Incognito

            “I ran through the dark woods, the moon making the world blue in hue. The trees entangled me and snarled my hair, and I heard the growling up ahead and ran towards it, even though my brain screamed at me to run away from the noise. But Joshua was ahead, my cousin and best friend was ahead of me and I had heard him screaming before I had heard the growling.”

            “By the time I had reached the growling, I could hear a wet noise, like slurping, and looking up into the trees, towards the noise, I saw legs dangling from one of the tree’s branches. The swayed like leaves in the wind from the movements of the black thing on top of the body. I screamed, it lifted its head and it’s eyes glowed white, like the eyes of an animal when caught at night in a headlight. But there was no light, save for the moon in the sky that glowed down on us.”

            “It was silent, it was massive, and it moved towards me. It was on four legs, it was furry, it was the size of a mastiff and it made my heart feel like it was going to explode out of my body. And then I wake up. Right when I can see it smile at me with its bloody maw,” Alexandria took a deep breath. Her story, the story that she had been telling everyone since she had been found in Tanknuck Woods, covered in blood, was finished. Some of the group members stared, some giggled, some shook back and forth while scratching their heads in irritation from the imagined bugs crawling inside of them.

            The Everfrost Psychiatric Facility was Alexandria’s home. It had been for seven years, and she had always refused to believe that she had been the one to kill her cousin. Until today. Her breath quickened, her eyes teared up, and she couldn’t believe that she was going to say something she didn’t believe just so that she could get out of the facility and out into the real world.

            “And I know now that it was just a dream. It wasn’t real. It was in my head. It was the monster inside me that I created to hide what happened. I know I did it. I know I killed him.”

            Doctor Monroe nodded, making a note on her paper and asking Alexandria some questions about the revelation, asking the others in the group if they had any comments. A few months later, after making sure that Alexandria had actually recovered from her delusions, she was released.

            “I saw it again. I followed it to Dr. Monroe’s home. I knew it would kill again, and I wanted to stop it. I wanted to avenge my cousin’s death. So when I saw the beast lumber out of the shadows on my way back from the grocery store to the motel, I knew I had to follow and kill it. But I couldn’t.”

            “I was too late. I heard Dr. Monroe scream, and the world turned blue from the moon. I ran to the door, already smashed open, I followed the growling upstairs, into the study, and heard the wet slurping. Her legs were shaking like tremors from an earthquake from under the table and I saw it’s black furry tail run from under the table out to the edge of the rug, a good four feet. I stepped slowly towards it, it’s tail stopped in mid sway, and it lifted its massive black head to look at the intruder. To look at me.”

            “And then I was it. I looked at the empty doorway, I looked down at the ground. Blood was all over me, and her body was on the floor. A round mirror reflected the beast. It reflected me. It showed me my true face and the face I had hidden from the world. I am Death. I am The End.”