Flipped

1.15

I fell to my knees.  My ears were ringing so loudly I thought they might never hear again.  Everything was swirling, and in front of me was the blue light.  It enveloped everything around me, I couldn't see the grass, or the trees.  It was all blue.  

The banging had finally stopped, but I couldn't hear anything at all.  

Then, in the blue light, slowly, I saw a mass of shadows.  Shadows in the shapes of people.  There was a whole line of shadows, silhouetted against the blue that was covering everything else. 

There were older people, children, men and women, all of them standing in a row.  And then, they started to move towards us.  By the shimmering of the shadows, I got the sense that they were walking towards us.  Slow, but steady.

"Okay, is it just me, or are those shadows moving towards us?" Taylor asked.

"We all see them?"

"Yeah."

We stood stalk still, as they came closer and closer.  The light was so strong that I could barely even see my friends, standing to my right.

Very quickly they were halfway down the field.  I could have jogged right up to them in less than a minute if I wanted to.  As they got closer, I could see that they weren't just silhouettes.  I could actually see faint outlines, clothing, shoes.  And faces.  

"Oh," Ava said.  "Oh, that's..sick."

The heads of the figures were clearly visible.  But the actual features of each face was muted and distorted.  They all looked ugly, in separate, distinctive ways.  One woman's eyes were spaced at a strange distance apart, and her nose was off-centre.  Another figure, that of a young girl, had dim eyes, but as she came closer I could see that they were cross-eyed and off focus in the most macabre way.

These faces were the stuff of nightmares.

As they trudged closer, I became aware of something even more unsettling.  They were breathing.  They were breathing so loudly that once they came within 100 meters, I could hear them.  The sound was incredibly raspy, and utterly in unison.

That's when I realized.

I knew some of these figures.  

Many of them, I'd never seen before.  But I knew one or two of them in passing crossing the street on my way to school.  As I studied them closer, I actually thought I saw my teacher in the crowd as well.  

Oh my God.

I saw my dad.

Literally, it was him.

But his face was twisted and messed and... oh God.

Without realizing it I had stood up since the shock had knocked me down.  Now I braced myself as the figures came ever closer.

"Well," I heard Taylor say defiantly from beside me, "Let's do this."

Ava didn't say anything.

The shadowy figures, came closer and closer.  The ones in front stopped maybe two paces in front of us while the rest of them continued behind.  

Suddenly, with another flash, the light disappeared.  We were back in the park.  After being in a blue hue for so long, the moonlight and trees and grass almost seemed dreamlike.  Shimmering, like they weren't actually there.

After a few seconds, my hearing clicked back toward the heavily-breathing figures in front of me.  I could now see that, past us in either direction, there was a line of figures standing as well, facing straight ahead, and sloping behind us.  I could just make out more figures standing facing us on the side.

We were almost surrounded.  It just happened so fast.

The figure in the centre raised their hand, palm toward Taylor.

They let out a blood-curdling scream, and gave a  shove with its hand.

Taylor flew back, straight through the air.  I could hear a crack as she hit the pavillion wall, and another sound as she fell to the floor.

Without thinking, I turned right around and ran towards her.  She was still breathing, in ragged breaths, but her eyes were unfocused and open.  "Taylor.  Can you hear me?  Say something!"

Her eyes were tracking, she was listening, and gave a bit of a groan.  "Yeah.  Yes."

"Chris, watch out!" I heard from behind me.  

One of the shadowy figures had broken rank, and was going straight for me! 

It was no longer moving but gliding.  Gliding and hissing, coming closer and closer.  Its distorted features were formed in a hideous, macabre grin.

 This wasn't happening.  This couldn't happen!  This wasn't the way I wanted to go - no.  No!  NO!

 I turned my head and looked directly at him. 

As he moved, a small bright circle suddenly formed on his leg.  In a second it got bigger and bigger.  It was a flame!  

The figure stopped moving as the fire spread quickly up its leg into its torso.  I could feel the massive heat, hear the crackling, just like a campfire would sound.

The flames engulfed its head and it fell to the ground with a final, blood-curdling shriek.