The Chase (Mini short story #4)

Nearly night. It drew closer, my time for departure. The darkness of my living room taunts me with visions of my demise, whether it comes as a phantom greeting me with it's twisted smile- I know it craves me. I know it wishes for my soul. Or as a daydream, others would describe a night terror, the solace gives me life. How many ways I dream of the end when truly it could never be so far away.

It cannot have me. It won't have me. I'm unable to determine my demise and the longer I march down this shadowed alleyway, it takes more strength to keep my head from hanging to my feet.

The taverns had long closed. The churches and the shops are drowned in silence, I hate hearing my own footsteps echo off of these brick cottages.

If anyone were to see me, would they crown me the name of the lunatic? The crazed mad man, aimlessly walking in circles, chanting to himself of ghouls and demons, monsters and witches?

No, I must stay focused. I must stay away from that house. I must keep far, they told me, they did, just last night. Tonight was my last night among the living. I have no interest in joining the dead in their campaign of torturing the vulnerable, murdering souls without purpose.

My feet marched themselves down that foggy road, still damp from the shower that occurred earlier today. Tonight I was not as alone as I thought, I never bother to notice the crickets until I'm terrified out of my own mind.

Look at me, look at yourself, Tom. Look at what you're doing to yourself! Only you could turn a night stroll into a loss of sanity, gasping for breath from fear that is arising from absolutely nowhere.

The visions only torment me in my home. They only follow me down the halls, never do I catch a glimpse of those faces when I'm joined in those bars. 

Oh God, the faces. I never knew nightmares until last fall. I never knew the depths of a hellish imagination until last fall. 

I've debated more times than I could even count on how it started, what had I done to summon the Devil into my abode. What had I done wrong? What had I brought home? 

Was it the women? Was it the deaths from the sickness brought on by our last winter? Was it the poison, the rum? Was it because I refused to greet God on Sunday mornings?

Never before I cared too much, surely not as much as others in this town, but I always considered myself a man of God. What duality of a man am I if I only pray to God when I need him?

To the left! I jumped into the forest, my pace changing into more of a sprint, running from the newly identified sound of extra footsteps following along behind me. I didn't see a shadow- not one other than my own.

They are here, a part of me knew they would be. Right behind me, if I turn to look now, those faces will surely laugh- no. No, they'll scream. They'll scream so loud they'll deafen me. How will I know which way they're coming if I cannot hear them?

My hands slapped themselves across my ears, shutting them tight as my venture pursued forward, into the darkness and unknown. 

Pace yourself, Tom! You must run faster, you must think faster! 

The darkness grew, and from the corner of my eye, the blinding white caught my gaze once again. That face. I've seen this face before.

Taunting me, acting as if it were part of the tree I'm about to pass by, but I know better. I know that face, those beady white eyes, and slithering slimy tongue that is too long to not hang out of it's own mouth.

Through the cracks of it's teeth it hangs, swinging backwards and forth, I'm sure by now that this creature has no eyelids. It doesn't blink. It never blinks. 

It stares, waiting, waiting to eat me up. Swallow me whole. Devour me until there was no proof I even existed in the first place.

Taking a sharp left, I dodged into a new direction of the forest, immediately stopping in my tracks when finding something I'd never seen before.

What is a maiden doing all the way out here, this late at night? How is her white dress not dirty in the slightest? Her hair is almost a glowing golden, and her face hides from me as I'm only able to gaze at the beauty of her back and flowing dress. 

An Angel. God has heard me. God has forgiven me. God is here for me, to save me from the rampant evil chasing after me, and only me.

"Wait!" 

She ran, and so did I. I had to chase her, what other option do I have?

The laughs echoed as my chase started, the familiar seethes and exhales from the demons that slept with me in my home, the ones that made their selves at home in my hallways. 

She disappeared behind a tree to the right, I saw the faces grow like a shiver as they lined each side of me, leading up to that singular tree the Angel disappeared behind, but I refused to look. Curiosity kills, temptation will not win today.

I turned the corner to finally greet my savior, only to find her still running through this twisted maze of trees. Why was she running from me? Was she also outrunning the ghosts? 

It didn't matter, I continued to chase her, even thought my legs felt as if they'd break at any moment now. Even if my body breaks, I will not let my soul go to waste.

My panting was at one point louder than the screams of the tortured blaring into my eardrums, it's nothing I haven't fallen asleep to before. 

Except, I didn't expect the scream that erupted from me when suddenly a hanged man appeared before me, a noose falling from the tree limb above, and his twisted neck snapping as he swayed towards me.

Those eyes. The giant blinding circles, almost taking up the entirety of his complete dark face and silhouette, never once blinking, never once changing direction. His eyes are touching and stabbing my soul, and he refuses to let me go.

It's the tongued creature, it's the same serpent from before. It's all him, it's all his doing. 

I fell to the ground, my body rolling underneath his dangling feet as I continued to climb onto the ground, crawling my way desperately away from him.

I have to get up, get up, Tom! Rush to your feet, follow your Angel, she will give you redemption! Your soul will be saved!

And she awaited me. Standing far away, her glowing dress was a light guiding me towards the way, almost beckoning me towards heaven.

I'm coming, my dear.

The chase continues, the laughter echoes, the screams of the damned circle me, and once again, she taunts me with the wave of her hand as her ghostly figure disappears behind a tree. And once again, my knees cave in on themselves, falling in anticipation of the dawning.

There's no escape from this place. If I am to survive, it's by that Angel's hand. I am just a man, I  am no match to otherworldly beings.

Silence overcomes. The crickets silence themselves, my own breaths hush, and my eyes dare to shakily open when I hear that ringing noise right into my ear.

Whatever it was, it was only inches from my own flesh. It's touch didn't greet me with the feeling of it's hot breath pouring down my neck or onto my face, perhaps that's why the goosebumps ran up so quickly.

It's touch was void of any physical contact. No single prick of any hair on it's head, nor any feeling of any ounce of heat it's body could've offered.

"If you had not succumbed to fear, maybe you could see you are what's chasing you."

What? 

That voice, it was a woman's. It was the Angel. I turn to face her eagerly, only she isn't there at all. I cannot be imagining this. She spoke to me, she spoke something strange to me, I can't make sense of it.

I turn back to rise back to my feet, only I'm stopped when I realize my legs aren't even touching the ground.

I find myself mounted on top of the Angel, her white dress torn to rips from a shining red blade that glimmered in my own hand. Her chest does not rise, nor does it fall. It sits, it sits drenching in a pool of the brightest red I'd ever seen in my life, and the pure foulness of it sent a bubbling feeling up my throat.

Her eyes are missing. What resides instead are deep red holes of mush, her eyeballs nowhere to be found. Perhaps I ate them, maybe that's the liquid I'm only now bothering to taste in my mouth.

Her neck is twisted, broken from the bruises along my hands I used to crack her fragile neck, her pleading screams reverberate in my mind. I recall the way she silenced upon the crack.

I recall the way she pleaded for God. And I relished in the desire arising in me when watching her expression only grow more terrified with each second that passed, knowing that God nor Angels resided here.

Only me, Tom.