The Killer Guilt

Andrew slowly realizes what happens at the party the night before. The more he remembers, the more he has to relive through the entire scene, against his own will.

Andrew woke up. Gasping for air as if he drowned, he stared at his dark ceiling. He could faintly make out the odd patterns here to there from the texture. Goosebumps ran through his body, telling him it was cold in the room, but it didn't seem to bother him too much. A ringing was present in his ears, but he didn't think much about it. To add onto the discomfort Andrew was feeling, the sensation of being cold and the constant numbing ringing in his ears, his stomach was churning from what he thought was hunger.

Groaning, he sat up in his bed. Hands over his stomach as if to somehow help his queasiness, he looked around. Same room. Has been ever since they moved in, yet he felt an uneasiness. Like something wasn't quite so right. Like something was off.

Groaning some more, Andrew slowly got out of his bed. His stomach still felt ill, in fact, even worse as he got out of his initial position. As soon as his feet touched the floor, a short, sharp shock went from his toes to his head. It was like tiny bolts of electricity running through his body simultaneously. He yelped from the pain, not realizing how sore his feet were. Quickly jumping back into bed, he felt his feet were fine. No soreness when on the bed.

"Okay, sure. Whatever," Andrew muttered to himself. The pit in his stomach worsened, but it didn't feel like hunger anymore. Nor did it feel like an upset stomach from bad fish. The ache Andrew was felt was almost indescribable. What he did know was that he wanted to throw up. He felt disgusted. The sudden negative feeling was weird for Andrew, as he was a fairly confident man, but it wasn't arguable. The feeling of self shame was there as well, but it felt more than that. More than shame. Disappointment, maybe. Andrew never felt like this before, and if he was being honest with himself, it scared him.

Andrew lied back down, holding his stomach in the dark. It grumbled loudly, causing him to groan with it.

"What in the world." Andrew stated. He had no other words to come close to describing what was happening to him, so he sat there thinking to himself.

"What did I do last night?" Andrew asked himself. He closed his eyes to try to remember, and suddenly he was there.

A party. That's where Andrew was.

"I'm glad you made it my man!" A man yelled. Andrew looked towards the source of the voice, and smiled.

"Hey, I was looking forward to this all week, alright? There was no way I was going to miss..." Andrew gestured to the full house of guys drinking beer from red solo cups and girls in clothes that can be deemed inappropriate by school regulations and their fathers, "this."

"I would've disowned you if you didn't," The man said jokingly. He gave Andrew a wry smile, and walked away to get some more beer in his cup. Andrew looked around, admiring every girl in the room.

"This is going to be awesome." Andrew said, staring at a girl who was giving him a seductive look from the other side of the room.

A sudden knock on Andrew's door snapped him out of his memory. He sat up instantly, staring at the door, or at least he thought he was staring at the door. The only light that shone in his room were the white rays casted by the moon through the dark red curtains. Andrew didn't say a word as he stared into the darkness, waiting to hear another knock. Even his breathing was shallow to minimize the noise in the room.

Knock knock.

Andrew raised an eyebrow.

"Wh-who's there?" Andrew asked hesitantly. He didn't know why he was so hesitant with the question, it's his house. His room. The only people that could knock on that door was his mom or his friend. Despite that, silence pursued the question. Andrew was so quiet, he could hear the blood in his head rushing. The occasional outside noises of crickets and various late night birds were drowned by the thick curtains.

"H-hello?" Andrew asked again. No answer.

Andrew's breathing got a little heavier as he sat there in his bed. Funny things can happen to a person if they stare into the darkness long enough. For Andrew, he could've swore he saw a tall, dark man. At least, he was dark because he was in the shadows.

The man had bright eyes without distinguishable color. As Andrew stared some more, he realized that the eyes were somewhat white, but not white. It was like someone took a grayscale and laid it over the eye's color. He was also grinning with a devilish smile. His perfect white teeth were more visible than anything else. They seemed to shine almost, but not enough to make it seem like he was real. Andrew thought it was just an illusion of his mind.

Andrew blinked hard three times, and he disappeared. Just a trick of the eye. Andrew lied back down slowly, thinking about what just happened. With all of the activity that just went on, Andrew forgot about his stomach until it shot a jolt of pain through him.

"Ah!" Andrew yelled, sitting straight up again. It felt like his stomach was twisting and turning in him. Now he really wanted to throw up.

Sitting there being hunched over, Andrew remembered something from that night.

"Dude, that hurt!" Andrew half-whispered to his friend. He was hunched over holding his stomach. His friend just punched him  for not paying attention to the speaker.

"Pay attention! You're going to love this game," He said. Andrew rolled his eyes, then stared straight at the guy in the middle of the living room. There was supposed to be this amazing game that  was held at this party every other week. Being Andrew's first time, he was sort of anxious. No one is allowed to speak of what the game is outside of the house, but that didn't stop people from hyping it up. It must've been a great game for no one to spoil it.

"Alright guys! Who's ready to play Single Wolverine!" The man on the stage announced. Andrew gave his friend a look, but he just pointed towards the man onstage.

"Keep watching," His friend mouthed. Andrew responded with mouthing okay, and returned his attention to the man.

To the left of the host, there was a table with a large cloth on it. The man took one end of the cloth, winked at the audience, and whisked it away. Everyone yelled enthusiastically at the reveal, which was an organized set of knives. It was a grid of three by six, resulting in a total of eighteen knives on the top. Andrew looked around the room, and quickly deducted that there were definitely more than eighteen people in this building.

"And if your concern is the amount of knives we have for our players, you've obviously never been to one of these. Here ya guys go," the man said as he pulled the second cloth underneath the bottom of the table, showing three more layers of knives. Roughly about seventy-two knives now. All of them long and sharp.

"Wha-"

"Keep listening," the friend said. Andrew stayed silent, then returned his attention to the man again.

"Alright, this is simple. Tape the knife on the backside of your hand, and keep it there all night. It does not matter what happens, you have to keep it on. At the end of the night, whoever doesn't have the knife on their hand must take two double shots of vodka in a row. And for anyone else who wants to do that just because, you can do it as well." The man who revealed the knives smiled, and the crowd went wild. Andrew looked at his friend with a crazy look.

"Does he want to us to kill people?" He asked. The friend looked at him jokingly.

"Yes." Andrew gave him a look of horror, and his friend laughed.

"Dude, calm down. No one has actually ever been hurt in the process, believe me. I've been to every one of these parties." Andrew nodded, his anxiety lowering slightly about the game. The man told them to get into a single file line, and everyone got in line. Andrew got in the back, and waited for this game to start. He wondered what kind of sicko would make up a game like this, but he shrugged. He felt invincible with all of this hype surrounding him.

Six taps on the window woke Andrew up from his trip down memory lane. He looked up at the window, and saw a shadow of a branch against the dark curtains. It was very faint, and it almost seemed like a hand. The twigs curled, making it seem like fingers were trying to tug at the side of the curtain. The wind must've whisked one of the twigs hard, as the "thumb" of the branch went all the way to the edge of the curtain and stayed there. Andrew soon realized he didn't hear any wind outside, nor any animal noise.

The twigs slowly all made their way to the edge of the curtain, and grabbed it. Andrew's breath caught. The twigs slowly pulled the curtain back, casting more of the moon's rays into his room.  Andrew backed up to the head of his bed quickly before the curtains were pulled back all the way revealing the outside world.

Outside, the land wasn't green and enriching as Andrew was accustomed to. Instead, it was barren. Mud cracks everywhere with ugly weeds sprouting up in patches every other meter. There was no moisture whatsoever in the area around him. The sky bore a dark, red tinge to it. The white moonlight rays clashing with the red luminance of the sky made Andrew's room an unusual orange color that made Andrew's eyes tear up. 

In the now lit up room, Andrew looked over by the door, and saw nothing but the door. No tall man with bright eyes. No tall man with a devilish smile.

As he looked around his bedroom, Andrew noticed his stomach wasn't hurting anymore. Trying to sit up in his bed, he winced slightly from the pain in his stomach, but it was considerably less than before. The wind picked up outside, dropping the room's temperature by ten degrees. Andrew never noticed how cold the room was before, but now, he could see his breath if he blew out hard enough.

Sitting up all the way, Andrew looked round his room to see if anything was off. Everything was normal and the way it was supposed to be. His comic books thrown in a box in the corner of his room, grunge posters from the 90's hung up over his bookshelf, which housed a variety of school books that he only read once. Everything on top his dresser remained the same, including mementos and pictures from his family and his ex.

"Wait." Andrew said. He made his way across his bed to his dresser that was standing a foot away. He picked up a photo of him and his ex-girlfriend from two years ago. Andrew stared at the photo in disbelief. He turned it over to look at the back, and then flipped it over again to stare at the picture.

"I threw this away a long time ago." He muttered to himself. He glared at the girl in the picture and rage filled him. Bad memories were being kicked up in his brain, and he didn't want to be reminded of everything that happened, but he couldn't stop  looking at the picture. Every fiber of his brain wanted him to stop, but he just couldn't. He slowly got more angry as he stared at the smiling girl. Unbeknownst to him at the time of the picture, she cheated on him on three separate occasions.

She was a blonde girl with a pretty face and long body. Leader of the cheerleader squad, president of student council and class council, and ranked third in her graduating class. A smart girl who took advantage of Andrew when he didn't know the first thing about relationships, but because of her, he knew everything.

Andrew finished taping the knife to the back of his right hand when a stranger's hand tapped his shoulder form behind. Turning around, he saw a pretty girl with short, brunette hair. She looked about a year younger, but her body was more mature than anyone else's at the party.

"Hey there," she half-yelled, trying to talk over the noise.

"Hey," Andrew replied, eyeing her up and down. Andrew liked what he was seeing. The girl blushed from his eyesight, and attempted to make some small talk.

"I saw you came with your friend, I figured you don't know anyone here?" She asked.

"Yeah, you would be right. I was dragged to this party in hopes to... ," Andrew stared her straight in the eyes and finished saying, "'loosen up'." The girl giggled. Andrew smiled, and took her by the left hand. He quickly stopped himself when he saw the knife on that hand.

"It's stupid, right?" She asked. Andrew chuckled, and nodded his head.

"It's better than basically killing yourself over vodka, that's for sure." The girl giggled again, and Andrew decided she was definitely cute enough.

"Wanna grab some booze?" She asked with a mischievous look. Andrew smiled, and held his hand up to the table of kegs.

"Lead the way." He said.

Andrew shook his head, trying to get the image out. The memories were now flooding in, and he wasn't in control. He still didn't remember how that night ended, so maybe it was a good thing the memories popped up on their own.

His eyes refocused on the picture in front of him, and his anger came back. Except it felt more raw. More powerful than before. His breathing got faster while his heartbeat pulsed quicker. His arm started twitching, there was an urge to throw this picture across the room.

Ti od. Said a voice from behind Andrew. He spun around, but didn't see anyone. The anger was still present, and he felt his head slowly turn back to the picture. He couldn't help it.

Regna ruoy sserpxe. The voice whispered into Andrew's ear. He tried to turn his head, but he was frozen in place. His eyes fixed on the picture.

Od ot tanw uoy tahw wonk uoy.

Anger flowed through Andrew, heating him up almost literally. His fingers crushed the cold frame, and the glass in the picture shattered. Piece of glass lodged themselves into Andrew's hand, but he didn't seem to notice.

Doog.

Andrew reeled back the broken picture frame, and threw it with all of his might towards the wall. It shattered completely against the surface, leaving liquid residue like a crushed bottle of alcohol would. Andrew stared at that spot with a curiosity that was slowly replacing his anger.

"What?" He said.

The girl laughed as everyone stared at the wet spot on the wall in the kitchen. There was a rustle underneath that spot as two guys tried to wrestle down the drunk who threw the bottle of expensive vodka. 

The drunk was a big guy, yet he was losing the struggle. The two security guards that were wrestling with him seemed to know what they were doing. Every time the drunk swung wife with the arm the knife was attached to, one of the guards blocked the swing by the arm, and pushed it out of the way. The drunk backed up, held out the knife horizontally at the guards, and charged towards them. The knife was on the left side, so the guard to the left would get stabbed. Instead, that guard hit the hand with the knife out of the way, struck the drunk in the neck with a fist, and then elbowed his back as he stumbled past them holding his bruised neck. The drunk fell onto the floor, and everyone yelled with enthusiasm. The knife was ripped from his hand, and he was escorted outside.

"I didn't even know this party had security guards," Andrew said to the girl.

"They do, but they're hidden, and are only called out if there's a struggle of some sorts going on. Believe me, this place is very protected. This guy's been throwing parties for years now," she explained. Andrew nodded, and went to get his third cup of beer from the keg. He tripped a little bit on the way, but managed to keep himself upright majority of the time going there.

"Be careful of your claw!" The girl yelled as she pointed to Andrew with her knife. Andrew held up his right hand, and pointed it towards the girl playfully.

"Don't worry, I will!" He yelled as he made it to the kegs. The girl giggled, and stared at Andrew getting more booze. She bit her lips as thoughts went through her head of how this night was going to turn out. Sipping from her fourth cup of beer, she decided to tell Andrew that they needed some alone time.

Andrew blinked once, and the wet spot on the wall in his bedroom disappeared. In its place were broken shards of glass and a small little piece of the frame lodged into the cheap sheet rock. The anger in him swelled down, and he realized what he had done. The pain in his stomach has now resided down to nothing. He felt perfectly fine. As soon as Andrew noticed this, his first thought was to get out. Jumping off his bed, he landed on the floor with a loud thud. No pain in his feet. Andrew sighed with relief, and half-jogged to the door. When he grabbed the doorknob, he froze.

The doorknob was cold. It sent chills down his spine as he stood there, holding it in a tight grip. Andrew wasn't physically frozen, he had the potential to move, but he felt like this wasn't a good idea. That leaving this room might be more dangerous than staying in it. He looked behind him, and saw a man watching him with red eyes. It smiled with almost perfect white teeth, and had skin that looked like rubber. Andrew felt the presence of fear in him. Not the fear of a parent, but the fear of the Devil himself. It stood there, right in front of the spot on the wall that had glass and broken frame in it. It was almost swaying in place, staring at Andrew with playful eyes. Eyes that yelled to fear it. Andrew couldn't stop staring into them.

The longer he glared into those eyes, the more the world around him changed physically. His room slowly disappeared and in its place was a barren land full of black sand and white ash falling from the sky. The only entities in this land were Andrew and the leather man. The frigid air was replaced with an uncomfortable heat that made Andrew perspire everywhere. The tall man lifted up his arms, never breaking eye contact. The ground surrounding Andrew started shifting from below. Bare skulls emerged from the ground slowly all around him. The faces of the skulls were the first features to show, and they were all facing directly towards Andrew.

Their jaws started to move up and down quickly, emitting a chittering sound that covered Andrew's ears. He couldn't take away his eyes from the thing in front of him. All Andrew was aware about the noise was that little gray things in his peripheral were making them. After a second of the chittering noise rising in volume, the skulls started to move towards Andrew. The closer they got, the faster the bone rattling chitter sound was.

Andrew blinked once, and everything disappeared. The skulls in the black sand were no longer there, along with the environment accompanying it. He was back in his room with the thing across it still staring at him. Andrew was breathing hard, his hand gripping the doorknob so hard, his knuckles were white. Standing there, shivering from fear, he wasn't sure what to do. The thing smiled.

It took a step forward, and Andrew drew closer to the door out of instinct. Turning the handle quickly just in case he needed to escape. It opened It's mouth as if to speak. What It spoke didn't make sense to the human ears, yet Andrew knew what was said.

Nur.

Andrew flung open the door, and saw a dimly-lit hallway. The only light sources were on the walls with four feet in between red lights. It gave off an eerie feel, but Andrew didn't pick that up. He jolted from the room into the dark hallway hoping to outrun It. The thing behind him started walking slowly, the smile on It's face growing wider. It was almost ear to ear now, with bright teeth that almost shone in the dark. It knew running was pointless. This was all just a fun game.

As Andrew was running, he took turns left and right in a rushed panic. He wasn't conscience of his decisions, he just knew he had to run. Run and run and run.

Slowly, his environment started to change around him with every turn. He turned a left, and the carpet was white instead of red. He turned a right, and the sunflower walls turned light green with slight texturing. He turned another right, and the red lights lining on the walls were replaced with blue chandeliers on the ceiling.

Surprisingly, the differences of the environment wasn't what Andrew noticed. Instead, it was how huge his house apparently was. He never remembered this many twists and turns before.

All these observations, with the exception of the infinite hallway, were made with his conscience, but a turn was coming up, and something inside of him told him to turn right. Following the voice, he turned right and found himself in the company of other people. Andrew stopped immediately in confusion.

The people were the ones Andrew remembered from the party. It didn't feel like a memory anymore, but something like real life. Even that feeling didn't feel real to him. Nothing felt real here.

The sudden thought of the thing chasing him jolted him back into the adrenaline of a chase. He started running once more into the crow of drunk people with huge knives on their hands. Andrew glanced behind and saw the tall, red thing amongst the presence of the people. They didn't seem to notice a weird humanoid walking among them, flashing a white smile that Andrew couldn't take his eyes away from.

Gniog peek.

Andrew didn't need to be told to keep going as he turned around and went into a full sprint though the hallway. After a minute of straight running, he stopped to catch his breath. He looked around, and noticed that he didn't make any turns whatsoever. The hallway he was running on seemed to keep going straight for forever. He peeked behind him and didn't see the red thing.

He was about to go for another sprint, just in case, when he heard something familiar. A girl's giggle.

"Yes, this room. It's empty, I promise," a girl said. Andrew heard that above all the noise in the hallway. He glanced to the left, and saw himself being led by a girl into an empty bedroom. He was so caught up in the moment, he never noticed the thing right behind him. It was looking down at Andrew, smiling wickedly at him. It then grabbed Andrew's shoulders gingerly, and guided him to the entrance of the doorway slowly. He was frozen with fear. Fear from seeing himself, fear of whatever is pushing him (he had a suspicion of what it was), and that put even more fear in him. Fear of what he was going to see in that room.

Ylluferac hctaw.

Andrew stared into the dark room, and saw himself on the bed, making out with the girl he met at that party. Unfortunately, after seeing this moment, Andrew knew what was coming up. He didn't have to go down memory lane to remember this part. His body started trembling, and the sensation of throwing up was present. He wanted to run. Run far away from this spot. From what was coming. He turned around quickly, but saw the monster that was chasing him in the doorway. It smiled, and closed the door with a slam. Andrew stared at the closed door, then back to the scene on the bed. Events escalated, and a shirt was taken off of Andrew. The girl was feeling up and down his body as he lied there, taking it all in. Andrew stood there in the room, frozen. He couldn't take his eyes off. He would do anything to not be there.

The girl was very aware of the claw on her hand, but didn't bother to take it off. Neither of them did. In their heads, they were too concerned about each other. Andrew grabbed the girl's waist, and flipped her on the bed to where he was now on top. The girl giggled, and attacked his lips once more. Her hand roaming his muscular back.

"Stop." Andrew said in the dark, hoping he would hear himself on the bed. Tears were forming in his eyes, the tight grip of his heart was hurting him physically. He wanted to double over in the pain and disgust he felt, but he couldn't. He stood there, watching. His eyes never wavering.

"Listen to me, stop," he said once more in desperation. Nothing worked as he saw with horror Andrew's hands reach up to her stomach. There was a laughter from behind Andrew, causing him to turn around quickly. The red thing was standing there, smiling wickedly at Andrew. It opened its mouth and spoke.

Niaga revo gniht elohw eht evil ot dah uoy fi emahs a eb d'ti.

"No," Andrew spoke softly. It was useless though. Disagreeing with It was like trying to bargain with the Prince of Hell: the Devil will always win. It raised It's long, thin fingers, and made a snap formation. It smiled even wider, giving off the creepy vibe of a madman. Yet Andrew knew It wasn't a madman. It was probably the most intellectual thing he's ever met.

It snapped It's fingers, and Andrew's perspective changed in an instant. Now there was only one Andrew.

He opened his eyes, and saw the girl underneath him. He wanted to yell, but he wasn't in control of his body.

NO! Andrew thought. He looked down, and saw his hand lift up the girl's shirt. He strained with all his might, but nothing was happening. Andrew lifted the shirt up all the way to her chest, and slid his hand down to her stomach.

NO NO NO NO! Andrew yelled in his head. He tried to pull his arm away, but all he felt were his muscles contracting. His arm still made its way to her stomach.

Andrew wanted to cry, but he couldn't. He looked at the girl's face, and saw her eyes closed and her mouth slightly open in pleasure.

I'm sorry. Andrew thought, admitting defeat. He couldn't stop the events that were going to happen. He couldn't fight the force pushing him onward.

His hand finally made its way to the girl's stomach, and Andrew saw the girl's face go from pleasure, to pain.

"Andrew, I think you stabbed me on acci- OW!" She exclaimed. Andrew's eyes stared at the girl's face as she screamed out in agony. He stood up suddenly on the bed, staring at the girl who was screaming and wiggling underneath him. Blood was gushing out of her stomach where Andrew punctured her with his knife. He stood there, staring at the dying girl in front of him. He was frozen. The phone felt heavy in his pocket, he know what he should do, but he just stood there instead.

The girl screamed, trying to hold the wound as if to alleviate the blood flow. That didn't work. As her screaming died down, Andrew slowly backed up. He was wondering why no one outside this room was investigating, then he remembered that it's really loud at the party. Her screaming behind a closed door, and with the presence of loud trap music was useless. Andrew got off the bed, and by that point, she was just panting. Short breaths that were focused on trying to calm her down.

"Call 911!" She yelled to Andrew. He didn't do a thing but stare at her. He looked down, and saw the knife on his hand was bloody. From the tip to the halfway point, it was stained a dark red. A drip fell, hitting the white carpet underneath Andrew. He started to shake his head and back up some more. He felt like he wanted to throw up. He felt disgust, shame, and fear. If he called 911, then he would be convicted of assault. He didn't want to go to jail.

He looked to his right, and saw a window leading to the roof. He stared at it, and then back to the girl who was soaked in her own blood. Her clothes were a deep red, and so were the sheets around her. Andrew looked up, and saw the red man standing right next to her. He was looking straight at Andrew as It's hand reached down into the pool of blood gathered around her waist. It took It's finger, dipped it in, and brought up the blood soaked finger to show Andrew.

Sivo suditrep uoy sdnah rouy no redrum a evah uoy.

Andrew looked towards the window again, and decided it was for the best. He didn't want to go to jail. The Andrew inside his head was screaming no. He knew what was going to happen if he ran. He doesn't want that to happen again.

Andrew quickly made his way to the window, and started unlatching the locks on it.

"Please," the girl whispered on the bed, staring directly at Andrew by the window.

A multitude of emotions ran through him. Guilt, cowardice, shame, disgust, sadness, but most of all, anger. Anger towards himself. He just needed to run away. Get away from this scene. He decided it would be best to escape and hopefully forget about everything.

Andrew felt himself shake his head, yet he knew what was going to happen when he left. He couldn't stop himself. Opening the window all the way, he put his foot over the sill as soon as the door opened.

A guy holding a girl's hand walked in, and announced, "Anyone doing any freaky busine- OH MY GOD, WHAT HAPPENED?" The guy saw the bled out girl on the bed. The girl who was behind the guy started screaming bloody mary. The guy looked at Andrew climbing out of the window, and looked back at the dying girl on the bed. He made the connection, and started yelling for help.

Please stop me. Andrew thought as he hastily climbed out of the window. The guy in the bedroom was now occupied with two men with security uniforms on. They noticed the window opened, and jumped right through it, onto the roof. 

Andrew was on the edge as soon as the security men jumped through. Andrew looked behind and saw them slowly walking up to him. Careful not to slip on the tiles and fall.

Andrew looked down at the grass below him, and decided it would be better than jail.

DON'T YOU DO IT! Andrew screamed in his head, but his body was only the vessel that he occupied. And for this vessel, it was in control. Andrew jumped from the edge, and landed on the grass with a hard thud.

"OW!" Andrew yelled as white hot pain shot through his legs. The shock was overwhelming, and almost caused him to pass out.

"Dude! Did you just jump from that roof?" A drunk guy exclaimed from the ground. He was either high or drunk, Andrew couldn't tell. Nor did he care.

Andrew started to limp away from the house. Looking behind him, he saw the security guards crawl back through the window in haste. Once he saw this, he quickened his pace. Making his way to the road.

The town wood was across from there, and he knew exactly where to go in those woods. He used to run through there and play with his friends back in his youth. He glanced behind him once more, and saw the tall red thing staring at him. His smile even bigger than before.

Gniog peek.

Andrew yelled at the thing, and he turned around to keep limping towards the woods. His vision was only focused on the woods in front of him. Not to the side of him, nor above or below. A car started in the distance. Someone trying to go home after drinking a few beers.

The guards clambered out the front door to chase Andrew down, who was now on the sidewalk. With the pace Andrew was going, the guards were going to have a guaranteed hit on him before he even crossed the road. The car that started was now in reverse, after a minute of the guy in the car trying to find the shift stick.

Andrew felt his feet hit the hard concrete of the crosswalk, yet the voice inside of him told him to stop. That he wasn't going to make it. The body, however, kept trudging along. The car was now backing up from the driveway, to the street.

Making his way to the end of the curb, his foot snagged on the shoulder of the curb, and he fell. He hit his head hard on the black pavement. His eyes closed immediately, and his movements became slow and groggy. The voice in him was still strong, and continued to yell to get back up, but the body wasn't responsive. The car got on the street, and the guy had to hunt for the shift stick again to put it in drive.

The guards got halfway to Andrew when he got up slowly. They decided not to rush it, as Andrew wasn't going to go anywhere anytime soon. He took one more step towards the wood as the guy finally found the shift stick.

The security guards stopped, seeing the car pull forward haphazardly. They figured out what was going to happen. They could've rushed and pushed him out of the way, but they didn't want to risk getting hurt. The host came out of the house, immediately saw what was going to happen, and yelled, "I'm am NOT going to have two deaths at my party. GET HIM!"

But it was too late. Andrew looked up towards the wood, and saw glowing red eyes staring at him. Around the same time, his legs hurt so much, he stood still. Moving them slightly would cause immense pain that wasn't worth it. The voice in his head was screeching so loud, it sounded like a dog whistle. Time slowed to a standstill, and It stared at Andrew with glowing eyes that showed Andrew terrors and horror beyond his imagination. The voice in him yelled at him to keep going, but he couldn't move a muscle.

The thing raised its arm, and pointed to the left. Andrew glanced to where it pointed, and saw a car driving towards him. The voice screamed, but Andrew stood there like a deer, frozen in the headlights of the oncoming collision.

Time returned to normal, the car drove towards Andrew, and the red thing in the woods smiled. Andrew screamed, just as loud as the voice within him.

The front of the car smashed into Andrew's legs, causing his top body to fly on top of the car and smash into the driver's window. The guy inside screamed as Andrew's head collided with the glass making a big dent that left the windshield shattered. The collision caused to his head to bust open, leaving blood in the center of the small crater on the window. Andrew's shattered legs hit the window right after his head, causing small cracks on the passenger side of the car. After the initial impact, Andrew's body kept moving along the car. It sled to the roof of the car, fell back down on the trunk, and finally hit the pavement with a loud crunch. The car stopped, and the guy got out to investigate who he just hit. The guards stood there, still frozen. The host of the party looked around, and ran back inside to get some help.

Miraculously, Andrew was still alive. Barely. He couldn't feel his legs anymore, and his head throbbed. It was daggers were poking the inside of his brain every single second. The pain was so intense, that he couldn't bear to open his eyes. He squinted so hard, he felt like his eyes were going to pop. He opened them barely to see the thing in the woods looking at him. Those red eyes that stopped him. His breath caught when he saw the thing walk towards him. Slowly, as if to emotionally torture Andrew.

"Help," Andrew whispered. His voice was barely a squeak. No one would've heard him. As the thing got closer, the environment around Andrew dissipated. The road underneath gave away, and was replaced with a cold, smooth surface that was pitch black. The kind of black that seemed to go on for forever. As the red thing got halfway to Andrew, It snapped It's fingers. Andrew could now feel his legs, but he wish he couldn't.

Andrew has experienced broken legs in the past, but this was worse. Way worse. His legs weren't just broken, but they were shattered. Pieces of broken off bone stabbed at the muscle inside of him, there were open gashes where the bone stuck out, and he felt the cold of the area he was in. It chuckled at Andrew writhing in pain on the floor.

"Please," Andrew whispered, hoping that would do something. The thing's chuckle turned into a laughter, and Andrew felt his very soul shaking.

As soon as the thing reached Andrew, It stooped down, grabbed him, and raised the almost dead body up to his eye level. Andrew severely mistook the size of this thing. It was now bigger than one story, and had Andrew in its big hands. Andrew's feet were dangling two meters from the ground.

Niaga revo gniht elohw eht evil ot dah uoy fi emahs a eb d'ti.

"No. Please no," Andrew pleaded. The thing smiled, and opened It's mouth. Not to speak, but to breathe in. It was like a vacuum, but Andrew didn't feel it. Something in him did though. There was a force inside Andrew that was fighting to stay inside. Andrew looked the thing in the eyes, and he saw the lake of fire in them. People burning alive, being tortured for eternity. These were the people that lost their souls. They are no more.

A long silver string erupted from Andrew's chest, and he screamed in pain. It was worse than the pain in his legs. A part of him was being torn from his physical and spiritual body, and the immense pain of his made his legs feel like it had a paper cut. There was a gleam in the thing's eyes as the silver string started to turn black when it reached It's mouth. It smiled, slurped the strand like a noodle, and dropped Andrew. Andrew landed on the ground with a thud, and he screamed in pain. His legs were burning with pain, and he could do is scream from the pain.

Doog saw taht.

The thing looked down at Andrew with merciless eyes.

Era uoy erehw uoy gnillet rehtob ot gniog ton m'i.

Llet nac uoy erus m'i.

Andrew kept screaming from the pain, and It smiled.

Thgir boj ym gniod m'i wonk ot ecin s'ti.

The thing looked down at Andrew screaming, then yawned.

Won gnirob si siht, thgir lla.

Owt dnuor a rof og s'tel!

Andrew didn't hear It, as all he heard was the rush of his blood in his ears. It sounded like waves crashing into him. That wasn't the only sound though, as he heard an intense ringing.

You know, you did well for your first time.

The thing snapped its fingers, and Andrew found himself in a dark bedroom. His legs were reverted back to normal, his brain wasn't throbbing anymore, and he felt comfortable. But his mind wasn't at rest.

"What," he said into the darkness.

"It... it was a dream," he said. Andrew laughed, but quickly stopped.

"Ow," Andrew said, covering his stomach with his hand. His stomach was cramping, and he felt like he was going to throw up.  Andrew started hyperventilating.

"No. No no no no no no," he said in between every breath. An idea occurred to head. He went to the side of the bed, and gingerly put his foot on the ground. When the feet made contact with the ground, a short, sharp shock went from his toes to his head.

"Oh, God no. No no no, NO!" Andrew yelled. The silence came back when he stopped yelling, and the rushing of his blood filled his ears. He looked around and saw something by the door. A tall, dark man. At least, he was dark because he was in the shadows.

Andrew knew it wasn't a dream.

Author's Note

Thoughts?