Nightly Creatures (part 5)

Before the car parked in the parking lot, a yellow building was on the horizon. The building contained many floors and fewer windows to look inside the rooms. So it was a giant block against the ground and the sky. That made Bryan’s hairs on end and Mint’s teeth chatter.

The car is parked in front of a building. Bryan helped to open the door for Brittney. Mint was the last to come out of the vehicle. He sensed the building that contained a reptile and death for him. Brittney moved first with excitement. She was ahead of the guys on the sidewalk towards the first floor. Her hand was on the knob.

Mint shouted, “Do not go just yet.”

Brittney swung the door open and got swallowed inside. Bryan screamed her name and ran after her. Mint sighed deeply. “I knew it when I said do not go.” Without fear, he entered his feet first, then got swallowed, and the door closed immediately.

Silence fills in the corridors, something lurking in the shadows. The creature was not near the people. It was chilling in the tunnel for water and food.

Brittney was in room 1. Bryan was in room 2. Mint was in room 3. They were separate from the group earlier. Brittney took out the cell phone and took pictures of the yellow walls and floors. She wanted to keep the new record in history.

Bryan sat on the floor and cried for Brittney. He was next to her room but seemed more interested in crying out loud. Mint heard his cries and ran out of room 3. He was on the path leading to the darkness. He felt the chills climb his spine and thought to hold onto something like metal, but the walls had yellow patterns. “This place is sickening,” he said.

He heard the cries from the right. He knocked on the wall gently. Bryan stopped and asked, “Who is there?”

“Mint!” the familiar voice said.

“Get me out of here!”

“Stay calm.”

Bryan swallowed the stuff in his throat. He wanted to be calm and quiet like Mint. Mint grabbed his collar. Both were in the path. Bryan gasped. Two looked at the dark ahead of themselves. Bryan said, “I need to be in the lit area.”

“Same for me.”

“Oh, we had to find Brittney.”

They paused and heard the cell phone click many times as if taking photos in one place. Mint’s eyes squinted. He went for the room next to Bryan’s. It was solid rock. Mint looked at Bryan for help. Bryan took out a pocket knife and went for a cut in the wall, which sliced the patterns crookedly.

While Bryan did his best to cut the wall open, Mint’s teeth were chattering again. Mint felt so nervous that he looked into the darkness for the reptile. It was nothing for a while. He expected that to come out and time to run for his life.

Bryan called out to Brittney, who took the picture of him in the opening. She said, “You look funny, Bryan.”

“It is not the time to laugh at me,” he said.

Mint tapped his shoulder. “You should hide.”

Bryan was about to turn, and Mint pushed him, so Bryan landed on the floor beside Brittney’s shoes. Mint stood frozen in front of a giant reptile. Its snout sniffed MInt’s new smell. His eyes moved to the eyes of the creature. Their eyes locked for a short while.

The creature reads, “That one looks pretty, who wears a white robe around her torso and a crown on her head. She is the girl that I caught her hands before.”

The claws grabbed Mint’s torso. The creature put him in the room with the bag of books. Mint gasped at those items on the floor. The claws patted his head gently with a smile. Mint avoided its gaze. “He will know that I was a nightly creature at night. No kidding,” he thought.

Then, the creature moved away to the darkness. Mint turned to see where it was going. He found the void around the room. “How the creature moved swiftly without touching the walls? Do not say it was unimaginative!”

He waited till nightfall. With his claws, he can go out and find-- He turned to the bag of books. He put the book from the floor in the bag. “You know what, I will take this as well. I think Buttercup needs it soon.” He put the strap over his shoulder. He looked like a Greek goddess with a bag going to school.

Meanwhile, in room 1, Brittney sat with Bryan, whose hand still holding the pocket knife. He was calm, but he thought Mint was taken by the unknown. He wanted to find him in the Backrooms alone. Brittney reassured him to stay calm and waited for him.

Bryan said, “I doubt it this time.” With that in mind, he stood. His arm extended towards the opening. He was ready to kill who harmed Mint. There was a pause between his standing and the path. Bryan was supposed to lay with Brittney until the coast was clear. If he moved, he would be snatched away and alerted by his sister in seconds.

Brittney took the sign quietly as she pulled his shirt towards her body. He fell as the knife pointed toward her chin. He put it away in his pants. Both heard the rumble from the path. The reptile passed for the entrance, but it came in room 2. It was silent and smelled a guy, who was in there for a short time. “Guy?” it thought. “Who was the guy? Did the girl bring her significant other?”

Then, the creature turned towards room 1. It stared right into the opening and thought. “Do I go in and snatch the girl? The girl smells great. I already kept her. The guy was her significant other. I want to snatch him first.”

Bryan’s thoughts were screaming, “That one is ugly and black. So that one harms Mint. No way!”

The reptile snatched Bryan’s leg. Brittney screamed while Bryan used the knife to cut off the claws. It was hard to cut them in seconds. The reptile swung his body to room 2. It turned, and its tail broke the walls to hurt Bryan on the floor.

Brittney got up and ran to take a picture of the reptile. She was not afraid to send it to social media for help. Many clicks afterward, the tail pushed her cell phone away from her hand. The phone crashed into the floor. The screen is broken. She snatched it quickly and tried to work the phone on.

She looked up as the tail smashed her body flatly. Bryan moved to a safer spot to get the creature’s attention. It moved around, and its claws went straight for his torso. Bryan jumped over its limp and climbed towards its left eye. Without a breath, he put the knife into the eye socket of the creature, which rumbled the Backrooms. Bryan fell and stood to help his sister to get up. “We should find Mint, and we get out of here.”

Then, the creature was asleep for five minutes. They were in the path. Then, they moved toward the darkness. Then, they were in the lit hallways, one for each direction.

Bryan chose the north side. They went further now, two hallways on both left and the right. Bryan chose the right side. After a long puzzling walk, they stopped before the room where Mint was with the bag.

Mint turned to see them through the void. He waved at them. Bryan and Brittney waved. Mint stood and figured to get out of there. “But how?” he asked.

The siblings ran off in another direction and hid in the closest room. The reptile passed them by a hair. Bryan’s heart beat faster, and he was breathing hard. I could not believe I was terrified of this monster who captured Mint! He thought anxiously.

Mint searched for gaps to get out of the room. There was one gap that led to the void. “Death,” he said. He looked up at the reptile’s eyes.

“What did you say, girl?” it asked.

Mint cannot hear its thought process. He looked around and sat on the floor, head down to pretend to look miserable. He even adds his hand over his head. The creature looked away and chased the sound outside of the Backrooms.

Night falls by now. Mint looked at the ceiling for clues. No clues. He stood and teleported to the lit pathway. His hands transformed into claws to scratch the walls and floors to make them less sickening for him. He moved onto the rooms to look for Bryan and Brittney, both were in a small room. So tight they could not breathe well.

They were about to pass out when Mint found them in the room. He led them in the path. Brittney breathed first and stood. Bryan was having trouble breathing. Brittney gave the pill to his mouth. Mint was about to ask how she even got the medication out of nowhere.

Brittney gave her brother the bottled water. Bryan swallowed the pill and water together. Mint thought, “Perfect timing.”

Bryan breathed more, and Brittney embraced him on the floor. Mint heard the thuds behind him. He put the siblings in another room from the scent of the reptile. Mint was on the path that led to it. He said, “Come and get me!”

“What? Are you still a girl?” it asked curiously. “If you are a girl, why you sounded like a man?”

Mint rushed to scratch its snout. The creature was shocked. He then scratched its back deeply. Now, he landed right behind its tail. The creature was too astonished that a thought came to mind slowly, “I thought she was a girl in a dress.”

The creature faced him. Mint moved out of the way before the tail slammed him. Mint was at the other end of the path to scratch the scales. The tail pushed him and Mint’s back was on the wall. The creature sniffed his torso and found his claws attached to his arms. “Nightly creature! You did not look like a girl. Where is the girl?” its thought screamed.

Mint found its left eye had a knife in there. Despite this, he said, “You are dumber than you think. You scared so many nightly creatures at one time. You are… not me. You are still in darkness without the light. You seek something to catch and put it far away that I cannot reach. You better be smarter than this.” He showed the creature the bag of books. He jumped down and ran to the other side. The creature chased after him.

He found the nearest room and hid there. The creature passed quickly. Mint came out and ran to the other side. He found the room, where the siblings were. Mint said, “Run!”

Bryan turned and followed Brittney and Mint out of the room. Trio was in room 1. Mint took the hands of Bryan and Brittney to their house. He warned them before leaving, “Stay safe.”

Brittney looked at him. “You are leaving! You can stay here.”

Mint said, “I need to go now.”

They waved their goodbyes. Mint left without a trace. He paused at the block, the police were investigating the house where the lady and her baby Cream lived, and even the dog passed away. He quickly sprinted out of Safe Haven. He wondered where the truck went.

Without wasting time, he vanished with the bag of books to the trees. He jumped from tree to tree to avoid the people and the creature. He had to be in the house, where his father was.

In the Backrooms, the creature’s left eye was in pain with the knife, while the right eye was in good condition. It stood slowly and wondered where the nightly creature went. He was gone with the rest of the people. It went back to the room, where the bag and books disappeared. It rumbled the corridors and Safe Haven.

“Oh, no,” Bryan hugged Brittney. “It is still alive. I should have cut the meat.”

“Calm down, Bryan. We are fine,” Brittney said.

The dog owner wondered what is the noise, “It is maybe a killer,” he thought. The ground ripped open, so the reptile appeared to sniff and find its enemy. Before it could do that, it stopped at the house, where the dog owner spoke to the corpse of his dog.

The creature ate it as the owner looked suspicious. “Hey, you!”

Then, it turned to eat him as well. The town felt scared and ran off in different directions, except for Brittney and Bryan. The gardener knocked on their door and shouted, “The big one is coming. You should run!”

Bryan looked shocked, “We have to run.”

The gardener escaped while the siblings were astonished at the creature’s size across from the block. Bryan’s car was parked in front of the Backrooms, and he knew no time to get there. He held hands with Brittney to leave Safe Haven. Brittney said, “We should follow Mint.”

“We can try.”

Before Mint stepped on the town, he paused and sniffed. He turned to the siblings, who ran after him. Mint asked, “I say--”

Brittney explained, “The big is on the loose. People are scared of that.”

Mint led the siblings to the town and the house. He waited for the morning comes. His claws disappeared, and he knocked on the door. His father opened it for him. His face had so many band-aids. His father said, “Not wanting to talk about it for now. Son, you are back.”

“I am back with more people.”

“Oh?” His father glanced at them. “You can come in.”

The siblings sat by the dining table. His father gave them juice in the glasses. Mint stood by the door and said, “The big creature is on the loose, dad.”

“Not a good sign for Hooker.”

“Where is Hooker by any chance?”

The house was silent. Then, the electric lamp fell onto the floor. His father grunted, “The creature is scaring us all.”

Mint went to the back of the house to find Hooker and me talking about his father. Hooker said, “I must watch over him and get punished.”

“Mint will be angry once he gets home and hurts you.”

Mint stood there until I noticed him in the doorway. I looked daze, and Hooker turned his head. “Mint?”

Mint just looked at me in silence. Then, he looked at Hooker. He looked away as Hooker grabbed his arm, which made the boy turn and shout in his face, “You hurt my father.”

“The male children did to him due to their loss of their mother and daughter.”

“You did not prevent them.” Mint went away. Hooker walked after him to the table. I was behind him.

Hooker explained in more depth to MInt, who ignored him. I stopped Hooker so Mint has space. His father waited for his son by the door, and both went outside to talk. We stood by the wall in silence.

Mint said, “You should have stayed with me in Safe Haven.”

“I thought you would have a vacation there away from the boring life of being a nightly creature.”

“It did not stop there. It continued to grow in me at night, in the Backrooms. I was there to help Brittney and Bryan out of the trap.”

His father tapped his shoulder. “You did great. But I was hurt by the male children, who were told by Hooker to just hurt my face because I let you run away from our town. I tried to hide the truth. But male children just wanted me so badly injured or dead.”

Mint formed his fist, “That’s it. I am going in and kill them!”

His father said, “It is daylight, son.”

Mint realized this when he saw the grass shaded by trees around the yard. It was daytime. “I wish it is nighttime.”

At the table, Brittney and Bryan found us by the doorway. Bryan whispered about wanting to talk to me about what was going on between Mint and his father. Brittney said, “Sure, why not?”

Bryan approached me. He asked, “I cannot stop thinking about Mint and his father. Are they fine?”

I said, “Hopefully, they are fine.”

Hooker got a little discomfort from Bryan’s atmosphere. Hooker snarled at him to get away from me. Bryan looked at him and said, “Sorry to interrupt. We are not from here. We are from the town of Safe Haven. My sister Brittney and I were running from something big.”

I said, “The reptile?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said.

I sighed, “I had to deal with it soon.”

“How soon?”

Hooker grabbed his collar and snarled, “Get away from my marked.”

Brittney saw it and prevented these men with her hands in between them. “Do not fight. We just got back from the town, and we want to rest.”

“She is right,” Bryan agreed.

Hooker said, “Get out of my sight!”

The siblings sat by the table and drank their juices quietly. It reminded me of Bubbles, Mint’s sister, and my friend. I wanted to talk to them about my friendship with Bubbles, but Hooker grabbed my hand. He said, “Do not go there. You have business with the reptile.”