Mortal Fear

She and her friends had just seen a particularly graphic horror movie. Walking out of the theater she felt an ominous feeling come over her. From the depths of hell a demonic monster had ravaged a small town in Northern Main. From her perspective as a young professional in her mid-twenties the concept was fascinating which caused the actuality of fear to come over her. The movie centered on a group on young people, about her age, who fought against an evil incarnation. Unlike in most horror films the heroes did not win the battle. Rather, one by one, the demon slaughtered every last one. The movie ended with the grotesque monster laughing with a snarling gargle. The development of the plot highlighted engaging characters and the sense of familiarity to them was created. From the perspective of the movie viewer heroic qualities of the characters were attained. The demon first appeared after a relationship with two of the main characters was formed. On the edge of her seat throughout the movie, Tammy was shocked when characters that she had grown to care about perished in horrible deaths. A husband and wife, newly-weds, were the first victims of the monster. The movie began at the wedding of the two. A honeymoon occurred among the majestic scenery of northern Main in the cool summer. The monster then appeared. It creped it’s way into view and was forefront on the screen. It was a hideous beast with clammy green skin, horns, and fangs. Late in the first night of their honeymoon while enjoying the summer air of northern Main the couple was slain. The monster slashed their skin and devoured their dying corpses. This was the start of the movie. Throughout the movie the monster became more realized and more horrid. Walking to their cars after the movie Susan and her friends said their good-byes and promised to meet each other sometime next week. Usually on the weekends the friends would see a movie and, if not, they would find something else to do together. After the good-byes the ominous feeling that had come over Tammy at the end of the movie became more distinct. It was a 20 minute drive back to her small, one bedroom house. As she drove home the horror film, which was heavy on plot and character development, plagued her mind. She arrived back at her house. It was about 9 p.m. and the sun had just set. The ominous feeling that had consumed her since the end of the movie was now even more pronounced. She decided to turn on the television to see if she could get her mind off of it. “Let me see,” she spoke aloud to herself. “What’s on television? Chanel 2. No. Chanel 7. No.” “Here it is,” she thought. “Channel 11. A comedy is what I need,” she said to herself. She heard a loud blast of thunder, so loud that it shook the house. She looked out the door and realized there had been a quickly approaching storm and that it was beginning to rain. She could see the porch light of one of her neighbors was on a couple hundred yards away. Once again it thundered. She looked out of the window and could see an explosion of lightening light up the entire sky. She stopped looking out the window and decided to pour a glass of scotch. She heard a deafening blow of thunder and the electricity in the house went out. Her heart started beating fast. Amidst the bleak silence she could not understand why such a feeling of fear had come over her. She noticed the rain start pouring down on the ground and the sound of the rain pattering down on the roof was for some reason not soothing. She opened the door and looked to view the entire neighborhood. There was nothing but darkness. She closed the door in a hurry. “Why did I do that?” She asked herself out loud. She put ice into a glass and filled it full with a couple extra drops of scotch. Suddenly she looked over her shoulder into the mirror and thought she saw a hideous, monstrous face behind her. She dropped her scotch and the glass shattered on the floor. “It’s nothing,” she thought to herself. “It’s just my imagination.” She tried to come to grips with herself. “It was nothing. What am I afraid of, a movie? Am I supposed to be afraid of monsters? There are no monsters.” Yet her heart pounded with pronounced fear for no reason that she could understand. Maybe she should call one of her friends up. She thought. Of course she didn’t see anything, it was just my imagination. What could it have been? It was nothing. Of course it was nothing. When she moved into this one bedroom house more than a year ago she never thought that she would have to be worried about crime in such a nice neighborhood much less a hideous monster from the pit of hell. She consciously laughed to herself and grabbed the broom to clean up the broken glass on the floor. A loud blast thunder again irrupted. She turned around and as a bolt of lightning flashed she saw the menacing figure in front of her. She did not stop to think that there are no monsters or that all it had been earlier that night had been a movie. Rather than to try to rationalize she was simply petrified with fear. The beast laughed with joy at the fear incited by his appearance. She did not know what to do so she quickly grabbed a knife and plunged it into the cold, clammy skin of the monster. Once again the ogre laughed completely immune to such an attack. His excitement grew with her fear. The menacing figure patiently looked upon his victim more overjoyed with the terror invoked in his victim than in the actual carnage itself which was about to occur. He lifted the small woman by her neck and threw her across the room. She crashed against wall knocking down a painting that hung on the wall. She screamed in terror but nobody could hear her. Her small house was on a large parcel of land and her neighbors were completely unaware of the massacre which was about to take place. She got up from against the wall where she had just been thrown. She knew that the monstrosity could not be defeated and she prayed in vain for an exodus. There was no time for rational thought. All she could do was try to think of how to get out of there as her heart pounded faster. She had regressed to prey trying to escape the butchery of a predator. The hissing sound of the demonic figures laughing echoed through her mind. It was a sound of unrestrained evil. “I will devour your flesh,” the monster taunted. “Scream! You won’t be heard.” The malevolent sound of its voice echoed with saturation of the filth of its dank, sticky skin and putrid smell. She ran out of her apartment and the demon simply stood and watched. She thought maybe if she could make it to one of her neighbor’s houses she would be o.k. In vain she ran in terror. The power supply in the neighborhood was still off. The rain poured and an occasional outburst of lightening was the only thing illuminating the neighborhood. She ran to her nearest neighbors. Maybe she had lost the beast, she could not be sure. She couldn’t see it right now. She slammed on the door of her neighbor’s house banging and screaming. Nobody answered. She turned around and it was there once again. “I can smell your blood,” it said with it slimy voice of all-consuming revulsion. She stood still, unable to move. It walked closer to her, picked her up by her neck, and breathed into her face with the most repellent smell she could ever remember. A bolt of lightning struck, followed by the sound of crashing thunder. Suddenly all the lights in the neighborhood went back on. The street lights illuminated the surrounding area and she could see a small gathering of people in the distance. She screamed and yelled but she could not capture their attention. She ran up to them begging for help but they simply ignored her. It was as if they could not even see her. They were enjoying a conversation of laughter and frivolity and no matter what she did she could not get them to notice her. She grabbed an arm of one of them but he simply acted as if she were a nagging child begging for unwanted attention. As she screamed and yelled they enjoyed the festivities of their elated conversation as if she were not even there. From their perspective carnage was not taking place, it was simply a cool summer night. It was not an occasion for fear or concern to the grouping they simply stood there enjoying each other’s company as if relishing the night as it should be. The monster continued walking her way. She could not escape it. It laughed and snarled. The grotesque monster continued terrorizing her for its own amusement. It caught up to her and the small crowd of people that she hoped would be her salvation. They did not notice the creature. It was as if they did not even know what was happening. She turned to face the monster. The ravenous beast was ready to complete its kill. As she ran and screamed the monster snarled, “Run, run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man!” A member of the small gathering casually lit a cigarette for one of his companions. Crying and screaming in complete fear that was now bordering on seizures she watched the monster walk purposefully towards her. She screamed but the small group of people standing there completely ignored her, completely unaware of her presence. With its sharp claws ready to rip a whole in her flesh its mouth watered. In one backhanded slash it tore a gash into her mid-section. The blood and guts spilled out of her lifeless body and the monster enjoyed the consummation of its nightly kill. It devoured her dying flesh. The small group of friends did not notice or react in any way to the carnage. The following day was busy in which all the morning commuters were engaging in their regular activities. The sun was shining down on the ground this cool, breezy morning. The smell of bread baking from the nearby bakery permeated the immediate area. The smell of breakfast cooking could be smelled from the next house. The police showed up a few days later after Tammy had not shown up or even contacted her work. After calling and knocking on the door, the police had been able to obtain a search warrant. It was strange that the woman who one of the neighbors had seen arrive home slightly before 9:00 p.m. the night before did not answer the door. Her car was in the driveway and there were no indications that somebody had broken into the house. The fact that she did not answer the door was a cause of a mild amount of concern. The neighbors were somewhat concerned that there may be a problem with one of their friends and neighbors. Maybe something had happened. Maybe some kind of terrible accident had happened. A locksmith unlocked the door for them and they entered. They shouted to see if anybody was home. They toured the small, one-bedroom apartment and came to the alarming sight in the kitchen. Next to a broken glass of scotch she was lying on the floor. There was no blood and there were no signs of struggle, however, a lifeless body of a young woman in her mid-twenties laid on the floor. The coroner later that week released a report. “Inexplicable death,” was how it was recorded. There were no bruises, there was no blood, and there were no signs of struggle. She was not a victim of a heart-attack or any sort of foul play. “Inexplicable death,” was all that could be said.