I was always known as the weird girl; the one with no friends, strict parents, and strange habits. I was an outcast in part because I ate hot sauce sandwiches and sleepwalked. School days were long and torturous. There was nothing good about middle school. The worst part was definitely the ridicule from the “popular” crowd. They roamed the school in a pack, infecting others with their hatred and prejudice. I tried to avoid them, but they always tracked me down. They could have been bloodhounds. As fate would have it, one school day I met a new girl, Ella. The best part about her was that she had no clique, yet. All the groups were vying for her attention. She was everything the popular crowd wanted: outgoing and fashionable. Ella was relatively good at sports, which left the jocks clamoring for her attention. She was also apparently rather intelligent, so the nerds stared longingly at her, hoping that the force would bring her to their side. However, one day at lunch, she sat down with me. At first I thought she was going to try and take my sandwich, so I smiled to myself, imagining what a surprise she’d get if she ate it. When she actually introduced herself to me, I was even overjoyed. I had made contact with a human and I still had my wonderfully delicious hot sauce sandwich. Over the next few weeks, we would become friends. Finally one day she said, “Want to come over to my house for a sleepover, Chloe?” I didn’t know how to reply, I had never been asked to a sleepover before. That was something for people with friends. “Let me ask my mom.” I replied, the typical answer of a twelve year old. It took some begging and persuading for my mom to allow me to go. She kept saying that I would scare my first friend away if she found me sleepwalking in her house. I wasn’t too worried about it, though.

Finally, I was at my first sleepover. Ella and I watched movies, giggled and built a fort. It all seemed like something out of a movie. Around two in the morning, we had the bright idea to film a vlog entry. Sitting on our makeshift beds, we chattered away at the camera until we slowly dozed off into a land of sleep. When we arose the next morning, we realized we had left the camera on all night, filling up its memory. “Let’s watch our vlog entry now!” exclaimed Ella, still a bit groggy. I yawned, about to agree with her and stretched. I felt really sore, like I had been working out. Suddenly I realized that I must have sleepwalked during the night—that was the cause of my soreness. “No, actually, let’s not watch it now. Let’s wait until high school graduation to watch it. It will remind us of what we were like when we were this age.” Ella reluctantly agreed.

It was four years later and so much had changed. I was no longer the outcast, Ella and I had acquired a large group of friends that seemed to be ever expanding. Sleepovers were now a regular occurrence, though we had never made another video blog since the very first one. Ella called me the day before high school graduation, “Chloe, let’s have a sleepover and watch our vlog. I’ve been dying to see what ridiculous things we said when we were younger.” I agreed, she wouldn’t abandon our friendship now if she saw me sleepwalking.

We sat on the couch, buried under blankets, eating popcorn and started the video. Ella and I laughed at how immature and naïve we had been. It brought back good memories. Ella was about to turn the video off after watching us both drift off into sleep. “Wait! Don’t turn it off yet, you’re moving.” I blurted out. We watched to see what she would do. Panic gripped me. Something horrible was about to happen, I just knew it.

On screen, Ella sat up and stared into the camera. Her eyes were completely white. At that point, I sat up, too. “Ella are you okay?” I asked her in a sleepy voice. Ella continued to stare unblinkingly into the camera, then she blinked. Her eyes turned completely black, she turned her head and stared at me, her eyes eating my soul. Then I heard a noise, like a slow tearing of fabric. Ella fell backwards onto her bed in a pool of warm blood. I watched as her swollen body was torn open from the inside. I was about to scream, when a hand covered in dark hair clawed its way out of Ella’s chest using naught be its long dagger-like fingernails. The hand, dripping in the blood of my friend covered my mouth, stifling my scream. The rest of the beast crawled out of the hole it had ripped open in its host. How this large creature had fit in such a small body bewildered me. It was nearly eight feet tall, with muscular arms that dragged on the ground. It was covered in coarse hair, except for its long tail which was made entirely of rough scales. When it saw me, a smile crept across its face, literally from ear to ear, revealing deadly teeth that cut its own gums and lips. The creature licked its lips with its forked tongue, savoring the taste of its own blood.

I turned to run, but the creature’s tail caught me and coiled around my body, like a boa constrictor squeezing the life out of its pray. It hoisted me up above its head and let out a deep, rumbling throaty laugh that echoed and reverberated across the room. I looked down at my friend, she was just a pile of skin, most of her internal organs were strewn across the bed, though many seemed to be missing, where they went, I had not a clue. “Look at me!” the creature ordered. I gazed down at the blood soaked beast. “You will do.” It chuckled. Lifting up a hand, he sliced my skin with his razor sharp fingernails. The cut spanned from the bottom of my neck to my belly button. Wedging its fingernails in the cut, the creature slowly peeled the wound open, first the left side, then the right, ripping the skin and meat off of my bones. The same tearing noise filled my ears. There was nothing I could do—I was at the mercy of this beast. I looked down, I could see my ribcage and my internal organs which were spilling out of my body. Chuckling, the creature bit off one of its own fingers and used it to scratch my heart. Leaving the finger nestled in my ribcage, he picked up some of my intestines that had fallen to the ground and placed them back in my body and folded my skin back into place. By simply looking at me, no one would know what horrors had transpired, the cut mark had disappeared. However, I could feel the finger near my heart and it was growing. Soon, it had used many of my organs as fuel for its own growth. It inhabited my body now, not me. I felt the scar on my heart, the poison seeping through my blood. I was not me anymore.

The creature set me down, “You will not remember this in the morning.” It promised, while lapping up all the spilled blood. It proceeded to pick up Ella’s skin and crawl inside. Looking around, no one would be able to tell what tragedy had taken place that night. There was not even a mark on either Ella’s or my body. I drifted off to sleep. The video ended.

Ella and I looked at each other, terrified.

Then we heard it: that slow, ripping noise.

Nice one. Av always wanted (and I have tried thrice) to write a horror fiction, but I couldn't just get the ideas even though horror movies are still my best movie type, right from when I was in secondary school.

But, not to demean your write up, did you realise that as much as you tried to be detailed, in your detailing, you forgot to scream and describe the throbbing pain while your skin was being eaten like a shawama

oludare007:
Nice one. Av always wanted (and I have tried thrice) to write a horror fiction, but I couldn't just get the ideas even though horror movies are still my best movie type, right from when I was in secondary school.

But, not to demean your write up, did you realise that as much as you tried to be detailed, in your detailing, you forgot to scream and describe the throbbing pain while your skin was being eaten like a shawama

Thanks .

oludare007:
Nice one. Av always wanted (and I have tried thrice) to write a horror fiction, but I couldn't just get the ideas even though horror movies are still my best movie type, right from when I was in secondary school.

But, not to demean your write up, did you realise that as much as you tried to be detailed, in your detailing, you forgot to scream and describe the throbbing pain while your skin was being eaten like a shawama

I was about to scream, when a hand covered in dark hair clawed its way out of Ella’s chest using naught be its long dagger-like fingernails. The hand, dripping in the blood of my friend covered my mouth, stifling my scream.

yhermmie:


I was about to scream, when a hand covered in dark hair clawed its way out of Ella’s chest using naught be its long dagger-like fingernails. The hand, dripping in the blood of my friend covered my mouth, stifling my scream.

yeah, I read that part. But I biliv the creature doesn't have four arms whereby it could have held u aloft with one, covered your mouth with another, peel off the skin to it at the same time, no?

Pls, I am not trying to say you are doing a bad job, I just feel that, when we right fiction, we must be right inside it- hence, the details.

This is beautiful.

oludare007:
yeah, I read that part. But I biliv the creature doesn't have four arms whereby it could have held u aloft with one, covered your mouth with another, peel off the skin to it at the same time, no?

Pls, I am not trying to say you are doing a bad job, I just feel that, when we right fiction, we must be right inside it- hence, the details.

Alright. thanks for reading and commenting. Will adjust and try to correct my errors. Thanks once more

Divepen1:
This is beautiful.

Thank you.

charijee:
Following...nice writeup

thanks for reading.

cool

Horror