There was darkness and an accompanying sharp, metallic scent. I became quite aware of a crusting, stiff, yet slightly wet feeling on my clothes. I ached all over, waves of pain crashing over me every few seconds. My eye snapped open, rendering me with half vision as I sat up to survey my surroundings.

I discovered that I had been lying just below the second story window; shards of fragmented glass littered the area around me. My shirt had been rendered a bloody, torn mess. My arms had sprayed blood like a leaky faucet. Touching my head, I discovered my right eye socket was devoid of it’s ball, blood running in rivulets from the place it had once been and a noticeable gash in my forehead.


“That was one hell of a drop,” I muttered, attempting to stand.


My leg buckled under me, forcing me back to the grass. I cried out in pain, gasping on the ground as I grabbed my leg. My leg had snapped, my leg bent at an unnatural angle. I began to panic, my heart pounding loudly in my thoracic cavity. I had lost my means of escape.
***

It had been a quiet evening, like any other. My parents had gone on a two-week vacation, leaving my brother and I to watch the farm on our own. We had just finished cleaning the kitchen and were currently assisting each other with homework.


“What you have to do is distribute A and B to get 3x minus 2 equals A plus B times x plus A minus 4 times B. Then you can have 3x equal A plus B and -2 equal A minus 4 times B,” my brother said, clearly knowing more about pre calculus than I did.


“Damn you and your math smarts,” I muttered, copying his instructions onto the lined paper.


“Partial Fraction Decomposition is not that hard,” he reprimanded me, smacking the back of my head.


“OK brainiac,” I countered, punching him in the arm.


He stared at me, “You wanna go?”


I stood up and held my arms out, “Come at me bro.”


He leapt at me and we began to roll around on the floor, lightly throwing punches at each other. It was all fun for us, a nightly routine for us as siblings. We were so busy wrestling that we failed to notice the bright light that slowly descended outside. The lights flickered off, causing my brother and I to disengage. We stood up as the lights flickered back on.


“The hell?” my brother muttered.


“I dunno, maybe it was just a random power surge,” I said, staring at the light.


A loud thump came from the porch, causing us to jump out of our skin. We spun around, facing the kitchen door. My brother reached for the baseball bat, grabbing it for self-defense. He walked toward the door, grabbing the handle. He threw he door open and ran outside, glancing from side to side for any sign of life. I watched him relax, clearing not seeing anything.


“Must’ve been a raccoon or something,” he muttered.


I stared at him, unable to get the necessary words out of my mouth. I raised a shaking finger, pointing behind him. I open my mouth, but my warning was too late. A large shadow had appeared behind him, wrapping long, shadowy tendrils around him. I screamed as the tendrils dug into his skin, blood spraying everywhere. I slammed the door shut, unable to block out the screams of my poor brother as the thing ripped through his skin and muscles, tearing him open like a frog for dissection. I ran to the phone, my trembling fingers fumbling to keep a hold of it as I dialed.


“Hello, 911. What’s your emergency?”


“Please, dear God, you need to help us! It-it got my brother and it….oh my God, it killed him! It ripped him clean in half, I could hear him screaming! Oh God, please help us!”


“Ma’am, ma’am I need you to calm down. What killed hi-.”


The line went dead, filling the house with nothing but my hysterical sobs. I heard the doorknob rattle behind me. Slowly I turned, facing the door with a deer in the headlights stare. The door slowly swung open and I screamed. There was the bloody, naked, lifeless form of my brother, messy stitches running up his torso, the ghost of his last scream permenantly etched on his face. He lurched forward, whatever was controlling him was not used to using legs. Behind it, another long shadow flowed into the room, long tendrils reaching for me.


One of the shadowy tentacles reached for me, wrapping around my head. The shadowy thing ghosted toward me, intent on ripping me apart the same way as my brother. The tendril around my head stabbed into my right eye socket. I screamed in immense pain, warm liquid spraying from the wound. The creature leaned closer to me, tendrils at the ready. I bashed its face with the phone, causing it to drop me. As the tendril left my eye socket, I felt my eyeball go with it.


I hit the ground running, booking it out of the room. I felt the creatures follow me, intent on finishing the job. I ran up the stairs and into the bathroom. I slammed the door shut, locking it behind me and backing up against the window. With my good eye, I stared as the tendril slither under the door. I turned around, staring at the window. I backed up, ran at the window and jumped. I crashed through the glass and plummeted to the ground.
***

The silent air was rent asunder as a blood curdling screech sliced through the night, a little too close for comfort. I felt my heart leap into my throat as I began to drag myself back towards the house, ignoring the pain in my leg. As I neared the bushes, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. Lurching toward me was the hollowed, fleshy shell of what used to be my brother. I tried to gain speed, but to no avail. My brother just lurched closer and closer to me.


As he got closer to me I heard a demonic whisper calling out to me, “Close your eyessssss…..this will only take a ssssssssecond……”


Staring at what remained of my brother, I barely noticed the tendrils of the second creature slither up my legs. With a violent lurch, the shadowy figure pulled me back from the bushes and held me up in the air. As more tendrils wound their way around my appendages, I slumped. I closed my eyes, waiting for the inevitable.


Close your eyes, this will only take a second.