title ; Monsters
author ; RowenaWilliams
genre ; supernatural/horror
summary ; A short tale of why mortal humans should not approach the darkness.
notes ; Flash-fiction. 331 words.
It was only a brief encounter. I was walking home, ice cream in one hand, two
shopping bags in the other. It was a really hot summer's day, even for Japan. I
remember the city's skyline - the one you shaped.
We locked eyes for only a moment, but I feel like there was an understanding
between us - we were strangers, but all the same, we connected.
I never saw you again, but sometimes I wonder if you're still alive.
Two days later. Wednesday, fifteenth of August, six minutes and thirty-two
seconds past midday, I woke up from my nap. I'd made plans to go and see a
friend at half-past twelve, so I got dressed in a pink hoodie, blue short
shorts, and flared boots. I lived alone, so the silence wasn't uncommon.
Not at first.
I noticed it when I left the house. There was no birdsong, no traffic, and I
couldn't see anyone. I wondered if I'd gone deaf, but nobody was around. I went
to the park anyway, just in case there was a festival on or something. It
happened before.
No one was there, either. The whole city had gone quiet. I was pretty scared.
It felt like something out of a horror film, where I was going to be the first
to die. I called out a few times, and got no answer. I tried to call my friends,
my parents, even the phone operator, only to get the same message.
"The number you have dialled is unavailable right now. Please leave a message
after the tone."
I was about to call another number when the bushes rustled. In a city where
all I could hear was the wind, I knew something was wrong at once. I spun
around-
It lunged at me from the shadows, its claws plunging through my chest,
piercing my lungs, ripping through my heart. I was dead in mere seconds.
The last thing I saw was the endless sky.
