love animals and are very close to their families. Even on that first night they had a lot to talk about and started getting to know each other.

Because Andrew knew Stan from their old school, the four of them became really close and started doing everything together; going bowling, going to the movies, just having a great time together. There was even a weekend in San Diego where… well let’s just say fun times were had by all!  It was a good weekend and it seemed to strengthen everyone’s relationship, even the friendship developing between Shannon and Andrew, even if he was a little weirded out by her putting on deodorant in front of him!

 Although it was always there burning in the back of their minds, Shannon and Andrew hid their attraction to each other. No one knew about it but themselves. 

Things were going along great when all of a sudden change Heather went and messed everything up (although in the end, this was for the better, but no one knew that at the time!) Heather had joined the social networking site, MyFace, mostly because she wanted to find old friends from high school. Heather started finding these old friends but at the same time started finding an old ex-boyfriend who she still had strong feelings for. Heather started to question her and Andrew’s relationship, going back and forth between the two men, not able to make up her mind.  Shannon tried to be a good friend to Heather, but Andrew was such a wonderful person, it was hard for her to take Heather’s side. But as a friend, she listened to Heather talk about whom she wanted more, which one was better for her. Shannon tried very hard to convince her it was Andrew, but Heather was not persuaded so easily.

Heather decided to have a talk with Andrew to try and figure things out, but most likely to end it with him. Shannon knew this was going to end in disaster, so she decided to tag along. What happened next so amazed Shannon that it took all her willpower to not dump her boyfriend right then and there and be with Andrew.

Chapter 3

Shannon and Heather met Andrew at his place, Heather trying to go somewhere Andrew would feel the most comfortable. Heather started to tell Andrew how she felt, where she thought this relationship was and wasn’t going and what was going on with her ex. Andrew just got more and more upset the more she talked. Pretty soon it seemed as if Andrew’s head was going to explode he was so angry.

Instead of exploding, Andrew burst into multiple copies of himself! There were 20 copies of Andrew standing around the room, looking at Heather with anger in their eyes. Shannon didn’t know what to do, so she hid behind the couch and watched the scene unfold.

Every gesture the original Andrew made, the copies made the same gesture. Every facial expression original Andrew made, the copies made as well. It was fascinating to watch 20 Andrew’s get more furious at Heather. Finally, original Andrew snapped and flung himself at Heather.

“How dare you do this to me!” he shouted as he wrapped his fingers around her neck. 40 other hands tried to do the same thing and 20 Andrew’s were filled with rage, trying to choke the life out of this girl. Her face started to turn blue and her breath was becoming raspy, her mouth trying to form words to apologize, to make it right so he would stop. Andrew must have seen something in her eyes because the fight left him as quickly as it had entered him. He, and his 20 copies, dropped their hands. Andrew took a deep breath and seemed to draw the copies back into himself until there was only one more Andrew left; the original Andrew.

“Sorry about that. You just make me so angry. I do… did everything for you and I loved you and this is how you treat me?” The two seemed to have forgotten about Shannon hiding behind the couch because they continued their relationship discussion. After a few minutes, Shannon got tired of hiding, got tired of hearing Heather’s voice and hearing her excuses; Andrew was the nicest guy in the world and she was treating him like crap. Shannon reached underneath her shirt and drew the two short blades that were hiding there. She quietly crept around the couch until she had Heather in her sites. All of a sudden, Shannon screamed, jumped from behind the couch, stabbed Heather in the heart and sliced her throat open at the same time. It was so quick that Heather didn’t even have time to scream. Andrew looked stunned for a moment then regained his composure.

“That… was hot… “

“You weren’t so bad yourself.” Shannon smirked, wiped the blood off her blades then walked out the door.

Chapter 4

Things calmed down a bit after that. Shannon was still with Stan but all she thought about was Andrew. She was jealous of every girl that Andrew talked about and dated. All she wanted to do was hang out with him and be around him. His power was extraordinary and Shannon wanted to find out everything about it; about him.  They hung out on several occasions and started becoming close friends, always trying to hide their attraction from each other because it was never the right time for them to be together.  Nothing eventful happened for a few years until Shannon discovered a secret that Stan had been hiding for some time.

One morning Shannon was on the computer, one that she shared with Stan, when she saw a folder labeled “The plan”. Since they had been together for so long, Shannon assumed that this was a plan for Stan to propose to her. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw the pictures of naked teenage girls in the folder. Each picture had a title to it, which seemed to be the girl’s name. They also each had a date on them, going back to before her and Stan had even met. “What the f…” She quickly pulled up Mozilla and started typing the girls name into Google. Each girl she typed in turned out to be on a missing child’s report. “What is going on here? What did I just find?” Shannon thought she heard the front door close, but didn’t turn around to see if Stan was home; she had just seen videos as well. Shannon was about to click on the first one when…

“Hon I’m home!” The voice came from right outside the bedroom door. “Crap… I can’t let him know that I saw this!” Shannon frantically started closing the folder and opening up a different site on the internet. She clicked on the first favorite she saw and a sigh of relief escaped her lips as her banks name came into view just has Stan walked through the bedroom door.

“Hey what are you doing, hon?” Stan asked with a huge smile on his face, sounding more cheerful than usual.

“Oh nothing… just checking my bank account and email and stuff. You know, the usual!” Shannon answered, trying to match his cheerfulness. “I forgot to tell you, I am going out with my friend Angie tonight. Hope you don’t mind?”

“No of course not! Hope you two have fun, I’ll just be here watching TV.”

“Great… well I better get going then!” Shannon quickly turned off the computer, grabbed her purse and ran out the front door.

Chapter 5

Shannon thought for sure that Stan had seen her going through his folder and as soon as she got in the car she called Andrew.

“Hi… sorry, I didn’t know who else to call… I just… you are one of my closest friends now… you have your power… I just… had no one else…” Shannon was having a hard time breathing and her heart was pounding as she tried to get these words out, all the while trying to decipher what it was she just saw.

“Whoa whoa, slow down. I don’t mind if you called me! What is going on? What’s wrong?”

“It’s just… I think… Stan… young women… pictures and videos… missing children! Oh God!” Shannon felt tears stream down her cheeks. She couldn’t get the words out, couldn’t explain how horrible the pictures were.

“OK… deep breath. Why don’t you come over and you can tell me what’s going on? Just drive carefully please… get here safely.” Andrew heard her take a deep breath.

“Alright… I will be there soon.” Shannon took another deep breath, calmed herself down then drove to Andrew’s.

“So what is happening?” Andrew asked as soon as he had opened the door, offering her a glass of water.

“You won’t believe what I found on mine and Stan’s computer!” Shannon gulped down the water, wincing as the coldness made her head hurt, and then proceeded to explain the situation to Andrew.

“… so what I think he is doing is kidnapping young girls, doing God knows what to them, then disposing of them somehow. I mean, they were all missing! Never found… I just… I can’t believe this… I need to find a way to stop him… we need to find a way to stop him! You have to help me!”

Andrew sat down, looking disgusted at everything he had just heard. “You’re right… we have to stop him. He can’t be allowed to get away with this. I still owe you from helping me with Heather after all!” Shannon ran up to Andrew and gave him a hug. “Thank you so much! I knew something was off about him and this just proves it. One of the pictures had a date three days from now, so that must be his next victim. Maybe we can find this girl and be there instead of her!”

Shannon and Andrew put their heads together to come up with a solid plan to stop Stan. The girls name was Stephanie Heymer and they were able to find her profile on FaceSpace, but no address. She was a teenager still and smart enough to know to keep her information off the internet.

Shannon let out an exasperated sigh. “Now what? How do we find her? How do we stop him?”

“First of all, you need to go home and act like nothing is happening. I will let on of my copies go home with you, to keep you safe. Make sure Stan doesn’t see him… “
Shannon looked fascinated, “You can do that??” Andrew laughed at hew awe.

 “Of course I can. And I will always know where he is, which means I will know where you are. Once Stan leaves, follow him. Take my copy then call me when you are following him. I will meet you wherever you end up and we can take it from there.”

“Thank you so much! But I want to be the one to kill him, I deserve it!” Andrew laughed again, “Don’t worry I figured as much!”

Shannon hugged Andrew, lingering for longer then she needed to. They stared into each other’s eyes for thirty seconds.

“I… uh… you have very nice arms!” And with that, Shannon walked out his door.

 

Chapter 6

When she got back to her car, there was already a copy of Andrew waiting for her.

“Ok we are going to go to my house and you just have to sleep in the car for the night, then we will follow Stan in the morning.” The Andrew copy just nodded, not saying anything. Shannon wondered if the copies could even talk.

When she got home, Stan wasn’t there so she thought she would just try and fall asleep so that the next day would come quickly. She tossed and turned all night, aware of Stan coming home and watching her for a time before climbing into bed himself. Finally, morning came.

“Alright hon, I am heading to work!” Stan shouted on his way out the door. “See you tonight!”

Shannon heard him shut the door then jumped up; throwing on the first clothes she found and ran out the door. She saw Stan’s car turn the corner just as she got to her car. She jumped in her car and followed Stan, feeling comfort in the fact that Andrew, even if it was a copy of him, was there with her.

She followed Stan for about 15 minutes before she called Andrew, letting him know they were on the move. Shannon stayed as far back as she could, hoping that Stan wouldn’t recognize her car. Stan seemed to be going in the direction of his work but finally turned onto a street that Shannon didn’t recognize. Stan stopped at a house, not turning off his car, and ran up to the door, knocking. Shannon saw a young girl answer the door and before she could say “who are you?” he grabbed her and ran back to his car. Stan practically threw the little girl into his car, and then sped off as quickly as he could. Shannon struggled to keep up, not wanting to lose him, driving recklessly, no longer caring if Stan recognized her car, just wanting to help the girl.

Finally after an hour of driving Stan stopped at a warehouse, taking Stephanie inside with him. Andrew had asked Shannon to not go in alone but she had to help the girl. She knew Andrew could sense his copy and was therefore already on his way, but it could be too late when he got there, so Shannon followed Stan inside. 

“Don’t worry Stephanie; I just want to play a game with you!”

“A game?” Shannon heard a small voice answer.

“Yeah a fun game! We are going to play model where you model some new clothes for me!” Shannon grimaced and her stomach rolled at the thought of what Stan was doing. Before he could get any further with the girl, Shannon stepped into sight.

“You leave her alone, you bastard!” Stan looked up, startled. “What the hell are you doing here? !”

“I’m here to stop you, you sick bastard!” Without waiting for an answer, Shannon ran at him, removing the swords from her back. All of a sudden she was hit with a force that made her fly backwards. She hit the ground with an “oof”, not knowing what hit her. She shook her head, trying to sit up with the world spinning around her.

“Yeah you didn’t know I could do that, did you?” Shannon raised her head enough to look at Stan. His arms were raised in front of him and they seemed to be smoking. “I have more powers then you can handle bitch!” He threw another one of his magic blasts at Shannon, engulfing her. Thank goodness her suit was fireproof, but it hurt none the less. She cried out, curling into a ball to protect her face until the flames went out. She heard Stan laughing, but then his laugh was abruptly cut off.

Shannon looked up to see 20 copies of Andrew running at Stan, all with a weapon of some sort. Stan tried to throw his magic blasts at the Andrew’s, but every time he hit one, another Andrew would appear. Pretty soon Stan was surrounded by 60 Andrew’s, all bludgeoning him. Shannon forced herself to get up, trying to not look weak. She walked over to Stan, whimpering on the ground as he was beat to an inch of his life. Putting one of her hands up, Shannon stopped the beating. “It’s my turn,” she whispered. “I never loved you” She said as she brought her sword up and cut of his head. As his head rolled on the ground, Shannon collapsed into the strong arms of Andrew. She vaguely remembered him carrying her and the girl out of the building, taking the girl back to her home and taking Shannon to his place. 

Chapter 7

“Thank God that is over!”

Andrew had nursed Shannon back to health. Afterwards, they had finally let their feelings known to each other and were now living together in a nice apartment, ready to spend their lives together.

“Yeah no kidding. Now we can relax and just be together!” Shannon snuggled closer to Andrew.

“I can’t wait to see where our lives take us”, Andrew said wrapping his arms around Shannon. “You know… I heard there was someone going around robbing people’s houses and killing the owners.” Shannon perked up at this news.

“Well then… I guess we have a duty to help stop him… “Shannon looked at Andrew. They started into each other’s eyes for a few seconds.

“But first…” Andrew and Shannon moved their faces closer together, their long kiss lasting indefinitely…

               

Life still sucks... sigh... but I am trying to think positively.. Writing for Andrew is helping a little bit, especially since it is just a fun little piece of work for our anniversary.. I shall post it when I am done!

Also... to all those people who made mean comments about my writing, I have blocked you.. if you had given me constructive criticism that I wouldn't have and we could have had a nice discussion maybe, but you were just ass holes... I don't post on here to get mean comments from people, I post on here because I love to write.. As I don't know who you are, there is no need to comment on my personal posts... I don't care if you don't like my writing, it is not for you to like, it is for me to like and to love the craft..

Anyways, hopefully I will get out of this funk and will continue to write.. things are just kinda blah at the moment.. =(

life sucks big balls right now.. I have no idea how I am going to make my car payment now..

sigh

The Patient

The Patient

By Shannon Burton

The nurse left work at 5 o'clock, a little later than she usually left. She always had the early shift, but today she had to stay longer because of that last patient... the one who had shown up after not being there for a few months now.

Last time he had been discharged, all the nurses thought he was going to be fine; even the judge said as much. The patient left with a smile on his face, talking about how he was going to go back to his wife and kids and get his whole life back together. Everyone had been so happy for him; but now the only thing everyone thought when they looked at him was horror.

The nurse shuddered at the thought of him first entering the hospital. Some of the other patients were wondering around, some were watching t.v., and still others were waiting for their medication. The nurse was getting ready to leave; and then the screams started. Screams were not uncommon at this place; in fact they were constant. These screams, however, were screams of horror, not the usual screams of the insane.

The nurse ran from her station to a terrible sight and almost could not force herself forward to help. The patient was being held down by three interns, and each person had blood all over them. One of the interns was holding the patient with only one arm because the other arm had lost two fingers. The patient seemed to be chewing something, and the nurse prayed that it was not that interns fingers.

Her prayers were not answered, however, as the patient spit out one of the fingers. She saw his throat move as he managed to swallow the other one. The intern started to silently cry as he left the patient un-attended to salvage his other finger.

"What happened?" the words feeling forced out of her mouth as she stared into the crazed eyes of the patient. His mouth turned into a scary grin, and without the help of the third intern, the patient was able to dive at the nurse and grab her around the neck. The nurse's eyes bulged as the patient started to squeeze, blood dripping from his clothes onto her white uniform.

"Do you see how good I am? Do you see how I went home and took care of my family? I got my life back on track! I got it back!! You helped me so much!" He was now shouting and laughing hysterically in her face, spit flying from his mouth to land on her cheek.

Finally, the rest of the interns, after their shock of him reacting so quickly to grab the nurse, were able to pry the patient off her and wrestle him to the ground. The nurse fell to her knees, gasping for air and holding her throat.

She managed to gasp out, "What did you do? What happened to your wife and kids?"

The patient looked at her with confusion in his eyes and just as the interns shot him with Vicadin the patient said in a quiet voice, "What wife and kids? I don't have a wife and kids..."

The nurse sat in her car, thinking over the night’s events and wondering how long it would be before she forgot them. As she started her car and headed home to her own family, she could not help but wonder what the patient had meant at the end. Did he ever have a wife and kids? Or did he mean that he did not have a wife and kids anymore...

Toby

Toby

I didn’t know who the orange tabby belonged to, but when I saw him I wanted him to be mine. He came up to me as if he knew me, started rubbing against my legs and meowing, like I was supposed to be his owner. I had noticed this cat following me for a couple days, but this was the first time he had finally come up to me. I looked around; making sure no one was watching me, grabbed the cat and ran into my apartment. I had just gotten home from shopping when this cat had run up to me. I held the cat up to my face looking into his yellow eyes; all of a sudden thoughts of my ex, Toby, came into my mind, stills of our life together flashing through my mind like looking through a photo album.

“You shall be named… Toby! Yeah… that is a good cat name”. Toby meowed again, as if in approval and I shook my head to get the images of the human Toby out of my head. It had been a long time since I had last owned a cat; and in fact that cat wasn’t even mine but belonged to human Toby when we had lived together. I sat on my couch, petting Toby, enjoying the purrs that were coming from his throat. “Well… I guess I should go get you some food, even though I just came from the store… I guess you need to eat as much as I do… I say ‘I guess’ a lot, don’t I?” I looked at Toby as if expecting an answer, when of course one did not come; I let out a sigh, set him on the couch and got ready to leave. “Alright Toby, I will be right back… don’t miss me too much now!” Toby seemed to have a smirk on his little cat face as I stared at him for a moment longer, getting lost in his cat eyes. I shook my head, looked around my apartment and saw that it was completely trashed; pictures torn up, my bottle collection smashed on the ground, books knocked off the shelves with the pages torn out. “What the hell?” I looked at the clock and saw that two hours had passed and I had no recollection of what had happened during those two hours. I looked at Toby, sitting so innocently on the couch, as if he had done nothing.

“Toby! Why would you do this??” I went to grab him then noticed a torn piece of paper in my hand. I looked closer at it and saw it was a page from one of my books. ‘What? Why would I have this in my hand if Toby trashed the apartment? I must have tried to clean up during that random black out I just had…’ I threw the torn up page on the floor, grabbed Toby and smacked him on his nose. “Bad Kitty! You don’t mess up my apartment!” He hissed at me and dropped from my arms, obviously not very happy that I had punished him. “Well, I better start cleaning.”

That night I fell asleep pretty easily, even after all the stuff that had happened that day, but had terrible dreams. They were all about Toby, about our relationship, about what had happened to him. I was tossing and turning all night and at one point woke up with a scream, remembering that night. After that nightmare, I wasn’t able to go back to sleep and lay in bed until the sun starting streaming through the window. Finally I got up and then noticed that my right arm was hurting. I thought it was just from sleeping on it wrong, but when I looked down I saw blood slightly dripping from a long scratch. “What the hell? Now what?” I got out of bed and went to the bathroom to clean up the blood. “Why would Toby do this?” I looked closely at the scratch and saw it was a vertical slash on my wrist. It had only bled a little, thank goodness, but it still hurt. “How the hell did I not wake up when he did this?” I washed the excess blood off of my hands then noticed how dirty my nails were. I used a nail file to clean them out and what looked like skin came out of one of the nails. ‘Did I do this to myself? No way I could have… it had to have been Toby’. I went to go find the cat again and when I was able to find him, I scolded him again. “No scratching Toby, it’s not nice!” I looked into his cat eyes and once again was hypnotized by them; they looked so human…

I shook my head and looked around the apartment; the sun was setting? What? I looked at a clock and saw that it was nearly five o’clock. “What the hell?!” I shouted out loud, “I lost a whole day? What just happened?” I looked around the apartment, trying to remember something that had happened during the last 11 hours of the day, but could remember nothing. I sat on the couch and saw a box sitting on the coffee table. I brought the box towards me and saw that they were pictures. I let out a gasps when I held a few of them up, seeing that they were pictures of human Toby and I, but in all of the pictures my eyes had been burned out. I let out a little scream when I noticed Toby sitting right next to the box, staring at me. “What on earth is going on?!” I asked Toby. He titled his head a bit at the sound of my voice, meowed, and then jumped off the table. “Well you were no help”, I muttered, staying on the couch because I didn’t know what else to do. Looking at the pictures, my mind started filling up with thoughts of human Toby again. I thought back to that night, to his pleading eyes, asking me to help him, to save him. But I hadn’t been able to. I blinked and noticed that I was now lying in bed again and it was ten o’clock at night. “Well apparently it is my bed time.” After the past couple of days, I didn’t think I would be able to fall asleep, but it happened quite easily. That night I dreamed again of human Toby, of the screaming, of the baseball bat. These weren’t just dreams either; they were the worst nightmares I had had since that night. I saw all the blood again and his eyes looked more pathetic then the night it happened. I shrieked myself awake almost braining myself on something I was holding in my hand. I looked down and saw that it was the bat from that night. “No… no no no no no… how is this possible? I thought I burned you. How are you in my hands right now? No… this can’t be happening.” I threw the bat off the bed, not noticing Toby sitting on the bed next to me, with almost a smile on his cat face. I jumped up and ran to the bathroom to wash my hands and saw a huge cut down my cheek. I started crying then, washing my face and noticing chunks of skin in my fingernails. Why was I doing this to myself? I kept muttering “no” the whole time I was cleaning, hoping it was stop whatever was happening from happening.

Once I was cleaned up I grabbed Toby, hoping for some comfort, and sat on the couch. I couldn’t stop thinking about the bat and the cut on my face, like the one he had given me that night… “Oh Toby… what is going on with me… I had to do it; he was going to kill me!” I looked into Toby’s face again, but this time his eyes were the same dark blue color that human Toby’s were. I screamed again and threw Toby off my lap. “No! No! You can’t! You just… can’t! I killed you!! I killed you! You are dead!” I couldn’t stop screaming and I couldn’t stop seeing human Toby’s face as I hit him in the head with the bat. His dark blue eyes as he looked up at me and tried to grab me, scratching my face instead. His head as I beat him again and again with the bat. His hands as they were the last thing to go under the water where I had dropped him. I started scratching at my eyes, trying to get the images out of my head. Toby the cat was staring at me, those dark blue eyes never leaving my face, what looked like a grin on his face. I didn’t want to see Toby anymore. I didn’t want to look into those blue eyes again; I knew he had come back to kill me to take his revenge. “No! No! I won’t let you! You are dead! No!! You can’t take me! You can’t kill me!” Toby’s laughter filled the apartment and I screamed at the top of my lungs, trying to drown it out. “NO!”

A few hours later the cops knocked on the door, trying to find out what had caused the neighbors to call them to report a noise disturbance. They didn’t hear anything, no parties were going on, but they had called so the cops had to check it out. When no one answered their knock, John, the cop in front, tried the knob. When it turned in his hands he looked at his partner, shrugged, then pushed the door open.

“Hello? Anyone home? We got a noise complaint about your place and wanted to make sure everyone was OK.” John cringed as an acrid smell hit his noise. “Something isn’t right here, Steve.” John unlocked his gun and kept his hand poised by it, just in case.

“Hello! Anyone?” John located a light switch and flipped it on. He heard Steve let out a little gasp. “What is it Steve?” John looked in Steve’s direction and saw in the middle of the room a young girl with both of her eyes scratched out and her mouth open wide in an ugly scream. Her hair was completely white and sitting on top of her was an orange tabby. The cat seemed to be licking the blood out of the girl’s eye sockets. John let out a disgusted noise. “Steve get the damn cat off her while I call this in.” Steve went over and grabbed the cat, looking into it’s yellow eyes. “You know, it might just be me John, but this cat looks like it’s smiling.” Steve continued to stare into the cats eyes while thoughts of the little girl he had buried in his basement came to mind. “I think I will keep you… and I will call you Betsy.”

I didn't write this last week, but I did submit it, so I thought I would still include it here! =)

Perkins Park

The moment she left the house she knew that this night was going to be a mistake. It did not matter that, a month ago, he had given her the monogrammed handkerchief that she had always wanted; he still made her apprehensive. They were finally going out again and it was a beautiful night. They were just going to “Dave and Busters” so they would be out in public, but she was still nervous. As they continued to walk he became increasingly agitated; laughing unnecessarily and poking her, which is something he had never done. He then tried to pull her into an alley, grabbing her arm forcefully and not letting her pull away. She became frightened and vowed to run as soon as the chance arose. He forced her into the alley and shoved her up against the closest wall, slapping her incessantly. Her terror overtook her, clouding her mind from rational thought. All she wanted to do was escape from this maniac. With her free hand she reached up and raked her nails across his face, bringing blood. With a loud cry, he put his own two hands to his face and she was free.

She ran towards the cluster of trees, not caring where she entered, just wanting, no needing, to enter. She lunged into the first opening that she saw, not noticing the branches tearing up her clothes and skin. Blood immediately started to drip down her arms, soaking the handkerchief. She stumbled over logs and pushed bushes out of her way as she got deeper into the forest, gasping for breath; she could herself muttering the words “oh god oh god” over and over again. She finally saw the edge of the clearing and even though she was completely out of breath she pushed herself just a little bit more to reach that clearing. Just as she hit the clearing, she stumbled, falling to the ground, using her already bruised arms and hands to protect herself from the brunt of the fall. She stayed where she was, on hands and knees, panting, not daring to look up just in case he had seen her, just in case he was there with her right now. She didn’t think she would survive if she saw him again. Then a low chuckle started to fill the clearing and dread pierced her heart as if she had been stabbed.

“You didn’t really think that you could get away from me, did you? I grew up in this city, in these trees. I know them like a fat kid knows his pastries.” He laughed, this time more than a chuckle. She held her breath, afraid that if she didn’t she would scream. Moving her head slightly, she peered up at him through a parting in her stringy, brown hair.

“Leave me alone!” She breathed heavily through her mouth. She watched as he crossed his arms over his chest, his shadow under the bright streetlight looking like his evil twin coming to get her.

All of a sudden she heard him scream, a hitch pitched scream that she never thought him capable of. It was cut off with a snapping noise, with only silence to fill where his scream had been. She raised her head in a hurry, using the hand not holding the handkerchief to shove her hair out of her face. What she saw made her blood run cold and her body filled with terror. Blood was spurting out of the place where his head and shoulders used to be, saturating the rest of him and the brown ground around his feet. It was amazing his body was still standing, but there it was, the blood turning the ground to mud. Immediately she got her feet underneath her, still clutching the handkerchief. It had meant so much to her when he had given it to her, she was not going to let it go now. Although she did not love him anymore, she had loved him then. Her feet started backing her body towards the trees, trying not to rush as to not draw any attention to herself. She looked frantically around, trying to see how to get out when this black thing, looking almost like a giant spider leg, come out of the bushes and snatched the rest of his body away. A scream was lodged in the back of her throat, wanting to get out. Her eyes saw what her mind did not want to believe: a shadow slowly formed under the light. It looked almost human but the shadow was disjointed, disconnected somehow. She stumbled to the edge of the trees, not wanting to see that shadow take its complete form. She did not think she had the strength to force her way through the bushes, but she knew that if she didn’t she would die.

I applied the brakes to my bike, thinking I had heard a scream. I took my bike light off the front of the handlebars and shone the yellow light into the trees at the edge of Perkins Park. ‘There is no way that someone is in there at this time of night’ I thought, a coldness creeping into my spine. I was unsure if I should check it out, fear making me stay at the edge instead of entering. Everyone knew that Perkins Park was dangerous at night. One could easily get lost in there, or worse, get attacked. Wood City was not one of the nicest or safest cities in the United States. I finally came to a decision; I hit the kickstand so I wouldn’t have to leave the bike on the ground, tucked the light into my pocket and started walking towards the trees. I looked around, making sure that no one was following me and entered the trees.

I winched as the bare branches of the underbrush scratched my arms and legs. ‘Next time I will make sure I am wearing longs sleeves… as if I am going to do this again!’ I thought, brushing branches out of my way. I was not really sure of where the scream, if in fact that was what it was, had come from, and I did not hear any other noises, but I thought I was heading in the general direction. Perkins Park was big, but not that big. I was almost positive that I would be able to find out where that scream had come from; trying to convince myself that it hadn’t been a scream and that nothing terrifying and horrible was happening in the trees that I was tromping through at the moment. To pass the time as I was hiking, I came up with a scenario in my mind: I was coming to the rescue of some damsel in distress and I would find her and save her from some dire situation and then we would fall in love and live happily ever after. I let out a sigh, ‘if only… man I need a girlfriend’. It had been a few years since I had had one and I was starting to get lonely. I was jerked out of my thoughts when I heard something coming towards me, and coming fast.

She came crashing through the trees right into my arms. Blood was dripping down her arms and I could see that she was exhausted. She let out a scream as she ran into me; I tried to hold her up but her momentum brought us both to the dry leaves on the ground. I landed hard, a moan escaping my lips, covered by the sounds of the leaves crunching under me. I tried to cushion her fall, but she had passed out and she rolled off me, making a rough landing on the ground next to me. I lay there for a few moments, not really sure what I should do next, thinking that I really should have brought my Iphone so that I could just call the police or something. Then I remembered my bike; what on earth was I going to do with that? Although by this time, it was probably stolen anyways. ‘Forget the bike’ I thought begrudgingly, getting to my knees after my little hiatus. ‘I can do this. She can’t be that heavy… she doesn’t look fat or anything’. My knees popped as I stretched and stood all the way up. Grabbing her by the armpits, I started to drag her across the dead leaves. After a few moments guilt started to trickle into my heart because soil from the ground was being added to the dirt and blood that she was already covered in; not that she noticed or anything, but I still felt like I should at least try and pick her completely up.

A heavy weight abruptly fell on my back, pushing me and the girl back onto the dead leaves. A growling noise was heard throughout the clearing, encircling us as if we had surround sound out in the wilderness with us. I could see nothing around me, not even the trees anymore, as I scrambled to my feet, grabbing the girl’s hand so that I could protect her; she was my “damsel in distress” after all. A large hairy arm enclosed around my waist, pulling me off the ground; I tried to hold on to the girl, but her hands were slippery with blood and my hand was pulled from hers. I was lifted high into the air, the hairy arm digging painfully into my waist. The hair was coarse, not soft like human hair, and it dug into my skin, making the skin raw and bloody. My body unexpectedly stopped about ten feet off the ground and the arm turned me around; I had no idea which way I was facing, the strange darkness that had enveloped the area had still not lifted. All I knew was that I was not facing whatever it was that had a hold of me, and I still did not know what it was. I tried to pry the arm off of me, but every time I touched it, the arm gave me a squeeze almost like a lover’s squeeze. This squeeze, however, made the pain excruciating so I did not enjoy it. I felt myself slipping away from the world, my eyelids grew heavy and I felt like I could pass out at any time, and all I could think about was if the girl was still alive. The thought of the girl made my eyes snap open. I looked around, as if I could see, and tried to spot the girl in all of this darkness. My movements, however, made the arm dig in again so I kept as still as the tenderness in my skin would allow me.

My eyes grew wide as I saw a face suddenly appear in front of me. It did not have a body; it was just a large floating, pale face. I tried to look down, but what was below the face was pure madness; it just couldn’t exist. I had heard stories of these creatures that walked the night but had no body; that lived on the flesh and blood of humans but I couldn’t believe it, I wouldn’t believe it. I closed my eyes, trying to shut out the madness, hoping this was all a dream; that I would wake up in my nice apartment, with my roommates and we would all laugh about this crazy dream. The growling from earlier once again filled the space, but I kept my eyes shut, not particularly wanting to see where it was coming from. To make matters worse, a very low laughter intermixed with the growling. The laughter and the growling became one, ringing in my head as well as in my ears. It was the worst sound I had ever heard and it felt like my head was going to split in half if it didn’t end. I could sense something trying to force my eyelids open and I tried my hardest to fight against this thing that was in my head, but I was powerless to stop it. The pale visage swam in front of my face as my eyes were forced open.

“How dare you try and steal my dinner from me…” a voice whispered, seemingly coming from nowhere. I felt the insanity enclose my mind as the thing in front of me started to smile. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from it and I started to smile too. Beautiful images of me with lots of women started dancing in my mind, my mind doing what my body couldn’t; fighting against the unbelievable, leading me to believe I was just having a dream. Unexpectedly these pleasant images turned into nightmares as I felt my right arm ripped from its socket. I looked at where my arm used to be and could not believe that it wasn’t there. I saw the blood pouring from it, but my mind would not take it in. My mind wanted to focus on those beautiful images, not the pain that was spewing forth from my shoulder. The world started to turn gray, but I was brought violently back into that world when my other arm was ripped off. The attractive images in my mind completely forgotten, maniacal laughter could be heard from my mouth and I did not believe that it was mine. All at once the pain started seeping into my body; my laughter turning into crazed screams.

I didn’t think that I could feel any more pain than what I had just experienced, but the face started to move slowly towards me. His laughter covered my screams as he came closer and closer, his mouth opening widely, two teeth in particular longer and pointier than the others. A pain like I had never felt before in my life ripped through my body as those two teeth pierced my skin. I could feel the blood being sucked from my body, drop by drop. I kicked my legs feebly, trying to find contact, still trying to live although I knew my life was a lost cause. As my blood was taken forcefully from me I had one last comprehensive thought: if my “damsel in distress” was alright and if she would have made a good girlfriend.

Her eyelids fluttered as she came back into the world. She groaned, trying to move but everything on her body was stiff and in pain. She felt sticky all over and she was not sure as to why. She could also feel something licking her legs and could hear the lapping noise of the tongue. She lay there, not opening her eyes, hoping that it was a dog that was licking her and she had somehow spilled gravy on herself. That she was outside of “Dave and Busters” and she had tripped and fell. She knew these thoughts to be untrue, but she was not willing to open her eyes to find out the truth. She could sense the tongue moving up and that scared her more than what she thought the truth was, so she opened her eyes. What she saw made her immediately go insane. Her pupils rolled into the tops of her eyelids and she had no more thoughts. What looked to be a pale, body-less face was floating an inch or so above her legs, licking all the blood off her body. And this creature was doing it with a large, joker-like smile on its face. When the creature had licked her clean it picked up her lifeless body, looking as if it was floating on thin air, and stole into the night, its laughter fading as light pierced the darkness with the rising of the sun.