I’m walking down the concrete sidewalk that I usually take to get to and from my workplace. The cold air is blowing softly, yet it still stings my skin just a bit. It’s just about winter time, the trees in the park I’m walking past are barren, but the trunk of the tree is lively. I go out just before everyone starts filling the streets of my hometown. It’s a peaceful little town, small and comfortable, and everyone knows each other.
They go out together and meet other friends often. Nothing bad really happens in this town. The dew from the early morning is gathering on my shoes. As the rhythmic sound of my soles tapping the concrete is calming and Repetitive. I take a deep breath, but quickly stop.
As the odd sound of Paper scraping between the sole of my shoe and the hard concrete below breaks the peace. I look down from my trance, Lying there is a 100 dollar bill, A slightly faded hue of green covers the bill, and one of the presidents looks up at me. How odd that someone lost this amount of money. I picked it up as my mind landed on the decision; That I was going to return this money. Again, this is a small town, So I’ll find whoever dropped this bill and hopefully return it to them.
They might have needed it to pay for rent this week or buy food. I resumed walking, a refresher of air fills my lungs, The Air is so nice in the early mornings. Tap, tap, tap, My soles resume the same rhythm with slight variations of sound each time. I usually try to make out little songs that my soles make while I walk, as it is quite fun to do. The only time the rhythm is broken is when I have to stop to look both ways down the street to cross it, Or when I have to turn the corner of a building to continue down the sidewalk.
Tap, tap, scuff, tap, Crrrrrk. Again, the sound of paper crinkled under my sole breaks my rhythm, Another 100 bill. Did someone have a hole in their pocket? Perhaps they were just having a bad day? I pushed back the thousands of questions encircling in my mind. I picked up the second 100 dollar bill and put it snuggly with the first, as to not lose them.
But something feels odd about this, The people in this town would’ve informed another person if they dropped their money. I guess someone was up early today too then? That could explain how no one noticed the money. I mean, that’s probably the case. I continued walking again, wiping the fact that I had just found two 100 dollar bills from my conscience.
I closed my eyes as I hum my favorite tune, a song that had gotten stuck in my head since yesterday. Now I should be getting pretty close to my home by now. Just a few more blocks and I’ll- Crrrrk. Another 100 dollar bill lies there, On the cold concrete. I quickly picked it up this time as I am not as surprised as the first two, I just place it where the other two are and resume. I’ll call up who I know later and ask if they’re missing a few 100 dollar bills. Then I’ll return them, simple, It’s the least I can do.
I turn the last corner and see the golden numbers on the building that shelters me, this is my home. A brick apartment building, Its many windows are dewy and wet. I look back down to see the small concrete steps that are showing a bit of peeling lead up to a black iron door, A black metal railing complements it. As I stand across the street from the building, I think how it isn’t the best; But it is home. I put my foot out onto the street to cross, then the other. I quicken my pace just a bit to cross to the other side. The peacefulness of the morning suddenly stops as a black car tries to screech to a halt, but it’s going too fast. It happens in just under a few seconds, But time feels like it’s slowed down. I brace myself for the worst, and shut my eyes, but it never comes.
I open my eyes to maybe expect myself to be lying on the ground. But the car is nowhere to be seen. Did I imagine that? No, That was too real. I feel over my body to see if anything is wrong. Nothing, No bones broken, no bruises, not even a single, small, scratch. I haven’t even been moved. I was bewildered by what had happened. This isn’t normal, or am I losing it? As I’m reflecting on the scene and trying to make sense of it.
I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, I looked over and saw Someone familiar. A good friend that I’ve known for years is now walking down the sidewalk as I stand in the street. A brown jacket covers his upper torso, as a slit of a gray shirt shows through where the jacket isn’t zipped up. A small bit of facial hair covers his face, Newly trimmed and His jacket hood is up, Brown hair is showing through the darkness of it. His blue jeans look like they have seen better days. They’re a bit lighter than usual, Maybe from all the use and washing.
He waves weakly at me as I approach him. Seeming a bit uncomfortable “You saw that right? That car hit me, but it didn’t, and-” Jackson doesn’t respond, He doesn’t even look at me. After a pause though. He raises his head and looks at me. Something seems off about his face. His skin is a bit paler than usual, and he has bags under his eyes. He opens his mouth to say something, but I couldn’t catch what he says. “What? Could you repeat that agai-‘’
I froze mid sentence as I see more movement from the corner of my eye. Curious, I look in the direction of the movement, And Jackson Rounds the corner then comes to a stop next to me, My heart sank. “Who is that?” Jackson says, pointing to the other Jackson facing me. “Isn’t that? You… Jackson?” I reply shakily. The Jackson In front of me opened his mouth again but again, nothing came out.
Instead, Crunch, snap, Snap. His jaw made sickly pops as his eyes rolled into the back of his head. The Jaw widened to what a normal person’s mouth couldn’t. As his body contorted and lengthened, Pulling his skin tighter, the skin tearing and bloodied as it tried its best to fit over the new skeleton. His Skin lost all pigmentation, What used to be a Slightly darker tan caucasian skin tone, was now a dark gray. The bones in his fingers popped out of his skin as his skin stretched, the Bones at the end of each finger were unusually sharp and long, as his eyes sunk even deeper into his skull. His arms and legs are now three times what is considered normal.
A sick creature stands Unnaturally tall in front of me. It looks like it shouldn’t even exist in the first place. It made a low sound as I look up at its face. It smiles, The gums in its mouth are pointed forward, and its teeth are identical to what they looked like prior to its change. Its smile is unnaturally eerie. All I can do is stare at it, I think I’m in shock.
The real Jackson Yells next to me. His indiscernible words break my trance; Snapping me back to reality as The realization sets in. I tried to run, but it reached out and grabbed me with its inescapable length of its arms. I’m dangling from one of my legs in the air now. As I kick and I kick to try to loosen its grip, but to no avail.
I kept up the pointless kicking, thinking that I was still doing something. Its other arm set into motion, slowly raising up to my other leg. And it got a good hold on my other leg. Now I’m upside down looking at this thing’s face while it has both of my legs in hold. It starts laughing, then I feel gradual pressure picking up in my leg joints, as it starts to pull apart at my legs.
The pain increases steadily. I can tell it’s making this slow. And it’s enjoying it. Now the pain is unbearable only after a few steady seconds. I start crying out for someone to help.
Tears blur my vision and my ears start to ring. I can feel my skin stretching to the best of its ability. The muscles are burning trying to keep my legs together. I try looking down at Jackson, but he’s gone. I have no hope, as I look back up at the Monster its laugh now taunting me.
The pain is so terrible that I would rather die right now. Through blurred vision I stare at the creature, weeping. My legs finally gave way, as my right leg was ripped from the socket, carrying with it a part of my intestines. My own blood squirted onto my face, into my mouth, Dripping down into my nose and eyes. It was horrible, Unimaginable, I saw my own leg held up in my face by the creature, Skin hanging off of the bone, The red of the blood that covered my eyes made it hard to see anything else. But I saw the shape of my leg disappear from my sight, then the sound of crushing and chewing.
It was eating my leg, it was eating my leg. My head is spinning, blood keeps spewing from the hole in the side of my body down onto myself. I only know because I can feel its warmth, but I feel so cold. The sounds stop from the creature. And It drops me to the ground, Even more pain now comes out from my skull, I can’t even tell at this point how bad it is.
The feeling from my fingers tells me that my head is now flat and mushy on one side. And I have to hold my right hand over my skull just to keep its contents from spilling out. I don’t know why I kept hanging on, I’d be better off dead. I hear guttural laughing coming from the thing now. It won’t stop, Please make it stop. I felt something enter my body through the new hole the monster made.
It makes sure to pierce through my body just enough that it can lift me without me falling off. But also making sure it missed all my organs and arteries, quietly pushing them out of the way. All these feelings of pain are mingling into something even worse than the pain of thousands. I feel its hot breath as It lifts me up, sticking another one of its fingers into my body. It wiggles it around until it finds my stomach. And plucks it out, lifting the organ up and throwing it into its mouth.
My vision fades to black, Yet I’m still alive, Just barely conscious. One last time I hear its laugh, Taunting me, Making fun of me, and you can hear the joy of what it’s doing. Then I lost all my feelings as I went limp. I awoke a few hours later in a unfamiliar place, I tried to move but couldn’t. I looked to my left to see medical equipment.
I’m in a hospital. Which means that I am alive. I looked to my right to see a man wearing a medical mask, with a clipboard in hand. “You are lucky to be alive right now sir.” he said, “What is today?” I asked him. “May 25th, 2022” I had been in this hospital for 6, What happened was 6 damn months ago? “Can you give me my phone doctor?” “Sure, we’ll get that for you. But I want to talk to you after I go get it. Okay?”
“Alright doc.” As the doctor turned and left the room. How in the hell did I survive that? I’m not even sure myself. Thoughts raced through my head, But left just as quickly as the doctor came back. “Here you are.” He said, handing me my phone. He then sat down next to my bed.
“This is going to be hard to take in but…” He sighs as he has to recall what happened. “you lost your stomach, Your right leg, and your lower intestine. You have brain damage due to major blunt force trauma to your skull. Your brain was even exposed sir. And almost every bone in your body was broken except for your Humerus, Ulna, and your radius.” “I myself don’t even know how your were alive that day, You lost almost all of your blood, And you were just covered head to toe in your own blood.”
The doctor paused and muffled back a sob. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be telling you all this right now, Just get some rest.” “I’ll check on you in a few hours ok?” “Ok doctor.”
After a few months I’m almost fully recovered, And I’m getting a prosthetic leg soon. It’s august 25th right now, And I may update you guys soon when I’m out. This is my first story I’ve even posted here so I hope I can Spread this to people who know me and know where I am. I’m not telling anyone where I live. you’ll know if you know. I don’t know what that creature was, But it’s still out there. Please stay safe guys, I don’t want you to end up like I did. And I still don’t know what happened with the car shit, I may have had prior mental health problems or something.
Just be sure to always absolutely be sure that the person you’re next to is human.