Emily.

Left, right, left, right, Oh come on, why am I so indecisive now?

My legs were burning from the marathon I ran. The crunch of the floor echoed just a hallway down from two doors I stood aside. The hotels cheap and worn down lifts weren’t working, and sure as hell won’t get me very far. The air was chilly, and outlined my uncontrolled breath. My thoughts raced like horses, betting on which one will win. The first door on the left was painted ebony. It was glossy and sheer. The door handle read emergency exit in a label of ever green. The other door was red and had a plain metal door handle.

Growls and roars of the coniferous creature shattered and bounced off every crease in the wall. I slammed my hands against my ears and shrieked a high pitch voice. Shit shit shit, now I must make a decision.

The summoning of the creature had rose from one of the hotel dorms. And it had grown with every imprisoned soul it snatched in it’s insanely giant stale and crusty legs. It almost looked like an enlarged hexapod. With the legs of a mantis and body like a spider. But with a sort of rotting human corpse feature. The creature had torn apart every living person and child in this god foresaken hotel. It all began on a peaceful Saturday morning. This holiday was new and strange, my parents never took me anywhere except the theme parks in England. We had drove to the remote island and then took a ferry. The exhausting results of the trip had caused me to pass out at seven.

But I was awoken by the screams of my mother. Lying in a pool of blood with a creature the size of a puppy latched onto her neck like a leach. The mess it created could’ve been featured in some sort of gallery. The look of horror painted on my face as I stood paralysed, unable to move. My mothers limp body had laid, moving about, creating squelching sounds. Her stomach had erupted and millions of tiny creatures emerged. Either it lay eggs, or multiplied like a corroding virus desperately begging to eat away at your living soul. I didn’t waste another second. I sprinted out the hotel dorm door and slammed it shut. I tried running down the grand luxury stairs, circling and trailing to the ground floor; but it was too late. Collections and stampedes of the creatures had pigged out on anything moving. Like parasites infesting and killing its host. The stomping of my feet caught attention and I was herded back upstairs. I went down the east wing as it was away from my dorm room, and I had a better chance of escaping.

But here I was. Unable to do a simply bloody thing and choose which door to go through. Ugh if my mother had just let me explore the hotel on my own maybe this wouldn’t be like solving a riddle. The crumble of the dry wall had trailed closer and as tears swam down my face like raindrops on car windows I finally got my dumb blonde brain and;

red.

I bolted to the right. I slammed against the heavy door, trying to open it with all my might. Pull not push Emily. I screamed even louder as I pull the door open and ran for my life. I approached a stairwell, lined with fine red carpet and tripped as the process of stopping had made it inevitable. One set of stairs going up, one going down. I couldn’t protect myself or keep the door closed.

“Emily!” The creature bellowed in a hoarse sharp whisper. It was calling to me. It sounded familiar. The thing had called my name again, but this time it sounded like a middle aged woman, wailing for her child.

“Emily!” It called in its sad soprano voice. The scratches created were high pitched, enough to make me grind my teeth in the un comforting state. I jerked my head back. My breathing felt heavy and uneasy. The hairs on my neck stood erect. The chitter of the monster sat outside like an angry cicada and then, silence.



I held my breath. The snot oozing and bubbling out my nose as my sight was blurred and filled with a rain cloud of tears. All of a sudden, the eruption of tiny jitters and pitter patter of tiny legs rose and wailed behind the closed door. The underneath of the bright red door filled with a mosaic of black mass, spreading out like an angry sandstorm coming closer towards my creased and muddy white shoes. I slowly backed away from the miniscule spiders. Concurrently, as the spiders drove through the door in herds, they collided together. Mutating and shredding each other’s limbs until they collectively grow in height, curling its neck against the ceiling from the naked height.

I turned and I bolted. Down, down DOWN EMILY. I yelled at myself. Punishing for myself for getting chased by a predator. I felt like meek prey. The dancing of my shoelaces around me joined together, and I tumbled down the cushioned stairs. The place was spinning. Despite the soft carpets, I didn’t realise how thin, and how much I winded myself cracking my back against the straight edges of the stairs. My whole body was flailing and contorting as the air threw me down, and down, and down.

My head concussed on the dense and solid concrete walls, the impact shaking my brain, the sound of reverberating vibrations of high pitched frequencies poisoned my ears, and as I struggled to catch my breath, wincing in utter pain, my tears choking me as I tried to move, the room began to spin, like an uncontrolled fair ride I used to visit with my parents. My vision blurred for good, unable to focus. I managed to recognise the contrast and merging black colours of the spidery creature, now back in its insect form; it crawled on the wall and ceiling, bending its freaky sticky legs on all sorts of angles before emerging down the stairs and towards me...