Young Writers Society

Scott Douglas, 198X

Her white rose corsage was raining blood-stained petals onto the weather-worn line of a parking space outside of school gym. Her hair was still in those tight blonde curls—bless that hairspray—but the baby blue bow that held it all together had long since fallen out. Her dress, which was once a lacy blue, was now drenched in dark liquid which highlighted the floral pattern in the lace. I couldn’t quite manage to see the creature that she was grappling with, but it didn’t move like anything that should walk on two legs. The joints swayed back in forth, like it could bend in both directions and then some, as it tried to close the space between its face and the face of Ashburrow’s newly crowned homecoming queen: Alexandria Meadows.

“Scott!” she grunted, pushing the creature to the ground, into a pool of light from the one working streetlamp. The face of our attacker slammed into the ground and for a split second I could make out the fibers of the burlap sack making up its head ripped open to form a mouth blowing black vapor with every raspy breath, and the flannel shirt, sun bleached and stained with still wet red splatter, and the claws pouring out of the sleeves, before Alexandria dragged me off the ground and pulled me into her sprint.

“What the hell—” I yelped.

“I swear to god, Scott!” she huffed, forehead dripping with sweat which clung to her sponge like hair and rippled down through her make-up. “You are fucking useless when you’re in a vision!”

My reaction was visceral, “What?”

“We don’t have time for this!”

My arm jerked out and back into its socket as she whipped us around the corner, and though I could hear it, I thankfully couldn’t feel it. That would make for an unpleasant reality later.

She darted in front of a car, dragging me along with her to leap forward at the last second. There was a loud thunk as the creature, not nearly as lucky, rolled off the top. I glanced back for a second but the creature wasn’t deterred at all, it snapped its joints back into place and resumed its pursuit. We ran into the tree line before the driver could even get out of the car to check the damage.

“What the fu—”

“Scott!” she yelled. “I swear to christ, this is not the time!”

I ducked under low hanging branches, scraped my shins across the brambles of blackberry bushes, and fought my urge to look back as we whipped through the forest towards a barn with barren fields. She barely paused to reach out her arm and grab a pitchfork lying on the wall of the barn and whipped us around to run full force into the creature. Two booted feet kicked out from the body of the creature, smacking me in the nuts, but again, thankfully, no pain. I reeled back and stumbled into the dirt. Alexandria hoisted the creature pierced on her pitchfork above her head, her face momentarily lit up by the dim purple glow of the vapor, and pulled it deep into the barn where I could no longer see her, but a sudden burst of amber light and a gut wrenching final hiss from the scarecrow filled in enough of the details.

When the fire had finally gone out, Alexandria walked out with the slightly burnt husk of the scarecrow’s flannel wrapped around her shoulders which were prickling with goosebumps from the cold October air. She tossed her hair over her shoulder one last time and fell to her knees in front of me.

In that second of calm my train of thought finally slammed to a halt and I sputtered “Can I ask questions now?”

Her laugh was hoarse, “Right, it’s never over is it?”

I squeaked, “I can wait for a better time.”

“No, no,” she slapped a hand on my shoulder, which sent a jolt through my body. “It’s been about ten minutes now, you can’t have that long left. I should give you the most information to work with.”

“Uh…”

She grabbed me by both shoulders now, “You need to find the portal, Scott. Do you understand me?” She shook me once, “You need to find me, Scott, in the present. You need to find me and convince me that this is all real.”

“And if I don’t.”

Her eyes locked onto mine, and in our last moment her lips parted and told me “It’s the end of the world.”