- 2 Pages
The huge opening seemed to breathe, and with each intake of breath its mouth seemed to open a little wider. Jenny closed her eyes. This was it. She felt the warm, sticky air wash over her body and took another step forward, her hands were moist with sweat and her heart was pounding in her chest, “Jenny… JENNY!” A shrill, high-pitched voice yelled her name, it seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. The vision fell apart in front of her and Jenny opened her eyes. The entrance to the school was there, nothing more.
Jenny shuddered; it was like this every morning.
“Jenny!” the voice yelled again. This time she realised where it was coming from and looked around to see one of her friends running towards her. “What’s her name again?” she thought to herself. She couldn’t remember, but it didn’t matter. These people didn’t concern her at all.
Jenny was 16. She looked like she’d walked out of a painting, a painting too beautiful to be real. Her long brown hair flowing down to her hips, eyes as blue as an ocean reef and a smile so bright it made the sun seem dull. But Jenny didn’t care about her looks, they were the one thing in the world she could live without. She hated walking up the school corridor, hated the looks the boys gave her. They were only interested in one thing.
Most girls her age welcomed the looks, gave a flirty little smile, played with their hair and walked on. But not Jenny, she knew what the looks really meant, knew the thoughts going on behind those eyes, and knew the evil dwelling within.
“Jeeeeeeeennnny, wait!” her friend whined from behind her. Abbey, that was her name, annoying, snotty, stuck up Abbey. Jenny hated labelling her a friend. Slut would have been a more appropriate term she mused, but these were the only people who talked to her, brainless morons who, if not for their looks, would probably have been left by their parents in a gutter to rot. She smiled at this thought and turned to talk to Abbey.
Abbey: Thanks for waiting Jenny.
Jenny: No problem. So how was your night?
Abbey: OH MY GOD! Dave called, he said he’d love to go out on a date some time.
Jenny: You know he only wants you for one thing, don’t you?
Abbey: (Giggles) Oh don’t be silly, Dave’s not like that.
There was no point in listening, these conversations were stupid and pointless. Jenny saw the world through different eyes, she knew what went on behind peoples closed doors at night, knew about the increasing levels of violence lurking below the surface and knew nothing could be done to stop the decline of humanity. Jenny also knew that no one at her school was worth speaking to. She was on a higher level than they were, but this was not a gift, it was a curse. Lonely all the time, she wished nothing more than to be able to sink to their level. The way life drifted past them, without a care. Jenny longed for this feeling, and yet she knew this was impossible.
She had been shown things, awful things, things that most people would not even believe, let alone begin to understand.
The world was a horrible, evil place. Jenny’s job opened her eyes wider than she could ever have imagined. It brought back the terrible memories of her time spent at school. Her boss was overweight, bald and a down right sleaze. His thoughts travelled to places the boys at her school had never even dreamed of and his eyes showed everything. She put up with these looks, as awful as they may be, this job kept her as hidden from the world as she could ever hope to be. However the looks became more frequent and the hunger in his eyes grew stronger. He started making passes at her, a little slip of the hand every now and again, a quick touch and “don’t mind me, these hands have a mind of their own.”
Jenny knew what these ‘accidents’ really were and when they started happening much more often, she noticed her boss changing. These changes were subtle at first, a slight reddening of the skin, a much darker tint to his eyes. But as they became more obvious he became more confident. This confidence scared Jenny the most, she knew the evils of the world, they didn’t scare her, but she never got over the looks the boys gave her at school, they haunted her all these years but they were just looks. This new found confidence gave him something different from the boys at school, something she was truly terrified of. Something that had to be eliminated before it consumed of her.
She heard the door creak open behind her, felt a strange presence fill the room. Jenny began to turn to face her boss. But she already knew it was not him, a feeling inside told her this and she reached for the letter opener on her desk. She could sense the hunger within this evil creature, knew she was the only thing capable of satisfying it, but, she was not going to give in, Jenny would not be consumed by this hunger. She screamed what was almost a war cry and turned, lunging at where he should be.
Nothing.
He wasn’t there, she had imagined the whole thing.
Then, a huge pair of hands grasped her by her shoulders, lifting her off the ground like she was a feather. Jenny looked down, she saw her feet hovering above the ground, saw the huge red hands holding her, and as if the monster knew she was looking at his hands, sank his claws deep into the flesh of her shoulders. She screamed in agony, her body twisted and convulsed as she tried to break free. The monster simply tightened his grip, Jenny screamed again, a blood curdling scream, which sent chills down her own spine.
This was the wake up she needed. The monster’s foul smelling, moist breath washed over her neck as he whispered in her ear, ” I’ve waited a long time for this Jenny.” She smiled, and the monster detected the change in her mood straight away, he could no longer smell her fear. Jenny felt his grip loosen a little, she laughed and his grip loosened further. This was it, Jenny knew it was now or never, she swung her hips forward, felt the monster shift, slightly unbalanced. Then in the smoothest most angelic movement, kipped up her ankles and swung them downward in a slow arc. She felt her feet connect with the monster, felt the enormous bulge within his groin, and felt with supreme satisfaction, it shatter beneath her feet.
The monster collapsed groaning. Jenny realized she still held the letter opener, she turned to face the onster, froze, even in it’s agony, this monster was the most hideous sight she had ever seen. She was frozen, her eyes fixed on his, these eyes were the same evil eyes that had haunted her for her whole life, and they were still looking at her in the same way. The monster smiled, he had more of these eyes on his teeth. Jenny screamed again and closed her eyes. The monster leapt, she felt the weight of his body hit her, felt them both fall to the ground. Then nothing more, the monster was lying on top of her but nothing was happening.
She opened her eyes and saw her boss lying on top of her. The letter opener protruding through his back, piercing his heart.
She slowly pushed him off, realised her arms didn’t hurt and looked down at her shoulders. There were no claw marks, no bleeding, nothing.
Jenny gasped, “what have I done?” She rolled her boss over, pulled the letter opener from his heart. The blood was ordinary, no different from her own. She glanced around the room in shock and caught a glimpse of her own reflection in the window. Her eyes, they had changed, they were the same as his now.
This time she screamed “what have I done?” She raised the letter opener before her, screamed again and plunged it into her chest.
She felt the life draining from her.
She sensed something else too, a great evil slipping from the earth.
As she drifted away she whispered, “I’m sorry.”
(Originally posted on 06/02/2002)
