Calypso yelped pathetically, her arms flailing on the floor before getting yanked like a tweezer plucking a stray hair.
But in a flash of dumb luck, her hands banged against the metal frame that was under the bed, hands fumbling within seconds as they gripped for dear life. So harshly, her left ring finger was pressed against the bar and palm.
It didn’t matter. She didn’t care, despite hearing the slight crackle of bone—either by her tightening grip or the creature pulling her leg nearly out of the socket.
“I CAN’T DO ANYTHING HERE, CAL!” her dead friend strained her voice. “YOU JUST GOTTA LISTEN, PLEASE, THINK OF A PLACE—ANYWHERE! THINK OF IT AND RUN!”
“I CAN’T--!” Calypso cut herself off with a wail as the monster just continues to tug. “IT HAS MY FOOT, IT’S GONNA KILL ME, PLEASE, DO SOMETHING, PLEASE--!”
“IT’S STUPID!” Alice shouted, cutting her friend off. “IT’S NOT HUMAN, IT’S AN ANIMAL, JUST USE YOUR HEAD! YOU’RE SMART, CALLY!”
The poor, silly girl felt her wrists start to pop, causing her to sweat in agony more, so overwhelmed by this astonishing, casual strength.
But that conversion, ultimately a couple of mere seconds amidst being completely subsumed by fear, was what Calypso needed.
She let go, causing her to swing away screaming, turning into a blur as the force that snapped her backward was enough. The suddenness was too much for the monster to adjust for.
The monster’s casual grip, despite it damaging her ankle, was broken instantly as Calypso slammed into the wall behind them, then slamming directly onto the floor. Each impact resounding in a sickeningly crack.
It was strange, Calypso gathering her thoughts during these moments of near-death, or whatever this was. But she got it and got it quick—this thing is stronger, has the advantage. So, it’s lax, and she’s fighting for her life. There is a chance. No matter how small it is.
As she got up, Calypso realized, thankfully, the cracking sounds wasn’t the result of her own bones.
But the relief instantly faded, when she realized what did, as Calypso looked behind herself.
The wall began to faulter, as it crumbled, as if the structural integrity became ancient within seconds.
But it was too late, she felt the stomping. Even without the vibrations, the presence was just as piercing as it’s claws.
As it broke down, there was no debris left behind. And it wasn’t so much crumbling, but fading away, bit by bit.
Only leaving this pitch-black void to spill into this fake room. The wispy, black nothingness arching outwards like smoke, draining even the colors of the room.
And the more Calypso stared at it, the more her primal fear of the dark kicked in.
Slapping her palms onto the titled floors as they began to crack as well, Calypso thrusted herself across the floor, her gown’s friction aiding the precious little it did.
She moved out of the way, just in time, as the monster slashed at the floor, directly at the place where she once laid. Her hammering heart clouded out what she could only gleam as Alice shouting more things. Telling her to run? Hide? It didn’t matter right now.
The girl ran for the door, rushing, her limbs clambering against each other at points that caused her to jerk forward and hunch in response. Her heaving breathes were nothing but mutterings, pleas to give her something, anything to go and grab, go and grab, just please go and grab.
But she made it, Calypso grabbed onto the handle tight, and jerked the door open in desperation and bliss. Relief.
Only to be met with nothingness once she tried to bolt forward.
Calypso screamed, reeling back, her arms flailing in panic as she looked down. For nothing was below, or above.
It was infinite darkness that surrounded the room. The room floating within it.
Before she could even right herself, the monster grabbed her around the midriff, and flung right back into the room.
Skipping as if she was a stone, but Calypso’s body rocked with each bounce—vision wavering into a blur, getting crooked and contorting as she hit until she skid onto her belly.
Until she rested at the growing, gapping maw that was once a hole in the wall, now taken hold of a quarter of the room.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Calypso laid there, battered. Bruised. Beaten.
Face down, panting, not only sweating naturally but due to her breath travelling back up from the floor onto her face. It was over for her. She had nothing else left.
“You have to go back there, Cally!” Alice’s voice, it took a moment for Calypso to realize it was her. “Please, I know it hurts, but think of a place! Something that—that just comes to mind! Anything, anywhere!”
“dead,” Calypso simply eked out. “dead.”
She felt her legs beginning to hang from the hole, actively swallowing her up as she laid limp.
“PLEASE! DON’T DO THIS TO ME! DO IT FOR ME, CALYPSO! FOR ME!”
In that nebulous flow of her broken head, Calypso realized that the weirdest things trigger the mind. Hearing Alice, her best friend and only friend, simply saying her name gave her yet another precious moment. Allowing the rest of her words sink in.
Gripping the cracks within the ground, Calypso used the last of her strength to get up again, hoisting herself as she struggled to.
Now face to face with the monster.
It was decay in every sense of the word. Black mold and rot spread across the hulking, hunched skeletal frame. Not acting as flesh, but simply what was left, caked in remnants and simply had made do. One shoulder jutted downward, making the claw outstretched. The ribcage was actively fluttered as it haggard out breath, the skull and neck tilted towards the opposite side as the moss gathered like inflated cancerous tumors. The brow forever stuck in a scowl, and the eye sockets not only empty, but featured the same pitch darkness as their surroundings.
And Calypso was just a girl in a hospital gown, with battered arms with bruises beginning to spread, scrapped up legs that were trembling. With a mind that was barely there, racing to find what to do, under the crushing weight of this horrible reality.
She stumbled forward, her arms hanging limp as the monster readily raised its.
But she only stumbled a few steps, before flaccidly flopping back onto her belly.
As she glanced upwards, her gambit worked somehow.
The monster peered down, and if it were capable of expression, it would be confused. Dumbfounded. For a moment, the readied claw was still hovering over her, unmoving.
It was all she needed right now.
Calypso closed her eyes. Took a deep breath. And focused. And focused. And focused.
There was nothing to it, Calypso slid on her belly, crawling on the floor, clawing her way towards the door in a dash when moments ago.
Only to reach for that door, arm outstretched, and fell back into the ground again. Losing her newfound energies, she was all but a corpse in waiting.
Until a natural breeze hit her fevering skin, causing her head to snap upwards, where the natural light hit her face.
The monster stupidly turned, raking its claw in the air in an attempt to decapitate her, trying to anticipate Calypso reaching for the door. Only to literally rip it off the hedges.
Grabbing onto the metal threshold built into the frame of the door, a final heave gave Calypso the motion to across the opened door, into the light and breeze that she was oh so familiar with, and never thought she’d took for granted for all this time until now.
She was grateful for falling on pure asphalt. She was grateful for the sounds and smells of engines. She was grateful to see the smog covering and choking the white, cloudy skies.
The monster caught up, hopped through the doorway, landing with a thud. Looking over her shoulder, as she trembled in the sight of it, still can’t clearly make out the visage despite being in broad daylight.
It was much harder to move. She was scrapping skin against the harsh ground, but she had to do something. All of the previous breakthroughs have culminated into the current breaking down, as Calypso was dry heaving for air as she cried out in the seconds, she only had precious little of. All of the consequences piling on at the worst time.
Despite her eyes swimming with tears, they clearly saw the monster prowling slowly towards her. Effortlessly, but determined now, reaching out as if this was already done.
Too bad that it paid no mind, or cared very little, to modern society—as a massive truck rammed into it from the side.
Panting, closing her eyes as tears rolled down, Calypso had to cry. She had to fucking cry then, in pure and utter relief. It worked. It actually fucking worked.
The sounds of beeping horns validated her plan. She wanted to go home, but knew she’d be trapped. She wanted to trap it into the school, but everything would’ve been empty, easy to chase and swipe away at.
As she opened her eyes, Calypso witnessed the strangest thing. The monster wasn’t harmed by the semi that smashed into it, unsurprisingly, but it had erratic movement. The traffic that suddenly surrounded it, it was like if the creature reacted as if it never seen vehicles before, yet carried a very knowing hatred for them.
It didn’t care. It started to smash and tear into the various cars around itself, and the constructed cars proceeded to run it over despite that not amounting to much. But it was what Calypso needed right now.
Calypso struggled to move to the white, small railing of the city’s bridge. Still out of breath, hoisting herself up as she leaned on it. Looking at the congestion of cars that would be keeping the monster busy. Coughing, leaning onto her side so she can flip over the rails, falling into the civilian pathway. On her hands and knees, it was her aching muscle memory that served her, stopping in place to force herself to stay up before embarking again.
Feeling that she’s at the place, she forced herself onto her stumbling feet. Knees buckling, she pressed herself against the railing, letting her head hang but with a purpose. Her eyes looked for the ladder down to the concrete river, under the bridge.
She always felt uneasy, doing this, even when she was healthy. But Alice likened it as being on the edge, feeling the weight of the life you’ve held as you make your way down.
Closing her eyes, she climbed onto the railing, over it, hanging off as she slowly made her way to the ladder. Rusted, supposed to be tucked away and hidden unless the person is a maintenance crew. Gripping it, despite the rust poking her skin and one of her fingers swelling, she quickly scaled down, feeling the little life she had left as the meters decreased.
Her feet planted themselves onto the concrete, as she scrambled towards the first massive pillar she saw, tucking away under the bridge. She fell onto her left side, shouting out in pain. But she was safe. She was safe for now.
“Of course you picked this place… Of all the freakin’ places, my Silly Willy Cally…”
Calypso glassy eyes looked up, and she wished she hadn’t.