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Our third place middle school entry was written by Jenny Jihye Yoon, a eighth grader attending Beverly Vista School in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California. |
I look around to see the large mass of white fur flashing against the light of the streetlights. I could not focus, as screams echoed into my ears and nearly tore my head apart. They were coming from every direction, those fast calls for help, shooting at me like poisoned arrows. Well… I’m not really sure how I ended up here, or why I was chosen by that demon. I didn’t know it was a demon back then. I thought it was a gift from the heavens… then everything took a turn for the worse.
Let’s rewind a few months back, to that chilling autumn afternoon. I’m not—how should I say this—normal. Well, at least to the others. I preferred to be left alone, to my own devices. I was always the black sheep, the odd one out. They came to taunt me and to jeer me; their voices still cry inside my mind, cutting through my thoughts like a dagger. Other boys laughed and hooted, and were the most vicious in their attacks.
I walked along Main Street, the cold wind slicing through even my thickest jacket, and tried to keep my eyes down. I knew they would come. They always did every day.
“Hey, Eric!” A rough voice calls out my name.
I look back and see a rugged, tall boy, his shoulders hunched forward and his eyes glinting with amusement. He had a fierce tone of voice that hinted that nothing was good enough for him. He even directed his arrogant voice to others who he cared for. “You little brat, how about a beating today?”
I turned my head. Inside, I was trembling and nearly falling in fear. But I kept steady on the outside. “No thanks, James.”
James and his clique shambled over to us. People who were walking this way either crossed the street to avoid us or immediately found a deep fascination to their boots or the buildings around. Winds rustled the leaves, and tension crackled through the air, so harsh that it was nearly tangible.
The boy to his right was just about to land a punch when suddenly, a white dog trotted up merrily by my side. It was spontaneous, something that you wouldn’t expect when you were about the get beat up. I admit, I was confused as well, for the dog had a pure white coat and twinkling red eyes that seemed almost a cheerful pink in the light.
The gang backed off, with consternation written clearly upon their faces. I smiled at the dog, and he seemed to grin back. When James tried to carefully approach, his head suddenly snapped to his direction and snarled menacingly. His front paws were outstretched, as if ready to lunge. The dog’s tail, what once seemed like a cuddly plush toy, immediately transformed to a raging whip, lashing back and forth onto the pavement.
Another one stepped up, shaking in fright. He tried to outstretch a hand, but the dog leapt up, and he drew it back just in time. The gaudy pearly fangs snapped upon thin air with a deadly clamping sound. He leapt back down, advancing on the gang, growling and barking like a typhoon that surged on the street. The boys eventually ran off, and I was about to do so also.
But the dog followed me. He was not cruel in his advances. The dog was once more that content little companion, his tail now wagging excitedly. I knelt down and tried to approach, and he rushed up to me and butted his forehead into my arms. I relaxed.
“Hey,” I said, softly cooing into his ear, “Thank you for that. You saved me today. Hm, what should I name you?”
The dog titled his head, his crimson eyes shining. “How about Snowflake?”
A whimper.
“No? How about Cottonball?”
Another whimper.
I racked my brains. Hm, he sure was white… pure white, like…
“How about Bones?”
He shouted a bark of approval as he danced around in circles.
From that day on Bones was my only companion for weeks. He would come up when I was crying on the porch steps, magically seeming to come out of thin air to nuzzle against me and comfort me. He would walk me to and from school, growling at anyone that got near. Bones would patiently sit at my heels when I was reading aloud to him my favorite book. He was the perfect pet.
But a few more days after that, I had approached Bones with a hand behind my back. “Hey buddy!” I cried, and hugged him with my free hand. “Guess what? My parent agreed to let me take you in the house.”
He barked merrily, his tail waving to and fro so fiercely that it looked like it might come off. “But… see, you’re still a stray dog as long as you don’t have a collar on. So, here!” I took out my hand, and clenched in it was a brown collar, with a small tag on it.
He cocked his head, curious about the idea. “Here, Bones, you put it on like this…” I began to murmur, bringing the collar close to his neck.
Suddenly, there was a flash of dark, brutal red in his eyes. In an instant, he drew back, snarling and yipping. I was confused. I tried to go to him and put the collar around his neck, but he simply refused again, nearly biting my hand.
“Okay, okay! I won’t bring you in. You can just be with me outside the house. Is that good enough?” I began to get exasperated.
Bones trotted towards me cautiously, and after I had flung the collar into the bushes to my right, he commended to walk by my side all the way home.
He behaved a little erratically after that incident. Bones wouldn’t let anybody close, even my parents or my sister. He completely obsessed over me, and if so much as a leaf touched my foot, he would pounce upon it and tear it to shreds.
Also, his eyes and his white fur seemed to appear everywhere. I was staring off into the windows in science one day, and I would bet on my life that the scarlet eyes that seemed to peer into me were the ones of Bones’s.
I was comforted, at first, to know that he was constantly watching over me, but his mania became cumbersome for me and eventually it started to bring chills down my spine when I saw the flash of white fur. I became paranoid in a short period of time, seeing the colorless pelt and the blood red eyes every time my head turned to another side. I couldn’t escape it.
Nobody was bothering me anymore. With Bones by my side, I had risen up a few ranks among the popularity hierarchy, and they left me alone. James and his group picked on another kid, a freshman who was a transfer from Russia or something.
Finally, I had to tell Bones. Needless to say, the news wasn’t taken well. He growled, nearly pounced on me, and then restrained himself. He seemed to understand the human tongue—that was the peculiar part of it. He finally walked away, his eyes a mixture of sorrow and anger.
Two months went by fine, with Bones nowhere in sight and the bullies keeping to themselves. I was at peace most of the time, but once in a while, in the dark hours of the night, a cold feeling would overtake me, as if slabs of ice were sliding down my back. Something was wrong, but I refused to connect it with Bones.
It was a cool Wednesday night, and I was walking home late because of the Math Olympiad meeting that was held afterschool. It was sunset, and I smiled, observing the golden colors of the dusk, my mind completely empty.
It was only after that I had learned that the new Russian transfer kid left to Europe again, and the gang was restless without anything to do. They have watched me go about without Bones by my side, and they assumed it was safe for them to prey on me once more.
The sun had finally set, and the dark was pressing onto me, and with a dread I realized I was still far from home. The streets were completely abandoned, and I rolled over in my thoughts going through a shortcut into the woods. No, I reasoned with myself. It felt unnaturally dim and solemn, and right then and there I felt like the stupid character of a horror movie. Better to take the safer route and walk the streets.
Finally, the gang caught up to me. They didn’t call out to me or said anything, but merely jumped on top of me and started beating me. Punches and kicks were blown from every angle, and I really feared that I would lose my life on that sidewalk, with my yells being unheard and the boys laughing as they proceeded to drain the living force out of me drop by drop.
Pain exploded at everywhere, until I was too numb to feel anything. I finally felt a sensation of dull restfulness, with the black curtains drawing over my vision. Suddenly, there was an outburst of barking and snarling.
Bones had come back! He tackled into the boys, ripping them off of me one by one, and barking up a storm. I managed to stand back up, teetering and leaning against a wall while trying to regain my balance, and watched the scene unfold.
Happiness and pride blossomed in my heart. He was a true loyal dog, coming back to me even if I had the awfulness to leave him like that. But something was wrong. Bones seemed a little bit too much violent today, as he began to bite and scratch at the boys harshly.
“Bones, heel!” I commanded, but he went on, heedless of my order.
The four boys lay panting on the ground, with Bones in the middle. They had accumulated more wounds in a minute than I had gathered in five. The gang rose unsteadily, eyes dilated and brimming with fear. But Bones wouldn’t stop.
So here I am now, watching with terror as my dog transformed into a raging monster before my eyes. The flashes of white fur were stained red as he dances around in their blood, eager and ready for more. He had ripped out the throat of James from the very beginning, and his corpse lay on the road, his eyes dull and vacant of any soul.
They all scream, begging me to help, but I stand paralyzed in fear as he dances around and around on the pools of their life, their entrails making crude drawings on the cement. After the last boy had been thoroughly ripped open and spilled out, Bones’s eyes glares over to me.
Panic shot up through me like adrenaline. I began hobbling away, gaining speed as I went, and try to ignore the stabs of pain that pierces into me every time I took a step. Stumbling, I fall on my back and groan.
Propping painstakingly onto my elbows, I watch Bones run straight at me, but then he did something strange in the middle. He howls and yips, and runs around and around in circles, as if in a vain attempt to catch his tail. Finally, he collapses onto the floor, howling like a wolf. A white wisp rises out of his body, and with a last twitch, the dog lay still on the floor. After a few moments, the dog got up, looking afraid and confused about all the blood around him. Something had changed inside him. His personality, the way he held himself, the way he cringed when he saw the dead corpses… It is not Bones. It is some other dog that… that the spirit had possessed. His coat had morphed to the color of light brown the moment the wisp came out of him. His frightened eyes were black. Whimpering, the dog ran away off into the night.
The white wisp flutters around in the air, until it took a form of a young girl in white robes. Her skin is as pale as the moon, and her hair a matted mess of grayish white. She holds a ragged doll in her right hand, a small baby one that is missing an eye. The doll’s smile is crooked and lopsided, and the one eye seemed to glow yellow with dark thoughts. The girl was facing away from me, as if assessing the gore that was laid before her and proud of her work.
A laugh, a cold, chilling laugh rang through the air. I tried to back away, but as soon as I move back an inch, her head snaps all the way back without her body turning. Her face is half gone from the right side—it is a torn and bloody mess. The dried blood caked around the face is black and crusted over. Her eyes—her eyes! They were sunken pits in her head, black holes that went infinitely deeper. And yet, there was still that reddish, demonic glow about them, radiating from the depth of the abyss.
With a scream like a banshee, she lunges at me, flying off the ground, speeding my way. Her hands were outstretched. The taut skin of her fingers stretched over every joint. The girl’s nails were long and yellowish, and seemed like they were deliberately filed down to points. She screams, and that horrible sound rang across my ears.
She came closer and closer, her spirit slipping through the night air, as if she knew every drift of stray wind. The girl’s hand touches my face, and it slithers straight through, like cold ice was splashed upon my skin. I could see her mouth opening to reveal her canines, and she disappeared into me completely. I fell over backwards, losing my strength in my elbows, and crashed my head onto the sidewalk. Coolness pervades through every inch of my body, and a sedative feeling made my head drunk with the thought of sleepiness. The welcoming hands of darkness envelopes me in its heartless embrace.
***
I wake up next morning with a fever, and look about. I am in my room. Was—was that all merely a nightmare? I sigh, and pull the covers up my head. I could hear my mother yelling at me that I was late for school, and groaning, I finally managed to fall off the bed.
That was one awful dream, I grumble in my head.
I dig through my closet and find a suitable shirt, and my giddiness reached a peak with a relieved laugh. I pull off my shirt and was about to put the new one on to get changed for school, but something from the corner of my eyes catches my glance.
I carefully walk to the mirror, and then flinch at what I see. I am naked from the waist up, and I can see the unnatural gaunt skinniness that had come over me. In fear, I raise my hands to the glass. I put it against my reflection’s fingers and recoil in horror. My breath comes out in jerks, and I can hardly keep from fainting.
My skin is pale white, like a blank sheet of paper, like a patch of freshly fallen snow in wintertime… like a pile of bones. I dare to raise my gaze to my face. They are sunken in at the cheeks, but my eyes are eerily glowing.
My eyes. They are red. Red like the color of blood.
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