The Creature

by Anna
(Mission Viejo)

Something screamed in a tree right above me. I frowned. Something here just wasn't right. I was walking home from my friend's house that night and had had a sudden sense of deja vu. I realized that I had heard that sound before. The scream began to sound over and over right above me. I closed my eyes. "Please, not again. Not again!" I said to myself, close to tears. This had all happened before, not long ago...

A girl named Holly had walked under this tree a few years back. I was walking on the other side of the street when all of a sudden I heard a scream. I looked over to the opposite corner and gasped. A huge creature jumped down right behind Holly and broke her neck! I started to run to go get help, but when I finally came back, it was too late. Holly was gone.

I walked over to the spot where she lay and looked at her. She looked asleep, except for a big muddy handprint on her right cheek. I bent down to get a closer look, and saw that the print was not human. What was that creature? I picked up Holly and ran with her to the hospital, hoping that somehow she was alive. The doctor just shook his head, and laid a blanket over her.

That night I walked home a different way, crying by the time I got home... "Please, not again. not again!," I cried. I ran as fast as I could, hearing the creature's footsteps behind me. All of a sudden, I tripped. I felt myself falling into something, something cold, hard and bare. I just lay there with my eyes closed, listening to the beating of my heart.

When I finally opened my eyes and looked around, I saw that the creature lay a few feet away from me. The alien was dead.