A Monstrous Valentine

 A crack breaks the accustomed silence, bringing with it the millisecond burst of pain and then a yawn. You finish stretching and continued on to the kitchen. After a week straight of working in the office it was finally Friday, and after a five hour day of finalizing many reports, the only thing on your mind was the inevitable stench of alcohol that would soon be upon your lips. Guiding you through the dark was the dim but ever-so-clear shine from the stove light, before you could step foot in the kitchen you undid the choking tie around your neck and tossed it at the couch. The shivering cold, that intensifies while the refrigerator is open, would have ran off even the roughest of Texans, but to the average North Dakotan, it was just another winter.

 Retrieving the chilly bottle of Bud, you prop the cap off with the wall mounted bottle opener before proceeding to the small living room. Just out of the corner of your right eye, in the midst of the hallway, two golden pin points hover close to the ground, with a scurry they disappear almost immediately after you got but a second's view of them. Shrugging it off as the cat, you plopped down on the worn couch, powered the tv on and took a swig with every artificial laugh from the crowd. The tv had been set to CBS, so by the time you were fifteen minutes in you were already getting up for another bottle. And the night continued like that, until the alcohol had worked it's magic and uncovered memories you longed to forget.

 When "Mighty Little Men" began to faintly blare you knew you wouldn't last the night without suicidal thoughts, and surrendered to the beer before the song could continue. A glance to the clock gave you the direction that should have been routine by this point, you trudged off into the pitch black hallway and stumbled the short distance into your messy room. Barely maneuvering around the minefield of wrinkled jeans and stained shirts, just before you could make the last step to bed you opened your barely-blinked eyes to the rough mattress and a very dull pain in your nose. Dragging yourself to the middle of the bed, you faintly felt the imprints of fingers upon your feet, accompanied by a very dull scratching noise. The sensation was short lived, and left you wondering what that was.

 You decided that now wasn't the time to fuss in the slightest over this sort of thing, and continued to toss your shoes off, making yourself comfortable afterwards. Digging your face into the pillow, you dozed off near instantly and were asleep in a matter of minutes. Usually you were a heavy sleeper, but tonight you were awoken when the cold had become to much to bare. When you began to stir you immediately felt the searing cold not on your body, rather isolated to a specific place; your feet. Looking to the source you noticed that the comforter had been peeled back to your calves, leaving everything below to the cold.

 You could've sworn that you wrapped yourself tight in the comforter to bare the cold tonight, and you didn't recall having red streaks on your socks. Before you could investigate further you realized that it was a Saturday morning, so you just ignored the mild pain in your calves and re-wrapped yourself. It only took you half an hour to fall asleep. Thanks for the rude awakening... cat? Probably the cat, or probably not, those streaks looked awfully red at the time.

 Once again you were awakened rudely, this time early enough in the morning for the sun to remain absent. The alarm you set for your biweekly extra five hours of work blared it's cheesy and god-awful ball-grabbing tone, you begrudgingly gave into it's command and arose. You were reminded of last nights discovery when a searing pain coursed through your feet upon touching the ground. Wincing in the millisecond it lasted, you looked down to see your bare feet, long, pink, and narrow lines that were as jagged as a coast line delved from the middle of your calves to your soles. Coating them was a semi clear purple-ish liquid, warm on your skin like that of the sun.

 Obviously confused, you reached down to touch the liquid, recoiling immediately once your entire leg flared in a burning hot pain. You didn't even have time to scream, the pain was gone as soon as you lifted your hand off. Before you could stupidly try and touch yourself again, you swiped some knee-high socks off of a nearby drawer, carefully but hastily pulling them on and over the wounds. After dressing your feet you stood to resume preparing for work, freezing as you undressed to a drawn out scratching sound from beyond your door. The sound droned, stopped, and then resumed, as if an animal were teasingly dragging it's claws against the ground.

 You stood completely still, dreadfully listening as the scratching continued. One thing that you knew for certain was that there was no way that could have been the cat, it would have de-clawed itself at this rate. Snapping you out of the state of flaring distress was the recollection that you had work, and if you stood around for minutes longer than you would've been reprimanded. In response, you kicked into drive and resumed dressing for work, your pace quickening once you pulled each garment on. That fast-acting short burst of adrenaline ceased once your hand wrapped around the cold steel door knob, the scratching persisted.

 With this much tension you would have just given up and stayed home, but that microscopic space of bravery in your head was being overworked today, and compelled you to act with images of beer cases bought with the money earned from your willing enslavement to a cubicle. Conflicting against your pushing of the door was the quick succession of heavy footsteps, your adrenaline was off the charts right up to the moment that door was wide open, the only thing close to being able to make all that racket was your cat, just sitting there smugly licking itself. With a sigh of relief, your heart began to calm, you bent to pet the cat goodbye before continuing on to the door. The closer you drew the more you realized what you were missing, the cold had rudely reminded you of your current lack of a jacket. With a 180 you faced the hallway once more, you didn't recall before how dark it was, especially at the very crack of dawn.

 Your mostly burn black cat seemed to blend in with the hall, she held no sign of presence, not even the meowing complaint, murring, obnoxious purrs, even her outcast amber eyes were gone. The sudden disappearance and shift in tone had you on edge, a very faint creak forced your hand, and it went straight for the door knob. With the rush of fear garnered from the sudden disappearance of the feline you had, rather barbarically, ran into the snowy cold while still lacking a jacket. Neverminding that you began to trail to your car, fruitlessly fingering your pockets only to find that you were lacking a couple things, mainly your car keys. Furiously stomping the snow, you turned to the door, heaved in a breathe, and charged.

 Lacking the grace but more than making up for it with your agility and brute force, you swung the door open and barreled down the hall and back into your still-dim room. You swiped the keys off of your dresser, pocketed them along with your phone, scooped up your jacket and circled around, out of the room as you struggled into the jacket. Managing to run out without a setback, you slammed the door behind you and shoved the key in, clicking it locked and then beelining to your car. It was near just as cold as the outside considering that it would have to blow cold air before warming up. You nearly clipped the bumper on the porch stairs after making a turn, but soon enough the car was faintly vrooming down the relatively lonely and snowy roads, well on it's way to work.

 Work was the same as every other weekend workday, you were really looking forward to going home to your warm bed and booze, but at the same time dreading the feeling of... dread, that was oddly rampant while you were home last night. But of course it wasn't like you had anywhere else to go, and there wasn't no way in hell that a sneaky cat and it's suspiciously nefarious ordeals would keep you from staying in your own home. The sky had been blocked by the nimbus wall the whole day, it was as gray now as it was when the sun finally arose. Much the same as the sky, the interior of the house was just as drab, but the newfound sense of fear made the looming darkness from inside feel intimidating. In the direct opposite of your early morning departure you approached the door with a nervous swagger, slowly sticking the key in and turning.

 Much like the cold, the usual feelings associated with the darkness bellowed out from the depths of the house, blowing through you like February's blizzards. You recalled leaving all of the lights off, but never before did you feel like it would come back to bite you in the ass like this. Grabbing the doorknob behind you and pulling it until it clicked shut, you fanned your fingers over the light switch, only to immediately regret it. In the split second that the lights were on your head shot to the source of an ear-bleeding screech, a greenish gray figure that looked to be as tall as a truck was writhing around while screaming that horrid cry. You were frozen in place while watching it, but it seemed the scream, that cut the lights with it's sheer ferocity, was what finally propelled you forward like a speeding bullet.

 As soon as the lights were cut you booked it down the hall, heart, ears and feet pounding in tandem with the heavy set of footsteps coming from behind. You bursted into your room just in time to evade whatever that thing was, it smacked into the wall adjacent to your door, giving you just enough time to slam the door shut and lock it. The creature pounded at the weak wooden door for a few short seconds, ceasing physical aggression but keeping it's presence known with the heavy breathing it kept up. After catching your breath you set to work barricading, pushing the nearby dresser in front of the door, the various items that toppled off the piece of furniture and into your path were no match for your shock and one consistent caveman instinct: fear. You heaved against the hefty wooden block until it was firm against the door, and began to walk in circles thinking of your next move.

 Soon enough the closet caught your attention, you knew it contained your best shot at survival. Making a mad dash for the enclosed space, you rifled around the mess of hanging clothes until your hands fell upon the familiar cold object. Your trusty SKS, the thing looked like it was dragged through Vietnam, and it was the product of a gunsmith's de-bubbafication, but it was eons better than using your fists. With your rifle in hand you retreated back to your bed and anxiously prepped yourself, flipping the rusty spike bayonet forward before pulling the bolt back and sending it home. Now it was time to play the waiting game, with your sights to the door you stood atop your mess of a bed and waited for the moment where the monster would burst through your hasty barricade.

 And wait is what you did, minutes that felt like hours droned on, the white door had imprinted itself onto your retinas as you continued to wait. You slumped into a sitting position two hours into nothingness, still focused but feeling that too waning with your patience and energy. Just as you were about to nod off the banging continued, very soon turning into only scratching. You perked awake and nearly drilled a thirty calibre hole into the door, but your focus shot up once again as the scratching interchanged tempo with quick and slow fits of scratching. The night continued on like this; pointing, nodding, nearly shooting something and then waiting.

 After at least an hour and a half of this cycle you grew accustomed to it, the dark and dim lighting of your room swayed your eyes into growing heavy, the rifle became heavy, straining your arms and further tiring you as the scratching began to resume. The last thing you felt was your head touching the bed, in one second you closed your eyes to the still darkness of sleep, and in the next you were staring down a greyish green snout, into the solid amber eyes of the monster beyond your door. Instinctively you jumped from the startle, smacking yourself against the wall and sealing your impending doom to the lanky creature climbing atop. As it climbed you grabbed the rifle and tried to point it, but with such swiftness the monster grabbed it by the handguard, cracks already forming in the old wood, and pulled it out of your hands. As you remained pressed against the wall the monster kneeled in place at it's foot of the bed, inspecting your gun while completely transfixed, seemingly forgetting about it's prey.

 It seemed to be quite curious, the monster ran it's hands over the gun, it's claw caught the trigger and startled the both of you when the boom rang out. The scream you emitted was trumped by the scream of the monster, in stark contrast to the banshee scream of earlier, it sounded oddly smooth and feminine, and it's touch was silky soft and warm even in the February's piece of the winter, the gunshot startled it enough to try and find comfort with you. You could hear it's heart beating through it's chest, pressed against your head, and wondered just what kind of monster it was. Or rather, her, that chest wasn't exactly flat. Her long arms seemed to be as thick as your lower legs, they were skinny for her size but began to take it's toll on your body after half a minute of a near crushing hug.

 When you pushed against her abdomen, in fear of the potential repercussions of pushing her chest, the monster seemed to remember the reason for it's presence in your house. Her shock seemed to dissipate, you could see it in her glossy gold eyes, and her curiosity ran amuck again, she pressed her large hand against your chest and forced you to lay on the bed. Your heart began to race once she laid her hand on you, you tried to push against her head but it seemed she was dead set on quelling her curiosity, she pressed your hands down and pressed her cold animal-like nose against your neck and chest. From where you were laying you could see her return to your neck, her jaws parted to reveal the thick wall of top and bottom teeth that loomed over your Adam's apple. Fruitlessly you kicked against her thick thighs, her muscly tone felt even through your shoe, as a last ditch effort, but to no avail.

 Alas it was just a tease, she only faintly pressed her teeth against your neck, lifting off so that she could run her slimy tongue over the very light wounds. You huffed breathes of relief and slowly calmed as she stopped licking, your lip began to quiver, heart on the verge of exploding as she turned her attention above the neck. Looming over you was, once again, her amber eyes, but only for a second, the next you could see was the rows of stalactite teeth in her mouth, neatly seated like an mess of opera chairs. For your last moments you closed your eyes tight and hoped it was quick, but her next actions would prove vastly otherwise. The warmth you felt on your neck was now on your face, coating the left half of your face was the monster's saliva, her tongue dragged to your hair and then stopped.

 Confused, the next thing you knew, you were facing the door in a near complete stillness as the monster moved around you, the bed creaking underneath her weight as she settled and wrapped her arms around your dwarfed body. You could feel her pulling you in, the hair on your head rustled against her bust as she snuggled into a ball to better accommodate your size. Her head now rested against the side of your face, warm and deceivingly soft, her unusual purring soothed your heart and, even at a time like this, you began to grow drowsy. It seemed she was a step ahead of you, her purring turned to very faint snoring in only a few minutes time, her fingers occasionally twitched whilst she was asleep. You decided to give in and sleep, too, looking to the room one last time before doing so.

 And what a coincidence, the calendar read as February 14th, 2020. You knew you would like this new un-official arrangement with this monster gal, and drifted off to sleep with a smile for once.