Monkey Sword Fight

I stayed at home for the next few days. I was completely freaked out. I kept telling myself that I imagined the entire thing. That my mind had finally snapped and imagined Edward doing that to justify my irrational hate towards him.

I wasn’t comforted by the fact that two days later I heard over the news that a girl from the local school had been reported missing. When the news showed a picture of her later that afternoon I ran to the bathroom and started to throw up.

I considered calling the police. I didn’t know what to tell them though. That my friend’s boyfriend ate the girl in the alleyway behind the local bar? I went back there after I saw the news report. I couldn’t find a trace of what I saw that night there. I decided against telling the cops. I didn’t want to become known as the local nut case. And if I already was, I didn’t want know it.

So I stayed in my house, ignored anyone calling or knocking at the door. They all tried to check up at me, but I continued to ignore them. They would leave notes and I would take them and read them, so they knew I was there. But I never responded.

And then Megan came on the 4th day. She knocked on the door for about ten minutes, begging me to open up. I fought with all the strength I could muster not to answer the door. I failed.

“Oh thank god, your fine.” she told me. “We’ve been worried sick.”

“I’m fine,” I lied. “I just need some alone time.”

“Is everything O.K.? Can I come in?”

I wanted to tell her I was fine, not to come in. At the same time I more then ever wanted her to come in so I can tell her what I saw.

And then she thinks that your crazy.

Her eyes were pleading with me. I opened up the door the rest of the way.

“Yeah, come on in.”

I stepped out her way and she walked into the living room, sitting down on the couch. I closed the door and sat down on a chair. There was a few minutes of awkward silence.

She broke the quite first. “So what’s going on?”

“It’s nothing. I told you I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine. And it’s not like you to blow us off like you have been.” She hesitates a bit. “What’s going on with you?”

I saw your boyfriend eat a complete stranger.

“Its nothing. There’s been a death in the family. I just need some time alone.”

“I’m so sorry. Who was it?”

This was a bad idea.

“My grandfather.”

“Were the two of you close?”

“We were. I hadn’t seen him in a few years.”

“I’m sorry.” We were both quite for a minute. “Look, I know this is a hard time for you, but just sitting here all by yourself can’t be good for you. You need to talk to us. We’re your friends. Its what we’re here for.”

“Thanks, but I think I just need to be alone for a few days.”

Megan sighed. She sounded really concerned for me.

“Look, the rest of us are going to Tamera’s house to go watch a movie tonight. You really should come out and just spend sometime with us. It will do you some good. And besides, we miss having you around.”

“Megan…”

“Will you at least think about it?”

“I’ll think about it.”

And then she left. She said goodbye, made me promise to think about it again, told me everything would be fine, and then left.

So I thought about it; thought about how happy Megan looked when I answered the door and how worried she looked while she was talking to me. I didn’t want her worry too much about me. I decided to go. Besides, I was starting to think that I made the entire thing up. Too much to drink or something. I never found anything in the ally.
So I went to Tamera’s house. Everyone else was happy to see me, telling me how sorry they were about my grandfather. Even Edward. Things seemed normal. Half way through the movie I got up and went to go grab a drink from Tamera’s fridge. When I turned around to go back to the movie, there was Edward, just standing there.

“Jesus Ed. You scared the hell out of me.”

“I suppose that would make twice this week, wouldn’t it?”

I paused for a second. He couldn’t have possibly made me out in the dark light of the ally.

“What are you talking about Ed?”

“You know what. You haven’t told anyone, have you?” I nervously shake my head. “Good boy. And if you know what’s good for you, you won’t tell anyone.”

Ed started to walk away. I called out to him.

“What about Megan? You’re not going to hurt her, are you?”

He stopped and looked over the shoulder at me.

“Megan? You have me all wrong. I wouldn’t dream of hurting her. She’s going to be my queen; the leader of my pack. You don’t have to worry. She’ll be fine.” And with that he walked away, leaving me shaking where I stood.

They tell you not to be afraid of the dark. That there’s nothing to be afraid of.

How I wish they right.

It started about six months ago.

I had been living a normal life up until then. I was going to school, studying programing. I had an internship lined up at Microsoft for the summer. Things were pretty good, at least I thought they were. I didn’t have much of a social life. I had a few friends I’d go and drink with, but not often. Actually in a way this can be blamed all on them.

Let me take a few steps back though. I’m jumping ahead of myself. It started right at the end of school. We had all just finished finals, and although we didn’t have the results yet we all felt good about what they were going to be. So we decided to all go out and have a celebratory drink and enjoy ourselves.

See, there were six of us. Thomas, Richard, Megan, Tamera, Robert, and myself. We had all met in our Freshman year on campus. We all had similar classes and decided to form a study group. Or they decided rather. I was never really asked, just told to show up. I had considered not going to that first one and just blowing them off, but I ended up going. Over the next two years we started hanging out instead of just meeting to study. They all had other friends, but not me. They were the closest thing I had to friends.

And to be completely honest I didn’t like most of them. They were all nice enough and all brilliantly smart, but they each found small things to annoy me with. Tamera never seemed to close her mouth, Robert always choose the worst time to make the most immature jokes, Thomas would never stop bragging about his latest “conquest”, and Richard was always trying to convince us of the truth behind the latest conspiracy theory or ghost haunting.

Megan though, she never annoyed me, even when the others were annoyed with her. The truth is I had a thing for her before we even meet properly. When our group had come together she was dating some jerk she found out later was cheating on her the entire time. And before I could muster up the courage to ask her out she was already telling us about her new wonderful boyfriend. Within a few months that relationship also went south. Rinse, wash, and repeat for the next two years and she still had no idea how I felt.

So when she broke up again two weeks before finals, I decided it was now or never. At least relatively now. I approached her a few days after it happened and let it all out and got turned down. I was too late again.

Things were a bit awkward for a few days, but I got over it and we were back to being like it was before, only now I had to deal with the pain of rejection. It didn’t help that when ever we went anywhere she would bring the new boyfriend around. He seemed nice enough. Far better then her previous line of boyfriends. But I couldn’t shake the odd feeling something wrong with him.

It wasn’t until the night we were celebrating our finals I found out why he always made me feel uncomfortable.

The night started normal enough. I was the first one at the bar, like normal. The others always arrived late. Over the next ten minutes the rest came in, one by one until we were all here. Then we all took our traditional drink and started our usual activities. Talking, playing pool, some more drinking. The evening was pretty typical.

When we were all ready to leave we went and said our goodbyes, made our way to our cars. I caught a glimpse of Megan and Edward saying goodbye like an other couple would before going into their respective cars. I climbed into mine and made it five minutes down road before I realized that I managed to leave my wallet in the bar. So I promptly turned around back to the bar.

I walked into the bar, find where we were at, and sure enough my wallet had fallen under the pool table I was just playing at. I reached down, grabbed it, and started to make my way out of the bar when someone caught my eye. I went back up to the bar, grabbed a drink and took a closer look.

It was Edward. And he was getting rather close to a rather attractive looking woman in the corner.

Oh, how I now wish that it was something as simple as him cheating on Megan.

Curiosity got the best of me. I needed to know what was happening. I told myself it was for Megan’s sake, but knew that wasn’t all of it. Some twisted part of me wanted some kind of proof that she had made a poor choice. That she should of chosen me. So I watched them. And then I followed them out of the bar.

I expected him to leader her to his car, still in the same parking space as earlier. I saw him whisper into her ear and she giggled in response and he lead her around the corner.

Where the hell is he going?

I kept my distance and followed them around the corner. I could barely make out their voices.

“Are you sure about this?” The girl’s voice. She sounded scared. Worried.

“I told you, it’s fine. I live just around the corner. I take this shortcut all the time.”

What was he saying? He lives 20 minutes across town.

He kept talking “Besides, I’m here to protect you.”

She pulled him closer to her. Something about it felt wrong to me. He stopped them in their tracks.

“Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

He didn’t respond. What came next, its hard to describe, even with every thing else I’ve seen since then. Edward turned to face her and I got a glimpse of his face. It wasn’t human. His features were all distorted, his teeth were sharp and mangled. An unhuman gleam had overtaken his eyes. And the girl’s eyes were filled with fear.

A fierce growl escaped his throat. The girl pushed away and tried to run away. I could see a grin on Edward’s twisted face. He let her run for 15 feet before he took a single leap, landing on top of the girl, knocking her to the ground. He reached up with his hand, which now ended in long vicious claws and swiped down at her. I heard her scream out in pain.

Why isn’t anyone else hearing this. Why isn’t help coming. Why aren’t I helping.

I tried to force myself to do something, but I couldn’t.

I can’t move. I’m so afraid I can’t move.

Edward’s clawed hand came back up. It had a large piece of the girl’s flesh hanging from it. Her screams had faded to whimpers of pain. He held his hand up and bit the flesh, eating it all up, licking the blood off of his hand. Then he took another swipe at her, tearing another hunk of flesh and muscle from the poor woman. She screamed out in pain. He brought the meat up to his mouth and ate it like some kind of fine delicacy. Licking up the blood as it dripped down from his hand. Swiped at her again; no scream this time and the whimpering had stopped. The girl was dead. And then Edward looked up at me. Right at me and grinned. And then waved.

I ran. I ran all the way back to my car. I drove all the way back to my house, not stopping at any lights. I ran inside and locked the door.

I ended up falling asleep in the corner of my room that night, hugging a baseball bat near me. I had the worsts nightmares that night.