*Today's #fridayflash was inspired by a dream I had over a year ago. Edited: Now that I think of it, I had the dream much longer than a year ago. It was probably more like five years ago. I wrote this flash piece a year ago.*
Shadow
“Three
Smirnoff Ices.” Melitta leaned against the counter and tapped her foot to the
low, thumping beat emitting from the speakers. On the dance floor, her two
friends writhed with the music.
“This is the
last call, sweetheart.” The bartender set the beer bottles down. “It’ll be six
dollars.”
She paid him
and weaved toward her friends.
“You son of a—”
The punch
struck the man’s face. The crunch of his nose breaking sounded like Rice
Krispies in milk. Snap, Crackle, Pop!
Someone shoved her from behind, and she stumbled forward, dropping a bottle. It
shattered and sprayed alcohol over her black pumps.
“Watch it.”
Then, a woman
pushed her, and she fell to the ground. Her knees and hands ground glass pieces
into them. She winced in pain as the second bottle broke and the third rolled
away from her. She struggled to her feet while a full-out brawl erupted in the
club.
Fists flew.
Someone kicked her in the leg, and she cried out in pain. The overhead lights
turned on.
Melitta
lifted a bloody hand up to shield her eyes from the blaring white lights. Her
head pounded with each thump from the speakers. Perhaps she’d had a little too
much to drink.
“Stop it!” A
burly bouncer dragged a man away.
The lights
flickered and then the club plunged into darkness.
Bodies
pressed against Melitta. They were too close. Her chest tightened as if she had
weights collapsing down on her. She attempted to shove away from the crowd, but
they surrounded her on all sides.
“Allison? Sami?”
She couldn’t hear her friends. Something slithered over her foot. “Sami,” she
said louder.
Dim, red
emergency lights filled the room.
A shadow glided
along a section of the black-and-white floor. It fluttered like a sheet over
the man with the broken nose. The darkness bulged and flattened. When it moved
away, the man had disappeared.
People bolted
for the exits.
Melitta
struggled to get to the wall and cowered beside it. The shade swooped and
swallowed another person. She lost sight of Sami and Allison, but she hoped
they left.
She screamed
when a person grabbed her hand.
“You’ve gotta
get out,” the bartender said and dragged her through the back of the club.
They entered
an alley, and he took off running. Several more people passed by her.
Silence
settled around her.
Melitta
looked both ways in the darkened passageway. The scent of garbage and urine
made her gag. She took a few steps when her heel broke and she tumbled into the
brick wall.
“Damn.” She pushed
herself from the wall and limped down the alley.
What was that thing? Where
were Allison and Sami?
She ran her
fingers through her hair and cringed as glass shards entangled in her hair.
She jumped
when something soft and velvety brushed against her arm. Darkness yawned before
her and wrapped around her head. She couldn’t breathe or see, and she stumbled
along the alley. Her nails ripped at her head as she yanked the shadow off her.
It shook like a wet dog and pursued her.
She staggered
into the empty street and kicked off her shoes, so she could run.
“Help, please
help me.” She screamed and half-ran, half-limped away. No one answered while
the shadow fluttered toward her.
When she
spotted the church, she sprinted toward the door and banged on it. “Please,
open up.”
She tried the
handle—who keeps a church locked—and
pounded her fists against it again. Her eyes darted behind her into the
forbidding darkness.
Chills,
stealing her breath and moisture from her mouth, flowed over her body. A light peeked
from around the back of the building. Hope blossomed in the midst of terror.
She ran, found the iron gate unlocked, and entered the church’s backyard.
Melitta weaved
around gravestones. Leaves crunched underfoot and an earthy, slightly decaying
musk wafted toward her. A man’s silhouette shifted inside from an upstairs
window.
“Let me in. Please.”
Her voice rose in pitch with each step that drew closer to the backdoor.
Footsteps tapped
along the stone walkway, and Melitta turned around.
A beautiful
woman stood near a grave. Her hair glimmered in the moonlight. A breeze
fluttered the ends of her black dress. The woman’s dark eyes focused upon
Melitta, and her red lips puckered before she smiled.
The grin revealed
no teeth. Her mouth opened wider and wider, a dark and bottomless abyss. She
would swallow her whole.
Melitta
screamed and bolted from the door. The church couldn’t save her. Nothing would.
The stones cut into her bare feet, leaving bloody footprints, but she didn’t
stop.
The other
woman floated behind her in pursuit.
Melitta
glanced back when she left the cemetery. The woman was right there, but as soon
as her foot crossed the church’s threshold, she vanished into the shadow. Melitta
shrieked at the sight.
She tripped
and her body skidded across the asphalt. The pain barely registered in her mind
when darkness cloaked her. A hot, blanket-like feeling coated her completely.
She couldn’t take a breath. Her heart slowed as she tried to shove away the
dark. Her movements grew slower...slower. She was suffocating as the shadow
bulged, flattened, and searched for its next prey.
