Natasha Jean, a former beauty queen, was forced to move to a small and private town of Massachusetts. She became a disgrace after a traumatic event took place in her home town. Natasha moved in with her wealthy aunt Gloria. She didn’t have a place to go and her Aunt was her only hope to start a life and a new high school.

Aunt Gloria sighed with grief as she cooked dinner for them. Natasha sat on the couch staring endlessly at tv. “Sweetheart are you lactose?” “No auntie.” She replied. “Ok good because I’m adding cheese to the pasta.” There was silence in the room. Natasha flipped channels and the news channel was talking about a convicted felon charged with multiple counts of murder. Her hand tightened on the remote as she looked at the man’s mugshot on the screen.

Aunt Gloria looked over at the tv. She walked over to Natasha and grabbed the remote and changed it to Hallmark. “That’s enough of that.”

Late at night Natasha was moving a lot in her sleep. She couldn’t sleep as new memories came back to her. Conversations from the past.

“Dad are you ok?” Her dad had returned from work. “Yes everything is fine. I’m just tired.” But she knew that he wasn’t fine. In fact he wasn’t ok at all. She noticed that he seemed depressed for over a month now. But she didn’t know why. “How is the pageant going?” He asked her. “It’s going pretty good.” “I’m glad to hear that.” “I’m gonna go to bed but I love kiddo.” “Love ya dad.”

Natasha knew her mother was cheating on him. It was affecting him greatly but he was also fired from the man who was fucking his wife every night. Then another flashback came back. It was midnight and she was sitting in her bedroom reading when she heard a gun go off. Her body froze in fear. She thought an intruder broke into the house. She heard quick footsteps up the stairs. Natasha darted under the bed and her door flung open.

The intruder opened her closet door. The person surprisingly didn’t check under her bed. The house was still but the only sound was Natasha’s loud beating heart. Seconds later she heard the gun go off again. Her body was trembling as she cried to herself. She was too scared to move. Then she heard a scream from her sister’s room. “Daddy no!” Then the gun went off.

The next morning Natasha woke up with a headache. She forgot she was living with her aunt. Gloria was sewing on the couch. She knew her aunt sewed when she was going through rough patches in her life. “Want me to knit you a sweater?” “Sure. I would like that.”

Christmas was tomorrow. She didn’t have any family plans for the holidays. “I made you breakfast. It’s on the stove sweetie.” “Thank you.”

The day went by slowly. They went to a neighbor’s Christmas Eve party. Natasha didn’t socialize with anyone. She sat on the couch by the little kids. Aunt Gloria stood around with her friends and they looked over at her.

“God I can’t imagine what you and Natasha are going through.” Gloria nodded. “It hasn’t been easy.” “Why did he do it?” “It was multiple things.” “But why did he kill his whole family?” Gloria shrugged. “ I ask myself that every day.”

Natasha went to bed early when hey arrived back at the house. Again she was tossing and turning in her sleep. Another flashback hit her.

Natasha was under her bed. Her dad just shot her little sister. She knew her little brother was left but couldn’t do anything to save him. Then she realized she could distract her father. She slipped from under the bed and she grabbed her book. Natasha threw the book down the staircase. She ducked behind the curtain. Her father raced to the staircase and his back was turned to her. She grabbed a lamp and knocked him out with it.

Natasha ran to her brother’s room. He wasn’t in the room but then she remembered that he slept with their sister Milly. She began sobbing as she raced to the room and both of her siblings were dead. She only had seconds to leave the house. She ran to a neighbor’s house to call 911. Natasha woke up and remembered it was Christmas tomorrow.

I gulped. I stared at the thousands of faces staring back at me. I stood on stage with a mic standing close to my face. It was eerily quiet and I didn’t know what to say. Wh- what’s the meaning of life? I gulped again, trying to construct words in my head. The meaning of life is simple, I said. It’s something us humans have to figure out through our journey in life. I thought what I said was pretty good. Everyone looked unimpressed with my words of wisdom. One man stood up from the crowd. He looked angry and I was scared. “Why did you call us humans? That’s insulting!” I saw that other people agreed too. What? I said, confused. I knew I was dreaming or stuck in a coma somewhere. Why was I here? This wasn’t adding up at all. Well thank you for your time, I said. I walked away from the mic and went back stage. The crew looked upset at me. An angry looking man came up to me. “Hey Shaun what the fuck was that about? Why did you compare the audience to humans? This was aired!” “I’m not Shaun!” I yelled I didn’t understand what was happening? But they look like humans. Suddenly this man’s appearance shifted into a disgusting creature. I ran to the backstage door and scrambled out of there. I was in the city and it was no city I was familiar with. Where the hell am I? I knew my name was Shaun which sounded human. I placed my hands in my pocket and I found a wallet. I found an id of a creature. I had to be dreaming but where was I?

“Geez Mark how many times do I have to tell you to take out the trash?” The manager said to Mark. The 15 year old kid was no where in sight of the pizza parlor. It was a late night and there weren’t any customers. “Mark?” He said again. He walked by the freezer and it quickly swung open. He placed a hand over his heart. “God you almost gave me a heart attack. And you still haven’t taken out the trash.” “Ugh sorry but I told you I’d be in the freezer for a while Kevin.” The manager rolled his eyes. “ It’s sir to you. “ Mark shrugged. “Whatever.” They both jumped when they suddenly heard a clash in the dining room. “Can you see what that is?” The manager asked. “Yeah sure.” Mark mumbled. He walked out of the kitchen. The manager had decided to take out the garbage himself. He lifted the garbage bag from the can. He stopped and realized there was complete silence. “Mark!” It was dead silent in the pizza shop. He became more frustrated with Mark and didn’t understand why he wasn’t responding to him. “Damn why in hell is he not responding? He couldn’t have left.” He said out loud to himself. He left the garage bag on the floor and poked his head around the corner. The manager was surprised that Mark wasn’t in the dining area. Then he heard the bathroom door swing open in the short hallway. He knew it was Mark but after a few minutes the kid didn’t appear. The manager was confused and he decided to check out the bathroom. He had his army knife so he was safe. He entered the dark hallway and opened the bathroom door. It immediately smelled horrendous. “Mark!” He shouted. For a brief moment he saw blood underneath the bathroom stall door. But then the blood disappeared. He grew uneasy as he felt his hands clam up. He nervously closed the bathroom door. “ I’m tired and I’m just seeing things.” He saw Mark standing at the end of the hallway. Mark stared at him with an empty expression on his face. “What the hell are you doing Mark?” Mark continued to stare at him. Then Mark ran full force at him with a knife and yelled, “You won’t get away with it!” Suddenly the manager woke up in his store. It seemed that he had fallen asleep from chopping up onions. He had never stayed over night at his store before. He realized he smelled something putrid in the shop. He felt his body shake as he realized the smell was coming from the freezer. He felt his teeth tighten and he slowly opened the freezer door. His jaw dropped immediately. Mark lay in his own pool of blood. His heart was racing hard in his chest. The store was going to open soon and Mark had been mysteriously murdered. Before calling police he decided to check the cameras himself. The manager played the night back starting from 8:00 pm. He played it forward and he saw how upset he was getting with Mark. He refused to do his job correctly. He didn’t remember any of this. He watched Mark go into the freezer. On camera he picked a sharp knife and walked into the freezer with it. Moments later he walked out of the freezer with blood on the knife. He could barely stand as he tried to comprehend all of this. “ I don’t remember murdering Mark.” “Oh but you did.” He quickly turned around. He couldn’t believe who he was staring at. He was face to face with himself except this version of himself looked evil. He had a giant grin on his face. “Who are you?” Then he watched himself shape shift into Mark. The creature took a step towards him. “I was your shape shifting friend when we were kids. You drew me and I became real but you forgot all about me.” He said in a dark monotones voice. “R- Ronny?” Ronny was his real imaginary friend. They had done everything together until Kevin reached high school. He abandoned his friend to hang out with the art kids. He hadn’t thought about Ronny in years. “I decided to get back at you for forgetting about me. Have fun going to jail for murder.” The manager was in shock as he watched Ronny disappear. But he quickly decided to cover everything and destroy the tapes.

I like what I see So many people in view Juicy and meaty is how I like it My tongue gets wetter I had an impulse to eat them Especially the children They were small and vulnerable I hid out of view Knowing they couldn’t see me I was ready to go after them

A cake was brought out The candles flickered with fire I took a step back I wasn’t afraid of the candles A shocking memory came to mind These weren’t strangers I wanted to eat They were my family How did I forget They cheered when I blew out my candles Now I was a monster

It was too late for me My hunger grew I was starving The impulse grew stronger I had made up my mind I was going to eat them anyways

I noticed it the moment I walked through the door. Every eye fixated solely on me without an expression to guide my thoughts as to what they were so deeply concentrated on. All I could think was that it may just be a prank since I’m never invited to these things in the first place. As I begin to turn the corner all eyes glued to my every movement I notice a shimmer in the mirror at the end of the hallway. It was dim at first but as I continued forward toward the mirror I felt the air grow cold, almost frozen. My lungs fell heavy and every breath felt like ice cold daggers being pushed through my airway. It only got worse as I continued on but at this point my own body wouldn’t allow me to turn around. It was as if my very soul needed to see what was in the reflection. Once I finally reached it I felt my heart stop and any semblance of warmth and happiness left my body and I was finally able to understand what everyone was so fixated on. I.. I…. I was a ghost……

I have to change my name. No one knows I’m leaving everything behind. My beautiful wife sits in the kitchen with our incredible minded children. God I love them but I have to leave no matter what. My wife smiles at me and she wants me to sit down and have coffee with her. Sadly I couldn’t because I was leaving in that moment. I smiled back at my wife for the last time. Hopefully one day she could forgive me for this. I tell her I have to go but the kids run up to me and they want to go to the park. I felt tears in my eyes but I knew I had to leave. I told my kids that I love them and I had to go to work. It was a lie of course but they understood. I looked at my family one last time and I left out the door. I could never tell them why I left without a trace especially my wife. She would cry If I told her I wanted to restart my life as a woman.

It speaks for me. I am somewhere deep down inside and I have no voice. There is nothing but darkness and a heart that beats. I can see my surroundings but I cannot control what I say or how I interact with others. She speaks and sounds like me from the outside but within she sounds nothing like me. I hear a monster. A demon that speaks for me. But there is nothing I can do about it. You wonder how this happened to me and there is a simple answer to that. The demon came from my nightmares.

Mia was standing by the ocean waves. The sun was setting as she stood barefoot in the sand. She clutched her teddy bear that was missing a black eye. She cried as she heard missiles and gun shooting in the village across from her. She began to hear harsh footsteps towards her but she didn’t flinch. Mia felt a hand touch her shoulder. In a small voice she said, “please don’t hurt me.” The soldier looked at the young girl. “I won’t but you have to come with me.” Mia stayed silent for a moment as she watched the waves crash in front of her. She looked up at the soldier before her. “I watched my whole family die. Now you want me to go with you?” The soldier shook his head. “You must.” She heard other soldiers approaching them. Mia turned her head and they all pointed guns at her. “Please come with us.” The soldier begged her. He grabbed her wrist in order to lead her away. Mia creepily smiled. “You shouldn’t have come over here.” She released her wrist from his grip. Her eyes turned pitch black. The soldier took a step back from the little girl. Mia drew out her hand and began lifting the soldier off the ground and into the air. The soldier was freaking out as he looked terrified. Then she threw his body into the ocean. The soldiers began shooting at Mia. The bullets didn’t kill her because she was invincible. Then with her hand she stopped the bullets in their tracks in slow motion. The bullets flew back at the soldiers but with more force. It was too late for the soldiers to run and escape. The bullets killed the soldiers leaving them all dead. Mia walked through the dead bodies. She entered her village that was once beautiful and lively. Now there was nothing left except dead rotting corpses. Mia knows the soldiers were here for because she was special. She cried as she looked at the devastation. Her memories had been washed away and changed forever. Mia knew she wasn’t safe out here and she had to leave quickly.