The Stray

I.

You don’t really remember when the creature first appeared – only that it was there ever since you could remember, a pet you’ve unwillingly acquire and a constant companion throughout your whole life.

At first, it hovers in the background like a vengeful specter – always watching, a constant cold presence following you around. It was an odd thing, skittering at the corner of your vision, a flickering image you could never clearly see. 

Yet sometimes, you see a glimpse of a giant slobbering maw as wide as your head, with every inch of it filled with razor-sharp teeth that glints ever so clearly - so clear that you could see yourself reflected within it.

You had never paid the thing any mind, even as its presence slowly grows more pronounced, it’s features growing more distinct -grotesque features coming into sharp focus as it draws nearer and nearer each day.

....

II.

Years pass as steadily, it grows and grows into a larger presence, a physical weight that you struggle against completely suffocating you.

It continues to hang around you, lingering closely enough to trail you yet still drifting at a far enough distance, enough so that you could still keep it out of sight. Your pet was now close enough to touch, a familiar weight hovering just above your shoulder. There was a hint of something bitter and rotten that you caught emanating from it, as its head hung above you, tiny pieces of spittle dropping from its skeletal maw.

The creature was a playful spoiled thing who was often displeased at being ignored, constantly distracting you to gain your attention. It would sometimes stretch and nuzzle at your throat - jaws hinging wide at your neck, it’s teeth scrapping closely against the hollow of your throat, so close that you could hear the loud rhythmic thumping of your heartbeat in your ear yet far enough that it barely grazes you. Its jaws then suddenly snapped shut around your neck as its teeth sink deeper and deeper into the flesh until your head falls off with a violent crack.

Then the image of it fades into a brief impression within your mind, leaving you cold and alone, trembling and crouched on the floor of a bathroom stall - the same bathroom stall in the exact same corner you always occupy during one of your pet’s playful moods.

Disheveled and exhausted, you stumble outside as you groan over your pounding head, aching and raw. Then you feel something cold seeping into you, settling beneath your chest as it numbs you from the inside. The cold was a comforting constant, a presence you latched onto as the sharp edges of everything slowly dulls and blurs into a haze – like dream.

You trudged on, a grotesque thing, something insubstantial and barely distinct as you briefly rippled, flickering in and out of reality. There was a sea of voices – a crowd of chatter and noise that you pass through, shapeless beings that helped form the thick veil that surrounds you, becoming a part of the disconnected landscape you struggle to wade through.

Somehow, you end up in your bed. Unable to fall asleep, your eyes stray towards the ceiling as you gazed sightlessly at it, your mind wandering. Your eyes stubbornly fixed on the ceiling, a part of you hoping that you’ll wake up from this haze if you manage to pretend hard enough. And so, you continue to ignore the weighty cold in your chest, the ever-growing stench, and the feel of eyes pressing upon you as it devours every inch of your being, leaving its marks upon you as it keeps you company through the night.

.... 

III.

You woke up with a heavy weight on your chest that greets you in the morning. It looms above you, a horrifying visage with its skeletal maw barred in a wide grin, long and sticky tongue lolling out as it’s spittle dribble down on your face.

It grows heavier and heavier, crushing you beneath its weight and-you note distantly, that you're slowly struggling to breathe. And still, it kept on grinning, its giant maw close to your face, so close that you could feel the strong rotten stench of its breath mingling against your own. You choke at the overwhelming stench- leaving the bitter and rancid aftertaste of a corpse upon your tongue.

The creature- that grinning, terrible creature reaches out to you, something thin and whip–like resembling a tail coiling around your neck; it squeezes and squeezes, the hold around your neck growing tighter and tighter. You lie there, making no move to dislodge its firm hold on you as black spots start dancing across your vision and you hear the sound of heavy gasps reaching your ear. 

Then suddenly, it cocks its head and stills, looking as if it was considering something. Finally coming to a decision, it loosens its grasp, releasing you from its tight chokehold, and bit by bit, it began to let go of its hold, its tail uncoiling from around your neck until manages to finally unwrap itself. Your vision slowly restores and suddenly you find it easier to breathe as you take a huge gulp of air, greedily taking in air into your lungs. there was a distinct lack of an immense weight in your chest, you dimly realized as you continue to take in huge amounts of air, it’s cold presence diminished yet still remaining inside you.

Yet, you continue to stay there, feeling hollow as it left you there, leaving you a pathetic, faded thing who’s barely a half-life, left trapped and floating astray without an anchor inside a repeating nightmare.

…

There had always existed a heavy undefinable feeling in your chest, something you think of as a separate entity, a tiny little parasite who takes the glee out of leeching your life. But what you didn’t realize is that if you foolishly give something enough power, it’ll become real enough, becoming something that haunts you through your loneliest hours.