Work Text:
“The road is so dark I can barely see.”
“Well, maybe you shouldn't have taken up this job, it seems pretty sketchy anyway”
I noticed my phone haphazardly propped up in my cup holder, I adjusted my tie and returned my focus to the gloomy road ahead. Of course the time I chose to work is at 1 in the morning, and of course with my luck, it’s foggy.
“You know I need the money,” I answer, “I've worked too hard for the money to be my down fall”
“Yeah I guess, college is expensive, but still-ll y-you need. to be….. c- careful- …..” a sinister and distorted voice advised.
“Darla?”
There is no response.
“Fuck, did my phone cut out, service is bad but it shouldn't have..” I lead off.
I take a second to look down, Comin’ Home Baby by Mel Tormé playing softly on the radio.
The buzzing of my yellow lights above fade out suddenly, engulfing me in silence aside from the hum of the radio. Reverting my eyes back on the road I grab my phone from the cup holder.
“Uggh why is it wet?” I muttered as the sudden wetness on my hands causes me to look away.
My lights cut out, but that isn't too unusual when it happens pretty often… right? I look at my screen to see what ended my call earlier.
“My god!!” I dropped the phone, I swerved panicking as I looked up and I saw IT.
I move in slow motion, my head raises, cold chills cover my body as I see IT. My vision turns red like the substance covering my phone. I yell out as my car jerks. IT disappears as my vision returns. With the sudden tug on the wheel the car spins off into a ditch, on the side of the road. Slamming into a tree. Right before the deep, thick, forest.
I feel as though my body is frozen as I sit there. My side window is broken letting the cold air of the mountains bleed in. My throat gets clogged as I release a shuddering breath, not knowing I was holding it. My light turns back on and I almost scream.
Red. Pouring down my windshield. All over my steering wheel. It's dripping down my hands. I quickly feel for the source but with a sudden horror.
“It. isn't... mine.”
Terror is evident in my voice. This time I can't hold back. A shrill scream escaping my lungs. Throat tearing apart as I bang the door open, trying to get out. *Bang* *Bang* *Bang*
I fall onto the forest floor. Or at least that's what I thought. My eyes are shut, I slowly open them and, and I'm in the middle of the road standing. What is happening? Watching as my car burns. It distorts into silhouettes. Prickling and screaming in agony, like live people are being burned. The fire inhales and exhales with ease and an unexpected beauty. But I am just watching.
Stuck, as if I'm going through sleep paralysis. Unable to move with the smell of burning flesh and⎼ “blood…'' Finishes a gurgling and revolting voice. I tense. Is someone in my head? Shaken up, I turn my attention back to the car. Suddenly sickened with the rancid smells my body reacts. The acid in my throat I will say isn't pleasant as it pools into my mouth. The voice answering me is in the back of my mind now. I do my best to get away from my car.
I jump as I hear the shattering of glass, the smells following me. When I get a hold of myself, I come to terms with what is going on. Adrenaline pumping up I take in my situation.
“Okay, okay… calm down. I got this, maybe I'm just dreaming. Yeah.” I felt like I am losing my mind. Pulling at my hair as I stumble from the car. “I could be forgetting something. Or-or blacking out, there has to be a reasonable explanation for this” I chuckle….. I'm totally losing my mind.
“Think, think. Where was I going” I recall my conversation with- with… who was it?
“Okay it doesn't matter, I was going… to a job! Yes! I remember. It should be up the road.” I stumble and trip as the explosion and continuous burning of the car fades to the background. The light of it slipping away under my feet as I walk farther and farther, around a corner. Soon enough I tumble around in the dark. Looking left and right, paranoia peaking. I keep searching the treelines looking for IT. The humanoid face with the uncanny feel it gives, the deep pits of black “eyes” stare back at you. The spikes prickling out of ITs back, dismembered bodies pierced and skewered. As if IT was showing off⎼ taunting. I shiver trying to force my mind away from that image. It was too dark and foggy. I could just be making it up.
“Where is it, I have been walking for too long,” my legs are wobbling about to give out. I feel like I have been walking in circles. Tree after tree after tree. “I swear I have been here before…” then, I hear it. “This… This can't be-” I can feel the panic engulf my body as it hits me. The smell of rotten burning flesh. The scream of my car. I sprint “no, no, no, nononono!!”
My sneakers skid to a stop. The warmth of the tears in my eyes resemble the heat of the fire. “Please no. How is this possible? I have been walking on this road for hours!” I stumble back as my car continues to burn. This shouldn't even be possible, there is no logical explanation. I really must be going insane… I laugh hysterically. Grabbing my head⎼ shaking it⎼ hoping this will all go away.
“Hahahaha, It's alllll fine, I'm just having a lucid nightmare, yes that must be it, isn't it?” Who am I asking? No one is there. My legs can't take it anymore as I collapse to the ground. My hands fall from my head and I just rest them on my lap. My bones are tired and my head hurts from the stress. I just watch, my car burns continuously prickling⎼ ash and smoke getting into my eyes. I sit and watch. Sit… and watch.
Or at least that's what I wanted.
Dread fills my soul, cold on my body as the bushes next to me rustle. To my left… my right… front, and back. The whole forest is shaking, growling, tears slip out of my eyes as I watch and wait. I know IT will show. But maybe, maybe if I'm quiet enough, it will all be over. More tears trail down my face as the shaking goes silent. No sound is heard, the forest quiets. Crickets, the wind, the fire. As if someone nudged the volume dial to life. I put my hand over my month to stop the shameful whimpering. The heaviness of my breaths, deep and shallow with a pain in my chest. Don't Make a Sound, Keep Quiet….
-.. --- -. .----. - / -- .- -.- . / .- / ... --- ..- -. -..
“I know you're there” IT says, voice haunting, echoed dismembered voices. Grin evident. “I seeeee you,” IT was taunting me. My body is about to collapse from fear. I can no longer see, the tears turning my vision to a kaleidoscope, snot and mucus holding onto my chin. My heart pumping too loud, my head throbbing. “You can't run from usss.” voices were prominent, as if it was in my mind, a fragment of my imagination. But the fear is too real. Bouncing around in my head. My thoughts are drowned by the constant words being mumbled. Why won't it get out of my head? I scream over them.
“There you are…” Terror-stricken I scream. I scream bloody murder. Body moving before I can even think. The mask-like face grining is too wide to be human. Body 10 ft, eyes deep black abysses. I run. I'm not looking where I'm going. Through the forest weaving through the trees. IT's chasing me. The breaking of sticks and the hum of voices not far from behind. I can't hold it. I know IT’s there. I scream and cry praying in my mind that this will all be over. Too distracted I fall. “No no no, my foot” I see IT speeding at me, I struggle to stand up, tripping on my own shoes. IT's only a few feet away. I have to run! And I do. The spikes practically touch my clothing. I can feel it in the small of my back. The chills and anxiety bubbling there. I run and run, way more than I should be able to. Is it instinct and terror? Who knows?
Soon enough I see a building. I don't know where it came from or how it got there. But I sprint towards it, because it is my only hope. I feel my distance lessen as I run into the building, it's almost like a warehouse. Rundown and falling apart. I can hear rain start to fall as I run through the hallways. Taping and dripping along the metal roof. I can no longer feel the… the thing behind me with it's spikes. Desperate to get my body⎼ to be showcased. I look at the hallways and rooms. “What do I do? I am in the middle of nowhere with no phone. No one knows where I am,” my voice is shaking, talking to myself is the only thing keeping me sane, if I even am. “I was talking to someone beforehand, I just have to hope that they know where I am and that they called for help. I just have to stake out, stay hidden and still. Completely…” the taps of footsteps loom near “...quiet.” I finished.
I hear the steps of ITs weight patrolling and pacing along the hallway I was in just a minute ago. It echoes off the walls. Humming on mumbling incoherent words. “Where aarre youuuu…” bounces around my walls. I creep as quietly as I can into a room that looks stable. Dark only with a sliver of light emitting from the moon. I still hear the pittering of rain but it has quieted almost as if it wants to stay unheard. “Come on nowww. We can play a game if you're going to hide,”
…..
*BANG*
Startled, on the verge of screaming. The thing has just smashed through a neighboring room. On the hunt, waiting and listening, then striking. Like many times tonight, I cover my mouth with my hands. Trembling in fear, I try to stay still, not making a sound. The ominous and eerie tension in the air, suffocating my lungs as I snivel quietly. I am hidden in a corner, pressed up against the walls and the building's roof looms over me. Encasing me in a box with no escape, moonlight shining in through a window too tall for me. The stalking of IT is getting closer and I can no longer feel my body. The fear is too much to tame, the shuddering is uncontrollable. Choking myself to keep the scream and wails down, the terror coming afront is enhancing my fight or flight. “I don't want to go yet, I'll never get to say goodbye…” Crying like a 5 year old just waiting for my mom to hug me, this isn't supposed to happen. What did I do to deserve this?…..Why me?....
I cover my ears, not wanting to hear it happen, for the door to bust open, to hear the words IT will say. I just want to go home and have dinner with my mom. I know I won't be getting out of here. The sting from my knee I had fallen is too real. The smells of rotten flesh are too poignant. I have accepted my fate. I can hear the monster creeping up, abominable snarls and whispers right in front of my door. I want to scream and holler that it isn't fair. That I don't deserve it, but I just recoil back into the corner, whimpering, tears spilling out of my eyes as I wallow in my determined fate. “I found you….”
Silence….
…..
The twitch of a hand. Spasming muscles, flexing and unflexing. His body lays unmoved, blood pooling around. Trickling down from the ceiling and splattered up the walls. His last breath was released as the rancid smell of rotten flesh, blood, and fear had filled the room. The being overshadowed the boy, kneeled down, appendages angled. IT tore into his skin, peeling it back and tearing it off, spitting it to the side. Mouth opened wide, IT hunchs over and clenched down. Bones splinter and break off. Sticking them into ITs face. Ribs aside, IT uses ITs claw-like hand to pull out the innards, laying them on the ground. The appalling sound and squelching of the organs. IT squishes them before devouring them. Slurping them like noodles. Vapid expression, after hollowing the body out IT slowly arched over the head. With ITs long spindly fingers IT grabbed the body and dragged it towards ITSELF. Mouth agape, IT clasps down swallowing the head full. With full and high intelligence, IT cuts slivers of the body and places them along ITs spikes. Angling the feet, toes, legs, hands, bones. IT makes that haunting, viscous smile and dashes out the window. Leaving the slaughter scene as is.
Drip… drip… dripp-p… RED
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Sirens sound in the distance, inching closer. They got a call from a poor woman concerned about her friend. They had to check it out after hearing where it was placed. So many people go missing or die in these parts. On this mountain. Some bloody, some sad. No one knows why or how. Maybe just a case of continuous bad luck.
“Hey Doug, look at this.” I say as we pull up to the car. “Huh,” he responds, hands on hips. “What human has that much blood?”
“Must've been a nasty swerve,” I concluded. The young adult is leaned over his head board, windshield covered in blood and car wrecked.