Hound

The Creature

Night time Creeper`s woods

The sky. Jason could see it. Damn it that it wasn’t as meaningful as he remembered. Something was itching underneath his uniform, maybe the very cause of the displeasure. Maybe it was the darkness and the foul smell that spoiled the feeling of staring into the night sky. His eyes fell from the sky to inspect the trees before him plunged in a horrible gloom. Right there before his eyes was a half frame of a man obscured by the dark figure of a tree.

“Whose there?!” he pulled out his g*n and pointed the length of the barrel. His inner cop was beginning to come out. “Come out with your hands behind your head”

“Please forgive me officer. I didn’t mean to startle you.” His voice was unshaken. He was showing no signs of movement as if refusing to yield to Jason`s orders. “Have you seen my daughter? A little girl with dark hair and a dress of white. I am worried sick searching for her” “Who are you?”

“My name is Darius,” he said. “Please officer, I must find my daughter and take her home.” There was something sinister about his voice.

“She mentioned you earlier. Care to explain the bruises on her body?”

“Officer I can assure you, there is nothing to worry about. I might have laid a finger on her but only because she has been stubborn lately. You know how children can be a handful.”

“No I don’t” he countered. His hands tensed on the g*n as his voice deepened. “Come out with your hands behind your head, I won`t say it again.”

“You won`t have to.” This man`s voice was making his skin crawl. He was paying so much attention to him that he didn’t realize that something was standing behind him. He jerked around at the slight feeling of discomfort loosing guard on Darius. His eyes widened. His mouth dropped open. The hand holding the g*n fell to his side. Perhaps for a brief moment he weighed the odds. He couldn’t fight this. The claws on its feet sunk into the ground. Its skin was scaly and rough. It stood two or three feet taller than him dwarfing him in a manner that made him swallow hard. It had a dress, monsters be damned, the same dress that the ghostly girl wore. The dress only reached down to its loins. The bottom half was hard to distinguish whether it was male or female.

* * * * *

It scared him, the monster that stood right before his eyes. Its eyes seemed darker and more evil than anything he had ever seen. Jason staggered backwards a few steps before he pulled the g*n on it. He shot at it but the bullets didn’t seem to harm it. He emptied his g*n. The barrel end smoked but he continued pulling the trigger. It was out of bullets. The trigger was clicking in his ears loud enough to alarm the humanoid creature standing before him.

As if suddenly aware of his despair, it tilted its head with eyes still gazing fixedly at him. The creature gave him a devilish smile. At this moment, he wasn’t sure of its capabilities but still he shuddered. He could have sworn it wasn’t sweat streaming from his forehead. Suddenly he couldn’t feel his arms.

This cold frightful feeling was worse than his nightmares. At that moment, staring at it in its dreadful eyes, he saw it spit out something like green slime on his face. It hurt, it burnt like acid. The pain dropped him to his knees as he scratched it off his face with his finger nails. He couldn’t wipe it off. It burnt his fingers. Now he couldn’t see it and because he was screaming in pain, he couldn’t hear it.

Just then, in that fraction of a moment, he felt something like hot blades slicing across his belly, perhaps the creature`s claws or talons. Suddenly he was in the air. The creature threw him a few feet away like he was nothing. He felt the impact of a tree upon landing on the back of his head.

He felt his guts twisting with pain inside of him. One thing that seemed to matter now was the will to live. Life mattered now in more ways than he ever fathomed. He forced his eyes open as he drew in some air to keep the blood flowing. The creature was gone. There was nothing there but dark figures that soon settled into clear forms of trees. A feeling of relief now hummed through his veins. But the pain, the ‘hell beckoning pain’ was throbbing beneath his skin.

There was a light, right there, a light without a source that begun growing bigger and bigger. It was beautiful. His eyes widened as the light crept up his weak and strengthless body. Then he saw her. Cecilia, the love of his life. She walked to him, she was as beautiful as the first day he saw her and she was glowing. Was it a dream? A moment, that moment, before he dies that he sees a light? She seemed so real. That smile on her face seemed to take away the pain somehow.