A loud crash echoed around me, causing me to jolt awake from where I lay in my bed and bash my head into the wall. I groaned, cradling my head as I groggily got to my feet, wobbling a few times before I found my balance. My ears were still ringing from the loud noise as my squinty eyes scanned the room for the source of the sound. But still, all I was met with was the same dirty room with clothes strewn over every surface and my crumpled homework on the floor that's probably due tomorrow. I sighed, cursing my horrible luck as I stumbled to the doorway of my room.

"Cecilia!" My voice echoed down the hall but no response met it.

Starting to get annoyed, I quickly put my slippers on and hurried down to her room. My silhouette nearly stretched to the other side of her bedroom as I stood in the doorway. But she wasn't there. She wasn't anywhere, the covers of her bed tossed back carelessly. I felt a cold breeze brush my shin and shivered, looking to the other end of her room where the icy wind was coming from. I felt my jaw drop as I saw the one thing I never expected to see, never expected to happen. Every second I looked at it felt like another stab in my heart as tears slipped down my cheeks, dripping to the floor in a rhythmic sound. But I couldn't stop them from pouring, I couldn't even stop looking at the broken glass and blood stewn over the floor, and the broken window that let the cold night air sweep into the house. But I wasn't thinking of any of that at the moment. Even Cecilia was only a tiny thought in my mind. Because the only thing I could think about was that thing. That . . . creature.

⬰◈⇴

"I'm sorry, but we can't help you."

I stared at the officer like he was crazy, though to be fair he had been giving me the same look before.

"What do you mean you can't help me?" I burst out. "Isn't that your fucking job?!"

The officer sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Yes, but we can't go off any of the information you provided us. Telling us that you saw a magical creature that killed your sister is simply proving the fact that you were going through a lot of trauma and fright in that moment which caused you to hallucinate. It happens to everyone, but you need to know and accept that it isn't true."

I got up from my chair angrily and stormed out of the police station. He didn't have any right to say that, he didn't know what I'd seen. But I did. And I'd been seeing it again every time I went to sleep this past week. Every dream I had it seemed to come and haunt, taunting me and just bringing back those dreaded memories. The memories of that night. I still remember the first time I looked it in the eyes, those eyes that weren't from this planet. Those eyes that were . . . magical. But not in a good way like all of those fairy tales. Its eyes literally burned on fire, but somehow it didn't burn as well. I can't believe that all I did was stand there as it turned the door of Cecilia's room to ashes simply by looking at it. The way its grey fur glowed in the dark of night, unnaturally so. The only thing that might have made it look a bit like a human was the way it stood on two legs and had another two where arms would be, just like a werewolf. But no matter how descriptive I was while telling people about it, no matter how much I tried to convince them that it was real, no one would believe me.

"Hey, do you need help getting home? It's pretty late for young kids like you to be roaming the streets."

I whirled around to face an elderly man that looked no younger than eighty. "Why do you want to know?" I asked suspiciously.

The way he held my stare caused a shiver to run down my spine. "Why do you want to know?" I repeated.

"Because I heard what you were saying." He whispered. "About the creature at night."

I looked away and kicked the pavement with my shoe. "None of that matter, it was just a hallucination."

His eyes narrowed as he looked at me. "But that's not what you think is it?"

"It doesn't matter." I told the man as I glared at him and turned to leave.

"What if I told you that I saw it as well?"

That stopped me in my tracks. "You . . . saw it?"

The elderly man looked around him before leaning in close to me to whisper, "It took my mother, but no one else saw its face. No one else, until you have now."

I swallowed down the sour taste that had taken over my mouth. "It took my sister."

Our gaze locked and for the first time since that night I felt like someone finally understood me, understood that I had seen something.

"What are we going to do?" I whispered.

The man narrowed his eyes once again as he studied me. "All magic can be defeated," He promised. "You just have to figure out how."

But as I looked into the night I felt a sense of foreboding. Did I really want to defeat it? I mean, obviously it had killed my sister but there was just something about it, something that made me never want to see its face again . . .

An agonised scream cut like a knife through my thoughts and as I looked sideways, I felt dread fill my soul. Because a pile of ashes lay next to me, right where the man had just stood.

It was back.

[Word Count: 1,000]