It Lurks

  “The day was January 13, 1982. I was camping with my friends; Emily, Dalton, Irene, and me, Melina. Emily, she's the type of gal that is a hardcore athlete. She's this tall, fit lady with long blonde hair that is always put up in a hair tie and a stereotypical athletes headband with a soccer ball stitched in the middle of it. I've never seen her once without it. God I hope she washes it.

 Then there's Dalton. He's a slightly shorter juvenile male, with thick, curly black hair that is always fluffed up. He has horrible dandruff. How do I know? He's always itching his hair, as he does, you'll see these white little flakes slowly and gracefully dance their way to the ground, just like snowflakes. That's why we call him 'Flake'. He gets pissed at us for calling him that, but he knows that we like to f*ck around with him.

 Irene, Irene isn't really a social gal. She is the quiet artsy girl in the corner that hardly ever smiles, or even shows any emotions. She hangs around us all the time. We try to talk to her about it, but she'd just reassure us that she's 'fine' or more commonly 'Oh, I'm just a little sleepy is all'. She is the shortest of all of us. She has Dark, blue hair that flows down to her waist. She's always wearing a hoodie, always clearly way oversized. She always tries to hide her face in either under her hood, or behind her hair. She has crystal blue eyes that makes you think that she took some diamonds from a jewelry store and replaced her irises with diamonds. I've always wondered, why does she avoid the clear concerns that her friends are constantly bugging her about it? What is she Hiding?

 I consider myself a quiet person, but only when it has to do with my family. I, Melina, Hi hello, am a small, lazy eyed nerd that literally quotes off every damn movie that you can think of. As a description, I'm short, I just said it again but oh well just wanted to be clear, that is a short, dirty blonde girl with some bleached streaks to make me kind of stand out a little more. I have a blind left eye, like literally, if i cover my right eye completely, I won't see anything but a blurry picasso painting in front of me.  I will confess one thing about me, I have severe anxiety. I constantly get anxiety attacks, I actually care about other people's opinion about me, I'm blaming my family on that. I'm just a big mess.

  Where was I?... Oh right.  So, we were in this camping ground, I forgot where but I just remember there were trees and shit. Really descriptive, right? Thanks Melina’s brain. Anywho, we all have our own tents and sleeping bags. We were going to be there for a few days so we packed some clothes too. 

  Day 1, we all were setting each of our tents up, helping each other out if needed. Got some food for the trip. Yada yada yada blah blah blah non important part of the story, ANY WAY we set up a campfire and began to start up we began to make fun of eachother, as we always do. We hear a rustle. Then a SCREAM. We looked at eachother and began laughing. I know what you might be thinking. 'Oh it’s gonna be a murderer or some animal that went rabid or whatever it’s gonna be that story yeah get out of here.' No, what do you think this is, the 80’s 'B' movies where something cliche happens. Ah no. It was actually…. Yeah it was an animal but SHUT UP OK? It doesn't really support the information on the scream though? I got super confused… I didn't think much of it.. Not going to lie, I kind of stayed up all night thinking about it.. But not in the daylight.? Now that’s a mystery. Finally, I drifted off to sleep.

  Day 2. I wake up first, to only find ¾ tents… We all had similar tents… uhhhhhhh… who left? I began to look in every tent and I saw Dalton and Emily… IRENE! 'WAKE UP EMILY AND DALTON! EMERGENCY!' I wailed in fear, hoping and praying that she’s ok. Dalton walks out first. 'What is it… I want to go back to my dream.' he says as his word stumbles on. He looked up, his eyes widened, his jaw was on the floor, I saw the color of his light tan color fade into a pale white. 'What is it?' as I say with a sarcastic tone in my voice. 'T-turn around th-there..' He continues to stutter. I sighed, then turned around. I-I couldn’t believe what i saw. It was Irene...She made a noose out of her tent. There was a note on her foot, it looked like it was written in blood. It read, 'You did this to me, Melina…' I was shocked. My hands were shaky, my knees were quivering. My eyes just couldn’t stop the dams I built in my eyes to prevent me from showing any kind of sadness. It was my breaking point.. I fell on my knees… Hoping that this isn’t real. It then was Dark.

  Day 3. I woke up, in a cold sweat. Relieved that it was a horrible nightmare. Am I going to tell the others about it? Absolutely not. 

  I got up, took a deep breath, then walked out of my tent. When I exited, I couldn't believe what I saw… It was me.. Right in front of me… No way. No.. this is not happening. ‘WHAT ARE YOU?’ I yelled at the thing in front of me. It looked at me, then at my tent, then back at me. It gave me a creepy grin. BAM! It went black again. 

‘Help..’ I weep hopelessly… 

There was light, How in the h- no..no no NO

I read in the Sunday newspaper in all caps, 'GIRL MURDERS 3 TEENAGERS' I turn around and, what?  I'm in a cellar..? 

What’s going on?

Someone please get me out of here!

Then I appeared here, uh sir.” I explain to the detective

“So you admit you murdered these kids?” He asks me

“No, I didn't… IT did it” 

“What?” He looks at me curiously.

I lean in closer to whisper.

“It lurks…” 

“W-”

  The police officer pauses, turns around slowly, revealing a hatchet to the mid back area. Then there was me again.

  I turn from an innocent girl who seems gullible to the world around her, to an ugly, black, goop that I can call my identity. I have a body as soft as mud, entirely looking as if I were splashed with dozens of thousands of squid’s ink just as all over me. My eyes were just pockets of air. I look back to that “doppelganger” that I made as a puppet… My puppet. It melts into the same black goop as I am, then fuses with me. I am what’s lurking…

I am the shape shifter. 

hushhhhhhhhh