Horrific Flashfiction

Broken Things

Quietly, I tiptoe across the worn wooden floorboards, dust stirring softly at my feet, pressing my hand along the faded plaster wall, chipped and peeling paint scratching at my fingertips and working it's way under my nails in sharp splinters.I can hear the soft drip drip drip of water falling from a loose tap or leak somewhere, and the distant ghostly whistle of midnight wind whispering through the trees outside the creaky,desolate cabin I'm in.

I creep around the next doorway, rough edging crumbling to a fine powdery dust as my hand brushes across it, the smell of abandonment and decay filling my lungs, along with another smell I can't quite place.

Drip drip drip.

Heart fluttering wildly, I peer down the dark hallway stretching away in front of me, shadows dancing in distorted shapes along the walls, the murky gloom lit only by the pale light of the full moon filtering down through the clouds and a small paned window at the end of the hall.

Suddenly there's a flash of movement in the corner of my eye, too fast to catch properly, the whisper soft whoosh of something big and fast running across the old planks. I jump and push myself back around the corner, out of sight of the door at the end of the hallway, trying to quiet my now heavy breathing and slow my panicking pulse.

A few seconds of thick silence pass,hearing nothing but the steady drip drip drip, and I cautiously poke my head around the wall to peer down to the lone door. I fix my eyes on it after scanning the rest of the hall for movement, and debate whether to run, or if I'll just attract attention to myself for it to catch me.

Suddenly, there's a long, soft creak,as the door slowly swings open, and I find myself frozen there,unable to take my eyes off of the lone piece of movement in this otherwise solitary house.

Then I hear it. The hot, wet breathing,loud and snuffling to my hyperactive senses, and I watch in horror as a dark shadow slides itself out from the doorway, detaching in disembodied movements, predator like and animalistic, but disjointed somehow, and I find myself unable to move as I watch the blacker than black silhouette moving in slow, snuffling motions, feeling the knot in my chest pulsing along with my racing heart.

I squeeze my eyes shut, praying to whoever rules this universe that I can be spared, that this delinquit creature will forget me or pass by me unnoticed or -

I open my eyes again with my somewhat quieted pulse; only to find myself trapped in a golden red gaze. My pulse shrills through my veins as the black silhouette drags itself upright, long sharp claws clacking on the fraying wood they touch as it pulls it's horridly disfigured form into a human-like stance, the moonlight framing it for me, drawing itself up to its full height,sagging and oversized head almost brushing the roof as a black sluggish tongue crawls out of its mouth and licks the air in front of it, tasting it and the tangible adrenaline hanging there.

Tasting my fear.

The being smiles, crooked and too wide,revealing thin, pale lips that barely cover horridly pointed teeth,more like crooked yellow needles protruding from the creatures mouth.It takes a slow step forward, a long, dark, scaled tail sliding along the ground behind it, the weight of its massive beast like clawed feet thudding on the wooden floor.

I feel myself shaking, but can't move,even as I scream at my limbs to run, too lost in the eyes that are like black pools of nothing yet also fire and hate with embers falling through them like gold...

It's face looms closer and closer to mine, allowing me to see the bald and flabby skin hanging too much off of it, scaled in appearance but not quite, and it's tongue stretches out further, finding my cheek and stroking down it, as though tasting me.