Creature of Unknown Origin

7

Every beat pounded like an executioner’s drum in my ears.

The heat that draped over the room grew thicker until I could barely draw air into my frozen

lungs. With each breath I took, I expected to be my last. Each time I drew another inhale was a

surprise. I turned my head into the corner of the wall, my eyes squeezed shut. Whatever happened

next, I didn’t want to see it coming. The anticipation had a tight grip on my throat and the terror

might as well have gripped my heart like a vise.

Every inch of my body was crippled by a burning blaze of what I assumed was hellfire. It

consumed me from the inside out. Its flames licked at every organ, every muscle, every bone inside

my body. A shriek pierced the still air. A moment later, I realized that it belonged to me. Jitters

ran up and down my body.

The beast pounced.

My eyes didn’t need to be open to know that it had. The energy in the room had shifted

with the creature’s victory, and a scythe flashed and sliced in my mind’s eye. A wild, nearly

inhuman screech tore from my throat as the hunger and bloodthirst in its eyes haunted my blind

vision.

The stale, hot breath of the monster reached me first. Its claws dug into my flesh, the thin

barrier of my clothes not even a hindrance.

One second. Two seconds. Three.

I turned to ice. The wall disappeared from behind my body. My hands clawed at thin air.

Then there was only darkness.