Beautiful Blood

Screeching

The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” 

― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956

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The seventeen year old girl was walking down the street, happily humming the song she was listening to on her music player when the strange screeching noise almost made her ears bleed. She frowned and took the earphones out wondering if they had come to an end. She checked them once more, forming another frown expecting to hear the sound again, preparing herself for another wave of pain in her ears. But, there was nothing. She continued to walk home, but this time she decided not to tempt fate. She put the music player back in her purse along with other items one could find only in a girl’s bag: some make-up, a notebook, a pen, perfume, nail polish and tissues

‘‘I’ll buy new earphones.’’

She made her way further through the crowd on the busy street when the sound came again. Panicking, she covered her ears; she managed to stop herself from screaming. She heard people commenting on her behaviour, a young woman warning her child to ‘stay away from the weird young lady’. Where was it coming from?

She continued to walk, clenching her teeth and fists, preparing herself once more for the sound. But there was just silence. Her heart was still beating in an uneven rhythm when she passed by an alley, dark even during the afternoon. As she glanced into its semi-darkness she thought she saw something.

She was about to keep walking but curiosity took the best of her and she turned around, carefully stepping into the alley. Even a few steps later, she still had to narrow her eyes in order to tell anything. With every step she took, the darkness seemed greater and colder. It was a being itself that extended and moved, whispered and saturated the air. Chills went down the high school girl’s back when she finally heard a movement, somewhere in the back. It sounded like a whimper only a child or a young girl could make.

‘’Hello? Are you okay?’’ She asked, trying to tell more figures in the threatening mirk. Nothing. Just the whimpering sound once more.

‘’H-help...’’ The creature said silently, its voice broken and crude, as if he or she (most likely she) had something stuck in the throat.

The girl could easily tell wherefrom the sound was coming. Only a few more steps and she will be there. She could already see the contours of the being before her. It was a girl for sure, maybe ten or eleven years old.

‘’Are you okay?’’ The girl asked, reaching for the child that wore some old, worn out dress.

The child did not answer. She lifted her head and looked at the girl with its piercing black eyes that had no eyelashes or eyelids. The girl screamed but there was no more help. Arms grabbed her ankles and dragged her away into the unknown darkness.