My name is Judith Wednesday. I work at a part-time job at Kmart as a clerk and the one who helps customers get to the things they needed. I’m only 16, which I can work only for a few hours. You might be thinking that I’m doing this to get something for myself or pay for my future college. But it’s more than that. I’ll get to that one later.
In Australia, there has been many kinds of phenomenons happening, like people getting missing, scattered animal corpses with unknown markings, and supernatural events such as a bird that froze in the sky, not moving an inch. These strange things happen for reasons not even scientist could explain.
Me, I just go with it. A regular teenager living in an awful life.
As I was sorting the supplies to their rightful place, one of the customers came to me and ask where they could find a toothbrush. The customer sure is a dumb one because the isle for cavities is literally right next to me. I wanted to tell him how blind he is but I don’t want to lose my job. “It’s right there.”
The customer thanked me and went off to get their toothpaste. Wonder if I could just kick him in the face. No, of course not, I’d be arrested, sent to jail and maybe sentenced to death for it.
As usual, nothing special happened. Just customers who can’t even find the right isle for whatever reasons they have in the first place. I was looking up on some marvel comic books, found spider-man. A comic based on the spider-verse. The concept of the multi-verse is very popular for content creators, even DC. Most other content creators make these content called AU, which stands for Alternate Universe. I’ve seen Undertale’s and it was wild crazy weird.
-
At 7 pm, I walked out of the store. Got paid, then left. On the side walk of the street, I see and hear cars moving past by as their light fades from my viewpoint. The sky is dark but I can still see the stars still light up. I sometimes wonder what’s it like being up there. Being alone in an empty space. Will I be able to see what’s been sparkling. The sun is a star but I sometimes imagine that’s not the point.
While I was walking to the hospital alone in the night, I thought I saw something move at the corner of my eye. Something shiny that glimmered like it’s white paper. When I looked back, I saw nothing but a bunch of bushes. I felt something surge inside my senses. Something is watching me from somewhere. I just couldn’t see who or where is it.
I started to walk faster, escaping from whatever the bloody hell that thing is. Until when I got near the hospital, I felt a sense of relief in my chest. When I looked around again in the dark, no one was there. Not even a single car I see are anywhere at my surroundings.
When I got into the hospital lobby, I’m met with darkness that I had to use the light from my mobile phone. The light illuminated enough for me to see my direction.
Suddenly I felt that bloody sense again. I illuminate my surroundings to see if there was anyone around, there’s still no one except me. I think I was either hallucinating or someone in here is smart enough to hide from me. “Bloody hell.”
I didn’t stuck around to find out of course. I went into the elevator and wait for it to get to level 7. It takes a while for this elevator to get there. Took around 43 seconds at least, I never count the elevator’s time, because I think it’s just necessary if you want to prepare your time.
By the time the elevator door was about to open at level 5, I thought I saw something moving at high speed. I jumped with a freezing sensation. I didn’t dare to move or do anything. Waiting for the door to close, I began begging for the door to close. Begged so bloody much for it to just close already before that thing gets me.
Finally the door is closing, but as soon as the door closes a shadowy figure dashes towards me. How it just runs was so wrong that I couldn’t comprehend its presence. I yelped to see that the figure nearly reached the elevator door. I thought Its hand is going through the door but I was relieved that the door had closed all the way.
I could be sure that this thing could be the reason it kidnapped the missing people throughout the years. There are creatures from other countries that somehow came upon Australia.
I know I said this place is filled with phenomenons, but this is the first time I encounter such an unknown creature. If the elevator door hadn’t closed in time, I would be dead like the rest of the victims. What if it’s a giant tarantula?
Spiders mostly occur in this country everywhere. The black widow is by far the most dangerous spiders and its venom cannot be cured. Arachnids are as mysterious as it is in their own ways. Biologists still question what they could actually look like many centuries ago.
When the door opens, I immediately ran to room 712, not wanting to stay alone in the dark haunting halls. Whatever that thing is going to do to me, I’m not going to let it do its thing on me.
There! The door to room 712 is right in front of me. I bolted forward and pushed it with my right elbow with a loud bang noise I make on impact.
I closed the door immediately behind me and touched my forehead to feel a sweat on the tip of my finger. I was panicking. Maybe the panic makes me hallucinate? Bloody hell, I hope it’s just my panic that makes me hallucinate. Maybe I was seeing things and I didn’t really see the real thing. I really hope It’s not real.
In the room, the lights still on, which I’m very glad it is. The hospital bed in front of me still sky blue. There, the person who lays on it is my dad. I’m so very glad nothing happened to him. I sat by his side on a wooden chair. My hands now clasped to my dad’s cold hand. “Judith. My girl, what happened? You look bloody terrible.”
His voice raspy and sick. He looked at me with eyes that gave me tears that are hard for me to hold onto. “I’m fine. Just, scared of the dark.” I held my voice steady as I can. Holding back my tears, not wanting my dad to get so worried about me. The cancer is killing him and I don’t want him to get out of the bed to make it worse. “Oh Judith, you’re a big girl now. Aren’t you tired of it by now?” He said with a chuckle. I kinda laughed a bit about how stupid I was to say that.
“I know. But bloody hell, you know how dangerous it is in the dark. Isn’t that a good reason for me to get scared of the dark.”
“Yeah. I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything to protect you. You know you have to protect yourself. Bloody hell, use an axe or something for you to bring.”
“Dad. You know I can’t do that. people will look at me and call the cops.”
“Then they got the small brains then.” That made us both laugh together. I know that people who brought weapons of their own use them for crimes. I get it. But don’t you sometimes think you wanted to defend yourself or to look cool. Yeah, I would definitely have a weapon behind my back. An axe or a bow and arrow would be nice.
My dad is the first to fall asleep. I tucked the blanket over him, making sure it’s warm enough for him to sleep comfortably. He’s such a heavy sleeper. While he sleeps, I looked out into the window and saw the moon shine bright. In that moment, my tears begin to rapidly appear. I tried to hold back myself from crying but it was too much. I kept sobbing nearly for an hour before I went to sleep.
I’ve lost my mom to the same cancer my dad is having. My grandparents are all gone when they’re trapped in a huge wildfire event. My uncle, aunt and cousin drowned in the ocean while they were on the ship.
I can’t lose my dad. I don’t want him to go. This cancer is killing him and the cancer treatment can only slow it down. This bloody cancer can’t be cured and I don’t know when he’s going to die. He’s the only person I have left in this world that I loved.
Having friends is just filling the void in my heart. Because I knew they wouldn’t stay for long. They might die or leave me behind which breaks my heart. I don’t even know how to make friends. I never had them in my life. Only my family. It hurts. It hurts like hell.
I was about to sleep but I caught something falling from the sky. It was bright blue, like a comet. Could it be a meteor because it’s falling towards the woods near the hospital. I wiped my tear away and looked directly to the comet. It fell into the woods with a heavy loud crash that would literally spook people awake. I turned to my dad to see he’s still sleeping.
In this moment, I have a feeling that I want to investigate. Investigate whatever the hell that fell into the woods. I know I should leave it to the government or the police but something makes me want to do this for myself. I quickly wore my coat and went for the door. Before I could open it, I look back to my dad and remembered how much fun it was when we were doing archery lessons while mom watches us with a plate of pancakes on her hands, with a smiley face. I felt a smile on my face, a warm one. But the realization came and ruined the moment.
I opened the door and left.
-
I think it was 5 or 6 mins that have passed that I arrived outside. I went to the direction where the meteor landed. There were no lights at the hospital but why should I care, I want to find out what is it that fell. It might be a meteor which I got too excited to see for myself. Then, a thought came to my head. If I’m the one to find the meteor first, I might get paid a lot to help my dad’s cancer treatment. Maybe they can get a cure to save my dad!
So I rushed into the woods with a torch in hand. To get there first before anyone else. As I ran into the woods, some of the branches cut bits of my jacket and one of the branches put a scar on my face. It was burning pain but I didn’t care.
I finally reached the area and found it to be destroyed. Trees have been destroyed, the ground all dug up from the heavy impact of the meteorite, and scattered bits of flames emitted around the area while the smoke rises to the air. I don’t see any pieces of meteor except a trail of blue bright liquid glowing. I don’t feel any radiation or anything else so I touched it and felt the wet liquid of it. It felt like water or blood because it didn’t do anything to my finger.
“What is this stuff?” I looked at the trail and turned to look at where it’s going to. There was a newly made cave. I don’t remember a cave being there at all. But, regardless, I walked over to it only 10 feet away and flashed my torch at it. It was dark except the glowing liquid’s trail is the only thing that is bright enough for me to see.
I walked into the cave, looking into the darkest depths with my torch. The cave is really deep. That means the meteor is dangerously strong and it could crush into the deepest area of the earth. But there was no oil spilling out of it. I don’t really know much about earth science but you can tell I’m trying.
Suddenly, the trail of the liquid started to evaporate? It’s like I’m looking at something coming from a fantasy novel. The trail disappeared into absolutely nothing! This doesn’t feel right and my mind is telling me to get out but I had to know what’s going on. I walked further in until suddenly I tripped onto something and it made me fell to the ground, losing my torch. The fall felt larger and I felt the heavy impact on my right arm which makes me groan in so much pain. The landing really impacted my body.
I struggled to get on my feet. When I try to lift my right arm, I felt an intense sensation of needles all over my arm which makes me groan. So I held my arm close as I look around to find my torch but there was no light. “Damnit! Bloody hell.”
My torch is broken and now I’m stuck in the darkness. I’m starting to feel something is watching me. Something ready to get me. I spun around in horror as my mind races with thoughts I didn’t want to imagine. flashes of pictures of horrifying faces of creatures kept appearing before my eyes. Ancient eldritch beings I never could’ve imagine to see. I can’t wait for the sun to rise that long. I don’t want to be stuck here.
“SHIT! SHIT! Calm down! It’s just the dark! Nothing to be scared of right?” I tried to comfort myself, slowly breathe to slow my mind. The air in the cave was warm and heavy that it’s hard for me to even breathe. But I kept breathing at a slow rhythm. I tried my best not to think so much, because if I do it won’t do anything and I would be stuck here mindlessly crazy to death.
Suddenly a small blue light caught my eye. I turned to see a small blue light and it’s actually close to me. I screamed so loud that it rings my mind. I fell to my butt and pushed myself back away from whatever is watching me.
I felt a hard wall behind my back, making me stop my retreat. I stared at the blue light that slowly crawls to me. It was too dark for me to get a clear image as to what’s coming after me. I can hear its breath and it sounds like it’s speaking to me. Its language is alien, like hearing steam and metal all together.
Suddenly, I felt a cold and hard hand wrap around my right injured arm. I tried to pull myself away but it was too strong. I started to feel something binding my arm, as if it was merging my flesh and bone. I don’t feel any pain except for the numbing sting that wraps all over my whole body. When I looked to see the glowing pupils, they weren’t there anymore. And the breathing stopped.
My mind is starting to fade. I can feel so many things I can’t describe. I can try to describe it. It felt like I’ve been in a breeze and my whole entire mind jumping to the next level of existence. I wanted to puke but I can’t. Whatever it is it’s doing, it’s preventing me from puking. The freezing sensation merges around my whole body as my mind starts to fade into darkness.
-
My mind started to regain conscious as my eyes blinked to recover my vision. I didn’t realize until now that I can see my surroundings. Everything was blue. Just like the liquid.
I moved my right arm and was baffled to feel that I can move without pain when it should’ve been broken or something. This isn’t possible, my arm is broken, so it can’t heal back. But why?
When I look at my arm I was petrified, horror struck! My arm is like a bloody machine! A scream came out of my mouth but it sounded different. My voice is vocalized into a robotic like response. “What in the bloody hell is going on!?”
Oh. You’re finally awake.
The voice is feminine and it came from my left. I turned around to see a humanoid standing before me. I can try my best to be clear about her features. Her hair is the color of blue. The eyes are just darkness except the pupils glow bright blue, clear enough for me to see. She wore some kind of a tattered military uniform as if she had been in a horrible fight. Her whole body is just metal or something else from an entirely foreign world. Her facial features only show her mouth and eyes.
You’ve been asleep for hours. I’ve been waiting for you to wake up.
I stepped a bit backwards, spooked by her presence. She doesn’t seem to want to cause harm or anything dangerous. “Who are you?”
My name is Athena, I was a general of the katasteret military forces. I fell here because of my rebellion against my own people. I’m starting to get to know you, Judith.
I was shocked to hear her say my name. I never have told her my name but she just knew. This could be a dream because this can’t be real at all. It shouldn’t. None of this is real. So I asked. “How did you know my name?”
My very being has merged with your own. I can read your experience in your soul but not all of them. It takes a lot of time to read all of your experience. And it seems your being is sealed in flesh. I’m baffled to know that You have many biological functions in your flesh like body. It seems my species can communicate between the cosmic and the material world.
She answered with very well known detail but I completely don’t understand what she meant. “What? I don’t think I get it?” I was trying to keep calm as I can. Not wanting to alert her instincts.
She sighed which sounds like annoyance. Let me be clear. In your world, you are living in the material world, which means you cannot comprehend to see, hear, nor speak to the… ‘ghost’ you call them. In the cosmic… ‘spirit world’ as you people call it, we can see every one of you.
Is that clear enough?
“I guess so?”
Good. Now, can we continue out of the cave. It’s getting warm here.
I felt my body forming back into my normal and recognizable form. I felt like I’m a rubik’s cube because I watched my arms form rows of blocks, switching into flesh. My vision still able to see in the dark.
Picture this, the cube has different colors on different faces. But there is a stick through the 2 faces. You switch the cube for the red face. Then you switch again for the green face. Now, there are 3 of them and they are stuck together with the same stick and their colors are a match in a row. You want to switch the face color to red, you switch. This is the best I can describe for you. Hope that helps out.
“How did you do this?”
From your heart beat or reaction. If your heart beat beats too fast, your body will form. If there is any threat, your body will form too.
“Alright. Good to know. Also, why can I still see?”
Your brain reacts to your surroundings. So your brain activates your eyes.
“That’s… cool.”
I saw her face turned into a questioning look by the time we started to walk out. You mean my words are cold?
“Oh. You didn’t get to that yet. What I mean is like, it’s great in a good way.”
I see
I felt so much in control of my self, which I begin to actually believe this might not actually be a dream. But I brushed that off, ignoring that it’s real.
Finally, we emerged out of the cave to find ourselves in the night cold atmosphere. The ground and the trees are still the exact way as before except the small bits of flames and the blue liquid are gone. I didn’t realize how blind I was to run into the woods in the middle of the night.
I can still see some of the trees closer to me. The farther trees are just dark silhouettes hiding behind them. I took one step forward and I immediately looked at my left to see 4 bright white eyes staring at me.
Get ready
“What” My body started changing into this robotic form again. My eyes suddenly adjusted to the right sighting. I think what makes my eyes adjust is because of what I want to see. What I saw was nightmare fuel. Why I say this is that I’m looking at a tall humanoid creature. It doesn’t have any skin, which shows the flesh of its muscles. There is no mouth except for 4 glimmering white bright eyes, shine like a pearl. Its arms are thrice the size of an original human’s. Its legs are just so pale and thinner than its arms, like a spider’s legs.
“What in the bloody hell.” The creature bellows a loud roar that sounded like 3 people being merged into one. I thought I heard it say something but I couldn’t get the time to get a clear hearing when it slams its arm at me.
My back hit against the wall with such harsh impact. I looked at my whole body and saw my body wasn’t injured. But the hit felt more like getting hit by a basketball in the stomach. It felt real but I didn’t let it get to me. It’s just a dream.
You can fight it.
“Yeah sure! Of course I ca-“ The creature grabbed my leg, not letting me finish my sentence. It then threw me off into the trees. My body hits against the tree so harsh that my back felt like being stretched.
The creature dashes towards my direction with such aggressive speed that its body flails like an uncanny child. It raised its arm, ready to hit me again like a punching bag.
Block it!
I did just as she said by raising my left arm, ready to block its attack. By the time its arm is near inches away from me, a shield suddenly bursts out of nowhere on my left forearm. I was astonished by the sudden appearance of the shield that is now on my left forearm. But I didn’t waste anymore time. I pushed the creature away from me in such strength I never thought I wield.
Now’s your chance to make your move!
When I started to run, I felt something change. As if my mind begins to feel the world around me change. I didn’t stop to learn about it. I slammed the creature’s torso with my shield, making it soar backwards. The creature slammed through the trees in such destructive force.
From afar, the creature is still alive and it’s getting back up. A loud bellowing scream burst from the creature.
The shield can only be used for defense. Pushing it won’t do much. I suggest you use your body more than the shield.
“Like my hands and legs?”
Of course.
The creature is already 10 feet away from me with its eyes shining bright with a menacing glance. I never learnt any martial arts as you can already tell. But what I learnt was to kick a football and that sure is enough for me.
The creature was going in for another hit, but I immediately punched it beneath its chin. Its head flails back with a violent crack. I thought it should be dead but it still lives. It slams its bolded fist from above and I immediately blocked it with my shield appeared on my left forearm. I kicked it in the stomach which makes it groan.
The creature’s arm hits me hard that my body was slammed to the tree. From what I’ve learnt of what I can do, I got an idea. I pulled the tree, to rip off of it from the ground. In just a second I pulled it out. Then, as soon as the creature is near me, I swung the tree around and managed to get a hit at it. The tree broke down into pieces and left sharp shapes sticking into its body.
This is the first fight I’ve ever have in my life. Are fights supposed to be scary or something else? Still, the fear in my heart still keeps beating. The creature’s feature terrify me. Whatever its been doing in its life, I don’t think I would ever want to know.
With a kick at its leg, it fell to its knees with hands on the ground in weakness. With a hard kick at its head, it ripped off of its neck and flew up into the air. The creature’s body froze for a few seconds before it lay down with a heavy thump. Huge mass of blood bursts out of its socket, making a lake of blood.
My stomach turned with a sickening sensation. I was almost about to puke until something hit above my head. There was blood sprinkled out around me and the object I caught in my head was the head of the creature I killed. Its eyes are gone, as if they popped out of their sockets like popcorn. I gagged from the sickening picture of its corpse and immediately dropped its head to the ground. Its stench is sickening that I felt almost about to vomit.
I ran away from it, not wanting to stay with it for too long just to make me vomit.
As soon as I get far away from it, I rested in front of the tree and took a deep breath, holding my tears and vomit. My metallic hands are covered in the blood I’ve spilled. I thought this dream could’ve ended already but it’s not and I can feel the blood on my hands as if it’s real. “This can’t be real.”
It’s real I’m afraid. This is not a dream.
I checked my hands, counting how many fingers I have each. I have 5 fingers each and they’re not glitching or moving weirdly. That’s the terrifying proof that she’s right. I’m not dreaming, the creature was real, the blood is real, and the alien is real.
“Oh bloody shit.” I never thought I can actually fight a creature the size of 2 bears tall. Fighting these creature’s as a human is definitely pointless. Now I’m stuck with an alien that is in my bloody soul making me some sort of thing. “Are you a parasite?”
No
“Can you just like leave me alone? Like, just get off of me.”
I cannot do that. It’s fatal.
It’s fatal. So I really can’t get out of this. Why is she so desperate to live for? Why did she chose me instead?
I looked up to see Athena sitting in front of me with those impatient eyes. I can tell because her expression tells me to hurry up.
“Why do you still want to live? Like what’s the point if you still lived.”
I live because I have important business.
“Like what?”
My species have conquered many worlds, thousands upon thousands of planets each year. I cannot stand them killing innocent lives. So we must leave here and eliminate all of them.
“What?! I don’t want to do that! I have a life here!”
She froze as if she never questioned herself a question she hadn’t thought of. I’ve been sitting there in the woods for what felt like hours. I’m beginning to lose my own patience and stood back up. The sky is still dark and the moon is hidden behind the clouds.
I begin to relax and felt my body form again into my normal human body. My coat was stained by the blood I spilled, so I took it off, carrying it over my shoulder. If I show myself wearing a coat stained of blood in public, people would definitely call the cops because they think I murdered someone. I did it out of protection, or maybe I really had the urge to kill.
I pushed that thought away and just focus on getting back to the hospital. Before I could take another step forward, Athena said to me. Where are you going?
“To the hospital.”
We have important business to attend to.
“I don’t care.” And with that she said nothing.
You might think this is the coolest thing in life but I tell you this, this is not the kind of life you want. I didn’t want any of this in my life at all. This can put trouble on both me and my dad. I don’t want to fight monsters or be hunted by one. I just wanted my dad to stay with me. I worked hard everyday on my part time job and did everything to spend time with my dad.
-
I don’t know how long I’ve been walking in the woods. I really hoped that I didn’t get lost. Until, all of the sudden I saw light. I ran toward it and found myself at the hospital. I’m so relieved to have gotten here. But when I look at the light, it was an ambulance and people are coming out of the lobby.
I checked to see what’s going on. What I saw nearly made me scream because on that gurney was a pale man with eyes so wide. His mouth was stretched open in an impossible length and it was just dark. No teeth nor tongue, just darkness.
“What’s wrong with him?” I heard one of the doctors ask with fright in his voice. One of the nurses nearby screamed like a horrified women who saw a psychopath in her house. “They said he was frozen in place for days until he broke free in a scream and died! This is something that has never happened before! Could this be a new virus!?”
As they carry the man into the hospital, the sun is rising slowly. Something caught my attention in the clouds as the light brightens the side of them. My vision adjusted to a dark silhouette. The silhouette is a circular shape and I can see 8 lines around it. The clouds are fogging the silhouette which is why I can only describe it with little detail. This felt different. It’s as if it’s feasting something alive as the sun rises.
Just what in the bloody hell is going on?