Collection of Short Stories

Little Annie

   Annie was freaking out. And she didn't know why.
Her blankets were pulled over her little head, her dog is curled behind her and asleep. The window is shut, it's raining, her door is shut and the hallway light is on....
What woke her up?

Barely two minutes later, Annie shuffles down the brightly lit hallway, silent as a church mouse and to the side, not directly in the middle of the hallway. Cherry, having worken up, crept along in front of her, sniffing at the doors they passed and occasionally growling. Unsurprising. Cherry had made it clear to everyone else that she only cared about Annie, and no one else was to touch her or the girl. But the silent crouch was unusual. Normally she walked straight and unafraid down the middle of the hallway. Annie had shrugged it off as a precaution and brought along a flashlight and her wooden sword. She'd had it all her short life and she loved it.
  Downstairs, the lights were out. Dennis, her second oldest brother must have left the hall light on, but Annie could see the tv light flickering. Was Bill still up, this late? Maybe he's fallen asleep in front of the thing again. She edged down the stairs and jumped the last three steps, as they all creaked no matter how silent one stepped on them. She padded around and looked in the den. No one there. The kitchen revealed nothing. Piano room? Nope. She pushed the tv room door open with her wooden sword, and stepped lightly in, looking around. Yes, there was Bill's shape, on the easy chair in front of the tv, which showed a football game. Annie turned to leave, chiding herself. This was ridiculous. I am eight years old now, she told herself sternly. I need to stop spooking at the slightest sound of the tv downstairs.
  But then she stopped. She thought. For one, she could barely hear the game going on, the announcer sounded like he was whispering it was so quiet.
And for another..... Bill hated football. He always watched National Geographic, because he wanted to be a zoologist. She turned quickly and stopped down, scooting silently across the floor to the side, in the shadow of the easy chair. Bill's hand lounged off the side, unmoving and stiff. She slid forwards in her grey dress, right up behind the chair. She couldn't hear him breathing. Then she looked.

~~~

  The moon was hiding behind the clouds, and the trees whispered like girls telling secrets. Annie could not stand secrets.
"Shut up shut up shut up shut up." She chanted, creeping in a half-crouch between those naughty trees. In one hand, she clutched Andie's bug spray, and with the other she held a long, splintering piece of wood, soaked up to her skinny wrist in blood.
The trees chanted louder, giggling maliciously. They were talking about her, Annie was sure. "SHUT UP!" She screamed, voice cracking like old lady leather. Her eyes grew wide and she slammed against a tree, hidden by her mother's only black dress.
There.
There was one.
  The monster crept out from its spot, long tentacles dangling from a dislocated jaw. She flinched involuntarily, a tear tracking down her face. Dennis' short little body had been hollowed out and pushed to the limits, bones jutting awkwardly out to fit the beast withen.
It crawled on all fours, scraping her brother's soft knuckles across the rocky ground. She grimaced and raised her stake above her head, waiting. It came closer, closer.
She jumped forwards, thrusting downwards. The thing gargles, black slime trickling between the waving tentacles as it dropped to the ground, writhing with pain. Annie dropped to her knees, stabbing it repeatedly again and again, blood going everywhere in a mix of red and black. "Forgive me, forgive me" she cried with each stabbing thrust.
The deed was done. Twelve monsters left. Each of her siblings had fallen to the wave of monsters one by one through the night, followed by her parents. Her aunt. Her cousins. Everyone, changed. She crept through the whispering forest, shuddering and swearing at the trees and their terrible secrets. She'd already removed the aunt beast, and now the monster of Dennis. All of them corrupted because she wasn't strong enough.
She should have killed Bill when he first began to emerge from the corpse on the easy chair.
She was so careless.