By Mason Finamore
The air was suffocating in the dark room. It was dead silent as nobody dared to make a sound. Shane was in the doorway with a giant, pointed rock in his hand. He was a tall, chubby teen, unlike my slender build. His black hair vanished perfectly in the darkness. His dark brown eyes were the only things illuminated in the light of a small crack at the bottom of the door. His dagger was eaten an hour ago. I was crouched under the table with Vanessa, who had a single, dull knife in her hand. Her wide, blue eyes seeming grey in the midst of the darkness, still managed to stand out perfectly to me, and her wavy, brown hair seemed black in the absence of light. I had no weapon to defend myself from a looming threat.
The very faint sound of a snarl hit my ears, alerting everyone of the incoming threat. A shadow moved past the door, and I felt my already light skin becoming much paler and shivers went up my spine. This was going to be the day I died; the day my friends and I die at the hands of the same beast that had been stalking us all day. We all were too young to die, us only being in our late teens, and now we found ourselves staring directly into the eyes of death. None of us dared to makes any sudden movements.
The darkness at the bottom of the door moved past, and a heavy tension was automatically removed from the room. I started breathing again, which I hadn’t noticed I stopped. Vanessa turned to me, panic still evident in her eyes, and then turned back to the door. Her face was stone-cold serious, and her whole body trembled every second. Then, as quickly as the tension was lifted away from the room, sheer terror filled it as light flooded the room. The door had been broken through, and the sight before us was nothing short of horrifying.
The creature itself was massive and resembled a lizard. It stood on two feet and had two, razor-sharp looking claws. It had the head and tail of a crocodile. Its eyes were a pale yellow with two small, black orbs for pupils. A long, snake-like tongue hung from the side of its mouth, and a single row of pointed teeth protruded its light-blue gums, eager to take a bite out of the nearest person.
It stood in the doorway for a good minute or two, just sniffing the air. Vanessa and I were both almost completely illuminated. Shane stood beside the doorway, his back completely up against the wall. He held the rock in his hand and raised it to his chest. His eyes were squeezed shut and sweat poured down his forehead. The only sound in the room was the snarls from the creature. Then, slowly, the creature made its way into the room, sniffing the air to find the first victim.
About Mason Finamore
Mason is a 10th-grade student at Lincoln Park Performing Arts Chart School where he is majoring in literary arts. You can follow Mason on Twitter @finnftwinn.