Bullseye

Chapter 2

Samuel felt waves of welcoming warmth spread throughout his body as he gained consciousness. He lay there for a few minutes, his eyes slowly adjusting to his surroundings. Sam barely saw the open curtains of the small window at the other side of the room, but he strongly felt the Sun’s rays filling him up with vitality. Under the veil of morning, Sam’s worries from the previous day were replaced by hope and confidence.

He was fully aware of his surroundings now, no fogginess clogging his senses, his mind filling to the brim with the details of his room. He observed the rich colour of the walls, even their various bumps and dents that he had become accustomed to. Samuel noticed his clear glass chess set, its surface reflecting the radiant light spouting from the window high up on the wall. In his peripheral vision, he even saw a miniscule spider, perched on its throne of intricate webs.

He sat up in his bed, all of his inhibition discarded. Sam stood up and his blanket slid back down to the ruffled bed. He abandoned making his bed. This menial task wasn’t on his list of priorities at the moment. Samuel’s only concern was to check if his parents were in the house. He would postpone brushing his teeth until after breakfast. Sam jogged towards the stairs, filled with excitement. He took long strides up the stairs, jumping up the steps two at a time.

When Sam reached the peak of the stairs, and the kitchen, he finally realized exactly how hungry he was. Samuel glanced at the white bread, and the cereal box in the corner of the kitchen, but he resolved to postpone that as well. He passed through the empty doorway into the living room, but no one was to be found. Samuel didn’t let this discourage him though. They might be sleeping in their room, Sam reasoned. He sauntered towards his parents’ room hopefully, passing the beautiful butterfly display hanging on the wall and walking down the familiar hallway. He knew this place like the back of his hand; he maintained a vivid and detailed mental blueprint of the house. The Sun’s radiant light was making his surroundings glow. Samuel finally reached his parents’ room, his last hope. He sighed, forced a smile and began to turn the door knob. The door had begun to swing inwards, slow as a snail. The door partially showed the room, revealing a large shadow of a figure facing the opposite direction.

“Mom? Dad? Are you guys h”—BANG! Samuel heard the sound of two paws hitting the floor, and within the span of the blink of an eye, the mysterious shadow had turned around, and crossed the distance between Sam and itself. The figure was too swift to see; it had remained an indecipherable blob of mass. It smashed right through the still opening door, sending wooden shrapnel flying in every direction, colours of the walls, the shrapnel, and the shadow swirling and blending into a single monotone hue. Samuel didn’t even have time to cover his face, but that was the least of his worries. Before any of the shrapnel had even reached Sam, the indecipherable figure had completely blasted through the now obliterated door, leaving the wood chips almost completely still in the air in comparison to the its speed.

Before Samuel had any time to react, it had tackled him to the ground with astonishing momentum from its previous feat. The air in Sam’s lungs was forced out of him when he hit the wall behind him. Sam’s body bounced off of the wall and hit the wall opposite. Finally, Samuel’s form slid to the ground. Sam was in awe of the fact that he was still conscious, but he was still winded and writhing in pain.

This isn’t possible, Sam thought, panicking as the creature pounced on him, pinning his shoulders to the floor. He couldn’t breathe. He could see it clearly now, but what he saw brought no solace. Samuel saw a slender animal. It seemed almost feline, but its features emitted such an alien aura. It had shining, leathery black skin, without the slightest imperfection or blemish. Sam’s eyes followed two of the alien creature’s powerful, lean legs from where they stood like  ebony stakes driven into the flat side of his shoulders, to the main body of the terrifying, impossible creature. He counted four legs, all the while his mind was racing through all of the potential paths out of this situation. However, Sam was jarred back to the present by the high-pitched screech that the animal’s ridged throat produced. He felt compelled to gaze into the creature’s azure eyes, and if he didn’t feel the flow of adrenaline throughout his body, he would have revelled in its alluring beauty. He would have marveled at the ridges that ran parallel to its spine, resembling gills, had the creature been trapped in a secure cage at least twenty feet away. What he witnessed was horrifying, for what he saw in this creature’s eyes was the most potent weapon of all, what sets humans aside from all others and places them at the top of the food chain, the throne of the world: intelligence.