Young Writers Society

Adalyn Wales couldn’t forget that night even if she tried to, she knew her little sister Nellie will never come back. Every time she sees the trunk containing her little sister’s possessions she has to look away, and her dreams were invading by nightmares about the beast that took her sister, even after moving out of that accursed house. The rest of the Wales household and her friends were blissfully unaware of her sister’s true fate, if only she could return to that placid island of ignorance like the rest of them.

She could vividly remember her sister’s thick wheat wavy hair that tickled her neck and peach colored skin, but most importantly her iconic light brown and blue eyes, like molten rock emerging out of the great sea. Nellie was bundle of wild energy that sometimes got her into some interesting situations, for lack of a better word. One notable case is their camping trip with Adalyn and their father, where young little sister fell “asleep” in their family sized tent and snuck out to see the shooting stars. The next day the two were frantically looking for her, until her father found her sleeping on one of the strong branches, fortunately she only had a few minor scratches on limbs and her hair tousled from sleep.

Her reasoning why she pulled that stunt, she simply says “I wanna get a bigger view of the shooting stars, it was amazing daddy,” with a goofy smile painting her face.

Her father was relived, but warns her not do it again because she could have gotten hurt or possibly mauled by wild animals, she felt bad for making him worry so much and agrees not to do it again. Shortly after she bounces back to her usual jovial self and tag along with her older sister. As she grew older her adventurous spirit never fully died down, but her curiosity only grew stronger with time. But when it came to her academic she was a completely different person, always studious and persistent in her studies even in her weakest subject she would still put in the effort, but sometimes she would pushed herself to the point of stress and had to be reminded her to take breaks by her dad and Adalyn. Despite that, she made some friends throughout her school life by either common interests or from just explosive personality, persuading them to join her on woodland adventures. On her off time she would build fantastical worlds full of strange creatures and lost civilizations she would show to her friends, older sister, and father would be impressed by her creations. But her mother had a low opinion, as she saw her work as “demon darkness” or out right “stupid” for her daughter to be into those frivolous things.

During Nellie’s tenth grade school life, she returned home late with her father mentally drained and her mother muttering prayers. Adalyn was perplexed by the situation, she went to her mother but only said that her little sister was a monster and showed strangle marks around her neck then resume praying, she wasn’t convinced or even satisfy with her answer. So she sought out her father who blamed her English teacher for the mess, but didn’t elaborate further as he was busy with a strict deadline from work. Finally she sought out her sister for the whole story, it starts in English class before class had even started she was showing her ancient Egyptian inspired project to her friends, then her English teacher took it away because it was a “distraction” and had to stay after school. Her parents came over and her teacher told them the general story, her father didn’t see the problem as it she wasn’t disturbing class but her mother took the opportunity to destroy her work. Nellie was devastated by her mother’s action, then in a blind fury tried to strangle her, it took the combined efforts of her father and teacher to get her off. As a result of her actions, the teacher gave her three weeks of detention for class disruption and had to go see therapy for almost killing her own mother.

Adalyn didn’t know what to say or even do, as she see saw the unreasonable reason from the teacher’s end and the unreasonable action from the sister’s end. All she could do was hug her as Nellie cried into her embrace. When her mother tried to talk to her sister, she stand completely silent, so quiet that you can hear a needle drop. Every day her mother prayed incessantly for her soul to be saved, driving a bigger wedge between mother and daughter.

Her story spread throughout the school and made Nellie’s life a living hell, as students called her “mommy’s little monster” and mockingly pretend to choke themselves or each other with their tongues hanging out and made choking noises. She didn’t know how her story spread so fast, the two possible conclusions she could think of was either her teacher talked about it or a student eavesdropped on the event, but it didn’t matter who did it as the result was still the same. When she went to therapy she would lie to her therapist, until their sessions were over. The only of light in her school years her few friends, but even then her friends were slightly afraid of her from all the stories. But even if she switched to a different school her shadow would always follow her no matter where she went, she might as well go a different state entirely to stop the torment. Her older sister started noticing her sister’s apathetic appearance and her eyes was always looked exhausted, she didn’t have that same spirit when she was a child, like all the vibrant colors was siphoned out of her after years of torment. When Adalyn was taking out the trash, she found papers of Nellie’s old creations along with her picture books and fantasy posters in the bin like worthless trash. She thought it was her mother’s doing, but surprisingly it was her sister that did the deed.

When she confront her in her bare room, Nellie just smiled weakly and said “Oh, those worthless things? They were just pieces of paper that took up precious space. You sound like I just murder someone.”

By the time she enrolled into university for an anthropology major, Nellie’s bare skin was devoured by dark turtlenecks and black loose pants being held by a belt, her short wheat hair was washed away by long raven hair covering her back. The family wasn’t bothered by her hair, as they knew nature took it away as a part of life, but towards her change in fashion, as they fear her comfort might be uncomfortable by the heat of the clothes and might succumb to heat stroke. When asked about her comfort in her change in clothes, even suggesting her to switch back into her old clothes.

“Should it bother me? It feels comfy, not to mention the fabric feels nice.” She assures them with a light smile while rubbing the sleeve on her forearm.

Even with Nellie’s assurance, the family can’t help but feel concern, as they helplessly watch their daughter gradually cover more of her body. She never took off her heavily covered clothes, even in her own home she never sheds them regardless of time of weather. On campus students took notice of Nellie’s peculiar body language, arms close to her chest and head darted about while her back was hunched over. One of them asked her of her odd behavior, she simply claimed that she got a hereditary skin disease and try to make herself small so she wouldn’t get noticed. One student tried to lift the hem of her shirt, causing her to pepper spray their eyes and bolt towards her required classes. Soon after class she was brought into the administrator’s office and told them her side of the story, letting her off with a warning as well as informing her professors of her transaction and punish her accordingly, but threaten her with suspension if this happens again. Soon after that scuffle she starts to wear a black tank top underneath the turtleneck and blending in with her pants, she also wore long leggings under there as an extra layer of precaution.

Later one night Nellie was out for an unusually long time, Adalyn was starting to worry about her sister as she takes a glance at the clock on her computer, until there was a knock on the front door. Her father answers the door while she watches from behind a wall, discovering his daughter is thankful alive but her eyes had a vacant look and her clothes covered in blood, between her was a couple police officers: one old and one young.

“Nellie, wha- what did you do,” her father asked gravely, fearing the possibility of visiting his daughter in prison.

“Don’t worry sir, she’s not in any trouble, just shaken up. We found her hiding behind some garbage bins, said she was hiding from a murderer. When she led us to the scene of the crime, we saw two bodies-” the officer looks ill trying to hold himself together, unable to describe the gruesome scene. “In all my years on the force I’ve never seen bodies so… so…,”

His younger partner changes the conversation back “We might suspect it could’ve have been an animal around the area, but we can’t rule out any possibilities at the moment. It’s a miracle your daughter isn’t hanging out at a morgue. And young lady,” he turns his head towards her, giving her a warm smile “Stay safe, it’s not always safe at night.” Then gave a pat on her shoulder before the two officers leave for the night.

The two greeted her return with a great hug while her father lets out a sigh of relief, she apologizes for being late, explaining that she had lost trace of time while studying at the library. Her father didn’t reprimand her since she’s already been through enough for one night and reminds her to be careful, since strange things prowl during that time. Adalyn tried to make her feel better by playing a co-op game with her, while that did brighten her face it still felt like theirs a hint of somberness in her eyes.

Eventually she stopped attending classes in person and switched to online instead with the only exception being the campus’s bookstore for her classes’ required textbooks. She had hard time adapting to this format for the first few weeks, but with time got use these changes in learning. Day and night their daughter barely left her room that wasn’t class related and kept her door locked, if she did go out her entire body was fully covered, even her pretty eyes hide behind black shades. They missed seeing her sweet little face and her beautiful eyes that comforted their hearts. The only thing she didn’t hide away was her voice, even if her face was hidden away they would recognize her voice despite all the layers.

Late one night Adalyn was awoken by something skittering in the hallway, at first she thought it was a rat but it was too loud to be one, so she grabbed a flashlight from her drawer and go investigate. The source becomes stronger and disgustingly more detailed as she makes her way towards the kitchen, hearing animalistic smacking and grunting, other times she would hear hoarse coughing and gagging from whatever was in there. Her flashlight illuminated the kitchen floor with limited visibility, the scene was littered with gutted produce either crushed or half eaten, along with a vile smell that assaulted her nose and made her involuntarily heave. The creature notice her sound and frantically shoves passed Adalyn making her fall to the ground leaving a sticky material on her body, then Adalyn hears the door slam shut before getting back up. She couldn’t make out the creature’s looks with the limited light she had, it looked human from the feet poking under the fridge door, but the behavior wasn’t exactly like one.

Adalyn turns on the lights to see a whole abstract mess painting the kitchen, going around the opened fridge to find it just as messy as the kitchen. A raw slab of an almost eaten rump roast was sitting on the bottom of the fridge with whole pieces of human fingernails stuck into the meat mixed with oily blood that was neither human nor animal, the scene made her stomach churn at the gruesome sight. Her mother came into the kitchen to see the commotion and was mortified by the scene, she starts cleaning the area and her daughter joins her to make to shorten the job and spent the majority of the night cleaning the whole kitchen and throwing away half eaten foods, but she never told her mother about the fingernail since she was already sleep depraved and doesn’t want to think about the whole scene.

Later the family had gotten word from the university that their daughter dropped out due to her worsening condition. She completely stays in her room, and nobody knows how long she’s been cooped in there as time lost all meaning at that point. The room itself emanated that same vile smell as the kitchen, and eventually she stopped talking entirely only communicating through written notes slipped under her door. During one of afternoons Adalyn was playing a game on her computer with one side of her headphone listening to the game, while the other one exposed her ear listening to the news about the recent horrific string of murders, only happening at night. But cameras and recorders failed to capture the murderer, as they all became corrupted with nothing to salvage, thus turning them into useless bundles of wires incased in metal and plastic. Even when they turn to eye witness accounts, they describe it as an indescribable hairy beast and others were too traumatized to answer, while sketch accounts are nothing more than hastily scribbled shadows of a long necked horned creature. She overheard her mother trying to talk to Nellie from behind the door, but was met with dead silence.

“Nellie lovely daughter, I miss you so much. I’m sorry please come out,” in her voice strained.

A loud bang from the door and bellowed “LEAVE ME ALONE,” something inhuman peeked behind her voice, petrifying her mother and runs away in fright.

After her mother was out of the picture, Adalyn paused her game and went to check on her, even if she was behind a locked door. She gently knocks on her door and says “Hey Nel, how are you hanging in there?”

She hears her sister sniffling behind the door, Nellie slips a note under the door reading: well I didn’t strangle her, if that’s what you’re asking. She could hear chuckling behind the door and joins with her. She slips another note which reads: it just feels like there’s no end to this torture. When did my life get so wrong, am I a monster, like everyone says? Her cries can be hear from behind the door.

Adalyn was at a loss for words, let alone the right word to comfort her. Nellie didn’t seem to jump back to her old self, like she lost all hope in a battle, her older sister had seen something similar before through some of her friends. She had watched them shamble about in aimless direction, even when they try to keep up appearances she could see a different story in their eyes. She knew words wouldn’t fix this situation, even if she tried did words wouldn’t do it justice. Regardless she’ll give it her best shot, even if there’s a snowball’s chance of bringing a speck light back into her.

Adalyn sighed “Nel, I don’t know when things turn to crap for you, but I do know that a monster wouldn’t have a big kind heart like yours. Sure you had your faults, but so does everyone else even your big sis and our old man” softly touching her door as she spoke. “If you ever feel like want to more than talk with zero door involved, just get me or dad. When you’re ready, of course.”

There’s a long silence behind the door, until finally she slips another note saying: I’ll think about it. Then slips another note saying: Before you go, could you bring me some meat and water? I’m getting kind of hungry.

She smiles warmly and said “Sure.”

When Adalyn brought a plate of raw deer meat on and a tall glass of ice water, she knocks gently on the door, then hears the door click and the door opens just enough for her fully bandaged forearm to appear and grabs her meal. After the door closes with another click and a note reading: thank you, with a smiley face on drawn on the side.

She never did took that helping hand, confined in her own room and eating nothing but wild game and water. Every night Adalyn’s sleep would be disturbed by strange mumblings and screaming right next door to her sister’s room, speaking in either scientific or unknown alien tongues that would give people nightmares. Other nights she would hear thumping and low groans coming from the hallway, then hear the backyard’s door open and all would be temporarily quiet until the thing returns just before the sun peaks out. She thought about telling her dad about the strange happenings, but he was already under a lot of stress and she knew she can’t go to her mother since she was useless with this kind of situation. The family becomes increasingly restless about the state of their daughter, even starts to wonder if she’s even alive, but found relief when she knocked on the door. But that was only temporary relief, it was only a matter of time until the cards all fall down.

Recently the family discovered their internet, satellite, and anything they record started to become corrupted. Any pictures they took becomes distorted and any audio they record becomes scrambled with Nellie’s voice, a few words were understandable: “contact”, “antiquity”, and “inescapable”. Yet the rest of their appliances was left untouched, despite the strange phenomena inferring with other technologies. When the family drove a certain amount of distance, their phones started working again, but previous photos and recordings remain corrupted. They thought about moving away, but didn’t want to ditch their daughter, so the family downgraded their technology to replace their mode of communication to letters and other forms entertainment.

Nellie’s room started to leak strange liquid and migrate beyond her door, they try to clean the stain but it was pointless as the same liquid would muddy the floor again. Other times they would find that same viscous substance in the form of large animalistic footprints, one set being feline while the other set being owl-like, they start from her room to backyard and then back to her room. The family starts to speculate that she’s been keeping wild animals the entire time. When Adalyn made her routine delivery of raw meat and water to her sister’s door, she hears guttural noises that vibrate through her very bones and made every little hair stand on end giving her a fright, if any other person were in her shoes they would quake in their boots. She musters just enough courage to knock on the door.

“N-Nel, mom’s been worried sick about you, she thinks you’ve been keeping a couple of wild animals in your room. Is it true?” Adalyn asked her in a brave yet with a touch of fear in her voice.

She slides a note under the door, but it speckled with same horrendous liquid on the paper simply saying: it’s complicated, then another beastly growl erupts behind her door.

“What do you mean ‘it’s complicated’? I can clearly hear animal noises coming from your room, I’m not deaf! Either you give me answers or I’ll call dad to tear your door off its hinges,” Adalyn threatens.

Another note appears saying: Alright, just give me four days, then I’ll tell you everything. I swear.

She sighs, “Fine. But if you don’t have a good answer by then, I’m getting dad,”

For two nights there was nothing but peaceful silence: no animalistic noises, no scratching, no screaming, nor were there strange languages was ever uttered. Nothing but sweet tranquil silence, the first time in a long time. The next morning they found no footprints painting the house, despite the oily fluid still leaking out from behind her door, which they gave up cleaning up. But another strange happening threw the family off by surprise, when she made her daily round of food to Nellie’s room, a note already appeared on the floor saying she’s not hungry and cancelled her food drop-off from now on. Adalyn was confused by the unusual request, at a loss for words and didn’t know what to do she carries out her sister’s wishes, all the while wondering if she was too harsh with her threat earlier. On the fourth night, the quiet respite was broken.

“NOOO!” screams the inhuman voice, as it carries throughout the house, followed by smashing then slam on the door.

Adalyn wakes up with a fright and her heart pounding out of her chest, pumping her whole body with adrenaline, she sprints out of bed and across the bathroom. She finds the once clean room decorated with shattered reflective glass, and the mirror itself was nothing but a distorted spider web on a wall. Adalyn starts to hear pained moans from behind Nellie’s room. She shallows her fear and pushes forward with the door surprisingly unlocked. What she found in that room will forever brand her brain until her dying days.

Immediately the smell assaults Adalyn’s nostrils, and having no choice but to pinch her nose to lessen its pungent impact, yet she can still taste the noxious odor in her mouth. Her sight is met by the same greasy fluid on the floor and pooling in middle of the room is the giant horrible monster from the news in a crouching position, its back facing towards her and a majority of its body was draped in long black hair while the rest has short dark feline-like hair. She was at awe and terror to see the size of the creature in person, it was so massive that if it chooses could snap her body like twig and be done with her, but she had to snap herself back to the current situation. She thinks that maybe her sister hid from it, so she sneaks quietly through the oily floor, her skin crawl with each step. Adalyn got good look at this disgusting creature with its alligator-like head with two sharp teeth sticking out and horns sticking out of its nose, but it’s eyes were blocked by hands. She couldn’t find her sister anywhere and fears the worst, but she still clings to the possibility that Nellie might be alive.

Soon her bare foot stepped on something small and painful, she screams in pain and picks the nuisance off with her whole hand. She opens her hand containing source of her ire among and discovers the rough piece to be a human tooth with a metal filling, her sweat ran cold as the horrible implication ran through her mind at a hundred miles. Until her mind freezes to realize what she just did and turns around to see that accursed creature staring right at her, but beast wells up and gasps instead of attacking her. At that moment, Adalyn immediately recognize what this creature was or rather who it use to be out of its grotesque visage, noticing her sister’s signature light brown and blue iries.

“N-N-Nel?” she looks on in deep shock, not being sure how to process her sister’s new body.

At the sight of seeing her sister and knowing her new revolting appearance, Nellie breaks into tears and yells out in her inhuman voice “I’M SORRY,” before jumping through the window and into the rain filled night.

Her knees falls to the floor as she tries to process the scene that unfolded before her, fists pounding on the ground in a mix of sadness and frustration. When the parents got to Nellie’s ruined room, Adalyn told them that the monster from the news took her away and wasn’t able to stop it, lying to them about the tragedy she just witnessed.

The parents reported this claim to the authorities, but it was all in vain as they could never find their little girl within a 48-hour period, even if they meticulously combed the entire state and looked every nook and cranny. But they never found her. Eventually her case turned cold and the police reported her as deceased, informing the family of this unfortunate news. Her parents weep at the loss of their precious daughter, while Adalyn clutched her heart in pain from the burden she has to carry, knowing her parents wouldn’t’ handle the truth. The former room was cleaned of all vile mess and the window replaced, but didn’t discard her belongings and instead took little mementos connected to her. Adalyn took her sister’s books (diseases, biogenetics, anthropology, ancestry, and even the occult) and diary entries she spotted at the night of the event from under her bed, as much as her curiosity urged her to uncover the truth of her sister’s unsightly appearance.

Adalyn cracks open her diary to just skim through some of the pages, nothing more nothing less. The diary explains a certain gene that’s been dormant in their family bloodline for generations and seems to be triggered by either age or a specific type of chemical in the body, but it doesn’t say which one. The creature doesn’t seems to have come from Earth but it existed before the first humans walked the Earth, and at some point a human made contact with it and started this line. One of the pages suspects that there might be more like her. There’s no way to stop this gene as it’s inescapable, and will continue to live on until the last human perish.

But before Adalyn’s curiosity could urge her on, she gets a sharp splitting headache and she shuts the diary. She frantically hides the books in her trunk and could hear her heart beat rapidly, as she wasn’t ready to dive into the point of no return.

Someday she’ll fully read what her sister went through when the time comes, but it’s not going to be pretty and life will never be the same. For now she’ll continue living this blissfully lie, thinking that she’ll return home someday and maybe even help her, even if she knows it’s a fool’s wish. She hopes she doesn’t become. Wherever she is, Adalyn hopes the endless tragedy would end for Nellie Wales.