Incredible

It only takes a minute to get separated from my mom in the grocery store. I had stopped to peruse the boxes of cereal she wouldn’t buy for us. All the colors and cartoon characters drew me in. The next thing I know, I become aware of an unwelcome presence in the Winn Dixie. I look up and down the aisle, but there is no one. Mom is gone, the other shoppers have left this aisle. It’s just me, standing alone in front of the cereal. And he’s coming. 

I feel the painfully slow footsteps pounding from a nearby aisle. The shelves rattle. He must be just on the next aisle over. I think I can hear him snort, almost like a dragon or an angry bear. I’m too scared to look at the end of the aisle and even more afraid to look away. His footsteps are breaking the tile floor of the grocery store. I see cracks race across the floor at the end of the cereal aisle. One or two more steps and I’ll see him. Worse- he’ll see me.

I slowly start to step backwards down the aisle, toward the front of the store, never taking my eyes off the other end. I need to run but I don’t want to make any noise or create a distraction. Maybe he doesn’t know I’m here yet. Maybe I can sneak away before he sees me. 

Too late. He rounds the corner, pivoting on one enormous foot to crash land on the other one, breaking more floor tiles. Dust billows around his impossibly huge, green legs. His arms are all bulging muscles and every inch of his green body is tensed to pound the next thing he sees. And he sees me. 

I turn and run full speed to the front of the store as he inhales, then lets out his signature animalistic roar that haunts my nightmares. I dodge a lady with a shopping cart and dance around a dad with his toddler as I race for the automatic sliding doors that lead to the parking lot. Somehow being in an open space feels safer. I hear him toss the shopping cart out of his way like it’s a toy as he pounds slowly after me. Slowly, but steadily. 

I make it to the parking lot only to realize there’s nowhere to hide, not really. Ducking behind a car, I pray I made it before he saw where I went. He crashes through the front of the store, glass shattering and parts of the wall crumbling in his wake. His hair is gray and unkempt, though it’s unclear if this is from all the dust and rubble or just his natural coloring. Only, there’s nothing natural about him. His ripped purple shorts are the only article of clothing remaining on him, and they somehow manage to only make him more frightening. He towers over the entire parking lot, scanning for a hint of where I’ve gone. 

Then he just starts picking cars up, one by one, and tossing them out of the way. I have to run or he’ll find me. I take off from my hiding spot and race down the sidewalk. He follows, not running but still covering more ground in his giant bare feet than I can in my Nikes. 

I feel like I’m running through mud, willing my uncooperative legs to move faster. This is the part where I can never go fast enough, never gain any distance. I see a familiar building in front of me and run inside. I’m immediately at the foot of a stairwell, with a door to my left that leads to a hallway. I opt for the stairs, praying he didn’t see me come into the building at all. But hoping, if he did, he’ll choose the hallway and I can escape from a different floor. 

I know this building, somehow. Each floor has a long hallway with classrooms on either side, and a matching stairwell on the far end of the building. I just need to get down a hallway to the other stairwell and I’ll be free. 

I race up the stairs, past the door to the second floor hallway and on toward the third floor. I hear the outside door at ground level crash open. He’s here. And he can cover stairs a lot faster than my six-year-old legs can climb. He starts to climb, each pounding footstep shaking the building. He makes it to the first landing in two enormous steps.

I approach the landing to the third floor, and like an idiot, choose to keep moving up the stairs. I feel myself slowing down. It’s only a matter of time before he gets me. 

I’m almost to the landing for the fourth and final floor when I gasp for air and sit straight up in bed. 

I’m covered in sweat and out of breath. I blink a few times and jump a little when I hear my husband’s snore next to me. I exhale, listening to the sounds of our quiet home for anything out of the ordinary. 

Feeling safe to get up, I slip out from under the covers and quietly walk to the kitchen for a glass of water. On my way back to my bedroom, I take a quick peek into my daughter’s pink glowing My Little Pony themed bedroom, watching for her steady breathing under piles of soft pink-and-purple blankets and stuffed animals. I pull her door closed and take a deep breath before silently opening her brother’s room across the hall. 

A similar nightlight glow envelopes his room as well, only green instead of pink. Incredible Hulk posters line the walls. His small body sleeps soundly under a comforter with the famous giant green face baring its teeth in a trademark roar. Under my son’s arm is a stuffed Hulk doll, completely green with gray yarn for messy hair and shredded purple shorts. I quietly close his door and tiptoe back to bed. 

The End