I arrived home by the bus at five pm in the evening; I didn’t want to go with the group even though Diana and Adithi offered me to come with them. 'We will feel lonely..." They insisted.

  I refused not because of how embarrassed and uncomfortable I feel, but I didn’t want to cause another fight with Akira because I was ‘imagining’ the freak at the filter shop or whatever I said while I was knocked out cold that everyone became horrified.

  It was a whole hour ride, when I finally reached home, I could feel the weight of whatever happened just drift away from my mind.

  As I walked through the door of the apartment I stay in, I could feel something wrap around my leg tightly almost immediately… My fear and weight kicked in again as I went blank.

  I peered down slowly, my hands getting ready to push and my legs getting ready to kick and run but rather I was met with a:

  “Sissy! I missed you so much!” my little sister exclaimed; she clutched my leg so tightly as she told me that our mother went to the store to get some groceries.

  She led me to the couch on the right to sit and went to the kitchen to get me a glass of water, she came back with a glass of iced water, holding it with both of her hands. I took the glass with my right hand and gave her a bubbly smile.

  “Thank you,” I said as I took a sip from the glass, the cold water really quenched the thirst I never knew I had.

  “I thought you were never coming back!” squealed my sister.

  “Why would I never come back?” I chuckled, but inside I felt something stirring, “You know I won’t leave you alone.” I smirked at her as I brushed her hair with my hand.

  “Did you have dinner?” I asked, trying to change the topic before she asks where I went for a whole night.

  “Yes! What about you? Have you eaten in a restaurant?” she replied back while she is still smiling, her chubby cheeks becoming more visible.

  I fought back the temptation to pinch it to relief myself.

  “Yes, I did eat in a restaurant,” I lied to her, I did not eat anything but I had no appetite because of the bizarre affairs.

  My head started replaying the agonizing memories: Us crashing into the fallen tree, Diana and Akira’s conflict because of me, the freak with a bloody smile and infected nails, the clerk telling us there was no customers that they served except for one in the morning…

  Me and my sister chattered for thirty minutes, after I told her a hilarious story that happened on the way home, I decided to tuck her in bed in an entertaining way.

  As she was about to start telling her story, I jokingly carried her and held her over my shoulder as I ran to her bedroom that was behind the living room in a narrow hallway, I barged in the bedroom, she was laughing and screaming excitedly as I gently lowered her on the bed.

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  She was still giggling and held her arms out. I tucked her in with her pink, fluffy blanket which had a unicorn imprinted in the center.

  “Sweet dreams,” I wished her and gave her a kiss on her forehead, she looked at me, eyes shining and told me “Good night sissy, don’t go missing again.”

  When I closed the door of her bedroom, my fake euphoric mask was slid down, I started to sprint, my sneakers hitting the wooden planks and the sound echoed until I lurched myself to the bathroom and checked myself on the mirror above the sink.

  I checked if my lips were bright red or bleeding, I checked my smile with teeth and no teeth; They were normal like any other human, my nails were a healthy pale pink. I don’t even know why I am worrying over something delusional that I saw.

  ‘I am just tired’ I muttered to myself to the reflection in the mirror. It was a fake hope but it encouraged my mind to calm down and just take that lie.

  I took my toothbrush and toothpaste from the glass that was held by a holder, I squeezed on some toothpaste onto the toothbrush and began brushing but the worry won’t leave me that I could be affected by them, I kept on checking on my teeth in the mirror.

  I slid open the door and closed it slowly to avoid any banging that could scare my sister awake. I walked over to my bedroom that was opposite the kitchen, threw my bag down on the wooden floor, as I collapsed on the bed and dozed off in the position that I fell into.

  -------*-------

  “I thought you were never coming back!”

  “Good night sissy, don’t go missing again!”

  “Thank you for wasting seven minutes worth of energy and time on this useless conversation,”

  “Yeah. Whatever, this idiot decided to keep the name like a top secret, how bad can it be?”

  The voices wouldn’t leave me alone… I saw myself in the same area where I saw the freakshow, this time it is facing me and in front of me. It showed no emotion, but it started to pace at me.

  I started backing away from it slowly, but the more steps I took back, the faster it got. It started walking faster and faster before it started to race at me down the road.

  I started running too late after my poor reflexes reacted and tripped over my own shoelaces. I tried to get up but the thing pinned me down.

  My heart raced. I held my breath as it flipped me over. I was now lying on my back as it grasped my shirt. The face came closer to mine. I tried to back away but I was held down forcefully.

  When it finally felt it was close to my face, it smiled, their lips bubbled, I could see something move inside the lips going left and right and it busted blood all over my face.

  I felt it burning my skin away. I screamed out of agony and helplessness as I tried to kick it away, but it wouldn’t budge.

  My voice became strained; my throat ran dry as I attempted again to cry out, but my yell came out gravelly and airy that I couldn’t even hear it. My hopes of escaping shattered into pieces as my death and goodbye thoughts took over the place in my brain.

  I felt a sudden pressure on my chest, like something was squeezing it down hard.

  I dragged my head to look up and on my chest. I saw the hand from the creature trying to burst into my chest.

  I started to screech as the pain became excruciating. I heard and felt a pop on the area the hand was pressing on, the nails penetrated through and dark red started to seep out...

  As I rolled my head over out of despair, I caught the look of my nails… All of them were ripped out because of clawing at the streets when the thing pierced me. I could see the bloody nails on the streets, I felt them at the palm of my hand; smooth, hard and wet...

  I started to lose touch and sense in reality; I could feel that I was fading away as the creature tore deeper into my chest.

  I gave the scenery one last glance before I started to black out.

  The creature shrieked near my ear and as it pounced closer to me with its mouth opened, its jagged teeth and snake tongue…