Skurdulka the Cryptid (a nonbinary scary story)

Part 4: Covenant

"If you speak of me, you will have broken our covenant and I will kill you. If you fail to return to my home, you will have broken our covenant and I will kill you."

Skurdulka's hissing voice echoed in my head like wind through a dry field. Laying awake in my bed, I still couldn't believe what had happened. As the hours ticked restlessly past in the dark, I started to wonder if it was all a nightmare.

Except it wasn't. My face still throbbed. I had bruises on my neck. It was real. It had all been real.

"I talked to Skurdulka," I whispered to the dark. "I talked to Skurdulka." I had to say it out loud or the memory might disappear into a strange not-quite-dream.

You will have broken our covenant. And I will kill you.

They said that, stared at me for what must've been a full minute, then left. That was all. I lingered in that dusty room, frozen, disbelieving, but Skurdulka didn't come back. The tall cryptid just vanished, leaving the door open behind them. The front door was unlocked too. I just... walked out.

I'd survived Skurdulka's house. When I thought about it too hard, my breathing started to rise. Skurdulka was real. My God—what other creatures in this world were real?

"Calm down." I tried to slow my shaky breathing. "Just calm down. It's, it's..." Okay? Fine? Normal? I swallowed the words. "Keep it together."

It wasn't like I could just forget, or even—eventually—turn it into a bizarre dream. Skurdulka demanded that I come back to the house. The secrecy I could understand, but why would they want me to come back?

Rolling over, I pulled my knees up to my chest. "Covenant," I breathed. "I made a covenant with—Skurdulka."

The minutes turned into hours in the dark. Every moment, every word, replayed in my mind over and over. As I wound in and out of my thoughts, I came back to the same two things.

I had to go back to Skurdulka's house.

And I couldn't tell anyone.

Curled up in the dark, I'd never missed Ash so much.

#

"Where did you go last night?"

I jumped. With no sleep, Skurdulka still swirling in my head, and still no idea what the cryptid wanted me for, I was jumping at everything. Glancing at Ash, I pulled a breath in my nose. The sight of short, square-shouldered Ash's earnest face gave me a surge of relief, then a stab of pain. Half of me wanted to tell him everything immediately. The other half wanted to hit him.

"Go away," I muttered, pulling notebooks out of my locker.

"Look, I'm sorry about Stevie. He just thinks he's funny—"

I whirled around. "Oh yeah, he's a fucking riot."

Ash winced, the break in his usually-stoic face almost painful. A moment of silence sliced between us.

"Go away," I repeated. "I've got a lot going on." I slammed the locker shut.

Ash looked at his shoes. "Your mom?"

I gritted my teeth. "No. For once." I shook my head. "Like you care anyway."

"I said I was sorry."

"No." I started walking down the hall. Ash followed. "You said you were sorry for Stevie."

"I am!"

Freezing mid-step, I turned on him again. "That's it?"

Ash's mouth opened and closed twice. "Um..."

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me." Anger crept up my back, the first emotion that was able to get through my terror of Skurdulka and our so-called covenant. "You're not sorry for letting him tear me apart because you're up his ass!"

Grabbing my arm and glancing at the others glancing at us, Ash pulled me closer to the lockers. "Shh!"

"You 'shh!' Fuck your 'shh!' Apache attack helicopter," I snarled. "He's an asshole and you know it, but you don't care."

Ash looked away, frowning. "He's not an asshole, he just—"

"Forget it." I glared at him. For an instant, I had a flash of Skurdulka's red-eyed glower. "Who fucking needs you anyway?"

In the cold silence that followed, I knew it was too far. But I wouldn't take it back. It was the same cold silence Ash gave me when Stevie said I was bullshit.

"Your bike's still at my house." Ash didn't look at me.

I looked away too. "Keep it. I have something better to do after school."

"What?"

Facing Skurdulka. Alone. I sniffed. "None of your business."

...

Author's Note; this was a short chapter! Part 5: Back to the House will be longer! Stop by Sun Dec 8 for the next part :)