Monster

“Help! Can anyone hear me! I need help!”

The words echo around the alley, filling Jani’s ears as her feet dig into the ground, her legs pumping harder, faster with each terrifying word. Her breath overtakes the screams, labored and heavy as she sprints down the narrow alley, eyes wide, the moonlight shining down on her.

She needs to go faster. Move faster. Get to the end of the alley as fast as possible.

She never thought it would be some kind of herculean feat, to run down an alley, and yet here she was, sidestepping around garbage cans, sneakers plowing through pieces of paper and garbage. 

The sound of pounding footsteps grows louder although there not her own. There the sound of a beast. A predator. A monster pounding it’s the way towards the exit. Towards the street and the open air. Towards the crowds and throngs of people. Where she’ll be safe from the monster. From the beast. 

Jani had never wanted this. All she’d wanted was to enjoy her night, to live her life. She didn’t want to be in the dark, dirty alley. She didn’t want to be apart of the chase.

And yet… her she was, running through the night. 

A crash resounds around the alley, nearly causing Jani to fall over, the sound startling her from her thoughts. Her head whips back, long, black hair flying across her pale skin, wide eyes staring back the way she’d come. 

The alley remains empty behind her. For now. For the time being. Her nerves relax, just for a moment. Then she turns back and the metal dumpster screeches across the ground. Her feet skid across the ground, trying fruitlessly to come to a stop as the dumpster starts to topple over, lid yawning open as a tidal wave of trash, metal, and glass begins to trickle out of the dumpsters maw.

She has no time to think. And yet, she acts entirely on instinct. Her legs bend, using her momentum and leaping high over the falling dumpster, for an instant, flying through the night. She lands on the other side with barely a sound as the dumpster falls with a monumental crash and clatter, shaking the alley and rattling Jani’s bones. 

The sound fades, replaced only by Jani’s pants and gasps…

And someone else’s. Something else’s. 

Her eyes dart around the alley, already preparing for another run, for another chase, and yet the alley before she remains empty. Then her eyes tilt up. And sees the dark figure standing above, high on the rooftops. 

The two stand, staring at one another, gasping for breaths, sizing the other up.

Then Jani breaks into a run. And the monster begins the chase once more.

Feet–both Jani’s and the figures– fill the alley, rapid breaths flying through the night air. Jani doesn’t dare look up, doesn’t dare look behind. All she can do is keep running, trying to outpace the figure, to slow down the monster.

Her mind wanders back, thinking of the night, remembering what she wanted to do. She had just wanted to see a movie, to go on a date. To live a normal life. Things had been so difficult lately, the stress of her life, the pain of barely being able to go out. And now, finally, she had a moment to live. To be. 

Then she’d heard the monsters growl, felt it’s hungry gaze fall. And before she’d even entered the theatre, she was on the run.

“Can anyone hear me?! Please! Somebody help!”

The cries jolt Jani from her mind, the sound reverberating around the walls. She glances up, seeing the figure out in front, pulling away from the alley, turning towards…

Towards the street. 

Dread and fear fill Jani’s chest. Fearing what will happen if the figure escapes. Dread at what they will do. And another feeling, an overwhelming feeling, overtaking the others…

Hunger. At the thought of catching up with the figure.

Then Jani turns from the alley and leaps at the wall. Her hand pound into the brick and mortar, finding foot and handholds where none should exist, hoisting herself inhumanly up walls, stones falling below, windows shattering, yells of shock emitting from the startled residents of the apartments.

And yet Jani pays it no attention as she effortless leaps over the building's edge, pale skin shining bright without any sheen or sweat or effort in the night. Her bright, intelligent eyes locking on the figure, hurrying towards the rooftop's edge. 

And her feet pounding into the rooftop, launching her forward, towards the figure. Their almost at the edge, almost able to look down and scream at the masses, cry out for help, yell out for someone, anyone to take the slightest glance up, and see the young, terrified man.

Then they look back. A simple act. And yet a fatal one. Their foot twists beneath them and the boy topples to the ground, rolling head over heels as Jani effortlessly closes the gap, mouth open wide, eyes glinting in the moonlight.

The boy grasps at the ground with bloodied fingers, desperately trying to pull himself forward, out of breath, his voice barely above a whisper.

Then Jani grabs the back of his sweat-drenched shirt. She drags him back into the shadows, hand over his mouth, avoiding his pleading eyes. Only looking at the blood trickling down from his numerous cuts and bruises. Smelling the faint scent of copper that the red amber liquid produces. 

And listening to the boy's heart skip and jump faster and faster in his cage of a chest, pounding to get out, forcing the blood to spill faster and quicker.

Jani’s red eyes grow wide. Her pointed ears quiver. And her mouth opens wide, fangs shining against the night.

As they plunge into the boy's neck and silence his screams.

A glaze covers the boy's eyes, his hoarse screams slowly fading and Jani thinks back one more time. Thinks back to agreeing to go on a date with the boy she’d seen across the street so many times yet could only chat with on the phone. Agreeing to meet at night, for one movie, for one quick, brief moment. 

She remembers his smile, his kind gestures, offering her his hand as they walked around the loud, overpowering parade still marching through the streets below. She remembers him insisting on opening the glass bottle for her. 

Her mind rests on that moment, on the boy struggling with the bottle, grinning wide at her, and her grinning back, feeling normal. 

Then the bottle exploded in the boy's hand. And the glass cut deep. And the blood flowed like a raging river.

And the monster leaped from Jani’s body. Filled her mind with an animal and unquenchable hunger. And dragged her kicking and screaming out of her normal life.

And as her mind returns to the present, she closes her eyes, not daring to look into the boy's eyes, not daring to watch the blood flow and disappear down her lips.

Only closing her eyes tight and strong.

And waiting for the monster to go back inside.