Reality Bites

Chapter 1

My second life started a couple days before my birthday. Ironic, no? My friends were planning me a surprise party, but the surprise was ruined when Alicia slipped the secret.

"I can't walk home with you today," she sighed. "I need to go buy some balloons and purple wrapping paper!" Purple was my favorite color and my birthday was in three days, so there really was no guesswork involved.

"Yeah, alright," I said, rolling my eyes and reminding myself not to tell any secrets to her. "See you around."

"Bye!" she yelled back cheerfully as she cruised down the sidewalk on her bicycle, still unaware that she had ruined the surprise.

I smiled faintly. Alicia, Levy, and Kaitlyn, my closest and pretty much only friends. High school was a brutal place where people like me were instantly deemed ugly, unpopular misfits. I didn't really mind anymore because, really, there was nothing much to be done about it, and it's not like I needed to be loved by everyone, anyways. Three people were enough.

I walked home slowly, deciding to take my time because the homework had been pretty light. Halfway home, I glanced up, a little uneasy, and a fat raindrop fell into my eye. I sighed and walked faster. The rain started to pick up above me, and by the time I arrived at my apartment, it had me completely soaked. The elevator had been broken for as long as I'd lived there so I squeezed the water out of my hair as best I could and started trudging up the steps. All in all, it was a very lethargic day.

Upon arriving at the third floor, I walked down the hallway to my room as usual, and paused. There was something going on on the other side of the door. It sounded like frantic shouting, and there were muffled thudding sounds. My breathing hitched and my heart sped up. What was going on? I took a hesitant step back, wondering if it was burglar until I remembered that I had given Levy a copy of my keys last month. It was probably just them messing around in my apartment. It's just my friends, I told myself firmly and slipped my keys into the lock, twisting until there was a click.

I pushed the door open. What I really should have done was call the police, or at the very least run away. As fast as possible. But nope, I didn't. I opened the door, and screamed.

Standing before me was, I could hardly believe it, a monster. Like, a real life monster. It's eyes glowed red and it's fangs were a foot long each.

Okay, fine. It's eyes weren't glowing. But they were red and bloodshot and its fangs were razor sharp with two of them sticking an inch over it's rough, peeling lip on either side of the mouth. It towered over me with its head brushing against the ceiling and its back hunched over so I could see its chest and stomach. It was grotesque. There was a thin layer of something covering its front side, and it dripped a little onto the floor, smoking. Acidic. The fluid was slightly shiny and tinged with red. The skin below it was rough and uneven with large gashes and ridges. The arms hung like a gorilla's, knuckles just below the knees.

Then I gasped. Behind it, Kaitlyn and Levy were cowering near the wall while, at its feet, Alicia was trembling and trying to get up; she looked like she was in shock. She had a large cut across her arm and it dripped blood everywhere, staining her shoes a crimson color. The photos they had tried to sneak out of my room were scattered all over the floor; there was us screaming on a roller coaster, then the impromptu picnic we had held one hot summer day, and then there was us sitting together in one happy group at the local mall. The exuberant joy in the photos was a stark contrast to the palpable fear in the room. 

"W-w-wh," I barely managed before Levy screamed at me.

"Get away from here!" she screamed at me and waved frantically.

The thing turned to look at her and took a small, menacing step towards her. All of a sudden, I don't know the exact details, I was standing in front of her, shielding her. It was instinct. I didn't think about it, and when I did realize what I had done, it was too late. I froze. I was standing only a couple feet away from the monster and it looked even worse up close. Its breathing was ragged and it gave the occasional snarl, frightening the living daylights out of me.

"I don't-What," I stuttered and slowly backed away until I bumped into someone behind me. "Get up!" I finally hissed to the girls behind me. "Let's run into a room." Behind me, I heard a whispered "Okay." Looking behind the monster, I realized that Alicia had stood up. She looked at us, looked at the door, and then looked back at us. I could tell she was torn between a small chance at safety and the guilt of abandoning her friends so I gave a small wave of my hand. A little shoo. Get to safety. Leave us. She nodded slowly, and crept out the door, tears streaming down her face and guilt shining in her eyes.

Turning my attention back to the monster before me, I continued to take slow steps back until I was beside Levy and Kaitlyn. I tugged Kaitlyn's hair gently and slowly, ever so slowly, all three of us started moving back. The monster watched us, and with disgust I tracked the yellow pupil in its bloodshot eye. We were halfway to the closest bedroom door when it suddenly took a huge step forward and snarled. The saliva dripped in strands and mixed with the acid from its chest which was burning a hole into the floor.

Levy and Kaitlyn screamed and sprinted for the door while I stayed rooted to my spot. Fear had completely overrun my mind. I didn't know what to do anymore.  

"Ari," Kaitlyn cried. "Ari!"

I heard her but I still didn't move. I heard her bite back a sob and she closed the door gently. I heard the quiet click of the lock, and still I just stood there. What was wrong with me? I didn't know. When the monster took another step towards me, I felt a scream building in my throat, but before I could make a sound it moved quicker than my eye could follow and I was flung across the room. I hit the wall near the window with a loud thud and fell to the floor. It hurt. My face had smashed against the wall and my nose started bleeding. The thing came towards me again so I picked up the closest thing to me, a glass vase, and threw it as hard as I could at the monster but it simply broke against its skin and fell to the floor in pieces.

It was completely unfazed and one of its grotesque arms shot out and curled its hand around my throat. My hands grabbed wildly for the next available weapon, a wooden chair. I smashed it against the monster's arm while dots blossomed across my vision, but the wood simply broke into splinters against its skin.

The hand around my throat tightened and finally I screamed. My arms fell limp beside me and I felt two searing, white-hot slashes of pain on either side of my throat. I was released and fell to the floor, still screaming. The monster wheezed and leaned over me. I felt my leg begin to burn where acid dripped onto it. The creature hovered its hand over my chest, then savagely stabbed a long, clawed finger in.

I screamed louder, renewed searing pain this time in my chest. I kept on screaming louder each time until one of the stabs hit my heart. My eyes widened slightly, and I screamed one last time before my voice was completely cut off with a gurgle. There was only the creature's wheezing and the muffled, but still distinctively hysterical, sobs coming from the other side of the bedroom door, and complete, mind-numbing pain. Then, nothing.

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