The Monster

Sometimes our greatest enemy is within ourselves.

I laid profoundly asleep under the silhouette casted by the ghastly shadows of the silent forest at the backyard of my house, when the thunderous burst of firecrackers woke me up agitated, followed by tumultuous roaring of the crowd in celebration, marking the one year anniversary of October 17- Victory of World War III. Simultaneously, fear crept into me and my breathing became rapid, tousling the hairs on my skin with ice-cold sensations. Abruptly, I saw from the corner of my eye arise an enormous, shaddy figure, with jagged body and a harrowing crooked smile on its misty face revealing its glistening pointed teeth. I stood trembling, clutching my hands across my chest, and immediately my natural reflexes sent my legs sprinting across into the howling forest. 

As I ran, I felt its presence grasping around my skin like a chilly breeze, but the figure trailed behind me under the shadows. Images flashed in the inward eyes�"piloting the prestigious Dassault Rafale, orders from command center blaring through my headset, booming sounds towering so high up in the air, artilleries blasting, buildings and infrastructures blown to fragmented pieces�"when the ear-piercing howl interrupted these excruciating flow of images. There jumped in front of me a wolf-like creature standing about seven feet tall crouched on its hind legs, its fleshy body coated in thick gray fur, its hands and feet extended into claws, and its ravenous teeth growling in a deep snarl. It looked like a hideous monster, except for its eyes. Jeweled like topaz, they captured mine to be caught in a trance, looking sweet like honey, a striking contrast to the rest of its features. I stared deeper into them, finding my own reflection etched into those topaz circles as I caught a quick sense of  calmness instead of hunger. 

Suddenly, those eyes became aggravated locking eyes with something behind me, and when I turned to look, the figure that was chasing me had come out of the shadows, looking more scarier and daunting, a living nightmare. Memories engulfed me like seaweed pulling my feet deeper into the deathly ocean: my hands clenched the control stick momentarily before they hit the button that released the cruise missile that wiped out everything. Victory shrieked on the other side of my headset, but the scene before my eyes was humanely cruel. Destruction covered the barren, smoking earth, which held thousands of rotting bodies of all sizes. 

Right before the dark figure succumbed me in its presence, it leaped overhead at the figure, and I fell to my feet, covering my face. There was a ferocious growl, and glancing at the shadows moving across the trees, I saw that the fight ended. I turned to see the monster standing alone, dark wisps of air exiting from its mouth, when suddenly its body shuddered and it shrieked in pain as it transformed right before my eyes into a young man. He just saved me from the real monster: my own prison of remorse.