“It comes for you in the dark. A creature formed of lost souls from its previous victims. It needs those souls to live, but they make the body grow larger which makes it need more souls. A vicious cycle of kill, grow, eat, and tonight it hunts.”

“That’s so lame,” said Nicholas Michaels. He sat under the stars around a manufactured fire pit in his backyard with his twin brother, Nathan. “Under those rules, it wouldn’t stay a secret for very long. After a few years, it would be discovered and then hunted down.”

“Well then, what would you suggest?” Nathan asked.

“There’s nothing wrong with the idea of a monster that regenerates itself with the bodies of its prey. I mean, it’s not an original idea, but it’s not a bad one. The problem comes with the exponential growth pattern. Can’t it just eat and hide for a few years slowly digesting its prey until it comes out to feed again.”

Nathan scoffed. “It’s what actually happened. I can’t change that.”

“And what’s up with the dark?” Nicholas said ignoring his brother. “I mean, isn’t it possible for it to attack when the lights are on? Push some boundaries. People feel safe in the light. Take that away from them, makes things much scarier.”

“If you’re not going to listen to my weird dream then I’ll just stop talking.”

“No, just thinking out loud. This dream would make a good story.”

“But it’s not a dream,” Nathan insisted.

“Even better.”

“I see the images when I’m sleeping, but it’s not a dream.”

“You dream of killing people in the woods?” Nicholas stared wide eyed.

“Yes.”

Nicholas was silent for a moment. “Still kind of overplayed, though, don’t you think?”

Nathan tossed his hands to the sky and stood. “I should’ve known you wouldn’t take this seriously. You don’t take anything seriously.”

“Aw, c’mon, Nate.”

“This has really been bothering me and I have to talk to someone.”

“Nathan?”

“I can’t just go tell Mom. I mean….” Nathan trailed off.

“She’d take you back to that place.” Nicholas finished.

Nathan stood near the back door with his shoulders hunched looking completely defeated. Nicholas watched him intently.

“I’m sorry, Nate. Really, I’m sorry.”

Nathan glanced up catching matching deep brown eyes. He seemed sincere.

“I won’t let them take you from me again, okay? I’ll listen.”

Nathan slowly made his way back to his brother. He sat next to him and leaned into his shoulder. “I don’t want to go back there.”

“I know.” Nicholas put his arm around Nathan.

“They treated me like I was crazy.”

Nicholas pressed his forehead into Nathan’s. “I know.”

“I’m not crazy.”

“I know.”

Nathan pushed at Nicholas’s chest. “I think I prefer the asshole version of you to this.”

Nicholas brushed Nathan’s hair from his eyes. “I know.”

Nathan laughed then took in a deep breath. “I don’t like feeling helpless, Nick. That giant think is after me. Maybe it is a dream and some sort of metaphor for something else.”

“Or maybe that thing is angry it lost you and it’s getting closer to finding you.”

Nathan pushed away. “Don’t joke about something like that. You’re the only one who even believes me about that thing.”

“I’m not joking.” Nicholas was surprisingly serious. “You’ve got some sort of weird connection to it. You’ve said as much yourself before they took you from me. If that thing is hell bent on making you a part of it, then you’ll never be safe. You’ll have to face it again just to be rid of it.”

“And if it’s not real?”

“Be glad you’re crazy.”

“It comes for me in the dark. So many faces.”

You see a young man walking down the street alone. He has an aura that you are drawn to for some reason and follow. He seems to put you in a dreamy state. You are completely at peace while near him. Suddenly, two young men around his age approach him.

“Nathan!” one of them says to him. “When did you get out of the crazy house?” This young man is wearing a red jacket with a letter.

Nathan sighs. “Hey, Chester.” He continues walking, but Chester grabs his arm.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Nathan locks eyes with Chester. “Let go of me.” His voice is calm and even.

“Whoa,” says Chester laughing. “You got some muscles in there. What, did they have a weight room for the inmates to work out their feelings?”

The other boy starts to cackle much like a hyena, but the laughter stops when Nathan’s eyes cut to his.

“What’s your problem with me, Chester?”

“You know my problem, Nate.” He spits out Nathan’s name as if it’s a curse. “Those kids you killed, one of them was my little sister.”

“I didn’t kill anyone.”

“Yeah, well I don’t believe that for a second.”

Chester steps closer to Nathan and you can sense Nathan’s fear. Even though Nathan is not a short or skinny person, Chester is still taller and outnumbers him two to one.

Run, you whisper knowing he can’t hear you, knowing he can’t see you.

“You don’t scare me, Chester,” said Nathan, the fear clearly present in his voice.

Chester’s lips spread upward into a sneer. “Then why are you shaking?”

Nathan slowly steps back, but Chester maintains an even distance.

“You mutilated my little sister,” said Chester stepping ever closer. His friend stayed close by his side.

“I told you I didn’t.”

They’re herding you, you say hoping he can at least sense the danger of being backed around that corner, but he doesn’t and backs into five others.

He turns to see them and then back around to face his main advisory. “Chester, I….”

“Don’t!” he interrupts. “Don’t you even try and deny it. I don’t care what those damn cops said. What do they know? I’ve got all the proof I need with the stuff they found. You had one of her bows in your locker.”

“That doesn’t prove….”

You watch as Chester closes a fist. “You had her little blue dress in your room, you fucking sicko!”

Nathan tries to plead with him, but it’s clear that Chester has made up his mind.

“What sorts of things did you do to her before you killed her?”

“What does it matter? You won’t believe me anyway.”

Chester starts to chuckle. “Now isn’t the time to avoid my questions, Nate.”

“What you’re about to do is illegal.”

Chester laughs fully. “Illegal?”

Nathan backs into the others and they grab him.

“If they didn’t send you away to the deepest bowels of the worst prison system this country has to offer,” Chester grabs Nathan’s face. “If they didn’t give you death penalty,” he puts his lips next to Nathan’s ear and whispers, “then I will.”

As they start beating him, you rush out to find help. Surely somebody, anybody is around who knows how to sense you, someone who knows how to hear you. In your panic, in your rage to save this beautiful young man you have an attachment to, you scream your screams that only a select few can hear… and then you feel her.

You rush to the person you feel a connection with and stand close. She turns and looks for you, but you know she can’t see you, not if she’s looking at you directly. You sprint passed her sight and stand near the corner. She saw you. She’s intrigued. You point where you want her to go and she cautiously follows.

Hurry, your voice is urgent and she can hear it. She begins to run and finds her way to the mob. 

Things seen in darkness can easily be misunderstood in the mind of anyone, especially a child. There’s a certain fear that grips a person when the lights go out. Shadows emerge and move freely around the room as all noises magnify. No, it’s not my imagination playing tricks. I can see them with the lights on too, but only out of the corner of my eye. They lurk in area we cannot always see, speak in languages we cannot always understand in a frequency we cannot always here… but I do. I’ve been hearing them since the day I drowned, but no one believes me.

They lead me, warn me, frighten me… terrorize me. But I can’t tell anyone. Not really. They might send me away like they did Nate. He wasn’t crazy either. I saw the monster’s shadow.

After learning that he had returned home, I was reluctant to find him and welcome him home. So running into him the way I did proved to be interesting.

The shadows of the unseen raced by the corner of my eye. There was the figure of a man standing on a corner. He arm was outstretched and he was pointing to something in the distance. I took off running in the direction he sent me.

Of all the ways to see Nathan again, it wasn’t one of the ways I expected. He was being attacked.

“Stop!” I yelled. “Stop it!” I tried to grab an arm, but it was massive and moving with such ferocious rage. I fell from my task and reached into my bag pulling out a gun. I fired a shot into the dirt before aiming it at them.

They jumped at the sound and looked at me. I recognized all of them, a bunch of asshole sheep from school whose only purpose in life was to find a strong leader and follow him to hell.

“I said stop.”

“Who’s that Goth bitch?” one of them said.

“Stay out of this, Baker.”

“Chester Davis? What are you doing?”

“Giving him what he deserves.”

“You’re not the one who’s allowed to do that.”

Chester stormed over to me and practically started shouting. “Why do you keep defending him?”

“He hasn’t done anything wrong. He didn’t kill Ellie, he tried to save her.”

“Right, from that giant red monster thing he claims he saw.”

“Yes, from that thing! I saw it.”

“What were you even doing up there with him anyway?”

“You were being a jerk, remember.”

“So you’ve said.” Chester turned to face his gang. “Let’s go.”

They released Nathan dropping him to the ground before dispersing back to the main streets.

“You’ve changed since that night,” Chester said.

“So have you.”

“Never knew what you saw in him.” He glanced back. “He’s nothing special.”

“You used to see it too.”

“Put the gun away, Brianna. I’m not going to hurt you.” His voice was calm as he placed his hand on the barrel and gently pressed it down to toward the ground. “You’ve changed.”

“So have you, and not for the better.”

He smiled and his face turned into someone more familiar, something like the person he used to be but only for a second. “I guess life has a way of changing things.”

There was a sadness in his eyes when he looked at me which was understandable. He missed his little sister. There were so many unanswered questions regarding her death the other eight children. They were so sure Nathan had something to do with it, but they could only connect him to Ellie. That’s what he gets for volunteering at a lakeside summer camp, I suppose. Don’t they know that’s where horror movies are born?

He turned to leave and I called out to him. “Call me sometime? You need to talk to someone.”

He let out a huff. “I’m sick of therapists.”

“I’m not a therapist. I’m a friend.”

He was silent for a moment. “You still have the same number.”

“Yes.”

He nodded, and then I saw his shoulders tense as his eyes caught a glimpse of Nathan lying broken and bruised on the ground. Nathan tried to push himself up, but he was really hurting. Chester’s eyes glanced back to mine over his shoulder studying my movement. I slowly raised the gun and took a step in Nathan’s direction. Chester smiled briefly before turning to join his gang.

I dropped to Nathan’s side frantically trying to assess his injuries. There were giant red spots on his arms and his left eye looked swollen.

“Nathan?” I reached for him, but didn’t know if I should touch him. “What should I do?” He needed help, but I didn’t want to leave him.

I pulled out my phone to call for an ambulance, but he put out his hand to stop me.

“You need help, Nate.”

“No… hospital,” he gurgled.

He reached for his phone and I quickly grabbed it. Searching through his contacts, I found Nick.

“Do you want your brother?”

He almost nodded and barely managed to exhale a “yes.”

I pressed to dial.

“Yo, bro! Where you at?” Nick answered.

“Nick, it’s Brianna Baker. Nate’s been hurt and he won’t let me call an ambulance.” I spoke quickly before he could yell at me.

“I’m coming. Where are you?”