Prey

by Carlos King

  The beach isn’t total abandoned. During the beach’s current down time, a crew has been sent to the popular shore to remove debris and perform a number of other tasks in order to keep the sands of the beach clean and safe.

  Taking place far off shore, unexplained bubbles begin to suddenly rise to the surface of the water. With every passing second the bubbles grow more abundant, mysteriously heading toward land.

  A worker finally notices the strange bubbles, which have drawn to the immediate outskirts of the shore. Upon spotting the bizarre sighting, the worker summons a few of his peers to observe the happening.

  Shortly after their attention was brought to the unexplained disturbance, the crew notices that bubbles aren’t being caused by something breathing beneath the water, or some weird act of nature. The bubbles are being generated by something incredibly hot just below the water’s surface, bringing the small area of water to a rolling boil.

  The handful of workers gather by the shoreline, hoping to catch a glimpse of whatever it is triggering the phenomena. The closer the object nears to shallow waters, the more visible a shadowy figure underneath the wavy water appears. The water begins to steam and boil wildly.

  The steady ripple of the ocean currents makes it difficult to depict what the object is, but within a matter of seconds, all speculation comes to an end. After much anticipation, the source of the disturbance begins to emerge from the blue waters.

  What materializes first from the boiling water resembles the top of a human head. With every step the entity takes, the more it rises from the water. But what the workers are unaware of that while the head of the entity may look human it’s anything but.

  The man continues to leisurely walk inland. One of the first things noticed about the peculiar man was his hair. It’s a little longer than shoulder length, black, and looked to be already dry.

  The man has advanced far closer to land, the water level now down to his chest. The workers pay close attention to the steaming and boiling that surrounds the man and how it seems to have no effect on him. But what the workers are too far way to hear how the water sizzles off his flesh and too far away to see it boil off of his skin.

  The closer the man gets the more apparent it comes to everyone watching that he’s without clothing, which only serves to add to the man’s creepiness. His tanned, thin, and yet deeply defined body is only feet away from exiting the water. His hair drapes down over his face, preventing the workers from getting a clear visual on what he looks like. The workers cautiously approach the man, hoping to offer any help they can. One lone worker is ahead of all the others. As soon as the lone worker is within range, he realizes something is very wrong.

  Not only is the water boiling at the man’s legs, but the worker also discovers that the man’s skin is badly dehydrated. He also notices thick veins protruding throughout the man’s body.

  “Hey, guy…You okay?” the worker asked.

  The eerie man says nothing and continues walking towards the shore. Unaware of what he’s dealing with, the worker steps in front of the mysterious man, blocking his path and forcing him to stop. Standing only inches away from the silent man, the worker can now partially see his face. It is a face that is extremely emaciated and covered in the same thick, purplish veins that cover the rest of the man’s body. The worker tries to examine the man’s eyes without getting to close, but the hanging strands of hair thwart him from doing so. Despite this set back, the worker feels he’s seen enough. He takes the man’s symptoms as signs of dehydration and starvation. Strangely, the worker forgets to calculate the proper diagnosis for a person running a temperature so high that it causes them to make surrounding areas of water to boil.

  The worker turns back to his fellow co-workers and shouts, “HEY, GET US SOME WATER OVER HERE! THIS GUY’S DEHYDRATED TO SHIT! CALL AN AMBULANCE, TOO!”

  Two of the workers make a dash for their truck, which is parked farther down the beach. The other five workers stay behind, observing the mysterious man from a seemingly safe distance.

  Turning back towards the naked mute, the worker tells the strange man, “Don’t worry, pal. We’re going to take good care of you. I swear to God.”

  At that specific moment, the mysterious man’s eyes glow bright red. The worker who was trying to comfort the man is now frightened out of his wits. Before the worker has a chance to do anything the mysterious man quickly lunges at him, grabbing him by his jacket with a single hand, lifting him up high enough that both of his boots are dangling in the air.

  “HELP ME! SOMEBODY, PLEASE!” The worker screamed.

  The mysterious man lowers the worker down so the two are at eye level. The worker can now see details of the man’s horrifying face that he couldn’t see before—details such as the man’s razor-sharp teeth and his pitch black eyes with glowing red irises.

  “OH, MY GOD!”

  “No!” the menacing being said in a chilling voice. “God has nothing to do with this.”

  The entity easily tosses the man nearly a hundred feet away. The monstrous being uses his devilish eyes to follow the worker’s travel through the air until he comes to a life-ending landing. The hideous man then redirects his attention to the remaining workers who are momentarily frozen in shock. A condition that they all manage to break themselves free from when they realize they are all now the focus of the mysterious being’s next attack.

  The workers take off running in all directions, desperately fleeing from the evil force.

  The malevolent entity takes time deciding which person he’s going to go for first. He ultimately decides to start with the person that’s covering the most distance. He takes one step after that worker and within a flash, he finds himself standing directly in front of that person. The whole thing happens so quickly that the person doesn’t even see him standing there until it’s too late. The worker runs right into the savage’s deadly grip. With the worker’s throat in his powerful hand, the evil being wastes no time in snapping the worker’s neck. He tosses the body aside and then bolts across the beach to catch the person who has created the second largest distance between himself and the rest of the group.

  He continues this vicious process of elimination until there’s only one person left. This person has jumped behind the wheel of the company truck and has taken off down the boulevard. As the escaping worker rips through the streets, the evil force stays behind at the beach, taking clothes from one of the workers he killed. He takes the man’s boots, pants, and coat and applies them to his naked body. Once the final boot has been applied, the being stands motionless for a brief second, sniffing the air. He pulls his long hair back and ties it into a knot. He then takes off running at an unfathomable speed.

  The driver of the truck is constantly checking the rear view and side view mirrors, looking for any vehicle that may be chasing her. After nearly two miles of speeding through the quiet morning streets, the driver is beginning to breathe a sigh of relief, believing that she’s escaped death. Regrettably, it is a sigh that she’s taken a few miles to earlier.

  As she drives through an intersection, she is suddenly blindsided on the passenger side of the truck with an impact so great it forces the truck to roll over several times before it settles on its roof nearly half a block away. Strangely, the damage done to the passenger side of the truck isn’t indicative of being hit by a car, but something much smaller.

  Dazed, the female worker is stuck hanging upside down, her seatbelt has her locked in place. Blood runs across her face, slightly blurring her vision. Nevertheless, she can still hear the nearing footsteps of someone approaching her wrecked vehicle.

  Frightened and vulnerable, she cries out for help to the incoming stranger. “Please, help me!” she begged in a muddled voice. “Please, help!”

  The stranger kneels down at the driver’s door. The woman’s vision clears for a split-second, which is long enough for her to recognize the stranger as the very same man she was running away from. She begins to cry and plead to
the man, begging for him to spare her.

  Unmoved by her pleads, the grotesque entity goes on to say, “I would’ve just asked you to stop, but where’s the fun be in that? I’m sorry about your vehicle, too. I guess you can consider that a lesson learned for your next life. Never make a demon chase you.”

  He reaches into the truck with his long fingers and sharp nails and grabs hold of the woman’s shoulder. He then crawls inside of the truck, opens his mouth wide and prepares to sink his animalistic teeth into her. The sounds of the woman’s bone-chilling screams fill the still air.

  CHAPTER 27

  Back in the diner, Alex appears to have had the wind knocked from his body. He grips his fork and knife so tightly they bend in half. Alex’s skin turns a light shade of blue.

  “Alex, breathe!” Jade frantically commanded, rushing towards Alex, patting him on the back.

  Slowly but surely, he takes control of his breathing.

  “What’s wrong?” Jade asked.

  Alex turns to Jade with a look of fear in his eyes. His look is severe it makes the hairs on the back of her neck stand.

  “We’re in a lot of trouble,” he told her.

  “What is it?”

  Alex grabs Jade by the hand and pulls her. He continues to maniacally lead her across the small diner until they reach the restaurant’s door. Jade struggles against Alex’s attempt to escort her out of the diner, but he’s way too strong for her to resist.

  “Alex, what’s the matter with you?! What’s wrong?!”

  The scene the two are causing has drawn the attention of all the other consumers. Alex turns to Jade, bringing his face to within inches of hers. “If you don’t want this diner to be painted with the blood of innocent people, then we have to leave right now.”

  Terrified by Alex’s words, Jade asks, “They found us?”

  “Yes…And they’re very close. We don’t have a second to waste.”

  “What’s very close?” she whispered. “How close is close?”

  “I’m can’t be too sure. I just got a strong vibe that they were close by. I also felt something I’ve never felt before—something powerful and really fast. It’s further away than the rest, but at the pace it’s moving, it’ll be here soon enough. I’m guessing they’re only four or five minutes away.”

  Jade’s face goes pail. “Oh, no!” she said in a low voice. “What are we gonna do? Run, right?”

  “It’s too many to outrun. We could try, but I doubt we’d get far. We’ve got to make a stand and face them head on. There’s no other way.”

  Jade begins to nervously run her fingers through her hair. “I can’t believe this is happening again,” she said, losing her composure. “They’re not going to stop coming after me! I can’t keep doing this!”

  Alex grips Jade’s arms and sternly shakes her one time to snap her out of her hysteria. “Jade, stop it!” he demanded. “You’re going to keep doing this for as long as you have to! I’m not giving up on you and you’re damn sure not going to give up on yourself! Now, if you ever believed in me or anything I’ve ever said to you before, believe me now. I’m not going to let anything happen to you, okay?”

  With tears running down her face, Jade compels herself to ask in a fretful voice, “You promise?”

  “I promise. They’ll have to kill me first.”

  Alex’s statement, regardless of how morbid it is, is just enough to instill Jade with a much-need dosage of serenity. She knows that Alex is a man of his word and she honestly believes that he’d do anything to shield her from harm. Without further delay, Jade and Alex leave the diner.

  CHAPTER 28

  With Jade hanging tightly on his back, Alex races from the small town’s most popular diner and back to the farmhouse owned by Jade’s parents in less than a matter of minutes. When he reaches the mailbox that sits out near the road, he comes to an immediate stop at a sidewalk that leads up to the farmhouse’s front door.

  Jade barely has time to dismount Alex’s back before an unexpected commotion in the crop fields across the street steals their attention. Alex and Jade stare across the street at vast field, hoping to see a reasonable explanation for the uproar.

  Bordering close to the paralleled field’s horizon, Jade and Alex catch sight of a disturbance brewing among the leveled fields. For some unknown reason, a large flock of birds are suddenly frenzied out of crops, taking to the skies in a frantic hurry.

  Alex is thrown into a state of panic almost instantly. He jogs toward the porch of the Willow’s farmhouse and leaps up its four steps. His goal is to elevate himself up high enough so that he can get a better view of what’s causing the disturbance. What he sees makes his jaw drop.

  From the far end of the field, nine separate lines are being formed by unknown forces, growing in length at an alarming speed. What’s even worst, the nine lines are heading straight for him and Jade. From her low viewpoint, Jade can’t see what Alex sees, so she’s unaware of the incoming threat. Even though Alex can’t make out what’s creating the lines in the field with any certainty, he knows that there’s no man creation that can move that fast.

  “Jade…” he called out. “You might wanna come up here with me.”

  Jade follows Alex suggestion without asking any questions.

  After making it up the steps, she queries, “What is it?!”

  Alex points at the fields. Jade turns her eyes to where he’s pointing and spots the expanding nine lines.

  “Oh, no!” she cried out. “What do we do now?!”

  Alex weeds through the onset of panicking thoughts that are flourishing inside his head, searching for the best course of action for them to utilize.

  “Is there a shelter or bunker anywhere around here?” Alex asked. “You know the kind of place where the farmers would hide when a tornado’s touching down?”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  “Where is it?”

  “It’s in the back of the barn. It’s underground. It’s lined with concrete…I think. It has dual doors that can be locked from the inside.”

  “Come on,” Alex told her, taking her by the hand. He sets Jade over one his shoulder and uses his other shoulder as a battering-ram to knock the farmhouse’s front door off of its hinges. Alex rips through the first floor of the house and keeps going until he blows through the back door.

  In seconds, Jade and Alex are behind the barn, and at the underground shelter Jade spoke of. Blocking the entrance to the shelter was a wheelbarrow full of cinder blocks that Alex easily flips out of the way. He snatches one of the bunker’s doors open and ushers Jade inside.

  Jade carefully descends down the concrete steps. She a couple steps in when she turns back to Alex, who is still standing outside, holding the shelter door open.

  “What are you waiting for? Come on,” she said.

  Alex doesn’t respond. Instead, he simply stares at Jade, shaking his head with a regrettable air.

  “No, Alex! No way are you leaving me now!” Jade shouted, grasping the Alex is thinking.

  “There’s no time to argue, Jade. You’ll be okay in here for now. Give me a minute or two to draw them away. When the coast sounds clear I want you to take off running through the fields. Make sure you do it as quietly as possible. Get back to town and then find a way back to Terre Haute. I’ll find you there.”

  “No, Alex! It’s too many of them! You can hide in here with me! There’s plenty of room!”

  “I can’t.”

  “Yes, you can,” Jade pleaded as tears formed.

  Hating to leave her like this, Alex forces himself to do what he feels is the only option.

  “I’m sorry, Jade…I can’t.” Alex lowers the door. “Lock it!” he shouted to her through the closed bunker doors. “And remember what I told you, Jade…In two minutes, take off running.”

  Jade continues screaming for Alex through the shut doors. “PLEASE, DON’T DO THIS! THEY’LL KILL YOU, ALEX! PLEASE, DON’T DO THIS TO ME!”

  “Quiet, Jade, or they�
��ll hear you! Now lock the door!”

  Although the sobs of Jade don’t end on Alex’s command, her screaming and shouting does. Shortly after giving the order, he hears the door’s sliding lock snap into place. With the door now secure, Alex runs back towards the farmhouse. He takes off at such an incredible speed he turns into a blur. Just as he passes the front of the barn, another blur collides into him, carrying him quite a distance away from where the impact occurred.

  Alex, and the unknown force that blitzed him, come to a harsh landing approximately fifty yards away from the farmhouse. Alex and his attacker tumble apart as they both slide across a large area of dirt-covered landscape.

  Since the brutal hit knocks the wind out of Alex, he finds himself getting up a tad-bit slower than his assaulter. By the time Alex rises up he sees not only the being that assaulted him, but another man standing right beside him—both men staring back at him with bloodlust in their blackened eyes.

  Alex steps back, trying to put distance between him and the two demons, and in doing so, he notices the sudden arrival of four more—two standing to his left and another two to his right.

  Alex prepares to retreat before the six entities have a chance to corner him, but just as he’s about to take off, two more beings appear behind him, cutting off his only route for escape, boxing him in completely.

  CHAPTER 29

  Surrounded by eight of the nine forces he saw in front of the farmhouse minutes ago, Alex can’t help but grow suspicious about the whereabouts of the ninth. Alex sizes up the situation. He’s careful not to make any sudden movements and even more careful in watching for any movements made by the surrounding demons. Alex nonchalantly looks back to the barn to ensure the ninth demon hasn’t found Jade. Alex doesn’t have a clear view of the shelter’s doors, but he’s fairly sure she hasn’t been found. He would’ve heard her screams by now if she had.