1 The Demons We Create

Carter johnson winced in pain as the chain around his ankles cut him.

Plop…

A drop of tear.

The tears rolled out of his eyes like snow in an avalanche. The farther he tried to control it, the more he cried.

He cried for sometime in the pitch darkness.

The room was like darkness itself.

Carter thought that he had gone blind.

He was a broken man.

He was trying to remember something…

Yes! That was it!

"Sarah!" he said. His lips were broken. And dry.

"Vohrah!" he remembered. His son.

Carter struggled against the chains and tried to get up. Blood rushed to his legs and he felt faint.

Momentarily.

He was a broken man.

"Why?" he asked himself. "Why would they do this to me?"

Another torrent of tears and he fell to the floor, the chains taut against his thin, long limbs.

The darkness became light itself and the it confused him. The light, it seemed to him, had become a thing of the dark.

The last strength went out of Carter's body and the darkness swallowed him.

It swallowed him whole.

Blurry visions of his family comes before his eyes. And he remembers.

He remembers.

********************************************************************

Carter had been sitting at his favorite restaurant that night.

The place was full of a varity of people and no one seemed to mind the scientist sitting in a lonely corner.

Carter was the kind of man who dissappeared anywhere easily. And eagerly.

You could paint him yellow and make him run in busy streets, but he would still not attract much attention.

"Here you go, Sir," a waiter said to Carter. "Eat it while it is still hot!"

It was fried chicken and peas.

Carter inhaled the hot smell and proceded to devour it. Decently.

He had eaten every morsel of the amazing food and was about to get up when someone put a hand on his shoulder.

The hand felt artificial. A lot of harndness and very less flesh.

He looked up.

The hand had been placed there by a giant who was completely covered in all sorts of clothing. Carter could smell a faint presence of alcohol from him.

The night grew very cold for a minute, the crowd looked unnatural and Carter's heart skipped a beat. For a second.

There was something bad about to happen.

The man in the clothes motioned Carter to follow him.

Carter did.

He was led by the big stranger through the crowd and out into the parking space.

Carter felt like he was in a dream.

He also felt important in a wierd sort of a way.

The stranger had a feel of power and authority around him.

They stopped walking.

The stranger leaned in, down to Carter's height.

"I need the key." he said. "Do you know where it is?"

Carter blinked his eyes.

"The key?" he said.

Suddenly, a man came running from the hotel. It was Carter's regular food server, Shiva.

"Mr. Carter!" he said. "You did not pay your bill, sir."

Carter rummaged around his pockets and gave Shiva a 50 buck note.

"I will get the remainder afterwards."

Shiva turned to go, but he saw Carter shaking with fear and saw the giant standing nearby.

"Sir," said Shiva. "You want me to call the police?"

The giant grunted.

"No, Shiva," said Carter. "I am alright."

"I insist, Sir," said Shiva, persisting. "Is he bothering you?"

Shiva looked at the stranger angrily. He then looked at Carter and then things went out of control.

Suddenly, the stranger started to shake with anger. He punched a nearby car and made a hole in its door.

The car alarm kicked in and deafened Carter.

He picked Carter up began to run, away from the hotel.

The giant was amazingly fast and his speed and strength rattled Carters bones.

But then…

He SAW the bullet hit the stranger more than he heard it. It sliced through one of his legs and Carter saw no blood.

A burst of bullets went through his chest, and arms. Carter was dropped to the ground.

He rolled twice…thrice… until he came to rest on the pavement.

There was no sound of sirens. Merely the noise of bullets and bullet holes.

The stranger rolled past him.

The clothes that had covered him were now lying on the road.

The stranger was crawling. Slowly.

His body was exposed and Carter could see a faint neonic glow from the inside.

Carter shivered.

The thing was no human at all!

It had pieces of flesh stuck to it's metallic body, but that was all.

Carter heard the thing say something.

"ey…" it said.

It turned and looked at Carter.

"The keyyyy!!" It screamed.

Carter closed his eyes.

When he opened them, all he could see was darkness.