Audubann’s Weblog

There were sirens in the distance and John hoped he was lucky enough to have all of his bones intact.  He got up and walked around the cruiser and over to the kid who was still on the ground.  He was clutching his shoulder looked like he was closing to passing out from the pain.

            “You’re welcome.  Hang in there, kid.”

            John didn’t know if the young man could even here him.  He was covered in sweat and it looked like his eyes just might fully rollup into the top of his head.

            He would have liked to have stayed and comforted the kid, but Stackhouse and Mulroy were nowhere to be found.  There was just a lot of blood on the ground.  John grabbed his bike whose tires by some miracle had not been bent to hell. 

            The sirens sounded like they were coming from the north so he headed straight south, across the grass of the dorm buildings, straight toward his apartment.  Once he had crossed the train tracks, a quarter mile away, he could see a multitude of flashing emergency vehicle lights.

            Once he got home, he pulled his bike inside with him and locked the door.  Usually, he locked up his bike on the rack outside, but there was still some blood on it.  He was annoyed at that.  Even though he left it outside, he made regular efforts to keep it regularly oiled and relatively clean at all times.

            John pulled off his shirt and headed into his room.  He got undressed and heading for the shower, but stopped short.  The university owned apartment he lived in was quite small and the refrigerator was just a few feet away from the bathroom door.  He opened the top freezer section and took the rum he had inside.  After taking a long hard swig, he tossed it back inside and hopped into the shower.  The water took a while to get hot, but he didn’t care.  It just felt good to wash away the dirt and sweat.

            After 20 soothing minutes, John got out of the shower.  He toweled himself dry and threw on a pair of sweats and a clean t-shirt .  He sat down in front of the television for a moment.  He flipped through the channels and found a horror movie playing.  He hoped it would occupy his mind for a while and let him doze off on the couch.  The last things he remembered before falling asleep was something about a man named Sutter Cain and the main character freaking out over the color blue.

            When he woke up, everything was turned off and it was dark except for the green LED on his computer.  When he turned on his monitor he could see that it had restarted because it was asking him to log back into his instant messenger account.  He looked outside and did not see any other lights on.  The moon was nearly full, but it was a heavily clouded night, so it did not provide much lighting. 

The power was out.  His computer was running off of the back-up battery he purchased for it.  The back-up power supply only had about 15 minutes of total juice in it and so the power must have just gone out.  He turned the computer off and headed for his room to sleep in his bed.  He walked through the doorway to his room and stopped cold.  He felt terrified and backed up.  He didn’t know if he had time to grab a knife and could not remember if he had washed it or left it in the sink.  He didn’t want to cut himself in the very weapon he would be reaching around for.  So, he just put his fist up.

     John could see the darkness move.  It looked like it was ruffling itself.  He was simply thankful enough that his eyes had adjusted to the lack of light fast enough so that he could tell the difference in colors.  His room was dark, but the figure standing near his bed wasn’t just dark, it looked like it was a depression in the air.  Like a black hole taken form. 

“Ha.  Good job.”  The entities voice was deep and cold.  “This is a dark day for you, John.  This night is only going to get blacker,” the entity said.

John snorted before responding.  “Who or what the hell are you?  Why are you intruding into my home?” John said.

The entity ruffled a bit more and then opened its eyes.  Its yellow eyes lit the room up enough for John to make it demonic features. 

“You know why I’m here, John,” the entity snarkily said while licking its lips.

“Bullshit,” John spat out.  “Get the fuck out or I’m gonna pummel you.”

“Oh come on now, John boy,” the entity said in a mock imitation of pain. 

It unfurled its arms and extended its talons.  “I’m only here because you invited me.  I’m only here because you invited me,” it repeated as it lunged forward.

John stood firm and threw the hardest punch he could.  As his fist nearly connected to the entity and its talons were about to slash into him, he was yanked back by something.  The darkness quickly became light and he wasn’t standing in his room, he was on his couch.  The television was still on and daylight was shining through his window blinds.  As he went to rub his head, he was stopped short by a loud rapping on his door.

He quickly got up and looked through the peephole.  He saw outside his door stood a man and a woman.  Both were in uniform.  They were cops.