By Tristian Martin
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The early morning sunrise casts down onto a modern two floor commercial apartment in downtown St. Louis. Parked on the pothole stricken street in front of the complex sits a familiar red Honda. My roommate and friend from class emerged from a cloud of haze escaping from the interior of the vehicle. With a hard loud thud from him closing his car door he started to make his way over to ascend the staircase leading to my floor. Within seconds the sound from a knock on the door filled my apartment living room. I move from my living room window to open the door on my right, the handle turns as I delight in having some kind of company even if it's just with my roommate.
On the other side of the door as soon as it swung open, my roommate stood covered head to toe in a large hoodie and sweatpants he reached with the scent of smoke from the cigarettes he'd been smoking. It's a nasty habit that I would never endorse but it's difficult to try to convince others of that including him. Gladly I pushed past the stench caked on him and let him come inside to sit down. As soon as he approached through the doorway of the apartment he trips slightly over something lying at his feet. Stumbling and with panicked breath my roommate tries steadying himself, then proceeds to bend down to lift up the obstacle. a small cardboard box not that much bigger than a ten gallon fish tank, he exclaims annoyed “What is this?”. Shocked by his sudden involuntary movement of his incoordination I looked down at the small cardboard box he moved within his hands. Confusedly I looked back up at him and said “ That's strange I haven't ordered anything?”. My roommate looked down at the box he held and then just as confused relayed back to me “I haven't ordered anything either”?
We had both moved on over to the couch and sat down in front of our glass coffee table covered in old receipts, bills, and a single solitary ash tray that belongs to him. Oddly enough just from glancing at this unknown box now placed on the clutter of the coffee table I soon realized that it did not seem to have any labels on it, no stamps, no address, nothing. My roommate then suggested abruptly, that we should make food and watch some television. So in that case we did, food was made and we had gotten into a decent show. After a while we both started to nod off and fell asleep on the couch for a few hours. Morning had turned to night, a new source of cooler blue moonlight poured into the interior of the apartment's living room. After a long lackadaisical Sunday of lounging around we decide to turn it off and pack it in for the night. Adjourning to our own separate bedrooms down the hall not more than a few feet away from the living room. The unopened cardboard package is still resting on the glass coffee table from this morning.
My door shuts and I begin to empty my pockets to lay down and just as I go to sit at my bedside as a highly audible crash emanates from down the hall. The noise I only assumed to be the sound of shattering glass frightened me as I shot up from my seated position. This sound was an unexpected occurrence at this hour of night. Two thoughts came flooding into my mind, after this odd noise, those being “Is someone breaking in?” and “What should I do?”. Cautiously I approached my bedroom door clinging to the wall just beside it to my right. As I turned the handle of my bedroom door slowly pulling it inward to peek into the hall, my roommate's door from the other side across from my room does the same. Both of us just blankly looked at one another then back down the hall as we peered out our separate bedrooms. Confusedly my roommate whispers over to me “What was that?”. All I did in response to his question was shrug my shoulders as I had no idea.
My roommate motions for me to stay put where I was as he carefully slinked from the safety behind his bedroom door. In his hand he carried a very sharp folding knife I had no idea that he even owned. Inching back into my room I listen as he rushes hastily from where he was down the hall towards the living room letting out some kind of war cry. Heavy were the sounds of his feet on the linoleum floor that leads to the living room where the loud crash had come from. Almost instantly following his burst of offensive energy, the sound of his blood curdling screams filled the apartment. Terrified by what I had heard I tried not to cry holding back my panic I covered my mouth and shut my eyes.
As I tried to snap myself back to the reality of the situation my thoughts stirred inside my brain, one thought coming to the forefront “I need to get out of here now!”. Gently my eyes opened back up and my hands left my mouth. Shakily I had pushed open my bedroom door to see what was awaiting me outside in the living room next to me. The space was covered in darkness apart from speckled flecks of highlighted blue that came from the intruding moonlight. Staring into the monochrome void of the living area my eyes started to adjust slightly. Approaching the edge of the hallway, I look on over to find the glass table completely shattered within a crimson scene of blood that painted the floors and walls.
Gasping loudly I watched in absolute horror as my roommate's shredded body slumped hard onto the floor now spilling his exposed internal organs onto the carpet. Looking over his lifeless body resting within the center rubble from the broken glass table was that cardboard box, now ripped open. My eyes trembled as they carried upward from the mess to find standing with long claws attached to gangly arms was the pale silhouette of a woman with a head of unkempt hair and glowing eyes, her face shadowed by the moon from behind.
All the while she giggled menacingly with delight towards me. Contorting her limbs sporadically, she then went silent as two gigantic almost bat-like wings sprouted instantaneously from out of her shoulder blades. Looking back upon my gaze of terror with a snarl and a quick jerking of her head, she continued with her string of laughter. Suddenly and with one swift movement, she jumped backwards smashing through our living room window displacing glass everywhere as she flew off into the moonlit night.
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