The second Nick shut the door, he broke out in a wide grin. He couldn't help it, every time he was around Indigo it just made him feel happy. Simon and Sam were okay, too, he supposed, but Indigo…she was amazing. Funny. Pretty. The butterflies in his stomach anytime he was around her were enough to take his breath away but he still couldn't kill the smile on his face.
Then the wind blew and he realized how cold it was, all thoughts of before shattering with the realization that perhaps walking home wasn't the entirely best idea. Nick hadn't brought a coat, like the natural genius he was, and shivered in the late autumn breeze. It was dark and cold and he remembered how incredibly dangerous it got at night. The grin on his face slowly died as he walked further down the street, his footsteps heavy. He hadn't wanted to leave but he hadn't been lying when he said he'd promised Chloe he'd help her with homework. If he broke it…He'd have hell to pay when he got back.
If he got back.
He shook his head. No one would take him. In fact, it was a running joke ever since the disappearances started that if they somehow did take Nick they'd just give him right back.
"They wouldn't be able to handle you." Simon would laugh.
"Because of my lovely personality." Nick had smiled, batting his eyelashes.
"Sure." Simon would snort. "You're such a ray of sunshine."
"I think he's more of a…nuclear explosion." Sam would say and Nick would throw a wad of paper at him.
Yeah, it wasn't that funny anymore, now that he was walking alone in the dark. Nick picked up his pace, his jaw set in stone to keep from shivering in the cold. It didn't help, he still shivered miserably, cursing the audacity of the season's changing.
The streets were cold and empty, the sky was black and starless, and the street lights were the only thing illuminating his way home. Kicking at the pebbles littering the street, Nick took the shortest route home; through the park. His pace slowed, his feet dragged, and his hands were stuffed in the pockets of his hoodie as if it'd help keep out the biting cold.
Looking up from the ground as his surroundings began to darken he realized that it was empty. Completely empty.
Not a soul in sight. Not a single catbird in the sky. No stars and the lights lighting up his path were few and far between. He was shrouded in almost complete darkness, alone. Which was unusual, especially for the 7th world. He gritted his teeth, suddenly becoming afraid. Swallowing thickly, he sped up, almost jogging down the dirt path that cut through the park. Nick knew the paths to take and where he needed to go despite the spreading darkness and his unrecognizable surroundings. But, the park looked nothing like it usually did, and Nick could have sworn he heard something shuffling behind him. Someone was following him.
Almost tripping over his own two feet Nick whipped around, coming to a halt. His eyes darted left, then right, then he looked ahead of him again. It was dark on all sides, he was under one small street light and a circle of buttery yellow light kept the inky dark at bay. He could barely make out the silhouettes of trees and buildings around him and he held his breath in an attempt to listen to the sound he'd heard.
A growl. A shuffling. A snap.
"Nope. Absolutely not." He said, facing the shadows once more. He practically threw himself out of the light and started running home. Something shrieked in the not-so-far distance, and Nick's breath caught in his throat as he whirled around to see what had made that awful noise.
Panting, his eyes darting to and fro and his heart beat racing, Nick peered into the darkness, slowly backing away. The creature shrieked again, the sound like that of a human in pain. Nick couldn't tell how, but he knew that not a single human soul could make that sound unless it was on fire, and he didn't see a damn fire. Come to think of it, he couldn't really see anything.
He slowly got used to the darkness around him and slowed his breathing, looking around to see where he was. He was still in the park and nowhere near downtown or anywhere he needed to be. Maybe he didn't know his way as well as he thought he did but he should have at least been downtown by now.
Nick stopped to listen to the wind but he didn't hear a thing. No shriek of some distant creature, no footsteps, no cars and no animals. Silence.
It was so silent his ears started ringing and he turned back on his heels to walk home, his hands clenched. He felt stupid when he did it, but he knelt down on the ground and his fingers traced the sharp edge of a broken glass bottle. It sliced his finger, and he hissed in surprise, putting the bottle in his other hand as he sucked at the bleeding tip of his finger. At least with a weapon he felt just a little safer, even knowing he'd be as likely to hurt himself as he would be to hurt whatever was stalking him. He could feel its eyes glued to his back even if he couldn't hear its footsteps.
Ignoring the sensation of being stared at, he suddenly remembered the man on the bus.
That bastard's been stalking me all this time.
Nick glanced from side to side then suddenly stopped and turned around quickly, the glass bottle poised in his hand like a molotov cocktail. He was ready to throw it at that creep's eyes and watch him bleed.
Can't steal me, bitch, I'm a ray of fucking sunshine and I…
Nick lost his train of thought, but he continued to glare into the shadows, thinking empty threats into the dark night air.
Feeling braver than he should have, he shouted at the darkness surrounding him as if it were a hungry beast. "I know you're there!"
At first there was silence, then a heartbeat passed and Nick heard a growl. A low throaty growl so deep it rattled the bones in his body. Nick's heart fell into the pit of his stomach, and he stood there like an idiot, bottle in his hand. It no longer seemed like a weapon but more of like a potato. A potato susceptible to being thrown because no one likes potatoes.
A head appeared from the darkness, long and skeletal in its shape. Little beady eyes glinted at him with a hunger and it's mouth was set in an unnerving grin. The rest of its body slowly followed, stalking forward. Its wolfish snout was curled, showing thousands of small tooth-pick teeth all in neat little rows. Saliva dripped from its chin and it opened its mouth wide, dislocating its jaw with a crack, and made an awful sound between a child's panicked scream and a dog's howl. Its bent neck came up to Nick's shoulders and it inched slightly closer, a light Nick hadn't noticed before shining on the creature's thin and milk-white body. He hadn't realized it until now but the creature had horns like a deer curling widely from its head, blunted and stained at the tips as if it had been burned. Splotches of rotted patches covered the creature's rail thin body and it crept even closer on its scrawny legs. Only when its long snout was an inch from his own nose did he scramble away, tripping on his own legs.
The glass was forgotten until he slammed to the ground, a sharp pain going through the back of his leg as the monster dragged him back, its jaw clamped on his foot. He gave a muffled shout as the bottle shattered, glass shards flying and glinting in the air like grains of sugar, and his hand scraped against the shards. He gritted his teeth, turning back, kicking at the thing to try to make it let go of his foot but it wouldn't. It was latched on tight, its teeth piercing through his clothing as it clamped down harder, growling, its hot breath steamed the back of his leg.
A long arm reached up and over, grabbing at his face. He screamed, but his words were muffled against the palm of the demon's hand-like talons. Nick tried to twist away, thrashing about, but the monster only forced him into the dirt road of the park and flipped him up, so he was facing it. As it kept him immobilized, twisted around so he couldn't move, it began to open its mouth revealing rows of sharp teeth in the very recesses of its throat. It leaned over him, jaw unhinged as if it was preparing to swallow him whole, but instead it just began coughing. Nick, unable to tear his eyes away, watched as its throat convulsed and a small worm slithered out of the creature's throat amid a clump of thick blood. The worm dragged itself out, slick with a black substance and crawling on two thin arms. Nick shrieked, trying to pry himself away as the worm got closer to his face, but the bigger demon above him kept him stationary, arms slack at his sides as his chest heaved for air. It leaned in closer, and the small worm opened a small mouth and emitted a pitiful shriek like a kitten mewling for its mother. The demon moved one of its arms away from Nick's mouth and he heaved for air, barely able to get enough, watching in silent fear as the worm dangled closer. He clamped his jaw shut, cutting off a shout of horror, as it dropped down, and he closed his eyes. As the maggot writhed around on his face he could feel a trace of warm slime as it searched for a place to go. It tried to slither into his mouth but he kept his mouth latched shut and his eyelids closed so tight they were practically stitched together. The demon above pried Nick's mouth open with its sharp, finger-like talons, cutting Nick's lip in the process, and he choked and thrashed as the worm found its way down his throat.
A taste of sourness and bitter bile filled his mouth as he choked. It slowly crawled down his throat and he could feel it. He could feel its pudgy body graze the back of his windpipe and the blood of the creature dripped from the corners of his mouth. Nick gasped for breath, a great pressure on his chest weighed him down, and the worm writhed under his bones. He winced in agony, unable to make a sound. The slime of the creature clogged up his words, incapacitating his ability to speak.
He pushed away from the creature on top of him, his back arching in desperation, and he coughed violently. He was bent over, gasping, and retched, but nothing came out. He could feel the worm burrowing deeper into his skin and finding its way inside his body. Struggling to his feet and feeling sick to his stomach, the world slowly grew hazy around the edges as the monster edged closer. It seemed to stumble stupidly, blood pouring from its mouth. almost as if the worm inside of it had been its heart and without it it would die. Nick saw the creature open its mouth to emit a wretched scream but he barely heard it, the sound muffled like he was underwater, floating in black space.
Suddenly, it crashed into Nick and he fell, a thousand small cuts made his skin burn as he fell onto the broken glass scattered across the ground like diamonds. As the creature stood over him, saliva dripping onto his face in thick strands, Nick grabbed around desperately, his eyes glued on the creature and his vision slowly fading. His fingers came across a thin slab of glass and he grabbed it, blood welling as his fist closed around the shard. He slammed the shard into the monster's head and its skull instantly caved on impact with the glass in Nick's fist. It gave a soft yelp as its head shattered like an eggshell and it dropped to the floor, blood welling from its head.
Nick's hands were stained with black blood thick as melting cheese on his hands. He pushed himself up off the stained ground. Struggling to his feet, Nick felt a sudden and intense searing pain in his side like he was being split in half. Looking down, teeth grit in pain, he saw a big tear in his hoodie and his own blood dripped from his body, splashing onto the pavements in neat little dots. He looked at the creature across from him, its eyes dead and unseeing and its horn stained red with Nick's blood. During the scuffle it must have grazed him…
Grazed.
Ha.
He giggled, suddenly feeling sickly dizzy, and clasped a hand over his gaping wound.
"Tis but a…scratch." He said to nothing in particular, panting like he had run a mile.
Blood leaked past his fingers even faster than before and the world began to blur and darken as everything around him turned a pretty shade of red under the light of the streetlamp. The wound stung on contact with his fingers which were drenched in the creature's blood and stained black at the fingernail. It hurt like a motherfucker, but Nick was too tired to cry out. He was just too tired.
His throat was clogged with the slime from the worm writhing about inside his skin and everything hurt.
A voice shouted from faraway, and Nick could hear his phone ringing in the distance. Maybe the distant voices were just in his head.
He was slipping in and out of consciousness and the ground was coming up to meet his face at an alarming speed.
Then hands were grabbing him. He was snapped back to reality and wrenched himself away. There were more monsters, trying to drag him down into the abyss or whatever shit hole the one from before had crawled out of.
The hands were very human-like but there were too many…maybe 4…12. He couldn't tell. Too many hands.
He was hauled to his feet and he threw his fist out, half blinded by fear. His hand came into contact with soft skin and a voice swore as the hands let go of him.
Nick stumbled back as he was let go of, but couldn't focus on the people in front of him. Their voices were blurry and they were just weird shapes in the artificial street light. A strangled gasp escaped his lips, clogged by the sound of blood, and he fell. He couldn't tell when he hit the ground, or if he ever did, but all he could hear were the sound of two voices bickering and his cell phone ringing desperately as the darkness dragged him down into her suffocating grasp. Nick reached out, trying to keep the exhaustion at bay, but it dragged him down all the same.
"I don't…want to…die…" His last words trailed off, unheard.