Beyond The Frights

The Pretty Girl

"NO- NO NO NO- PLEASE!" He could finally hear Dwight's scream again- He was closer... but they were all closer to the brink of death... He needed to hurry... He needed his legs to run faster without them giving out... He needed his breathing to be deeper, less tiring... He needed his grip on the shovel to be tighter to make sure his trembling hands never let it go... He needed his mind to not fall back into thinking about what happened with that... beast over a shovel... but that was the whole reason he was even doing this... Wasn't it?... He couldn't handle the screams he made up inside his mind... over what he did... and how he didn't try to stop it then- No... No. It was... different. He was doing this because he wanted to help them, to save them... Anyone would. Any good person would want to help someone in danger... He wanted to... and he wanted to back then... and failed... Does his wants even matter if it only ends in pain- No... Stop it... He needed to focus... He needed to...

The small glints of a million shards of glass instantly caught his attention... Two of the glass doors for the store with a simple orange banner covered in shadow were broken... shattered... No other store around was broken like it... It must've been where they were... and he was even more sure of it when he saw a darkened silhouette of the lady... the robot... He stepped inside through the giant hole of glass, wasting little time... No one noticed him step in... The lady... Her shifting replacements... and Dwight- Dwight. He was still there. They were all there... Dwight, Becka, Thad, Eric... All five of them were there... Alive... They were all terrified... crying... and trapped by her and their copies... like he was... She kept stepping closer to them... His legs started to move on their own.

"I will not say it again, but please hold still to-" He ran straight to her, behind her, and swung the shovel over his shoulder as if it were a baseball bat... He slammed the end of the shovel into the robot's waist... It didn't make a dent... barely even a scratch... but it stopped her... and her saw blade... The copies' backs straightened, turning themselves back into lifeless machines that only wore the skin of a person made from plastic... Her neck twisted, cracking in ways that could kill her. Her green eyes stared down... at him... They were impossible to look away from with the dimness of everything surrounding them... and the dread they caused.

"Oh, you." She said, almost surprised, and a smile wiped from her face. Her neck tilted to the side, letting her eyes make their way up the end of his shovel, then the side of her waist. Her stare went back to being right on Greg, who froze and skin trembled to break out.

"Did you think that attack would be able to work?" He managed to pry his eyes away from her to look at the dented end of the shovel... He... He guessed he thought it could... He didn't... think about it. His body just acted by itself as if something his muscles were far more aware of than him puppeteered him... but, now, his mind was back in control... and it could barely move his own eyes...

"You had the chance to be able to leave here, but you came here, instead, to 'stop' me." It was almost as if she were asking why... She knew, and he did too, that he could've left. He could've left, no longer being bound by the risk of his own death. He could've tried to call Larson, the Police, anyone close by to help... He would've had the risk of being called paranoid... or crazy... but that risk was better than having his head split open... in the exact same way the security guard's looked... It was almost as if she were telling him with her cold stare, and could only question why... or make him turn around to question why... but he knew the answer... He just refused to answer it.

"Quite foolish." The lady... robot, for once, began to laugh... She was laughing at him... and his foolishness... his stupidity... His pathetic attempt at an attack... What was he thinking? Why did he convince himself he could do this, that he had the power to... He... was a failure. Everyone knew that. Shouldn't he have expected it to end this way? Failing to even make a dent and being forced to watch all their faces stare at him, angered that he couldn't stop their deaths... or he would only imagine it as life flashed through his eyes when she inevitably decides to kill him first... or maybe she would've kept him alive, forcing him to see their blood soaked bodies and let him know what he couldn't stop... What he didn't try hard enough to stop...