A Sick Boy's Story [HIATUS]

Chapter 6

I was about to make my way to bed when I felt something, or someone, grab me by the shoulder. I turned around to see Eddie. He was wearing an orange plaid jacket over a black t-shirt with a popular rapper's face on it. His black skinny jeans were rolled up slightly to show black socks and high tops.

"Dude, it's midnight. What do you want?" I grunted, turning my head away slightly.

"Sure it's midnight, but you're not even tired!" He smiled and I swear I could feel myself slipping. Last time he smiled like that...

"Eddie..." I shook my head and turned on my heel, heading to my room only to be cut off by him.

"Hear me out, Bud!"

"No, I'm going to bed."

"Sam-o!"

"No one calls me that!"

"C'mon! We haven't done this in years!"

"Yeah and last time I broke my arm!"

"That was by accident!"

I scoffed and turn back around, causing Eddie to almost run into my chest. "Edward! You pushed me off a tree, 20 feet high! And you only stopped laughing when you realized my arm was bleeding everywhere!" He sighed and rested his hands behind his head.

"Fine. Don't come. It's not like I planted spiders in your bed in case you said no."

Oh my god.

My eye started twitching but it quickly went away. "Fine, I'll come. Just, ugh, let me get dressed." Eddie smiled and ran downstairs, not minding the fact he was being loud enough to wake the next house miles from here. Checking the weather on my phone, it was in the negatives. Of course he wanted to go outside when it was snowing, and at midnight of all times. I quickly threw on a bunch of black clothes to try and absorb any light possibly out there. Black t-shirt, sweatshirt, denim jacket, jeans, and socks.

Heading downstairs to meet Eddie, I saw the front door was already open. I swear if he let any pets out... I rushed outside, making sure to close the door behind me. Eddie was sitting on the tractor, passing a metal bat from hand to hand. I reached over to the grill and snatched the rusty hatchet I've accompanied myself with for so long.

Eddie's bat he's had since he was a kid, but it was too small for him at the time. He's now grown into it and knows how to use it pretty good, well, more than pretty good. My dad has suggested multiple times Eddie tryout for baseball, but he says he doesn't want any commitment like that. Too much pressure or something.

My hatchet is really old, or just is worn out a bit. It has rust on it, but I managed to wash some of the gunk off it when I first found it. Usually I use it to help with my, "temper issues" as Ellia calls them. I'd go deep into the forest and start swinging the hatchet around: Throwing it in the air and trying to catch it, throwing it at trees I've painted targets onto, and sometimes just plainly hitting the trees.

"Ya ready, Pipsqueak?" Eddie cheered, jumping off the tractor and making his way to the railroad.

Scoffing and jogging a bit to keep up, I replied, "Eddie, I'm taller than you. Stop calling me Pipsqueak". Despite the dark and snow clouding my view, I could just barely see Eddie shrug at my comment. Eddie and I began to try and out-balance each other on the rims of the railroad's sides. Eddie on the right, me on the left. 

"Hey Sam, I've been meaning to ask you," he continued, "the day of those train track murders, the ones that happened just a couple days ago? You were in the forest at the time they happened, and came home a few minutes after the murders."

Oh shit. Out of nervousness I began to pick up my pace on the tracks, trying my best not to slip on the ice that had formed. Eddie began to catch up and kept at it with the questioning, "Sam, were you at the murders? Were you the murderer? Did you get attacked?" I sighed and began to jog with my arms sticking out to help balance me.

"Fine, you can't tell anyone what I'm going to tell you. I...was there during the murder. I saw it all. I almost died to be fair...good thing they couldn't catch me... The police are correct when they say the victims were all heavy drug users. I didn't recognize some of the things they were snorting, drinking, smoking, injecting or anything. But if the police assume the murderer is human, they're wrong."

Eddie stopped and turned to me, sitting down on the rail and I followed his lead. "What do you mean the murderer wasn't human?" Eddie asked, giving me what felt like a death glare. Does he think I'm lying? Wait, of course he does. I'm notorious at school and home for lying.

"The news said that there were no fingerprints and the footprints were too large for any human. And they're right. There were no fingerprints because the monster, the one I saw that night, didn't have fingers. Claws came out of their hands, not fingers like we humans'. And their feet were the size of your whole body. It didn't have eyes, just black and empty sockets. But they burned just as much as anyone else's stare would..."

I expected Eddie to look at me like I was crazy. But when I locked eyes with him, his eyes were wide. He was looking above me. I slowly turned around and tilted my head upwards. There it was. The same monster from last night. Minutes passed by, but it felt like hours. I stared eye to eye with it. I didn't dare look away in fear it would take it's chance to pounce. The monster's ears twitched at the sound of Eddie's shoes running in the snow. Eddie had made it to the house, he was a fast runner and his running faded out. I still was staring down the monster.

I barely flinched when it's claws reached out to my face, tracing lightly around my eyes, circles into my cheeks, around my lips, down on my nose, and down my neck. Before I could react, it gripped onto my neck and lifted me up to it's head; screaming into my face at an ear piercing frequency. I looked down at my hands to see them moving on their own. Everything around me, even the monster, moved in slow motion. My hands balled into fists and gave two swift punches into the forehead of the monster. I was surprised, beyond surprised! To see that the monster dropped me and was practically blasted back a good 15 feet.

I didn't waste anytime to run away, back in the direction of home. That's what I would've done, but my body did so without any command. I was moving without thinking, and even if I tried to move my body myself, nothing would happen. I would keep running at an inhuman speed with my hands still fists. I couldn't control my body or the direction I was running in, just a good thing I was heading home's direction.

The monster roared again and I only just then noticed how far I got as the roars were much quieter than before. My feet began to go even faster, which I didn't know was possible up until now. I didn't feel tired, but at the same time I felt like...someone was tired? I, or my body, was breathing heavily, but I didn't feel tired. Me as a consciousness. It felt...weird.

The beast once again roared once my house came into view. My body turned around and I felt myself...smirking? Smiling? I never smirk or anything of the sorts, I barely even smile, so what in the hell is my body doing?! I saw the monster running just as fast as I was towards me. Faster, closer, faster, closer, faster, closer.

And I blacked out.

And I woke up in the middle of the forest.

With a piece of paper laying on my chest reading, "You're welcome. You owe me your whole life, jackass. Pleasure working with you, Samuel. ;)".