It was around 11pm on a Saturday night and I had just come home from an exhausting party. Clouds were plentiful and thunder was rumbling- I had just missed a storm. I turned on the living room lights and say down in the worn leather armchair I had gotten for free at a garage sale. It had a funny odour and had unrecognizable marks and scratches all over the back, but apart from that it seemed fine.
I instantly pulled my phone out of my pocket and saw three new messages from my friend Kai. He was incredibly close to me but the love always stayed platonic- thank goodness for that, or my fiancè Caspien would’ve never wanted me with him. I opened up my chats and saw three photographs captioned with “the night was lit!”. The images were incredibly full, with every corner containing a person singing, dancing, eating or flirting. It looked perfectly normal- until I zoomed up on myself, and noticed something very strange.
There was a small figure behind me, no bigger than a small bird. It appeared to be floating beside my shoulder, peering intently at the camera. I hesitantly looked closer, and saw that the creature had a yellow tinge to it’s skin and sunken holes of darkness for eyes Thick black ink was pouring down what could’ve been deciphered as the face. There was no nose, just a miniscule piercing through the faces with a smooth metal rod with sharp, pointed edges on both sides put through the hole. The figures smile was the most frightening though. An extremely wide, gaping smile reaching the end of the left and right sides of the face, with long, dagger like teeth jam packed together and a slit tongue like that of a snake. The creature was almost bald, with few tufts of grey hair sticking up all over its head. It had no limbs, just a floating torso. Horrified, I looked through all the pictures, and there it was, slowly turning to face me until it was staring right through my soul.
My heart was beating faster and faster and I turned my head over and over, searching for the demon supposedly beside me. I prayed it was a sick prank from Kai. I finally plucked up the courage to look in the mirror to se if it was there. I shuffled across the cold tiles and flicked on the whirring bathroom lights. I worriedly gazed at my reflections, and to my worst nightmares, there it was, its head tilted and staring me down to death. Adrenaline rushed through my body as I tried to grab the demon, tried to murder this eerie creep. I banged my shoulders against the ceramic sink, hoping I would hit the creature as I did so. Instead, it went through the sink and once it realised what I was trying to do, it’s smile faded and long arms with talons spurted from what should’ve been shoulder sockets. These arms clutched my throat and even though I gasped and let out a blood curdling scream with all the air left in my throat, the figure continued choking and slowly killing me, showing no traces of mercy. Of course, I wouldn’t expect it from such a monster. I tried ripping his hands off my neck, but even just a touch sent his talons sliding down my arm, slicing it in half. Crimson blood poured out from my arm and splattered the bathroom tiles, but the sticky mess was the last thing on my mind. As I vigorously shook my head, attempting to pry the demon off, I could only think of why such a creature would be so determined to brutally murder me, and why it was following me. Then I remembered.
A few months ago, Caspien and I tried for a child. I had a stock of pregnancy tests and took one every day, hoping I’d be able to start a family like I’d always dreamt of. At last, after several weeks of torture, I tested positive. There was a huge celebration, and Caspien and I were over the moon to be able to be parents in 9 months. The joy didn’t last long enough for my liking. On the 4th month of my pregnancy, I had a miscarriage. I was depressed. My child was gone and to put insult to injury, the doctors came to the conclusion that I was unfit for a child, and would most likely never be able to get pregnant. I cried that night, and Caspien refused to. He was upset too, though. But not even close to my range of frustration. Once I had cooled down and recieved therapeutic treatment, our lives had gone back to normal. Caspien proposed to me on a restaurant date, and I was back to my joyful self. It only went downhill today, right now. Because not only was I about to die, but I had figured something out. The only reasonable answer to this would’ve been that the demon was my unborn, undeveloped baby coming back to haunt me for ending it’s life too early. I couldn’t believe it. As the sharp talons dug farther into my throat, I knew my time was up. I shut my eyes and accepted my fate.
Then I heard the opening of a front door, “Tanya? Tanya..?”, a bone rattling, eardrum bursting, high pitched screech and I collapsed on to the blood stained floor, inhaling as much air as possible, desperate to fill up my lungs. Caspien then entered the bathroom and saw me frail, pale and attacked, lying in a pool of my own blood. His eyes widened to the size of saucers and he questioned it all. I couldn’t tell him. I simply couldn’t. All I did was make him promise to always stay with me, no matter what. If the demon fled when Caspien arrived, then my fiancè must be my only protector. He promised and he rushed me to the emergency room. I’m all ok now, but I’m just so relieved that I’ll never be able to get pregnant again.