> It was good what we did yesterday. And I’d do it once again.
It was midnight. The dance had ended hours ago, but the group of soon-to-be graduates was far from ready to call it a night. They’d wandered down to the Sleepy Hollow Lighthouse, where the river stretched out under a dark, star-speckled sky. The distant lights of the Tappan Zee Bridge glowed faintly, casting a soft, hazy reflection on the water below.
They sat shoulder to shoulder in a loose circle, passing around the pen Michael had brought, their laughter blending with the quiet lap of waves against the shore. Julius, however, stood a few steps away, pacing back and forth along the edge of the lighthouse, his hands stuffed deep into his pockets.
“Come on, man, just hit the pen. It’ll calm you down,” Michael called out, extending the pen toward him with an inviting grin.
Julius glanced back, shaking his head. “No, I’m good… I’m just a little restless.”
“That’s exactly why you should try it,” Michael insisted, holding the pen out a little closer.
Joan rolled her eyes and gave Michael a light smack on the chest. “Knock it off. He said he doesn’t want it.”
“Ow, my tit,” Michael muttered, rubbing his chest with a mock wounded look.
“Relax, Joan,” Susana chimed in, laughing. She turned to Michael with a smirk. “Julius has been a sober prude for ages. The wildest thing he drinks is caffeinated tea.”
“That’s actually not true,” Paige interjected, chiming in from the other side of the circle
“Apparently, he once tried the bubbles off his mom’s beer.”
“And yet he refuses to drink soda,” Alyssa added with a chuckle, plucking the pen from Michael’s hand and taking a quick puff.
“Soda’s poison. My mother blames her stunted growth on drinking too much as a kid,” Julius said, shaking his head as he looked at the others, his tone as serious as ever.
Michael raised an eyebrow. “You’ve been hit by a car going forty with nothing more than a few bruises to show for it? And you think a little Dr. Pepper would kill you?”
“Those are two different concepts,” he replied, frowning. “If they were going any faster, I might’ve been seriously hurt… might have… Anyway, I’m not sure. I still look both ways before crossing a one-way street.”
Joan chuckled, her shoulders shaking slightly.
“What’s so funny?” Julius asked, his eyes narrowing, stress creeping back into his expression.
“Nothing, you’re just cute,” Joan said with a soft smile, her voice light and teasing.
A collective groan erupted from the group.
“Get a room!” Paige said, slightly cuddling into Susana as she rolled her eyes.
“Mhm…” Julius muttered, feeling the heat of the teasing flush his cheeks. “Anyway, I think I’m gonna go for a stroll. I feel so uneasy.”
Michael smirked. “You always feel uneasy,” he said, the words trailing off as he glanced toward Joan. “That’s why…”
Before he could finish, Joan slapped him lightly on the chest, her eyes narrowing at him with a warning glance. She stood up then, brushing herself off and walking toward Julius.
“Can I come with you?” she asked, her voice softer now, almost tentative.
Julius hesitated for a moment, his eyes flicking between her and the quiet path ahead. “I want to say yes, but I don’t know… I think I just need some time alone with my thoughts. I don’t know. I just feel weird.”
Joan’s face softened at his words, and she exaggerated a dramatic pout. She then leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek, lingering just long enough to make his heart race a little. “Don’t be long,” she said, her voice light as she pulled back. She turned toward the group, walking back to them with a bright, almost carefree stride.
Julius began his slow stroll down the beach, letting the cool night air and soft sound of waves work their calming magic. He wanted to walk a full mile, just far enough to really clear his head, but he knew if he was gone too long, the group might start to worry. After a brisk ten minutes, he sighed, reluctantly turning back toward the lighthouse, feeling lighter as his unease began to fade. The quiet walk had done a good job of easing that strange, restless feeling that had been weighing on him all night. But as he made his way back, the unease returned, creeping in with a sudden intensity, clawing at his chest with renewed force.
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Jesus, Ju Ju, what is up with you tonight.
PULSE
Seriously, it’s been wonderful.
PULSE
Can’t I find peace for one night?
PULSE
You’ve been worrying all week. Why? Graduation? No, it can’t be that. I’m literally about to go to college with my high school sweet…
His thoughts were interrupted as he spotted something half-buried in the sand.
Ooo, a shell! I should give it to her. Nice… Pink.
He picked it up, feeling it's cool weight in his hand, trying to focus on the simple, pleasant distraction.
PULSE
God, I feel like I’m going to puke.
PULSE
I can’t break the…
PULSE
Seriously! What is going on? Was it the mussel? He paused, swallowing hard, fighting a wave of nausea that surged up from nowhere. Oh, God.
I should have listened to mom.
“Never force open a closed shell.”
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Okay… I might actually—
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Oh, God…
Julius stumbled, his knees buckling as he collapsed to the ground, retching as a wave of nausea overtook him. He dragged himself up slowly, his stomach still churning as he wiped his mouth, barely able to shake the lingering shame.
I… I hope the tide handles that… he thought, staring at the sand before him.
I should head home… Just go tell them I—
PULSE
Seriously, though, what is—
PULSE
This doesn’t feel right…
PULSE
I should call Ma, I don’t…
PULSE
I… No… This doesn’t feel like sickness…
PULSE
Like…
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I’m repulsed…
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Is there something in the air?
He paused, the night closing in as a chill ran down his spine.
No, this doesn’t feel right at all…
A sense of dread seemed to settle deep within him, twisting tighter with each heartbeat.
PULSE
I think… I think I should pick up the pace…
He started forward, walking faster, his gaze fixed on the distant glow of the lighthouse.
It’s right there, anyway…
PULSE
My chest feels so tense…
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Joan…
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What the hell…
Julius made it back to the lighthouse, but what awaited him was a sight he could never have fathomed—no matter how uneasy he’d felt before. His steps faltered as his eyes widened in horror, the blood draining from his face as he took in the scene. Strewn across the walkway were the mangled bodies of his friends, each more grotesque and broken than the last.
Michael lay closest, limbs twisted and detached, his lifeless eyes staring blankly into the night. Susana’s head was caved in, her body crumpled beside him. Paige seemed to have made a desperate attempt to flee, but she hadn’t made it far; a jagged piece of the railing had impaled her from behind, freezing her in a final, agonizing posture of fear. And Alyssa… Alyssa’s body was quartered, limbs flung across the ground, torn and scattered as if tossed aside like scraps.
Standing amidst this blood-soaked carnage was a towering figure, hunched over yet still stretching to an unnatural seven feet tall. It was a gaunt, twisted creature, with a lanky frame and an outsized, grotesque torso that dwarfed Julius. Its skin was a sickly ash-gray, marred with burns and open wounds that seemed to sear and fade into scars right before Julius’s eyes. On the creature’s left side, exposed ribs jutted out, stripped bare of flesh and seeming to fester with some kind of dark, oily smoke that drifted into the cold night air. The wounds were alive, healing and tearing all at once, but the ribs… they pulsed with decay, an unnatural, smoldering rot that refused to heal.
An observant eye—an undistracted mind—might have noticed each of the creature’s grotesque features, but Julius was far from such a state. Before him, the monstrous figure hunched over, feasting with brutal, insatiable hunger from the limp, broken body of his beloved Joan. The creature showed no civility, no restraint in its gruesome meal; it tore into her with a fervor, snapping her limbs like brittle twigs, ripping her body open as if it were nothing more than a fragile bag of popcorn. Each motion was sickeningly fast, the creature moving with a horrifying precision and speed that belied its misshapen form.
Then, in a slow, deliberate motion, it ceased its feast. The beast straightened, its distorted, oblong face turning to reveal eyes of a pale, icy blue that locked onto Julius. In that gaze, he saw no humanity, no glimmer of remorse or reason—only an animalistic disdain, a raw and primal malice. And as Julius met that cold stare, a shift happened within him. That same nature, that same dark and primal revulsion, took root in his soul, twisting his horror into something darker, something just as animalistic and unforgiving.