Afflicted

Screaming. That’s all I can hear. I can’t see anything, I can’t move, I can’t even think straight, all I can do is play over in my head what led up to this horror. It was all so terrifying.

“Come on!” my sister called cheerfully over her shoulder as she ran down the street “We need as much candy as we can get!”

A smile crossed my face as I watched her pink tutu bounce up and down with her every step, she was so excited to go trick-or-treating. Despite all the creepy costumes I showed her at the Halloween store she still stuck with her ballerina costume. I, on the other hand, chose a zombie outfit and did all the makeup myself which I was quite proud of. We had gone out onto the streets of our suburban neighborhood just as the sun sank below the tall towers of the city in the distance and I had to jog to keep up with my sister. The night continued to wear on and the full moon climbed high into the sky, watching with an indifferent expression.

Eventually I grew tired and checked the time on my phone, stopping momentarily to read the glaring white numbers on the screen- 10:34pm. I shoved the phone in my back pocket and said to my sister “We should head home now, you’ve got enough candy to feed the whole neighborhood.” When I looked up my sister was not at my side, instead she was a few paces ahead of me standing completely still with her back facing me. “Sarah?”

No response.

“Are you okay?”

Her head snapped to the side.

“Sarah?” I asked again.

She began whispering something to herself and she crouched down on the ground, her hands on her face. I scanned the area around us and noticed that many people were in the same situation, parents calling to children, children calling to parents, friends calling to friends, everything was at a standstill. A dripping noise came from my sister and I brought my eyes back to her, watching her wipe at her face. Something was dripping from her but all I could see was a dark puddle forming beneath her crouched figure. In this light the puddle could have been anything and I prayed it was just water but then something fell in the puddle. I squinted to get a good look at the thing and when I saw what it was I stepped back in horror. “An eye,” I whispered in terror “It’s a real eye.”

Sarah stopped wiping at her face, her fingertips curved in at her hairline, and she slowly started to turn around and stand. My eyes were wide with fear as her head of brown hair twisted at an impossibly painful angle and her face came into my sight. I shuddered and struggled to breathe as I stared at her face, the skin was ripped and torn just under the hairline at the top of her forehead like a bloody seam. Her left eye was gone, the one on the ground, and it left behind a black bloody pit next to the right eye that hung loosely by the nerves that tied it to the socket. She started to smile but she could only manage so much of a grin because she had torn apart her cheeks and made her own artificial sneer.

Somebody near us screamed.

With my eyes locked on my sister and my feet glued to the ground I could only stare as Sarah laughed “What’s wrong big sister? Don’t you like it when I smile?”

Her voice was not her voice, it was the scratchy growl of some gruesome creature that was masquerading as my young sister. No six year old sounded like this, not even if they tried. Sarah’s fingers began digging into the seam, her flesh peeling away from the bone “Why don’t I take off this mask? Everyone wears a mask on Halloween.”

Her voice was not her voice, it was the scratchy growl of some gruesome creature that was masquerading as my young sister. No six year old sounded like this, not even if they tried. Sarah’s fingers began digging into the seam, her flesh peeling away from the bone “Why don’t I take off this mask? Everyone wears a mask on Halloween.”

With those words she violently ripped at her face and screamed “WHY AREN’T YOU TRYING TO SAVE ME!? SAVE YOUR LITTLE SISTER! YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THIS MUST HURT!”

I covered my ears and closed my eyes “Stop!” I yelled “Stop it! This isn’t real!”

Something slammed into me and knocked me onto the ground, hands trying to pry my hands from my ears. I opened my eyes as my hands drew back from my ears and I saw my sister leap off of me and ram her head into the asphalt repeatedly. All around there where ear piercing screams and the sound of tearing flesh, blood flowing freely into the street. I saw people running from nothing, people cutting their throats open with knives, and people writhing on the ground in torment.

Then all was quiet. I still witnessed the horror but I could not hear it. It was like watching a film with the sound off but this was reality, this was real! I stood up and looked at the blood on my hands, my heart pounding in my ears the only noise to show itself. All of this had been so sudden so overwhelming I couldn’t-

A deep voice rattled in my head, laughing “Good night.”

I tried to speak but no words came out, I tried to see but my eyes would not open, I tried to feel but I was numb, I tried to listen and all I heard was that god awful screaming. My thoughts raced as I desperately tried to make sense of the situation but I could not. I knew I had to do something but as my eyes snapped open all I saw was a red sky and a vibrant sun being covered by the moon and I knew there was nothing I could do. The darkness proceeded and I ran out of time. I don’t know what’s going on. Where am I? Who am I?