The Beautiful Monster

Immediately after Alyssa stepped foot outside of the hospital, she cursed herself for not bringing a jacket to wear.

She should've known that it would be colder at midnight than it was in the late morning when she last arrived at the hospital.

She wrapped her arms around herself as she shuffled away from the front of the hospital toward the staff parking lot.

Tall street lamps illuminated her way with a white glow, cutting through the quiet darkness that surrounded her on all sides.

However, the light provided her no sense of comfort. She always felt so uneasy at night. She didn't like seeing her surroundings because there was no telling what was lurking where she couldn't see.

Typically, she looked every which way as she walked, but she just wanted to get to her car before she froze to death.

The chilly wind whipping across her face wasn't helping either.

She hurriedly walked to the parking lot, passing under the beams of light from the lamps.

She was moving so fast that she didn't see that the shadow passing under the lamps wasn't her own.

Alyssa just reached the parking lot a little ways from the hospital when she heard the lightest thud behind her.

It was so quiet that it typically wasn't a sound she would even bother checking out. However, the hairs on the back of her neck shot up, and something told her to turn around. A voice in the back of her head.

She whipped around just as the lights from the lamps suddenly shut off. Darkness surrounded her, and she suddenly couldn't breathe.

Something was wrong, but she couldn't see anything! She tried to step back or start running, but her body refused to move.

She just stared into the darkness as she heard another thud sound from in front of her.

Then, there was silence. She didn't believe it, though. She couldn't trust what was in the dark. She couldn't trust anything.

She glanced around, but she still couldn't see anything that was around her. It was just her and the darkness. Or so she thought.

Suddenly, a heavy force crashed into her right side, sending her straight to the ground. Her shoulder took the brunt of the fall, making her cry out in pain.

She still felt someone on top of her, grabbing her and trying to pin her. She thrashed around on the asphalt, trying to escape, but whoever was on top of her was too strong.

She felt the weight on top of her shift slightly, and she could feel something light brush her teeth. She turned her head to see teeth right next to her face.

Through the darkness, that was all that she could make out. But there was something wrong with the teeth. The canines were extended and sharp at the ends. Almost like… fangs.

A scream broke from her as she tried to scramble away from whatever creature was on top of her.

She managed to roll over and crawl a foot away before her leg was grabbed and she was dragged back toward the creature.

She could feel hands that felt like a human's, but that thing wasn't human.

She glanced over her shoulder just to see a dark figure in a black trenchcoat tackle the creature.

Through the darkness, all that she could see were shadows flitting in and out of the darkness.

She took that opportunity to push herself to her feet and sprint to her car, hearing shouts and grunts of pain behind her.

Alyssa fumbled through her purse once she reached her car, desperately trying to find her keys.

She didn't want to be in the middle of that fight. The adrenaline kept her from feeling all of the pain, but she knew that would wear off soon. She needed to get out of here.

She unlocked her car and threw herself inside it once she found her keys. She backed out of the spot and sped toward the exit of the parking lot.

Just before she was about to pull out onto the road, the street lamps turned back on, flooding the area with light.

She looked up into her rearview mirror and caught a glimpse of the figure in the trenchcoat under one of the lights.

She only saw a flash of dark hair and fair skin before the figure ducked into the nearby shadows.

But that second of looking was enough for Alyssa to feel her heart threaten to burst right out of her chest. That shadow looked familiar. It almost looked like… him.

Alyssa couldn't even bring herself to think of his name or picture his face, but it looked like him. That couldn't be, though.

There were plenty of guys with dark hair and a nice build. Besides, why would he come back now after all these years? It didn't make any sense. Nothing about what just happened made sense to her.

She pulled out onto the road and hurried back to her apartment, wanting to get as far away from the hospital as possible for the night, which was a strange thing for her.

She was usually rushing to the hospital instead of away from it. But she had never been attacked like that in her eight years here.

She had always been afraid of that shadow getting too close and being too real.

She couldn't deny that someone had indeed been watching her all these years.

But who and why? There was no reason for anyone to be following her or attacking her. It almost seemed like whatever attacked her wanted to seriously hurt her.

What was up with those teeth? She wished that she could've seen the rest of the face, but all she saw were those fangs coming right for her.

She shuddered at the thought, feeling her erratic pulse refuse to slow down. She doubted that she would feel that much better when she got to her own place.

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