Clinging to Friendship

Chapter 18

It stood there, its body was swaying menacingly like it was preparing to run into this room right now. I gulped and grabbed the doorknob. It growled angrily, its mouth opening wide to reveal rows upon rows of teeth, threads of drool hung from its gaping maw. Skye was right about its eyes, they were disgustingly yellow, glowing with malice. It took a step forward and I stepped back, but I kept my hand on the doorknob. The monster leaned forward until it had all four limbs on the ground. I looked at its feet, they were huge with thick claws, I could see dried blood on them.

It started running straight at me and without any further thought, I slammed the door into its face. It slammed heavily into the door and I fell back against the ground. It stopped slamming against the door and I heard something heavy touch the doorknob.

“Damn it!” I cursed realizing that I hadn’t had a chance to lock it yet. I clambered to my feet and grabbed onto the doorknob, using all of my strength to fight against the beast. Despite the strength of this monster, I had adrenaline on my side. I wasn’t going to let this thing get in here. I looked around the room hoping I could see something I could use to hold this monster back. There was nothing… except for that heavy skillet, which was over by Kian. Who couldn’t move to hand it to me, I was stuck here fighting against some monster and my strength was waning fast. I groaned, my hands were sweating and I could feel my feet start to slip. The monster kept pushing against the door.

We were going to die here, I had just found Kian and now we were going to die here. I gritted my teeth, fighting the tears that were threatening to break free. I didn’t want to cry, I’d been crying too much lately and if I started crying again I wouldn’t be able to keep fighting against this thing.

A cough drew my attention away from the door. I turned to face Kian and saw that his eyes were finally open. Those dark chocolate eyes that I loved.

“Ji-Yeong… What are you doing here?” He asked. His voice was slurred and slow, I assumed it was from the blood loss.

“H-Hey… Kian…” I greeted him. He tried to lift his hand in a wave but could only move it a couple inches from the ground. “How are you feelin-” I was cut off by the monster pressing harder on the door.

“W-what’s going on?” He questioned, his voice was slowing down as he continued to talk. I didn’t answer him, I was too busy.

“Kian, are you ok with moving?” That was a dumb question, he literally showed me that he could barely lift his hand. “Help!” I screamed. I hoped that maybe Poppy and Layne would hear me and come help. Though I didn’t expect they would come if I called. I was kind of acting shitty, I knew that now. “Help!” I called out again. I was growing desperate. I was tired, starting to get weaker.

“Ji-Yeong… just let it get us… We’re screwed anyway…” Kian groaned. I bit my lip hard, drawing blood.

“Help! Poppy! Layne!” I couldn’t give up, no. I would not give up. Never. “No, Kian… We’re getting out of here, I promise Kian.” I let go of the door and ran straight for the skillet on the ground. I was going to stand off against this monster.

Time seemed to slow down. The doorknob turned and the door opened. There standing in the door frame was the monster. It slammed its front legs onto the ground and opened its mouth all the way showing just how far it went. It reminded me of a crocodile. Long sharp teeth that filled a gaping maw and a mouth that went way too far back. It stared me down. I could hear it make some kind of laughing sound, it was terrible. It was kind of like a dolphins laugh except deeper and much more unsettling. I strengthened my grip on the handle of the skillet, I planted my feet and glared at it.

“I’m not f*****g scared of you,” I spat out at it. It laughed again, mockingly. I kept repeating that I wasn’t scared over and over to myself because I was in fact terrified. It had practically cut Kian in two while we were still ways away from it. What would it do to me?

It took a step forward and despite me wanting to move away from it, I stood my ground. Each step it took made me want to run for the hills but I didn’t. I took one quick look at Kian, who was behind me. I would protect him. I couldn’t let him die. I just wanted him to survive. That’s all I wanted.

When it was finally close enough, I rushed it suddenly, hoping to surprise it. I swung the skillet as hard as I could and managed to smack it in the face. I don’t know what I had been expecting, maybe for the skillet to go straight through it since, ya know, it looked like shadows. But it hadn’t, the skillet had hit it straight in the face. The monster definitely didn’t like the feeling of that. It let out a deeply pained screech.

I swung again, unfortunately, though, it had already grown wise to it. It grabbed the skillet, but it quickly had to let go because, I assumed, the iron did actually work against it. “Thank you, Skye,” I thought to myself. I swung again but it moved behind me in the blink of the eye. I turned as quickly as I could but I was too slow for it. It pounced on top of me and slammed me to the ground. It grabbed me by my hair and slammed my head against the hard ground repeatedly. I was dazed and close to passing out when I heard the monster screech again and move off of me.

“Did you really think we were going to leave you here?” Layne asked cockily. I sat up, holding my head in my hands. My brain was throbbing and I swear I was seeing stars. I’m pretty sure that thing gave me a concussion.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. I was honestly so confused, after my outburst at them I thought they were just going to leave me here. The monster slowly moved back to us from where it had run off to. It looked mad, its eyes had turned from a disgusting yellow to a deep blood red. It was pissed off and it was coming for us.