SAMANTHA GREEN

Breathing in the familiar scent of coffee and burgers, I sit at the table in my best friends diner; Darby's. It's a cute little American-style diner with comfy seats and wooden floors.

Darby sits opposite me, sipping her mug of coffee and looking over at me. Her short, blonde, Marilyn Monroe style hair glows in the suns last rays as it sets just outside the large glass window. The diner is almost empty as usual and the faint sound of music humming from the speakers is one of the only ambient sounds which can be heard.

She takes a deep, sad breath and looks at me from across the table. "I just can't keep doing this, Sam..." she tells me sadly.

I sigh and look down at the mug of coffee as it warms up my cold hands. "If you need money, I can help you out," I suggest, though I already know how my proud best friend is going to respond. I wouldn't know where to get the money anyway. My parents only really left me the huge four bedroom house and not much else when they moved to Dubai. Maybe I could call them and ask for a loan to help her out?

"Honey I can't take money from you. You're struggling enough as it is and besides, money isn't the only problem."

I begin to trace my finger around the rim of my mug and lean my head on my other hand. "What other problems are there?"

"It's just... Oh, sweetie you know I don't like burdening you with my problems... Maybe things will change for the better at some point..."

"Yeah maybe," I respond.

Darby swings her legs around and prepares to stand up. "Want a refill, sugar?" 

I look down at my still full mug of coffee. It's probably cold now but I decide it would be rude to waste it and get more. "No thanks," I say with a small smile. Darby smiles brightly in my direction and walks towards the till. I think she's just looking for something else to do so she doesn't have to talk about her issues. She does this a lot, but I suppose people deal with their problems in different ways.

I quickly finish off my mug of cold coffee and hand Darby a five-pound bill. She looks at me with a raised eyebrow and takes the money. It's a pretty big tip considering the total was only £2.

"I'll see you soon 'kay hun?" Darby yells just as I reach the door.

"I'll message you when I get home," I tell her and then I walk out into the cool air.

The sun is setting overhead and the clouds have been painted thousands of shades of red and orange. A flock of birds fly overhead, a gust of wind blows my way and my hair dances about. I pull my grey coat close to me and lift up the hood which has cat ears on (Darby got me it for Christmas last year- she knows me so well). As I start to walk, the clouds slowly turn from red to rich purple and by the time I reach my (unnecessarily huge) home, it's almost night.

I unlock the door and walk inside, stuffing the key back into my pocket after relocking it and I hang my coat up on the rack. The house feels colder than usual. 

Upon running my hand over the radiator, I discover that the heating isn't turned on. 

I walk over to the utility room and open the door. As soon as it opens, dust dances around in a crazed frenzy and I cough as it enters my lungs. Dust bunnies are scattered about on the floor and I make a mental note to clean this room more often. I could probably count on one hand how many times I've been in this room.

I open the gas cupboard and for a split second, as I close my eyes to blink, I see a face. I jump back, startled. I only caught a glimpse of it when I blinked but the most distinguishable feature was it's glowing red eyes.

I shake myself, thinking that my brain is acting weird because of all the dirt in this room or something. 

When the heating turned on and the house begins to warm up, I walk upstairs into my bedroom and set out on a quest to get into my pyjamas. 

I open up the wardrobe door and I gasp in shock as a man stands there. I fall back onto my butt and look up at the person.

He is tall, has a wavy brown fringe and those deep red eyes stare directly into my soul. I blink hard and when I open up my eyes again, the man is gone. 

My breathing is heavy and my heart is pounding. Surely I'm seeing things? A long day perhaps?

I decide that it'll be best for me to get into my pyjamas and go to sleep. To try and forget everything. I pull off my clothes and strip down into my underwear. There is a pair of short shorts and an oversized shirt hung up and so I grab them and pull the shirt on over my head. 

"Samantha."

I hear a strange mangled voice whisper my name and I spin around on my heels. There is nothing there. I turn back around and prepare to pull on my shorts when I hear it again, this time closer.

"Samantha."

I gulp and try to ignore it. But then I feel hot, deep breaths down my neck and every hair on my body stands up on end. 

I hear a deep, menacing chuckle and I drop my shorts and run. When I make it at the end of the stairs, something makes me stop. Breathing again. Hot, sharp breaths running down my spine. I stifle a scream and run towards my front door, grasping at the handle with desperation. It's locked. Of course, it's locked. My keys are in my coat pocket.

Just run

My sliding glass door which leads to the back garden doesn't need a key to open from the inside. I sprint through the house, once again cursing its size and twist open the latch on the sliding door. I thrust it open and sprint through my garden, not even bothering to close it after me. There is an alley behind my house, maybe I can walk through there and around to the front. I could go to one of my friends and make up some bullsh*t story about the boiler breaking or something.

When I make it to the end of my enormous garden, I stand in front of my gate and risk a glance behind me. The man is standing in the doorway, looking at me. I can now see that a pair of twisted, torn, black wings are protruding from his back.

I push open the gate and as I turn to run, I am met by the man-monster-whatever it is.

I try to scream but before a sound can escape my lips, he raises an arm so fast that it looked like he barely moved at all. 

I feel a pressure around my neck and I can feel all the air slowly leave my lungs like a deflating balloon. I claw at my neck, desperate for air but to no avail. My eyes become heavy and my head becomes light and I find myself struggling for consciousness. 

Just as my vision fades and my bare legs and cold arms become limp, I hear a firm voice.

"Let. Her. Go." 

Through blurry eyes, I saw the creatures head snap to face the voice behind me.

"Phil! Great to see you! It's been a while." The creature says with a menacing smirk.

"She's not yours yet, Dan. You need to go." Phil commands.

Yet? What does that mean?

"Oh but Philly, I'm just having a little fun... You know what fun is right?" Dan takes a step towards this 'Phil' character and I float slowly behind. My eyes close fully and I give up on breathing completely. 

"Let. Her. Go. Now." Phil sounds completely confident and pretty intimidating. 

"Make me." 

I then hear a swift movement followed by a sharp, surprised gasp. Then the sound of crackling flames fills my ears and followed by a sort of 'poof' sound.

I'm then released from the creatures grasp and I fall with a loud thud onto the cold muddy ground. I take in a long, hard breath and savour the taste of fresh air as it fills my lungs. I can't move though. I feel too weak.

'Phil', my hero, walks towards me and scoops me up in his arms like a child. I feel like crying. How could a day as normal as this one go so weirdly wrong and scary?

I open my eyes and see a blurry face looking down at me.

"It's okay. He can't hurt you now." He says softly. "Let's get you home."