Gods and Monsters

Ch. 21 The Beginning

It started with a soft tapping sound. Sage opened his eyes slowly, thinking one of his siblings were up but he realized almost immediately that he couldn't move. It was happening again. Only this time he wasn't on his back but on his side and staring directly at the open bedroom door.

It was dark beyond the doorway, the streetlight coming in through the window stopped before it reached the center of the room.

The tapping started again and it sounded like it was coming closer to the room. A scratching sound joined it, like something was dragging against the wall.

Sage could do nothing as he watching a dark figure melt out of the darkness and slip into their room. He tried to tell himself that it wasn't real, that it was just his mind. It's kind of hard to do that when your looking at something that seemed to unfold and shift into something you've never seen before. It looked to be about his height but was thin with long arms and sharp talons that reflected the yellow street light.

He tried to cry out as he watched it crawl onto the bed with him. Sage closed his eyes and tried to wish it away while trying to breathe. He opened his eyes to see it perched on his chest and only inches from his face. It's jaw dropped impossibly far and rows of sharp teeth were bright against the darkness. Sage felt his body flinch when what looked like black tar poured out of its mouth and onto him, covering his face thickly and making it impossible to see or breathe.

When the thing tried to lift him off the bed by his neck, Sage started praying, to any god that would listen.

It seemed to work and it disappeared like smoke, blending into the shadows around the room.

Getting up, Sage ran to turn the light on and looked around the room. Elias and Marlo still slept soundly, both unaware of what had just happened. Looking down at himself and wiping his face, there was no more of that rank stuff on him. He left the light on and risked going down the dark hall to check on the twins. Aurora's princess nightlight made it so Sage could see that they were both in bed.

There was no way he could go back to sleep after that, no matter how tired he was. He ended up sitting on the couch staring blankly at late night talk shows on tv until he heard one of the kids wake up and get in the shower. It was still too early for them to be up and getting ready but he figured they didn't want to wait for their turn in the shower.

The six o'clock news had just started when Elias came down. His blond curls still wet from his shower and his backpack over his shoulder. He paused when he noticed Sage watching him and starting playing with the strap on his backpack.

"Um...I'm leaving early." He said, not waiting for a response before walking out the front door and slamming it shut behind him.

Sage decided to get everyone up so they could get ready for school.

No one seemed very energized, even Marlo wasn't his usual chatty self. Sage blamed it on being a Monday.

Everyone got to school without a fuss and Sage was thankful.

It wasn't until second period that Sage remembered what happened Friday. He'd completely forgotten about the date Brandon went on and that was a good thing.

The tall, skinny brunet smiled at him when he entered his second period class. Sage had to look behind him to make sure the boy wasn't smiling at someone else.

Okay...Sage ignored him and continued to his desk in the back. He couldn't even think of his name, why was he smiling at him?

During class, the boy would turn around to look at him and it made Sage feel uncomfortable. Did Brandon tell him something? He hoped not. He hoped they didn't talk about him at all.