Neverlost: Katriel's Story

I had heard the stories before. Kids, adults, teens, animals, all being a bit freaked out, or finding strange things. Following those days, they would constantly be looking over their shoulder, even if they were seemingly in a safe place. Though, I never thought I would have to experience these events myself; it started with work. My friend, Rina, had just finished telling me about the most recent stories surrounding the mystery. "You really believe that stuff Rina?" I asked putting another shirt far out the reach of most people.

Though I had to admit working at Featured Viewpoint had it's perks, it's merchandise set up, and prices still baffled me. I didn't see the reason to hang some of the clothes, so high up that people could barely see them, and high enough so they couldn't be reached either. I couldn't tell how many times I had to get a customer their t-shirt, only to have them complain about how I got them the wrong size, shirt, or about where the shirt was located. This was the least of my worries as Rina spoke up,"Think about it Kat! Those people haven't been seen since after they started freaking out! It's possible that Neverlost is what's taking them...right?"

I smirked, Rina had always been huge on the supernatural, and paranormal stuff, to me it had always just been far to impossible. I believed there was a god, demons, angels, and the like, but ghosts, and monsters in general, I laughed at the thought. "Or it's just some criminal group, trying to spook the town. That makes more sense," I replied to her question.

"Now look who sounds like they've watched too much tv," Rina retorted with a teasing smile.

I laughed out a comeback,"Nope it's still you, Ms. The-government-is-out-to-kill-us."

Rina laughed, before playfully pouting,"But, it's true."

We both broke down, unable to continue our fake argument. We were barely able to keep our tools, the ones for hanging the higher up shirts, steady as we laughed. We would have gotten in trouble if our manager wasn't already out sick, however putting the jokes behind us, I couldn't deny one thing; This whole thing was odd. People would suddenly become paranoid, seeing things that weren't there, and then go missing. Usually there were no other clues except for the term Never Lost, placed together as one word. All the letters we in caps, and appeared to be written in blood, though the cops hadn't proved that. While these thoughts raced through my head, I remembered what I had been seeing lately. I hadn't said anything to anyone, in fear of me, or making someone else, the next Neverlost victim. I was fighting the urge to scream with each new horrific sight. Then I was tapped on the shoulder,"Time to lock up, but I have to leave early so..." Rina said.

"I've got this Rina, go ahead," I answered, not realizing my mistake in that.

I waved Rina off, and wandered the small clothing store to make sure everything had been put back. I was just thankful that everything had...then it was there again. It was a shadowy looking creature, something was always dangling from its mouth. This time it had the most horrific sight I'd seen this far. It was holding my head, it had my disembodied head by the hair, my eyes were rolled back into my head, and blood dripped from my pale neck. I ran into the bathroom and puked, it made me disturbed, disgusted. I just felt- uncomfortable. It hurt, carrying this alone, I just thought about how it might have been easier if I had just told Rina. Then I reminded myself of why I hadn't, and that if I had, she might have gotten hurt trying to help me. My breathing had become shallow, after I was finally allowed to breath. I looked down at my puke, and saw chunks of thick black sludge. I knew I hadn't eaten anything like that, nor had I taken charcoal of any kind. I was freaked, planning to tell my doctor, or go to an immediate care in the morning. I flushed the toilet, and cleaned any of the puke sludge mix from the floor, and toilet itself. Then I walked out, seeing something moving. It had looked almost human, but I didn't think about it, it scared me. I hurried to finish locking up the store, and ran to the nearest bus stop. Unlike Rina, I didn't have a car, but knew how to drive. She was the opposite, heck so was our strange classmate Neo. She had only joined our class last year, but her parents seemed-interesting....I guess....but not the point. Neo couldn't have saved me either, and I'm glad I didn't drag her into this. As I waited for the bus, I saw the creature again, and it still held my head, but I forced myself to look at the sidewalk until the bus got there.  My heart was pounding, as it stalked across the street, and behind me. It's hot breath fell onto my neck, but I did my best to ignore it. When the bus finally pulled up, I paid for my ticket, and sat on the opposite side of the bus while, it stood outside. I sighed as we pulled away from it in the bus station, I was scot free, or so I thought. When I got home, I just took the fact that my monster was gone for now as a good sign. I walked to my room, and pulled out a package of ramen from my secret stash. Living on my own kept my parents from asking me questions. It allowed me to set my own rules, and keep people out of my head. As I sat and ate, I felt tired, overwhelmingly tired. So I worked on finishing my ramen, and started to head off to bed, when I felt a burning sensation. It felt like my body was being burned from the inside, and my limbs felt like they were being pulled off, by some cruel puppet master. I cried, screamed, I could barely hear the land lady calling out to me in worry. The metallic taste of blood entered my mouth, and the smell of the same blood filled my senses before I blacked out. I couldn't take the pain, it was unbearable. The black was a welcoming blanket, keeping me from the agony. When I did wake up, I was outside. I groaned, a little bit of the pain still lingered, it felt dim, like the last flickers from a dying lightbulb. I turned my head, as my eyes opened slowly. I was scanning for familiar surroundings, I knew I was in the forest, but nothing seemed right. The trees had a bio-luminescent glow, more specifically a grey blue, almost white colored glow. I paused, not recognizing anything, or knowing how I got there. I screamed, this wasn't right. "Where am I!?!?!?! What is this place?! How did I get here!?!?!?!?" I cried my questions aloud.