A Finale's Hint of Bloodied Salt.

NOTE: There's no foul language or anything, but the underlying themes may be unsuitable to someeeee readers. Regardless, I hope you enjoy and/or find something to cherish out of this short story! Thankyou for this opportunity! - Nosam Noj

A FINALE'S HINT OF BLOODIED SALT - by Nosam Noj

.

.

.

I couldn’t help but wonder why a woman drenched from head to toe in blood casually walked into our classroom. She was your stereotypical female horror antagonist (The black long hair, grey skin, a white dre… well, red dress, now.) No one, no one else in the twenty-four-person class noticed her frolicking toward my desk. As the woman sat on the seat beside me, her bright red pupils pierced directly into my soul as everyone else’s eyes locked onto Miss Lecture’s lecture. (Yes, that’s her name.) As you’d expect, in this… situation, I was perfectly calm. I mean, why wouldn't I be? Especially considering she’d been following me for as long as I could remember. Although, this was the first time she had the gall to sit next to me in a classroom and most definitely the first time she…

“BEEP!”

No one seemed to have heard her make the piercing sound. Not with her mouth, but with the rusty, golden, cracked stopwatch she pulled out of her mouth. Time… was this signaling my time was running out? No, it was likely a sign I desperately needed a psychiatrist. Regardless, from the angle she was holding the watch, I couldn’t see the time on it.

“Are you paying attention? Mr…”

Suddenly, Miss Lecture turned to face me, but instead of giving me a lecture about not paying attention to her lecture...

She gasped.

Wait… Was this really happening? Someone else had finally seen the blood-soaked woman?

“Look at how cute she is!” Miss Lecture yelled out as my mother and father approached me in my playpen.

It was time for me to get lunch, after all. My favorite toys were keeping me safe, but my parents were the ones who kept me fed! I love my mommy. And daddy too! Actwally…

Wait.. what?

Playpen… mommy?… daddy? what….?

But the woman.. the classrom. te womon in blod close?

“ te beep and ga ga goo gi gag oo gooaga?”

“Ga… GA! GAAAA!! …. mmm oo go ga!”

… Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!

“Waahhhhhhhh !!!”

“Waaahhh !!!”

“Wah!!”

“Water?”

“Uh.. yeah? Can I have some? I’m freaking dying!” the pale-skinned 19-year-old girl in blue gym shorts and a red t-shirt begged.

“Fine”

I rarely share drinks, clothes, or food with people, but this was my... best friend... so I made the exception. My head was killing me, anyway. Too much water, probably. Apparently, people can drown from drinking too much.

“Thanks, dude!” Carmen said.

We’d just finished a marathon for school and were right behind the school gates, cleaning up and relaxing.

“BEEP!”

“What?” I asked aloud.

“Oh crap! She’s here!” Carmen yelled out, after suddenly grabbing my arm and rushing behind the nearest wall. Wait… All this time...

“You see her too!!?” I hissed.

"Shhhh!!!”

No amount of sealing our lips shut would stop that bloody woman from finding our hiding spot. Our hearts betrayed us, after all. Or maybe not… considering, after what felt like minutes, the beeping stopped.

“It’s safe.”

“Déjà vu …”

“What?” Carmen asked.

“I swear this happened before. And then you’ll say…”

“You’re probably just tired”

“Dude, you’re probably just tired”

We were in sync, although I was one word off. One word… word..? Before my train of thought could come to a stop, Carmen yelled out… "OH Shi-"

"BEEP!"

Reactively, Carmen screamed and at the moment of me being stunned by the sudden burst of activity, she shoved me onto the dirt ground. Her skinny, warm body lay atop my own. She swiftly ushered her lips to do the same to mine, as well.

Carmen… kissed me?

A wave of incoherent thoughts filled my mind. I couldn't help but cough. As a matter of fact, my stored-up oxygen was stolen forcefully as her once gentle and light body suddenly gained the force of a whale. Or maybe I'm exaggerating, but at the moment, it at least felt as though two people were on top of me. I suppose that makes sense, considering it was the case.

The bloody woman, now standing atop Carmen's back, pulled the golden stopwatch out of her mouth, and as you'd expect…

"BEEP!"

I wanted to run; I wanted to… but they chained my body to the ground. Suddenly; the bloody woman handed my friend the stopwatch, and as she did, Carmen finally released her lips from me. But… before I could release a single question from my mouth, Carmen and the old blood-drenched woman leaped off of me. Her silky dress, stained in blood, stood out even more as she placed her hands under it. Slowly, removing her clothing, the old blood-drenched woman stared me dead in the eyes, as if expecting me to say something. But… I could not. Despite my lips opening, trembling… Nothing would leave them. Her clothes were exiled to reveal her wrinkly grey skin, now hosting a bikini with prints of four sleeping cartoon fish on the pieces. Carmen followed suit, or I suppose "unsuited", undressing into her own black and pink bikini.

"Doesn't that water feel great?" Carmen asked me.

"Y… yeah." I shivered as the small wave brushed against me on the sand. But that was nothing more than a perfectly timed coincidence. My shivering was that of fear as the blood-stained… well, a bikini-wearing old woman approached us from the depths of the ocean. Holding out a golden…

"No!" Carmen screamed.

"What is it?!" I leaped up off of the sand in pure instinct and reflex. Her finger pointed out into the distant sunset-reflecting sea.

Wait… Was this really happening?! Someone else had finally seen the blood-soaked woman? …

"Déjà vu …"

"The watch you got me! I think I lost it in the water…" she cried.

"Oh…"

It stung a bit. Why would she go swimming with… As I followed Carmen's finger out to the ocean, the old woman held out the stopwatch to me, greeting me all the while in her provocative bikini, as if ushering me to sleep with her, as she stood motionless upon the contrasted motioned waves of the sea.

"Uh… you... don't have to worry about it. I'll get you anoth-" I shivered.

"No! I'm going to go look for it! Your granny gave you that watch, didn't she?!" She was right.

My granny gave me her golden stopwatch as a parting gift when she greeted the afterlife. It meant a lot to me, and my giving Carmen it was a desperate attempt to say I loved her... Loved?… I never did tell her… I never could.

"Wait! Don't go!" I shouted at my friend... my love, as she rushed into the water. Into the water, where that… thing waited patiently. That monster who'd been haunting me for so long now. That bloody woman who'd been ever so distant and silent until today. Today… Today?

The painful blood interrupted my train of thought. Blood, not from the woman on the water, but… from my mouth. The coughs were getting more intense with each wave spit out by the ocean. My palm was filled with its own sea of blood with each cough. It took effort, but I forced a bloodied mutter out to Carmen.

"Don't… go… I'll find it."

As I struggled through the tense sea, saltwater flooded my bloodied mouth as my train of thought, now crowded with the voices of singing angels and busy demons, flooded my mind. Their voices were much like sirens; Both of the sea and of the land. Calming, and seductive, yet… harboring death. The bloody woman stood upon the ocean, dangling the stopwatch above my head. My hands freed themselves from the sea water's grasp, all the while frantically trying to reach out to the woman's grasp. She did not help. She did not reach out. The old woman simply stood, smiling, greeting me to sleep with her.

"…."

Again and again, I desperately called out to the blood-soaked woman… to Carmen… to my mother… to my father… to my granny… to everyone I loved…

to anyone at all….

but nothing...

Nothing but sirens' cries returned my calls after the…

"BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!.........."