They were always there, somewhere. Watching. Waiting for the right moment to strike.
They watched me and my family, they may as well be watching you at this very moment, wherever you are.
Imagine, from the moment you were born you had the ability to see them. To feel their presence, yet you couldn’t do anything to warn others. “A child’s vivid imagination” was always the excuse. I frequently had night terrors when I was a kid, and believe me they were as vivid and real as reality itself.
Of course, as I got older the “imagination” excuse wasn’t good enough anymore. My parents started to get worried about what I see, they would question me about it. I would go to a therapist tried to help. They managed to numb it, they managed to blur the images and muffle the voices.
No one around me could see them, feel them or perceive them. I knew what they told me, what they had in plan. I needed to see them, I needed to hear them and see them. If I don’t, I would be blind to their plans and their actions. My hands would be tied and I wouldn’t be able to react, to retaliate.
I was given medicine, I was told they weren’t real. But I knew they were, they were invisible on all levels to others. Why was I the only one that saw them? Hear them? Feel them? I don’t know.
But it was my duty to protect myself and those closest to me from them. As I got older I started to act as if I didn’t see them, I faked taking the medicine. Every once in a while I would go back to the office, I was asked questions. I would give them answers that they wanted to hear, that I was “getting better”. I told them that I didn’t see them anymore.
But I could feel at that very moment the putrid hot breath of one of them, mere inches from the back of my neck.
They were getting closer, they were getting bolder. They whispered in my ear, horrible things. Things that they would do to me and my family, my friends. I didn’t have the night terrors anymore, but reality got a whole lot worse.
My parents started fighting, they were constantly bickering about things that didn’t matter. Things could be easily resolved. So damn stupid, so needless. So much energy was wasted on something irrelevant in the wake of an impending danger that is inching closer with each day.
I couldn’t blame them since they were completely oblivious of the fact that there were things lurking in the shadows, ready to pounce at any moment.
I remained calm, I kept up the act for years. I observed I studied them.
There is a good reason I used the past tense “was” with my parents fighting. They stopped fighting and bickering eventually. But it isn’t because of any reason you might be thinking of. They didn’t bury their hatchets and decided to be good spouses and parents for once, nor was it divorce… Though that was in progress, nor was it that they finally saw them.
It was rather simple really.
I just started college you see. I tried to fit in as much as I could, I was relatively successful in that I think. But still, I didn’t have the famed nights out and binge drinking that was associated with college life. I didn’t live in a dorm, I still lived with my parents.
We lived on the outskirts of town, the nearest neighbor was less than a mile from us. I would go to college by car, half an hour commute every day more or less.
Around our house was a forest, across the road was a sprawling field, a cornfield. I lived there for my entire life and I knew where they would hide. They would hide among the trees, peek out and observe us. They would linger in the field across the road, their eyes like balls of flame in the night.
One night I was returning home. I was driving down the dark road leading to my house in my mom’s Honda Civic. I usually saw them lingering in my peripheral vision, watching me as I passed by. I always had to check the back seat and trunk to be sure they didn’t get in. They never did before, but I could never be sure. I had to be cautious. But that night everything was quiet… I didn’t see them…
Anyways, I drove up to the driveway. I was mentally preparing myself for my mother’s yelling, almost always at my father who came back drunk.
But I saw something that was unusual. The front door was wide open.
I got out of the Honda, slamming the door and taking a deep breath. I didn’t see any of them around… Then it hit me, that could only mean one thing and one thing only.
*Was I too late?*
The question came in a chorus in my head as I sprinted to the front door.
Screams, they were my mothers.
I enter the kitchen, and I see her on the floor. Pinned.
I didn’t see father, break-in? No, that was no man.
The thing turned its massive head, its hairy naked body, and black horns. Its eyes brimming with hate, so much hate it was palpable. So much so that it seeped into me, flowing through my veins.
“HELP ME! PLEASE!” My mother screamed.
I rushed to the counter in the kitchen, grabbing the largest knife I could. The thing didn’t so much as react, merely chuckling at the weapon.
I charged at It. I plunged the knife into its neck without hesitation.
The hot red blood trickled out, coating the knife and floor in crimson. It spurted out a few times, sprinkling my jacket and face.
“Where. Is. My. Father” I asked it, while the thing was choking on its blood.
It smiled.
I got the knife out and stabbed it once more.
Then again, then again, then again, then again, then again. I lost count of how many times.
My mother screamed, but her scream was muffled.
“WHERE IS MY FATHER!?” I screamed at the thing as it continued to smile, gurgling a laugh, and spitting out more blood.
Finally, I stopped when I heard my mother yell “STOP!”
I got up, my mother was in a state of shock. She didn’t move an inch. She was clutching the cross around her neck, her hand trembling.
I went to the bathroom, I needed to take in what happened. I looked at myself in the mirror, my bloody hands, and stains of red on my pale face…
“Okay… Okay, I don’t know where they took dad… Mom is alright. We need to move, yeah… We need to move… MOM!” I yelled.
“MOM! GET UP WERE GETTING OUT OF HE-“ I got out of the bathroom, and as I re-entered the kitchen I saw the blood-soaked floor. My mother was not in sight, but I saw one of those things… One of those damned things dragging a body of my… My dad.
“Youuu….” I said in a single breath, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I couldn’t save them.
“I…” I uttered, the thing kept dragging my father’s body. I could feel its putrid smell from where I stood, it smiled as it was ready to feast on his corpse. It was too focused on its meal to even realize I was still there.
I charged
“…WILL KILL YOU!!!” I plunged the knife into its chest, we fell to the floor, I got the knife out with some struggle. Then I cut its throat.
Their bodies disappear once they are killed, maybe, I couldn’t tell I really couldn’t. I collapsed to the floor at my father’s mutilated corpse.
Dozens of wounds all around his body. They stabbed him with their claws repeatedly…
“What have they done to you… Oh, God… What have they done to you, daddy… Jesus, fuck… No, fuck. FUCK! GO TO HELL! GO BACK TO HELL YOU FUCKS!” I screamed, punching the wall with enough force to make a hole. My already bloody hand was now cut up and bruised.
Mother, I needed to find mother. But I couldn’t stay put. Judging by dad, I can only assume they snatched her while I was in the bathroom… Yes, I need to have my eyes open always, I need to stay focused…
I couldn’t save them, but… But I can save others, I need to save others.
I rushed to my mom’s Honda Civic, turning it on once more I drove into the night. I drove for what felt like hours.
I could feel them, they were close behind. They keep following me, they want revenge for the losses I caused them. I will not let them have that luxury.
I will have justice, I will save those whom I love… I will try my best.
Now I write this from the confines of my car. The sun is rising on a new day. A new war had been declared.
And the Devil released his hounds, he let them loose on this Earth. And I am the only one who sees them. The only one who can fight them.
If you see me.
Do not be afraid. For I am now sure who I am.
Do not be afraid. For I am the Angel of Justice.