"Dinner time!" my mom called from the dining room. I turned on my phone camera and flipped it, so it acted like a mirror. I checked my appearance, making sure everything was 'normal' before I left the room. In the dining room, the plates were already all set out, and I noticed that I had to sit next to Scarlet.

On my plate sat a pile of corn, Mexican rice and a bean burrito, nothing special. Probably a half-ass meal my sister put together.

"I made it for you guys, " Scarlet said. Called it. I stubbornly sat down next to her.

"Thanks." I said,ungratefully, picking up the fork to play with the pile of rice. Mom scowled at me, which sent the message to apologize or die. "Sorry," I muttered. "Long day."

"You had a long day?" she said in disbelief. God, she would never know. "I had to drop off Jay just now, and now, I have to hurry up and eat before I go pick up your dad."

"Where is he?" Scarlet said worriedly. Mom gave me a look that said, don't you dare comment, but I ignored it. 

"Well, if you were still here, you'd know that dad goes out drinking with his buddies every other Thursday." I snapped, shoving a bite of corn in my mouth. Scarlet looked down at her food in shame, and though I was proud of it, I felt a tinge of guilt. Mom glared at me, I could feel her eyes boring into my skull. 

It was true, though. Dad would go out drinking with his friends, though he never got wasted, but he was still intoxicated and refused to drive himself home, and his friends were too intoxicated to drive as well, but unlike my dad, they could walk home home. Dad never stayed at their place, insisting that Mom pick him up. That's how it's been for about a year now, and we didn't blame him, his work place stressed the shit out of him, he deserved a drink every now and then. It was nothing depressing, just a routine thing we all dealt with.

"Anyway," Mom interrupted, shooting daggers into the side of my head. "How was your day?"

I looked at Mom from across the table, and I debated telling her what had happened. I figured it'd make things easier to explain if she caught me with different hair, or thought a different child had taken her son's place. However, on the downside, my mom was already stressed enough, especially today, I could tell just by looking at her face that she was exhausted. Pulling this story for her would be another thing on top of that, Mom would definitely think I needed some sort of counseling or attention, and that'd just add another burden on her shoulders. I didn't want to be that way. 

I gulped and answered, "It was okay. I forgot to meet up with Nancy at the pizza place though." Mom went wide-eyed and shook her head, a slow smile tugging at her lips. 

"Nice job. You want to be cremated or buried?" she laughed, and I scowled at her, forcing down the smile that wanted to form. "Is she mad?" 

"She was, but then she got a date with a guy she saw there so..."  I started to play with my food, moving the corn into the taco itself. Scarlet looked at me puzzledly, and I stared into my plate to keep myself from glaring at her. 

"Who's the guy?" Mom asked through her bite of food.

"Max Perkings." I said, my tone hinting my distaste for him. Mom nodded her head gravely. I could hear my sister scoff from her seat, too. Everyone here didn't care for the Perkings.

"Well, he takes after his dad, that's for sure." she added, almost as if she was talking to herself. Mom took a sip of her water and sighed, definitely disappointed.  The awkward silence held in the air, and I had to come up with something to say, my eyebrows furrowed as I searched my mind for a conversation topic. 

"So, Scarlet, why are you back out of the blue?" I asked, startling the two out of their thoughts.

"Oh, I, uh..." she stammered, her eyes darting around the room to avoid looking at me. "I just wanted to see how you guys were holding up. It's been a while, I mean you're in, what? Freshman year?"

"Sophomore."

"Y-Yeah. Either one. I just-"

I got out of my chair and Mom shot me a warning glare. "I'm not all that hungry. I ate at the arcade." Scarlet growled and stood up, pounding her fists on the table.

"You know, Andy? It'd be really nice if you were ever on my side!" I nearly jumped ten feet in the air, scared by her out of character reaction. "If you were in my place, you'd be standing here, right now, wishing for me to accept you!"

I bit back a snarky comment, I could feel both girls boring holes in my skull with their angry stares. One of my eyes started to sting, and I didn't know if it was because of my terrified stare, or because of whatever had happened earlier, but either way, I pressed against the eye with the heel of my palm.

I looked between the two, the air tense and fragile. "Look, I'm just tired. I'm not saying anything." I picked up my plate and the stinging started to die down, but i refused to move my hand- just in case. I strode into the kitchen, setting it on the counter, and Scarlet walked in after me. 

"Andy, stop shrugging this off, we need to talk."

"Ah, so that's why you came."

She fell silent. rubbing her arm anxiously. 

"I know you hate me, but-"

I shook my head lightly. " I don't hate you, Scarlet, you know that. It's just... I'm still not past it, that's all. I never got an explanation as of why you left until, like, a year later. It's kind of hard to get over that. But-" I emphasized the last word, dropping my hand and looking her dead in the eyes. "Don't make it worse for yourself." 

I stomped past her and out of the kitchen when she failed to respond, and headed out into the hallway and into the bathroom to take a shower- though the bathroom seemed to be a new safe haven, no one really wanted to enter while I was in there. 

However, I didn't feel like I was alone in there. 

_______________________

I sat in my room, listening to the soft music on the radio, and the sound of tires crunching against the street as my mom pulled out of the driveway. and sped away- presumably to pick up my dad. I heard my sister enter her old room across the hall, I guessed she was staying about a week, considering how she struggled to carry the luggage. Later on, she was quiet, and I looked at the clock. Maybe she'd fallen asleep. Didn't matter. 

As soon as the noise faded away, I leaped and grabbed the pack I had previously prepared. I let my hair and whatnot fade to black, because on the off chance my parents were to see me on their way home, at least they wouldn't recognize me right away. I crept out of my room and into the hallway, making sure Scarlet was surely asleep, and she was, I could hear her soft snoring from the other side of the door. I walked back into my room, closing the door behind me and crossing the room, opening the window and feeling the cold breeze pierce my skin, goosebumps forming on my arms. I crawled out into the eerie, silent night and took one look back at my house. What if I never made it back? Was this really a good idea? I gulped and drew my hand away, starting to run down the street. The faster I got there, the more time I had before someone realized I was gone.

However, I ran out breath quickly, having to slow down and take a breath here and there, hunching over and leaning on my knees. That's when I saw it. A few houses down, stood a tall figure. I started to walk, as to not look suspicious of anything, a kid running frantically with a pack down a dark street was not the best idea. Although, as I got closer, I noticed that the figure was tearing up someone's lawn. It had been tearing out patches of grass, breaking sprinkler heads, etc. That wasn't what made me freeze up and stop in my tracks, though.

This...thing. It wasn't human. It was more like a creature straight out of a horror movie.

The monster had one mouth in the middle of their face, and it's eyes were randomly placed around it's bald head. One big eye was placed on it's chest, and below that lay a huge mouth on the abdomen, and as it opened, you could see it's bloody, disgusting intestines and internal organs, that spilled out of the open mouth and onto the sidewalk. 

My feet skid against the pavement as I stopped in my tracks, horrified. It twitched its head to the side to look at me with its many eyes, all blinking out of sync with the others. The mouth stretched on the middle of its face smiled devilishly, creating a crescent-like shape through the torn skin.

'Can you see me?' a voice rang in my head, deep and raspy as it echoed and bounced around inside my skull.

"Who doesn't?" I blurt, but cowardly take a step back, regretting my words instantly as the monster laughed. The smile seemed to broader , and the skin tore open even more just to show it's dozens of teeth that lay in rows behind its lips.

"Look, I don't want to mess with you, buddy. I was just leaving." I started to turn back, tugging my phone out of my pocket.
'You're going to call the police, are you? Do it, then.' I stopped at the sound of its voice, the sound of it sending shivers down my spine. Oddly, the voice also seemed to be giving me a headache.

The !monster, upon seeing me stop with hesitation, only choked a laugh, that sounded more like a gurgle, and went back to pulling up the grass and kicking at the sprinklers littered across the lawn.

"Stop it." I growled, and regretted speaking once again as it stopped to squint all of its eyes at me. It released a sigh and stepped towards me, bending its legs in an unnatural way to do so. A sickening rip could be heard as two purple tentacles erupted from it's back, arching threateningly, and I felt my own knees buckle in fear of moving.

'Go away, I'm just having a little bit of fun.'

"There's other ways to have fun," I argued. "You could go to the arcade. Surely, they'll let you do anything out of fear"

The creature grinned at my words before lashing out its tentacles, that wrapped around my torso and lifted me into the air. I thrashed around in it's grip and screamed, trying to catch the attention of anyone inside their houses right now.

'They wouldn't be able to see me you blithering idiot,' it hissed, rolling it's multiple eyes. 'To them it'd look like you're floating in the air like some exorcist child.'

I stopped struggling against it, frozen in disbelief, frustration and fear, as if preparing myself for death. I felt the tentacles tighten up more, the wind knocked out of me, and I shit my eyes, feeling my ribcage struggle against the imminent pain of being crushed. It twisted me left and right, as if inspecting me as I grunted in pain.

'Wait, it's you-' the creature spoke, and the tentacles loosened a bit, allowing me to breathe regularly. 'I fed you to the portal, but...you escaped..."

So, the monster was invisible at the time. This had dragged my backpack out there, and these were what I felt drag me into the portal. That at least made sense so far.

"Y-yeah," I breathed. "What of it?"

'The portal was supposed to devour you. Heh. Wow, this is something.' One of the tentacles dropped, but the other still lifted me up, but instead higher up my torso and around my neck and mouth. I closed my mouth so I wouldn't be able to taste the slime that layered the creature's appendage, and as soon as it noticed, the tentacle moved down the tighten around my neck. Although, the other tentacle rested on my stomach, as if scanning underneath the skin and fabric. Then, a sickening laugh ripped through the air.

'The portal is fused with you. No wonder it won't close. Its still eating you. Wow, this is interesting. I guess that explains why you look mildly different. I was wondering how so many of us had gotten through without the portal closing.'

"The portal is still open? I saw it close."

"The portal goes wherever it wants, but now that its living off of you, it lasts longer than a few hours. It'll be gone once you're dead, once its done devouring you. But in the meantime that means us Nailips are gone be popping up all over town. '

I gritted my teeth and glared at it. "Then kill me and get it over with." I said shakily, but the creature- the Nailip?- dropped me onto the cement with a loud thud. I laid there, waiting for it to kill me, but they only let out a frustrated growl.

'No. Now more than one of us can cross over. I won't wander this dimension alone anymore. Thanks to your life source.'

I got to my feet weakly and chuckled in response. "How long until this kills me and all of you are gone?"

One of the tentacles dragged me over to the Nailip, but as I placed my hand on it and tried to pry it off, it detached itself from the creature's back and evaporated into black mist. Both of our eyes went wide as the black mist latched onto me, sinking into my skin and sensing a cold chill up my spine. The Nailip hissed and drew back in agony.

That's when the people from the house in front of us came outside, a loaded pistol on hand and fear in their eyes as their eyes looked between the monster and me. They shot the monster and it ran off into the night, hissing threateningly at anything that dared to approach. I looked to the residents, my eyes screaming for help, but they only shot at the ground in front of me. I yelped and ran back in the direction of my house, deciding against the trip to the hotel. But the other people started chasing me, bullets whizzing past my ears.

And then, out of nowhere I tripped, and I once again braced myself for death. Wouldn't it be a good thing though? The Nailip had said if I died, there would be no more of those demented beings. But I was a kid. I was to ready to die. Before my body hit the ground, for a split second, everything went black, but then, I came to my senses, and fell to the ground. But it felt...soft.

I gripped at the ground. Carpet. My eyes snapped opened and I looked around. I was back in my room. I shivered and changed back into my normal human form, by as soon as I did, my breath hitched in my throat, and I started gagging and vomiting up my own blood. I took shaky breaths once I was done, staring at the blood on the floor and hoping onto the bed to keep myself steady. This was all so much to process. Did I just teleport? Did I just meet and injure a monster? A Nailip? Was this really going to kill me in the long run? Was it killing me right now? Was me puking up blood a symptom?

I needed to sleep on it. I put on of my blanket's over the blood stain and plopped myself down onto my bed, not even bothering to change out of my blood stained clothes.

And soon enough I drifted off to sleep.