Storyteller at heart

MALLEUS MALEFICARUM By Sanela Ramic Jurich 

“Hey, Natty!” Greeted Lora loudly through an open window of her boyfriend, Neal’s, old Camry, while he honked his horn loudly as his car screeched to a halt right in front of me. Their cheerful moods made me chuckle and forget that they were forty-five minutes late, but my frozen toes reminded me that I was getting upset over that fact.

They offered to give me a ride to school this morning, since my car was in the shop, again. I wasn’t very thrilled about them picking me up, since they tended to be late. However, I had no other choice, but to agree and act grateful.

It was a beautiful October morning; colorful and sunny—a perfect day really, unless you had to stay in the same spot outside for forty-five minutes, getting reminded by the chill in the air and your frozen toes that the fall of the leaves is about to be replaced by the fall of snow very soon. Just the thought of that shook me to the bone.
“Sorry we’re late. Neal had to stop by his father’s shop first.” Said Lora, glancing at Neal and wiggling her eyebrows.

“Okay, what was that about?” I had to ask.

Neal smirked, “Nothing! Lora, sometimes you just talk too much.”

“Oh, come on, Neal! It’s just Natty. She won’t tell, will you Natty?”

“Tell what?” I still had no idea what they were talking about.

Lora chuckled, “We had to stop by Neal’s dad’s shop… his store?” She looked at me like I should be piecing some things together.

I just shrugged thinking how silly she looked.

She sighed, “Neal’s dad’s liquor shop! God, Natty! Really?” She snapped, and then she moved quickly to open up the trunk.

“Oh, my gosh!” I said as I caught a glimpse of what they had in there—rows and rows of all kinds of alcohol bottles. Apparently, Neal had been stealing little by little from his old man and re-selling them at school.

They both laughed at the shocked look on my face.

“Seriously, you didn’t know?” Asked Neal.

I just shook my head side to side.

“Well, in that case, we gotta welcome you to the club. What would you like? The first one’s on the house.”

“Um… we are really late. I think we should go.” I said slowly, making a mental note to talk some sense into Lora later when we were alone.

“Suit yourself,” said Lora, “but don’t mind if I do.”

She was already holding a bottle of some cherry flavored drink, and Neal had a beer.

“Cheers,” they said at the same time and giggled.

“You guys are not gonna drink and drive, are you?” I asked surprised. I knew they were a little free spirited, but I never expected them to be this irresponsible.

“You’re kidding, right?” Neal smirked and gulped his beer as if to mock me.

Lora noticed the look on my face and smiled, “Oh, relax; we’re not getting drunk, I promise. Come on, we should get going.”

I nodded while opening the back door of Neal’s car. I knew I shouldn’t let Neal drive, but I figured it was early in the morning and was sure this was his first drink of the day. He hadn’t looked or smelled drunk and the half a beer he just had wasn’t really going to do much. Even if we got pulled over by the police, I was sure that the alcohol in his system was within legal limits.

I sat in the back quietly, pondering over what to say to Lora to make her see that Neal was not that good of an influence. I was pretending to follow the conversation between them; something about the upcoming dance, when, all of a sudden, Neal’s car twirled and screeched. Lora screamed and Neal said some vulgarity. Everything after that happened really fast; I saw the face of a man getting too close, too fast to our car. I heard a loud thump and then the car just rolled over something hard; something like a speed bump.

“Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!” Shouted Lora.

“Neal, did we just hit that guy?” I asked frantically. “Neal, we have to stop and call for help!”

Neal just kept driving.

“Neal, you have to stop! Just stop! I yelled shaking him from the back.

The car screeched and stopped.

“Get out!” Yelled Neal starring at me. He was sweating vigorously and breathing heavily. I looked at Lora, but she seemed unaware of what was going on. Her face was as pale as a sheet of paper.

Without a second thought, I reached for the door handle. While opening the car door, I fished my cell phone out of my pocket. As I started to run back toward the wounded guy, I dialed 9-1-1.

“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”

“Yes, hi! Someone’s been hit by a car. Please hurry!”

A few feet away from the man, I noticed a young girl, just standing there with her hand over her mouth. She must have witnessed the whole thing and was in shock.

“Hello, miss! Are you still there?” I heard a woman’s voice on the other end of my phone.

I swallowed, “y… yes. I’m still here. We’re on a corner of State and Bookmen. Please hurry.”

“Can you tell me more about what happened?”

“The guy just showed up out of nowhere.” I whispered.

“Were you the one driving?”

“No.”

“Okay, listen to me. Can you see if he’s moving?”

“No. I mean, he’s not moving. He’s dead. Oh, my god! He’s dead!” I wailed.

“Please calm down. Listen to me, this is very important. Can you check if he’s still alive?”

“Oh, god! Can’t you just hurry up and get here already?!” I screamed.

“Is there anyone else there with you?” The lady asked.

“Um, yes. There’s a young girl here, but she looks like she’s in shock or something. She’s just standing here and starring at the guy with her hand over her mouth.”

“Ask her if she saw anything; what kinda car it was that hit him, color, license plate number, anything.”

“So, you’re assuming that it was a hit and run.”

“Wasn’t it?” The woman asked.

“Yea, yea it was. I’m sorry; I’m just a little shaky. Oh, hold on, that girl is moving closer to the guy. Maybe she’s trying to check for pulse.”

I held my breath watching the girl get closer to the guy lying on the street. For the first time now, I noticed that he was wearing a business suit. His briefcase was still clenched in his right hand. There was a dark puddle underneath his head. His blood. There was no way he had survived.

The girl placed two fingers on his neck and turned to look at me. She waved her head side to side letting me know there was no pulse.

As I was about to tell the 9-1-1 operator that it was confirmed he was dead, the guy opened up his eyes.

I smiled a little in relief and surprise, but as I moved closer, I noticed something strange. His eyes were black. My mind whispered, why are his eyes so black?

“Um,” I said to the operator, “he just opened up his eyes, but they look really weird. They are really black.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean blacker than black! The whole eye is black; pupil, iris, and white; all black!” I screamed into the phone.

The girl kneeling by the guy noticed my confusion and probably hearing what I just said. She turned slowly to look at the guy; her hand was still on his neck, when all of a sudden, he sat up. His eyes locked on mine. They were dull black, like charcoal, lifeless, dead, void, and pure evil.

The girl panicked and tried to get up, but faster than she could move; his hand was clutched on hers.

“…Its quite a simple answer actually.” The woman on the other end continued, unaware of what was happening here, “Pupils change size and when the pupil changes size the iris compresses or spreads apart. This has the effect of changing eye color. Certain emotions have the ability to change the pupil size. Thus when you are angry your pupils and iris are either contracting or expanding giving the visual of a changed eye color. The man is obviously in pain and you should tell him not to move. He might have some internal bleeding and not know it. Just tell him to stay put; help is on the way.”

I was breathing heavily now. I didn’t know what to do. My mind was screaming to run, but my feet were anchored in fear.

The girl’s scream shook me to the core. The guy was holding her tightly and chewing on her face. He looked so strong. She was wiggling and trying to escape, but he just sat in the same spot, unaware of her screams and moves.

After a few seconds, the screams died down, the girl stopped moving. The guy, then, turned his black glare toward me.

Run! My mind demanded and I started to flee frantically. After a while, I got so tired, my feet just wouldn’t move any more. I noticed some tall bushes and I decided to hide in them. Ignoring the pain of being scratched and pocked by the branches, I wiggled my way inside the bush.

I didn’t realize I was still holding my phone tightly until I heard the muffled voice of a woman on the other end—the 9-1-1 operator.

“Listen,” I whispered, “the guy just chewed off that girl’s face.” My heart flew into my throat as I remembered the gruesome scene.

“You’re making no sense! This is obviously a prank call. I’m hanging up now!”

“Please, please, listen to me, the guy just chewed off that girl’s face.” I repeated, as the tears flooded my face.

As I said those words slowly, I heard a small noise; like the rustling of the leaves.

Looking around frantically, I noticed a squirrel a few feet away and I exhaled. I listened a little bit longer and came to a conclusion that I was being silly. I ran a long way away from the guy while he was still feasting on that girl. There was no way he could ever find me. And then, I panicked; what if I had imagined the whole thing? There must be something wrong with me; maybe I had aneurysm like that guy on TV who could see things that weren’t really there. As scary as it sounded to have an aneurysm, I decided it was still better than being chased by the guy with coal black, demon eyes who feeds on human flash. Just thinking about it, made me realize how silly it sounded. Of course the 9-1-1 operator didn’t believe me.

Just then, I felt a piercing headache. Something warm crawled down my face as the reality hit. I don’t have aneurysm and I’ve just been caught.

Cold sweat saturated my skin as I realized there was no way out of this one. And as he gnawed on my skull, the recognition hit.

This was the guy I met a while ago who….

Lights out! Sleep tight; don’t let the bed bugs b…

To be continued…


 

© Sanela Ramic Jurich. All rights reserved.