The Diseased

C.7

Chapter Seven

I was running.
I was running fast, and hard, like running was the only thing I knew how to do.
I was running away from something.
"Get away!" I screeched loudly, feeling something like a ghostly hand graze my back.
I ran faster and faster, looking behind me, until I realized when I looked back, I wasn't looking at anything, and when I looked forward, I didn't see anything. It was just darkness; the only sound emitting was my screams, cries, and the pounding of my feet on the ground.
And after a few final steps, I fell. I fell down, down, down and all it was just me and my piercing screaming.
Then, I hit the ground. My head ached. But as I lifted myself up from where I lay, I saw light. A small circle that seemed so close yet so far only inches away from me. Or miles. I couldn't tell, but my one desire was to go to that light.
I didn't have the energy to stand up and start running again, I was far too tired from running and falling and landing and recovering from it all, so I crawled, dragging one arm in front of the other and pulling, and dragging my other arm and pulling.
It felt like hours, yet at the same time, it felt like seconds until I reached the light. It shone through a tunnel, in which I found necessary to crawl through, even though my conscience warned me that crawling through an unknown, suspicious tunnel was at all my brightest idea.
When I finally made my way out of the cramped tunnel, wriggling out of it completely, I looked up, and saw complete and utter brightness. Almost way too bright too see anything, but I could make out distinctive figures.
But I didn't hear anything, as if I was deaf.
I stood up, caught my breath, and walked around to adjust to my new surroundings, which was just a town with tall buildings and many windows, but they were vacant, and abandoned. There were streets, but no cars drove on them.
It was empty.
I roamed around the town for a while, until I came across a path that was just like the rest.
Except it was the street that I had lived in, just before the Occurrence. And it was the only street that showed signs of life, but life that was already asleep. Life that had already turned out their lights and gotten into bed to rest. Every house had their lights off, but one.
There was only one of the Diseased, just one. The first one. It roamed to the house, like a moth to a flame because of its dire attraction to the light source.
I knew what this was, now.
But it was so hard for me to turn around and dismiss it like it was nothing.
I followed the creature to the house that emitted the light through the windows, not able to hear it's raspy groans due to my current state of deafness, even though I had them memorized.
And I couldn't hear what my father shouted to my mother in their final moments, as the Diseased crashed the wooden door to pieces and made its way into the family room, where my parents sat together, watching an old movie they had been meaning to see. But I had it memorized, their shouts.
"What is that thing?!" She screamed in horror, lurching out of the couch.
"Go get the kids!" He exclaimed, jumping in front of my mother to defend her as the creature groaned and stalked over to the couple.
My mother ran down the hall to Aaron and I's room that we both shared, and my father to his room, where he scrambled over to the closet where the safe was stored, and put in the simple password of the year they got married, 1998. It opened with a 'beep' noise, and the door swung open. He reached for his gun, and ran after the creature, who was on my mother's trail.
She fumbled to open the locked door.
"Beth! Honey! Open the-"
And then all that was heard was a piercing scream that was undeniably my mother's.
My father, as soon as he caught sight of the Diseased feasting upon my mother's flesh, fell to his knees.
I didn't see it at the time. I heard it, it was a 'thud' noise. I pictured it was what he did, though.
And I didn't know what his initial reaction was, but I pictured his mouth drooping open, his eyes widened in shock, his heart throbbing with inconsolable pain.
The creature stood, and made its way over to my father, whom was too in shock to react. As soon as it came to lurch at my father, was when he came to his senses to realize that his life was at risk. He yelled something obviously explicit, and his screams filled our ears.
All the meanwhile, tears streaked down the cheeks of the fourteen year old me and the twelve year old Aaron, as we tried helplessly to open the door. My father had the brilliant idea to reverse the lock on our door, so that they would be able to lock us in instead of us locking ourselves in. And, they had grounded us; me sneaking out to some party a week ago and Aaron for knowing and bribing me into not telling our parents. He told them anyway, though.
The Diseased creature wasn't done with its business, though, as it had the strength to break down the wooden door. Aaron cried in horror at the beast, begging for me to make it stop, make it go away. The creature flung its arms around, grasping for something as if it were blind-and maybe it was blind. It was dead after all, and maybe it was looking for something to hold on to, like it was trying to grasp its life back but it was just falling from his fingertips.
It made me sympathize for the Diseased for a moment, as I stared at the horrific memory playing out before me.
But then, that moment of sorrow and sympathy ended.
It ended as I watched the thing, as it flung itself around random places, loose its balance somehow and collapse onto my brother, and brought him down with him.
I wasn't aware of it at the time, I assumed that Aaron was right there behind me as I pried the window in our room open with the sudden boost of adrenaline that had kicked in, and crawled out, landing in my mother's dying garden of weeds that were supposed to be hydrangea flowers. She never had a green thumb, and would always despise it when my father's coworkers or any relative would send plants as a gift, because there was no doubt about it that they would die within the next week or so. My father said it was a curse.
For a moment, I stared at my brother, as the foolish fourteen year old Beth ran away from her fears, and away from her family. Little would I know that when I turned around later, he wouldn't be there with me. No one would be there with me.
But I felt as if I should pay for what I did in the past now. I would go through the pain, and watch as he died.
It was mortifying.
To the point where I couldn't watch any longer because his screams started to sound inhuman. Tears welled in my eyes as I took a deep breath, because without realizing my breathing wasn't steady.
The screaming stopped, though.
I took it as a sign to follow where the fourteen year old me went. Though I had lost sight of where I went, I knew exactly where I was going.
Ironically, it wasn't the abandoned preschool. It was out in the woods, where my family's house was built-not directly in the woods, but nearby the outskirts of it. Of course my knowledge and common sense on the situation weren't as strong as are now.
I eventually caught up with that fourteen year old me, who was out of breath and heavily panting, trying to catch her breath. Then, she turned around, expecting to see her brother, to find no one behind her.
I watched as her face fell in sorrow, the expression on her face as readable as a book.
She was alone, and she was going to be alone for awhile.