0.9 What lies within

"Tora!"

"For the love of Saturn-Janette! Run!!"

"But I'm -ha ha- tired"

"Then shut your mouth and you'll conserve energy!", Tora yelled exasperatedly.

Tora and Janette rushed down the street in a flurry of messy hair, pajamas and barefooted. They've been running for what felt like hours, when in reality, it wasn't anything more than a couple of minutes.

"Where are we going?!", Janette yelled.

"I don't know", Tora yelled back. The two girls were side to side by now.

"What the hell was that?!"

"I don't know! A monster maybe!"

"Then why the hell was a monster at my house?! Aren't monsters supposed to be only in nightmares?!"

"I don't fucking know Janette!!", Tora shouted frustrated. "When I fucking know and have the answers I'll let you know"

"What am I going to tell my parents?!", she screeched.

"Will you just SHUT THE FUCK UP AND CALM DOWN!! Let's just fucking survive this first then we'll think of something"

The two continued their path to gods know where until they heard complete silence. They stopped to look around and found that they were at the old playground 3 miles from Tora's house.

"Okay. So where near to my place. Let's head there", determined Tora

"Yeah okay but don't you think we should call the police?", suggested Janette

"Yeah and tell them what? That a giant 12 foot monster that could cause a kid to piss themselves, broke into your house, shattered all the glasses, and was chasing us all the way around the neighborhood?!", Tora shouted exasperated.

"Uhm...you have a point", Janette mumbled.

"Ya think?! Anyways, let's just head to my house. We'll figure everything out once where somewhere warm and not freezing our asses off"

"Yeah okay",her friend agreed.

They sped walked the remaining 3 blocks to Tora's house, checking their surroundings every thirty seconds just to be sure nothing was following them.

Once they reached her sidewalk, they all but ran into the house slamming the door shut and bolting it with all 5 locks. They had never had a need for so many locks before, and she had always thought her mother a little, okay maybe more than a little, paranoid. But she has never been more grateful for her mothers paranoia. For once it made her feel safe.

Or maybe that was the many locks?

It didn't matter though. Now she was inside her house, a safe zone, not in imminent danger, and she can think clearly for five seconds without worrying about getting her head smashed into the ground.

"Hey Tora, where's your mom?", the overly annoying teen asked.

"I don't know. She said she wasn't going out today. Maybe her bedroom?", Tora replied uncertain. "Let's look for her".

"Okay"

They went up the stairs to her mother's bedroom, but upon arrival, noticed that the door was ajar and she wasn't anywhere inside.

"Maybe the Monster got her", her paranoid friend whispered.

"I don't think so. I mean, it was chasing us, how could it have beat us here?"

"I don't know, maybe it could have some monster type of superpower", Janette responded wide-eyed.

Tora full out guffawed. "Janette darling, like seriously, you need to lay off the cartoons and horror movies. No milk before bed", she teased. " C'mon. Let's go check the basement. Mom likes it down there for some reason".

Janette mumbled some incoherent words and followed Tora to the kitchen so they could go down to the basement. Once there they saw the kitchen in a complete mess. Broken crockery, scattered silverware, pots and pans, turned over stools, and a red liquid trail the seemed to be either a whole lotta ketchup, or-

"blood", Janette whispered.

"What are you talking about?", Tora asked the girl, confused.

"Don't you see that Tora? That's blood!!", she yelled.

"Oh that. Yeah I see. It could be that. Or it could be that tub of ketchup mom spilled on the floor again. She does it quite a lot", Tora reasoned.

"Yea so your telling me that your mom, spilled ketchup on the floor and dragged it all over?!", she started to shout.

"Well obviou-" Tora began yo respond when she was cut off by Janette.

"Are you blind!? That's blood Tora!! BLOOD!! Blood for Christ's sake! We need to get the police, we can't do this. We're teenage kids not one's in spy movies or shit like that. This is beyond our level of intelligence. Its clear that monster came here, grab your mom and murdered her!! We cant stay here any longer! We have to go to Tora. We have to go NOW!!"

"What's all the screaming about"

Came a soft, gentle voice at the top of the basement stairs. The girls jumped startled, and turned around to see Tora's mother right there at the basement door, staring right back at them, still, breathing and very much alive.

"Hey mom"

"Hello dear", her mother respond.

"Miss Rochelle? You are-but you-I saw-I don't -Tora?"

"Uhm Tora dear, what's wrong with your friend? She looks as if she's seen a monster?", Tora's mother asked perturbed.

"Well you could say that", her daughter mumbled.

"Explain"

"Well you see, I don't know if your gonna believe me but here's how it goes", Tora explained she took a deep breath and told her mother all that had happened to them upon til this point in one swift breath that the other two were worried she was gonna die of de-oxygenation.

"...so we came here and that's it", she finished.

"I see. Are you girls sure you weren't dreaming?", her mother asked sceptically.

"I knew she wasn't going to believe us!", Tora exclaimed.

"So what do we do now?", her friend asked solemnly.

"No no girls it's not that I don't believe you", Tora's mother began to explain.

"Its not?!" Both girls questioned simultaneously.

"No. Its just I wanted to make sure you weren't dreaming and confused yourselves that's all"

"Oh", they said again.

"Well we weren't dreaming", Tora began. "1, it was real. And 2, how can both of us dream the same thing?"

"You have a point", her mother acknowledged. " Alright then".

Both girls turned to look at each other perplexed.

"Mother-"

"Come with me girls", her mother said, turning and heading towards the basement.

"What?", Janette asked confused.

"I don't know. Let's just follow her and see", Tora responded.

"Okay. Alright. Let's go"

Both girls hurried and catch up to Tora's mother, heading down to the basement. Once at the stairs, the door slammed shut, startling both girls causing them to freak out. After continuous reassurance from her mother, they continued on their way down, to the last step; then to the basement floor.

The room was eerily quiet and all you could hear was really heavy breathing.

"Uh, mom? We kinda can't see here. At all"

"Oh yes. Forgive me girls I forgot", her mother replied.

"She forgot?!", whisper-yelled her friend. "What does she mean she forgo-"

A blinding light seeped through the room, cutting Janette off from her over exuberant sentence to cover her eyes. After the girls took some time to adjust to the light, they looked around the room and froze in their tracks. The room was splattered all over with red. Startling red of all different shades. Some looked very old, to the point of ashen colored redness, and some were such a bright colored shade of red, that it looked fresh. Really really fresh.

And in the middle of the room, chained by its hands, was a body. It was so badly mutilated that it was unrecognisable. The scars, slashes and missing body parts the only thing noticeable. The girls, even in their partially frozen state, began to inch back towards the stairs. But as their about to reach that first step, they heard a low screeching sound. The distinct sound of broken bones, echoing loudly in the room, almost overpowering.

They slowly turned their head towards the sound. Just in time to see Tora's mother's body bending and twisting and turning in ways the human body shouldn't. The low screeching sound being her bones grinding together. Her skin peeling off her body leaving a trail of bright lime green liquid behind. The scene was so gruesome and disgusting, causing Janette to vomit all over the basement floor.

"no. no no NO! THIS CANT BE HAPPENING!! NOT AGAIN!", Tora began to scream.

She rushed up the stairs, screaming and pounding on the door. Janette began to panic, shouting and yelling for help, tears falling down her face. The creature began to make its way across the room. Dragging its body as it goes along, scraping on the concrete floor. Janette, in her panicked state, started to run up the steps but her foot caught between two of the stairs and she twisted her ankle, falling down.

"Tora sweetheart, come to mother"

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Nuttyweird and @killstreak says: sometimes the monsters that we should fear, aren't the ones in the fairytales but the ones closest to you