That

CHAPTER 5: That

I woke up around 4:30 AM, Mark's little snore and his heavy arm over my stomach kicking the sleep out if me. The Pikachu was secure between my arms. I sniffed it. Mark was right, it smelled like chocolate. A mix between chocolate, Mark's cologne and cigarettes. It was obviously his toy but it kept the nightmares away and that's what I needed. He moved closer and pushed me towards the window. I turned around, facing it. 'If you wanna cuddle, Mark, then you'll be the big spoon' I thought to myself. Behind me, he was sleeping peacefully, still snoring a little.

I looked through the window. I black siluette, like a shadow, was standing a few feet away from the bus. 'Weren't we going to San Diego?'. The shadow was next to a signal 'Bienvenidos a Taco World'. We already were in San Diego. I blinked the sleep away. The shadow was closer. My heart started to race. 'Who's this guy?'. The shadow moved its hands and it looked like it was moving a little flame. A flame. Like the fire that took all of our things away. Sweat covered my face. The shadow started walking towards the window. It was getting closer with the flame dancing on its hands. I was paralyzed. Then suddenly both of its palms were against the window with a loud 'thumb'. Mark jumped awake behind me looking speechless at the window. Out there, a... thing was looking at us. Its pitch black eyes looking deep with hatred into ours. Its smile was full of sharp teeth, it was licking its lips with a tongue covered on cuts that were still bleeding. Fire around its body and its hands being consumed by it. Seconds later it was gone. I screamed and Mark pulled us away from the window. The guys got up all alarmed by my scream.

-What is it!? – Aaron literally threw himself down from his bunk. Jasper falling with him.

-There, on the window, he... it... it was burning... Jesus Christ his... its eyes, its tongue – Mark rambled out not sure of what we just saw. I couldn't even talk. I was grabbing Mark's hand and was too afraid to let him go. Mikey looked at me then at Mark.

-Who was on fire? Did you mean they were on fire? We have to help! Why weren't they screaming?

-It wasn't they it was IT. That thing wasn't human, it... it looked human but I bet my life it wasn't. It was enjoying the fire and it hated us, I'm sure of that – Mark was freaking out. I was freaked out too. That thing, it was demoniac. Jasper made us sit on the couch. Then he talked calm.

-You may have dreamed it. You two had a long night, you're freaked out. Don't be afraid, it was probably sleeping paralysis or something like that – His gaze was soft. He was tired and worried about us. We decided it was better to go to bed again. Jack patted my shoulder and smiled at me. He was trying to calm me down. We all went to bed and Mark took the window's side. We shut the curtains and tried to sleep.

A soft 'fuck' outside woke us up. Mark opened the curtains to see Josh outside our window. He was frowning. He looked at us and told us to wait. Seconds later he was by my side.

-We need to talk. I want you to tell me everything you saw last night – He was really serious. Mark and I looked at each other. We got up and went to the front. Everyone was there looking worried. I started to talk.

-I woke up and saw this shadow, it started to walk slowly towards the bus. Then suddenly it collided with the window. That's when Mark woke up...

-The shadow, how was it? Mark said something about fire – Sam said, with a dark tone. Mark answered this time.

-It looked kinda human, but its eyes definitely weren't from this world, same with its mouth. And it was on fire, like literally burning alive.

-Kyle found this ten minutes ago, outside, on your window – Said Jack handing me Kyle's camera. It was a burning mark on the bus, just were That was standing last night.

-It was real – I said not believing what I was seeing – It really was out there. We weren't seen things. Oh my god, what are we going to do!? What the fuck was that!? - I started freaking out again. That thing was still out there. Would it come back tonight?

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Note: Say hi to our little friend, That. This is where everything goes downhill. This is were Chloe's fears stop being normal and real, to be paranormal and real. I don't really like to fuck around with ghosty stuff like things falling from the closet and shit like that. I like it when you can't deny what you just saw. I like it direct and terrifying. I'm personally not a ghost person so I don't believe shit till I see it.

Here, in Argentina, we have a soda called Paso de los Toros, and their slogan is "cut the sweetness off" well, I did that with the sadness of this story. When I first made this up, Chloe wasn't interested on Mark, but since the story was too sad, I decided that Chloe deserved a little fun so I made this ship, to lighten the mood up.

Well, I hope you liked the chapter and welcomed That happily. He doesn't like people, but what were we expecting? He's a fucking ghost/demon/whatever-the-fuck-it-is. 

Don't forget to rate, vote and share the story.

Thank you :3