Wild Life

Date: September 1, 2022

Prompt #21 of @JonicaBradley : Wild Life/ Wildlife

Wildlife

I woke up feeling eyes staring at me. The hairs on my back are all standing and I was covered in sweat. I rounded my eyes in the entirety of my room and shrieked.

"Mom!" I shouted loudly then I hid under the covers, trembling in fear. I couldn't be wrong there was someone watching me. I saw it. I saw the eyes!

Not any moment longer footsteps echoed in the hallway, outside my room, "Annie, what's?" my mom burst into my room. "Why are you shouting? What's wrong honey?" She pulled my blanket away from my trembling form.

"T-there...t-t-there is s-someone i-in h-h-here..." I managed to stammer out pointing to my window.

My mom turned to her back and motioned for my dad to open the lights but there was no one there.

"But I swear someone is in there watching me sleep! Mommy you got to believe me! His eyes were glaring at me! As if...as if he wanted...wanted to eat me mommy! I'm scared!" I cried out, refusing to let her arm go.

"Hush it now Annie, there's nothing in here. Its just your imaginations," mommy said in a stern voice.

I looked up at my dad, "I told you not to watch horror movies before bed, right?" He frowned at me. "You want to sleep with us for tonight?"

I nodded my head furiously, "Yes. Yes! Please. Please. Oh please!" That night I slept with my parents but I couldn't shake the feeling of someone staring at me.

The next night my mom was adamant for me to sleep in my room though I begged her for hours to let me stay with them. She wouldn't budge and argued that I couldn't sleep with them because I was getting old. In the end, I was left with no choice face the fathom in my room. I plead with my mom to leave my lights on and she did but when I woke up with the same feeling from the night before, the room was already dark.

I tried to calm my breath and let my eyes travel near my window to where I saw the eyes. It was there staring at me again. I swallowed hard pulling a baseball bat I hid under my covers.

"Who are you?" I asked but there was no answer. I jumped from my bed swaying my bat. It hit something, a loud thud dropped to the floor. I run to switch the lights on. "Mom! Mom!" I shouted repeatedly. A boy about my age was lying on the floor cradling a wounded leg. It wasn't from my attack, the wound looked old. And he was wearing tattered clothes that way too small for him. His hair was long and at first I thought he was a girl.

"Ah. Ah. Ah!" he started shrieking covering his eyes. He was uttering words I couldn't comprehend.

"I'm sorry. Did I hit your wound?" I said going down to his height. He looked harmless with the lights on.

"Annie, what's up with you again? You should stop doing this--" mom stopped when she saw the boy on my floor. "Who is this?" she asked alarmed, pulling me away from the boy.

I struggled to get away from my mom, "I told you, someone is watching me."

"I will call the police," my dad offered.

"He's hurt," I said. "Let's mend his wound dad. He must be hurting."

Dad nodded his head. He run downstairs and came back after a couple of minutes with the medicine kit. He knelt down the floor next to the boy and raised his hands. "Im gonna clean your wounds. I'm not gonna hurt you, okay?"

"He can't talk. I tried talking to him but he doesn't understand dad. He just growls."

Dad sighed. He took cotton balls from the medicine kit and poured a iodine to the wound. "It'll sting but I promise you. It will be okay."

Tears started pouring down from the boys face. He extended his arms giving something to my dad. He opened his palm and a small locket dropped to my dad's hand. He opened it and he grew still.

Mom pushed me away, snatching the locket from dad's hand. Then a loud wailing cry filled our home.

The police came after an hour and my mom was still unconsolable but what the weird thing was, she wouldn't let the boy go.

Dad tucked me in their bed and kissed me goodnight. He called my grandma and she stayed with me while they go to the police.

The next morning my parents were still not home. When I walked into the kitchen, I found boxes filled with old flyers. I took one and saw the image of the boy from last night though he looked a lot younger.

"Who is he?" I asked my grandma when she walked in.

"Aw Honey, you don't remember him?" I shook my head. "He's your twin brother. When you were about three, you went camping by the lake near the cliff. He got lost in the woods and never been found. But ge came home...he came home after five years!"

I raked my head with the image of my brother but I really couldn't remember him. "Was he in the woods all this time?" I asked.

"Maybe...we dont know yet..."

"He was growling last night."

When my parents came back home no one was talking the incident that happened the night before. Slowly my brother came back to our lives. He never learned to speak and acted like a wild animal from time to time.

As we grew older my brother and I formed a way to communicate. I learned that a man kidnapped him and treated him like his dog. When the man died of heart attack, he found the locket hidden in the man's wardrobe. My brother travelled miles, looking for the scent in the locket.