The Beast

(WARNING: Blood/Gore, Strong Language, and some sexual suggestiveness.)

“Ready!... set!... HUT!!”

The ball flew behind the center as I raced and crashed into the offensive line of the opposing team. Going for the quarterback. My eyes were trained on him as he tried to dodge and weave out of my direction of approach. I nailed him in the chest and he went tumbling down with the ball. I sacked him. I sacked the quarterback! The game was near its end and... we won! We won our homecoming game. The crowds cheered my name and the team lifted me up, hugging and laughing along as they tallied two more players to come over with a huge bucket of ice water and dump it over myself and the head coach's head for the big win of the year. It was a huge night for all of us. Including myself. I couldn’t stop smiling as the buzzer was ringing to end the game. Everyone was cheering and yelling from the ground to the bleachers.

“All hail number 25!!”

“All hail number 25!”

That very same chant was ringing in my ears for hours that evening. A beautiful and clear night for all of us. The perfect October weather for sure. The first week of October was a great start for sure. Our team, our parents, our associates, the cheerleaders, everyone attended a huge bonfire right in a little countryside just outside of town at one of the rich player’s parents home. They had a huge farm property, and we were all gathered at the workshop with a huge pile of wood that the owner had previously gathered. The whole night was fun there. I had myself, my mom and dad were visiting with the other parents, and my beautiful girlfriend and I were standing by the bonfire enjoying its warm dance as the embers flickered into the night sky. Dancing into thin air as our breath was seen in the cold air.

“You must be cold,” I said as I threw my letterman’s jacket over her shivering body. “That’ll keep ya warm, as well as this fire.”

She smiled and grabbed my face and kissed my lips for a couple of minutes. And then she brought my head in beside her lips, those warm and tender lips of hers with the warmth of her breath cradling my ear as she began to whisper. “I wanna surprise you after a while.” She giggled.

My heart was racing. Surprise? Like... what all the other guys talk about?... That kind? ...Oh man... I don’t know about this... but I need to be brave... I had many questions swirling around my brain about what she meant...

"Okay sweetheart.” I kissed her cheek and pulled her in close to my side. We enjoyed the rest of the fire and the view until it was time to leave.

(Previously in the following couple of days ago)

News Reporter: “We have breaking news for you this morning. As local authorities report, a child has gone missing right from his home. A young boy, ten years old, by the *name of child* was abducted without a trace in the early morning hours of today. Police and investigators have no collectible evidence to try and trace the kidnapping culprit other than the child’s window was wide open. Some claw marks were seen on the window frame of the bedroom.”

News Reporter: “In other news, now a missing couple by the names of *name of the woman* and *name of man* have been missing for a few days and have no evidence as to where or what had happened to them. Their car was last seen at this location parked in this hotel and the only evidence found at the scene was the man’s wallet and scratch marks that appeared around the door handle of the vehicle. Investigators are still trying to pinpoint the abductor. What could be increasing these disappearances? A human, or something else entirely? Police are still skeptical but are continuing their search and investigations.”

(Present. Late that evening)

My girlfriend and I were now parked in a remote location. Kind of a creepy choice of the location she picked out for us. An old cemetery in a wooded area. This seems a little out of touch? But I kept my nerves at ease. This is our first time. I figured out what she was getting to back at the bonfire.

We were kissing each other with some soft music playing on the radio. Minus the old, creepy-looking cemetery bit, the interior of the vehicle was getting pretty romantic. Would have been even better in say a hotel room or in my garage with the vehicle turned off, but all was well. She begins to nibble on my ear as she kissed me softly and tenderly. My heart was racing and I felt my mind going into a swift circle of content and relaxation.

“Don’t be a nervous baby...” she said softly and calmly as she began to rub my inner leg. “I really love you... I hope you know this...” Her hand drew near the crevice of my jeans I was wearing.

“Me too,” I said as I began to softly rub her back and trace my hand towards her side and up the front of her navel and stomach. Slowly and gently. "I just want you to know... before we—"

“You're a virgin?” she interrupted softly. “It’s okay sweetie. I’m a virgin too.” She then began towards my groin area. I was already aroused, and when she touched it, it seemed to have sent a jolt through her arm and made her moan ever so softly.

I began to gently grab hold of her breast area with her thin shirt still on. Big, firm and warm. I closed my eyes as she began to straddle and ride my lap. “Oh baby...” she moaned, “I’m so horny for you.” She then began to pull off her shirt, revealing her bra and bare stomach. Smooth and tan and soft as I ever touched anyone’s skin like hers. She began to kiss my neck as she was becoming more and more aroused. I began to try and unbuckle my belt and pants at a moderate pace.

But suddenly, a large bang was heard from the outside. Almost like someone hitting a metallic door or slamming an iron top on something. It scared me, becoming turned off at that point, and I eased my girl off of my lap to have a look around. “Did you hear that baby?”

She began to look around herself as she reached for her shirt and slowly tried to put it on again. Feeling somewhat disappointed. "I did, but that could have been anything. Farmers are working on the harvest at this time of the—"

Suddenly, a loud thud was heard on the top of my vehicle. My stomach sank into my ass. “What the fuck?!”

“Honey! Be careful,” she replied as she got into her seat again as I got out of the vehicle.

I grabbed the flashlight that I had hidden in my glove compartment and flashed it around the area. Nothing but glowing reflections of the tombstones were seen. The soft breeze was eerie to the feeling. But I began towards the top of the vehicle of mine. "A rock?" Revealing it to being a huge head-sized rock bent the top part of my vehicle. "Shit, that’s gonna be expensive to fix..." Irritated, I went around the location of where we were "parking," and loose branches and leaves were heard under my feet. "Who the fuck could be throwing rocks on people cars like that. This is not funny, to say the least."

After checking around and not seeing much around the area, I was already pissed that this loud noise and something or someone throwing a large rock on top of my vehicle scared the piss out of me. I stood in the lights and began to relieve myself... considering how badly I was told that blue balls felt was becoming a reality. This really sucked... shaking it off and zipping my pants back up, I waved to my girl and said everything was okay and began to walk towards the vehicle. But just as I was midway to the vehicle, I heard a screeching noise coming from behind me. I looked up to see my girlfriend; the way she reacted to the sight before her was something I will never forget. The low growls and chirps and peeps of a creature from behind me.

My heart began to race as I slowly and gently turned towards the sources of the sounds that were heard, and what I saw that night I cannot explain. A... dog?... or a cat? A very large canine... I couldn’t really tell. But one thing was for sure, it was eight feet tall on all fours, and no tail was on its backside, so it couldn’t have been any mammal I’ve ever seen. It was fuzzy like a bear, furry and thick like a mammoth. It’s head though, when it looked at me... that animal still gives me nightmares to this very day. Two blind white eyes in a socket with an alienated large grin from cheek to cheek, lines inside were razor-sharp ivory and brown teeth. They were dripping and drooling of blood. Stained inside and out of the beast. It’s large grin sent a chill down my spine. It’s eyes stared aimlessly into the headlights of my vehicle behind me.

"Back away slowly." I began to step back slowly and not too quick. I wanted to run for my life at this point. There was no telling what this thing could do or react if I were to run. It was still grinning at me with its jagged teeth. I was inching ever so closely to the front end of the vehicle so I could high tail it out of this place. But then what stopped me was the object that this monster was holding in its paw-like hand. And that’s... when my horror came to from out of nowhere.

In the animal's hand was a decapitated head of one of the missing couple. The woman in the photo from that news story a few days ago. Her face looked like the moment of her death was painful, and her eyes were looking almost into the back of her skull. Her brain stem was seen being dangling from the cutaway of the neck, and her ears and nose and mouth were bleeding still as if she was killed a few minutes ago. Her mouth looked like she was trying to scream in pain at her very last moments. The beast had her hair inside of his mouth and was holding it. The intense moment that I had just then was a reality.

I finally doubled down when I touched the grill of my vehicle, and from the inside, my girlfriend was screaming bloody murder. I hushed her as I began digging for the gas peddle. With that, as I did a donut around the area, I flung the vehicle towards the dirt road ahead of us. As I was looking into the rearview mirror, I saw that the beast had disappeared.

“What the fuck was that?!” yelled my girl as she had a huge amount of panic in her voice. “That was the missing girl from the news!!”

“I know! I know!” I said to her as she was trying to calm herself down. The chain of events that had happened was hard to calm down from. That became a challenge at this point. "Just relax honey. We are gonna go find some help—"

Suddenly, a huge object crashed into the front windshield, and my vehicle began to swerve and steer into the wrong direction from the road. My girlfriend began to scream again and I reached out of the window of the vehicle with one of my arms and tried to pry the thing so it would slide one way off the vehicle. But the feeling and soon the smell of the thing was becoming more and more obvious now of what that was. It was the man’s corpse from the news story. mangled and torn in four different areas of the torso. The intestines stained the window as it slowly dragged to one side of the vehicle. I began to use my flashlight to pry it off the side.

“LOOK OUT!!” And without even thinking, it was already too late to respond fast enough. Everything went dead silent and my ears were ringing.

My vision began to come back to me and all I could see was myself a few feet away from my crashed vehicle... it nailed a tree just off the dirt road when I lost control. My head felt like my brain was banging against my skull like a pinball. Then, upon inspecting my head with my hand, it revealed that I was wounded from being thrown from the vehicle... my girl... MY GIRL!!

I began to try and fight to get back up and limp over to my wrecked vehicle with my girlfriend still inside, passed out from the impact. Thankfully, she looked alright, but I didn’t take that too far into consideration after hearing about countless stories about car crashes... I was concerned with her wellbeing. So after clearing my conscience for a second, I began to try to get cellphone service with my phone, but there wasn’t any at all where we were. "Dammit." I hurried over to the vehicle and tapped my girl.

“Honey... baby... are you alright?”

Her eyes softly flickered open. “Yea... I think so?” She began to rub her eyes and her nose.

"Just stay right here baby. I’ve gotta go to a better area up ahead and call for—"

A sharp pain had stopped me from what I was trying to tell my girl. Looking down, I saw the source... A claw was driven in just under my chest area...

“RUUUUUNN!!!” I yelled at my girl with every ounce of my breath, as she then was screaming and fighting her way out of the vehicle. My feet lifted off the ground and they turned towards where the claw had come from. It was that monsters face again. It had one of its paws or hands pierced through my chest. My vision was going blurry... my head was going numb... and then...

The beast opened its mouth and bit into my neck...

Blackness... followed...