FRIENDLY NEIGHBOURHOOD

I remembered when I would try to play with the other kids on the block but it never worked out. It was like I was a square peg trying to fit into the round hole. I should’ve realised that there was everything wrong with me.  

I cried to my mother about this but she told me not to worry. That it would pass. That one day I would find someone who understood me to hell and back. So my foolish, childish heart clung onto this false hope, getting crushed over and over when nothing came to fruition.

However, it took a turn for the worst.

My parents bought a house in the nicest part of town. It was a lovely gated community called Heaven’s Gates. The people there were old money but didn’t seem to mind us, the new money. Our neighbour, Miss Bee, as she liked to be called, even brought us a welcoming gift of a pretty bundt cake. My parents seemed to like her but something about her just rubbed me wrong.

Nine-year-old me walked up to my new bedroom, taking in the old paintings that lined the stairway. They were all of people who lived in a time long gone, with pictures as proof of their past existence. I felt their eyes on me as I walked to my room.

My room was large with bay windows overlooking the gloomy looking beach, the clouds above black and heavy with their burden. The queen-sized canopy bed had the prettiest lilac beddings draped on it and I jumped onto them. I continued to stare out the window at the oddly gloomy scene for a long, long time.

When I awoke, night had already fallen. My body was tense and I had goose bumps, feeling as though I had just been given a light shock of electricity. I soon realised why; a shadowy figure hovered over me. It writhed and undulated as it floated above me, like a calm lake suddenly disturbed. I couldn’t understand what I was seeing. I couldn’t fathom what this creature was but it was silhouetted against the darkness of my room. A kind of darkness older me would probably say was vantablack.

Before me, it began to fade into the darkness and soon it was gone.

That’s when I realised I had wet the bed.

My parents were stunned, to say the least. They didn’t push the issue and I didn’t tell them about the dark figure I’d seen in my room. But from that time on, that shadowy creature was never too far away from me. I could see it in the corner of my eye sometimes but when I looked directly, it disappeared. When I was in high school, it even locked me in my room when I wanted to visit my friends. The damn thing seemed to want me all to itself and did its best to stop me from making connections.

What did it want from me? Why was it following me? And most importantly, what was it and how could I get rid of it?

Now, I was in college and decided to go home for Easter. As I drove to Heaven’s Gates, I saw the slow ebb of the shadow creature in the backseat. I slammed the on the breaks, my head crashing into the steering wheel and a feeble cry escaped my lips. The airbag exploded from its hiding place and I felt the soft cartilage of my nose snap. A warm liquid ran down my face and into my mouth, filling it with the taste of old pennies. I sat there in pain as my confusion, shock and anger brewed. This goddamned creature already made my life unbearable, filling me with anxiety and fear. And now it wanted me dead.

My hands shook as I pushed back the airbag and gripped the steering wheel, my chest heaving as I fought to maintain my composure. I would not let that fiend break me. I would not let that fiend break me. I would not. Let. That. Fiend. Break. Me!

“What do you want, goddammit?! Ever since I moved to Heaven’s Gates, all you’ve ever wanted was to make me more miserable than I already was! I’m damn tired of you!” I screamed, slamming my fist on the steering wheel.

The creature made a strange sound like glass being filed down before it disintegrated in a flash.

Angry and exhausted, I continued on my way back home.

The first thing that should’ve warned me that all was not well was when I saw the gates were wide open. They were never left open and there was a list of who was allowed in. The place even had its own special delivery service. That’s how much outsiders were resented. But I took no serious notice of this and drove up my family’s drive way.

I turned the bronze doorknob and entered the house and what I saw made my blood freeze. The creature lay on the ground, undulating and pulsing as though it were… dying.

“I tried to warn you,” It said with much difficulty, as though the human language was not meant for its vocal cords. “I tried… to protect you. I… am a… failure. I… failed,”

A cold bead of sweat ran down my forehead. “What do you mean? Warn me from what?” I whispered, fearful that whatever had taken down this fearsome creature was still around.

“From the-” It said a word no human tongue would ever be able to pronounce but the meaning was clear. The word itself unsettled my spirit, as though I had heard something so taboo, so obscene, so vile that even my inner being was repulsed without fully knowing why. “They took control of your… friends from high… school. That’s why I… stopped you… from going… those times…”

I took a step back, begging my legs not to keel at this terrible moment in time. As I watched, a large, nervous ripple went through the creature.

“They’re here. Find my people. Tell them... tell them-” It said another unpronounceable word, but this one filled me with an odd sense of peace and my soul hungrily took it in, like a parched man drinking his fill from an oasis. “-failed. They will protect you. You are…our last…chance,” It shuddered one last time before it whispered, “Run…”

Just then, Miss Bee came down the stairs. Her skin was dry, cracked and ashy with her eyes sunken deep into her skull. Behind her were other residents of Heaven’s Gates and they were in a similar condition to Miss Bee.

My once friendly neighbour smiled at me. “Won’t you join us, dearie? We’ve been waiting for you.” She said in a sing-song voice, trying to be sweet. I wasn’t going to be fooled that easily.

I could see the silvery shadows that pulled their strings. The vibe they emitted was fifty shades of wrong. I backed away when I saw my parent’s lifeless bodies draped on the landing banister. I felt tears prickle behind my eyes and my knees threatened to buckle. I couldn’t believe they were gone. Just like that. It couldn’t be… it just…

“Go!” the shadow creature shrilled. “Run! I’ll give you some time.”

As I turned and ran, I saw the creature burst into large, deadly spikes, skewering a few of the… I dry-heaved remembering the name.

I ran down the beach, to the sea, somehow knowing where I would find the shadow creature’s people. That shadow had been protecting me all this time and I had been so ungrateful and spiteful. It turns out that I had been afraid of the wrong thing all this time. Maybe if I had seen the tell-tale signs, like the light stench of rot and decay that the latest designer perfumes couldn’t cover, maybe I could’ve done something… anything to save my parents.

The sound of alien, angry shrills filled the air; the residents had killed my protector and now they wanted to kill me. I would not let them. I would not let my protector’s death be in vain. I just knew I had to help the shadow creature’s people find a way to stop those vile beings.

I flung myself into the roiling waves, feeling safe as they pulled me further away from the shore and deep beneath the surface.

As I sank further into the deep blue waves, I saw a mass of shadow creatures pulsate. They called to me in their strange tongue and I felt nothing but peace when their inky blackness wrapped around me.