Haru's prey

Rick narrating ...

The road is closed. The storm caused the light pole to collapse with everything. Now I can imagine the reason for all the delay with the lights.

That is the least of my problems. My head is dizzy. I didn't get to breakfast enough. The car crashed into the tree when I tried to turn the corner overhead. I didn't need that. The repair will cost a lot to remove the dent from the bodywork and the painting ... What the hell!

With difficulty I manage to force myself on the stuck door, struggling to get out of it. And immediately I feel the hot liquid and the neck that wets my fingers, making my mouth curl. My fingers begin to feel a piece of wood that is buried in my abdomen.

I can't believe the great end of the night!

My irritation is enormous and didn't even realize what I did. I was standing, biting my mouth and my hands held the wooden stake pulling the sharp splinter from inside my body. And something is wrong. Even with a violent surge of adrenaline ...

I should at the very least be unconscious to the beat. It was good damage to my colleague's car.

-In general we do not feel as much as humans, despite being uncomfortable. - An unknown voice observed indifferently.

The voice is soon covered by another sound that is more absurd in some way familiar to me.

-But what the fuck is that noise?

I can hear the tik-tik sound very clearly. old stories in my mind defy a natural and logical world.

-The tik-tik bird for what they say always announces our arrival, boy.

Well, this is very bad!

I think hit my head harder than I thought. My eyes widen when the image of what looks like a man materializes out of nowhere. I say it just appears because I can swear that huge wings come out of your shoulders.

Maybe it's the shock of the blow. Great! I started to see things that don't exist.

-How can you be so sure that we don't exist? - he asks and looks at me.

I think the blow was really strong. Your eyes ... they shine red in the night. And that is impossible. Yet the impossible walks close to me and surrounds me like an animal ready to hunt, sniffing the scent of its prey. The thought is not pleasant.

I see his dazed face turned towards the night as he takes a deep breath recognizing the territory.

-Because you are just a pupil of my mind. - I replied with some confidence. - Guilt. tiredness. The night was not good. I fought with Jack and a friend died during childbirth. I feel guilty because of that woman's death and there was nothing we could do there. Fatalities happen. It's horrible, but they do happen. And all this crazy story about maybe Jack being ...

The eyes shot redder than before.

I'll take a vacation after that, man! I'm talking to hauntings in the middle of the night alone on the street and under a storm.

But some details of that crazy hallucination were starting to bother me. The details did not have to be as real as the smell of blood and ... Astonished touch the wound that should be there and make me gasp in pain without feeling anything. It was as if it had never existed before.

I know that was the type of child with envious health. I never got sick. I can't remember the last time I got bad in bed, except for another drunk that gave me a hell of a headache. Jack was tired of making fun of me being iron.

She was often exhausted ... It was the hellish work routine. I wanted her to get another job. Perhaps a better time. All that would change when we moved to the big city.

-If I'm just a reflection of your tiredness ...- the voice reverberated in my illusion. - Shouldn't you be in pain? Did you see the wooden stake that you still hold and that was previously buried in your body?

Details!

Stress is a sneaky enemy that comes slowly and right under our noses without us realizing it. Exhaustion, bad mood ... Call it what you want. I had freaked out with Jack without giving the girl a chance to explain herself knowing the kind of dad I had. It wasn't just irritation at mood swings.

There were more classic features like migraines. I was lucky. To be honest, in the last few days I was discounting the malaise in something pleasurable like food. It had been a hell of a test week at the end of the semester. Everybody lost their car keys. Who has never fumed furiously with the hellish badge that disappears from nowhere when you're late to leave? At least this time I hadn't forgotten the bank password. I love that little biometrics thing, you know?

Shaking my head, I looked at the hand like an idiot imagined that there wasn't even a stake soiled with blood. It was a lie. Fresh blood stained the wood.

How incredible, now I not only listened but also saw things. I need an urgent vacation.

-I thought they spoke ...- That unreal man raised his eyebrow more sceptically than I did. - I imagined that Elaine spoke only stories. these people talk so much here ...

Elaine? Ah, I don't know any Elaine. I usually just close the damn reading glasses. They are just to rest the eyes.

-I was going to be surprised how the people here like to get into your life, buddy. - I commented annoyed. - I need ...

It was those eyes ... it seemed like a compulsion to look at them, plunge into the intense red and forget about life. My girl is in trouble out of town and in need of help. Perhaps with any luck, the night will not be a complete failure.

Fights are horrible, but reconciliation gives vigour to a night of sex. I think that after making up, that's all I want. A good fuck with my little one. I've been visiting a sex shop and doing some shopping that will spice up nights with Jack.

This is after I manage to explain my outburst. The crown got me ugly this time.

"Do you need to find your sister?" That thing asked me and my body reacted tense by contracting.

I do not have siblings. Everyone knows the story of my birth and my mother's death.

-I don't have any ...

It roared like a furious animal. Well, maybe it wasn't a hallucination after all. I could almost feel that something terrible was very wrong.

"Forget Elaine's bad teasing." He continued to speak, ignoring all my confusion. They are redoubled work after big ones. Elaine seems to have a natural ability to keep me irritated when she wants to.

The complaint was the most absurd I heard there. How do you create? You didn't know that guy, did you? Don't forget someone like that who appears out of nowhere at night with wings and bright red eyes. In the beginning, it shouldn't exist.

Except for that contrary to all the logic of a normal and rational world, that continued to look serious and evaluative. I blinked my eyes, imagining that the vision would disappear as it had appeared. It's nothing. for the first time, my mind considered the possibility of being real.

-God! I freaked out after the tests. There is no other explanation. I'm here talking to someone who has wings and pretending that nothing is happening.

The red eyes intensified the brightness.

-Really?!

If not, what else could it be? I have long passed the age of believing in ghosts and monsters. These are stories that scare children and when we grow up, other concerns end up with the children's universe. The pressure of studies, commitments, accounts ...

-Sure. You are not real! No way. It is the fruit of my imagination. - I declared with the total conviction of that.

And it all happened too fast. The scream got stuck in my throat when the claws grab my shirt and I noticed the movement of the air around the flapping wings. An impulse ... I also had the notion of being built very easily.

My feet touched the air without balance.

-Welcome to the family, aswang. Maybe with luck, Elaine and Jack didn't fight each other with salt or silver. And they didn't even kill themselves. Another blood moon night is approaching. It is time to summon the youngest of us among humans, my dear Rick. ... my firstborn is at home after all.