Creature of Unknown Origin

2

I gulped.

Unbridled terror resided in my throat like a lump. Stifling heat assaulted the room. I knew

that was only my mind, but that wasn’t much of a comfort. The mind was a powerful thing.

Every monster, every nightmare, every long- toothed predator I’d ever heard of bombarded

my mind. I forced a deep breath into my tense lungs and carefully worked my way to the door.

I tested each floorboard before I put my full weight on it. This forced me to move slowly

as I shifted my weight from foot to foot, back to front. The room had seemed cramped with all the

discarded furniture and suffocating emptiness when I first found myself to be here, but as I moved

six inches or so with every step I took, I began to see that the room was quite spacious. A silent

sigh fell from my lips like a puff of air, the only noise I could allow myself to make.

After what felt like hours, I finally reached the ornate promise of freedom. My hand

hovered mere inches from the tarnished brass doorknob. Was it safety or my doom that waited on

the other side? I couldn’t say .

The question plagued my conscious until all I could do was stand there, staring dumbly at

the oval knob, as I failed to swallow my rising fear.

In the end, the choice was made, and I sent up an anxious prayer to any deity that would

listen to the madness of my trepidation. The door’s hinges moaned from having be en woken up

from their slumber and again I heard the unknown creature move.

If there was any debate in its conscious of having heard me, there wasn’t any now. I

swallowed hard and slipped through the slim opening.

The hallway was narrow but long. On one side, the wall had more paintings coated in

timely decay. The other side was only a railing from which one could look downstairs or across

the balcony of the upstairs loft. Tall windows allowed pale moonlight to stream in.

I desperately searched for the welcomed sight of stairs.

My heart sank. I’d have to walk past the room that I believed the beast to be in.

As I passed the door on the right, I peeked inside to see a shadow moving around the room,

its owner out of my line of sight from the slightly ajar door.

Then I saw its eyes.

I hurriedly glanced over its body. Ice spread through my veins.