Twilight Encounter

An assignment for my Creative Writing class.

      A cold March night, the full moon glowing vaguely through the puffy gray clouds.

I walked almost silently through the trees, my adrenaline pushing me forward. I had no idea where I was, and I didn't care. I just needed to walk.

     Call it a quirk, but it was the easiest way to get things off my mind.

     My name is Jess, I'm seventeen. I have some problems, like lung cancer, asthma, and a few forms of insanity; like paranoia and schizophrenia. I'm the only child of a single mother who doesn't even know who my father was.

     A soft noise managed to disrupt my wild thought process. Normally I would have stopped to further inspect the somehow ominous sound, but a string of words kept filling my ears, egging me on. The doctor's words kept me angrily mobile�"

     You could be dead by next month he had said.

      I was stomping through the trees now, tripping over every root and rock that could throw itself in my path, but I stood and brushed off the bracken from my knees and continued to stumble through the darkness. It was almost too dark to see, but I managed.

     Abruptly, a cold hand gripped my wrist, with enough force to splinter it. I was too stunned to feel the pain. I cried out in alarm as the owner of the hand whirled me about to face him.

     He was pale in the extreme, I noticed immediately, so pale that he seemed to glow, like he was a moon. Glassy black eyes, like crystallized oil spills, contrasted against the snow white skin of his face, which seemed to float as it stuck out in the darkness of the forest. It was all I could perceive of him.

     But I could see the look in his eyes, the expression on his face. Malevolent, hostile, craving the kill.

     Also, I could see the blood that spilled over his lip and defiled the paleness that was his chin. Fear jolted through me, like I had been struck by lightening.

     Who, or what, was this strange...man? Creature?

     I watched as his tongue flicked out and swiped away the bit of blood on his face. Disgusted, I tried to jerk away, but he was much too strong.

     “Who are you?” I gasped, my heart beating so hard, so fast, that I could hear it. The sound filled my ears, the encounter with my doctors forgotten. The man snarled at me, a sound that was far from human, and I jerked my wrist away so hard I could feel it break, and I began to run.

     I wasn't sure where I was going, or why my wrist didn't hurt. All I could notice then was that I could hear him blow right past me at an impossible speed. Instinctively, I turned and ran the other way, stumbling through the undergrowth clumsily. I could feel frightened tears well up in my eyes, I was trying not to scream, so save the breath that was hard to find.

     You could be dead by next month.

     Those words seemed far more ominous now than they had at the time they had been spoken.

     Twigs scratched at my face as I burst from the cage of the forest, running still, breathing hard. The air was cleaner and fresher. I recognized the street I was on, flickering street lamps illuminated the area.

     I sprinted homeward with all my strength, wanting to laugh at every doctor who said that a girl with asthma and lung cancer couldn't run this hard without collapsing and suffocating.

     I couldn't feel any hostile vibes emanating toward me from behind. Cautiously, I looked over my shoulder. He was gone. But, still, I kept running, feeling the wind tousle my hair.

     As time progressed, I began to feel weak, tired. Air wasn't flowing the way it should. I reached into my jeans pocket for my inhaler, but it wasn't there, probably at home or on the forest floor from my jostling run.

     I just kept running and running until I eventually did collapse...

Reviews

[Eric Cox]

Great horror in this. The character did the best thing to do when meeting an evil vampire... run. Cool imagery of the vampire. Great job on this story.

[Bella-Marie]

Very well written. I liked it heaps. The best bit for me was when she was trying to outrun the creature in the forest. I loved it!