He screamed as the monster grabbed his leg, it’s long sharp claws digging into his leg. It slammed him into a wall and he saw the thing lunge for his face. He shot upwards in his bed, his face dripping with sweat and his hands feeling like he’d just hit them on concrete. He turned to his right and shut off his alarm, the noise was too loud.

“Connor! Wake up, it's time to get ready for school!” his mother’s voice called up to his room, and Connor winced at the noise. He stood up and walked to his closet, the door making a loud creaking noise as it opened, silently he grabbed a random shirt from his closet and put it on along with some pants. As he looked in the mirror to straighten his purple and pink hair, he noticed the shirt, the shirt depicted practically the exact same monster from his dreams. Connor shook his head and when he looked back at the shirt, it was just a simple t-shirt with his old school logo on it, no monster to be seen. I’m probably just tired, he thought as he turned off his bedroom light and took the steps down to the dining room, skipping every other step. He stopped for a second once he got down the stairs, he thought back to his mother’s voice and what she said, then he ran back up the stairs and shut himself in his room. He quickly grabbed his phone and dialed his friend.

“Mark, I need you to come to my place right now!” Connor said, sliding a chair in front of his door. His friend seemed to pause for a moment before responding.

“Sure man, what’s wrong?” Mark responded, and Connor could hear the sound of him grabbing his keys and getting in his car.

“I heard my mom call me down for school about 10 minutes ago, here’s the thing, you and I both know I graduated last year and that my mom lives two states away!” Connor quickly said, glancing towards a photo on his shelf of him in his graduation gown. He heard Mark hang up and got a text a few seconds later, “I’ll be there in 5, don’t leave your room, i’ll bring my bat”, the words brought a sort of comfort to him, help was coming. Despite his friend's instructions, he grabbed the chair from the door and put his hand on the knob, silently he opened the door and stepped into the hallway, the lights creating large shadows on the walls. He leaned against his door and waited, watching the stairway leading into the hall.

Connor sucked in a shaky breath, it had been over 20 minutes since he called Mark, at least it felt like 20 minutes, he couldn’t tell anymore. In that time, he had slowly made his way to the stairway, avoiding the creaky spots in the floorboards. What is taking him so long? Connor thought, glancing at the clock near the stairs, what he saw nearly made his heart stop. The clock hands were stuck at 7:30, around the same time his alarm had gone off. He quickly checked both his phone clock and his watch, both read 7:30. He shook his head, it was probably all just a big prank that Mark or one of his other friends are pulling on him. With that thought in his head he descended the stairs into the dining room. 

“Hey Mark, I know what’s going on, you can fix my clocks now!” Connor called.

He was met with silence, he flicked on the light switches as he walked around the first floor, calling out every so often for his friend. Connor groaned as all the lights went out with a loud ‘POP’, if this was a prank, it definitely was not funny anymore. He made his way to the storage closet and rummaged around for a flashlight, once he found one, he gathered some spare batteries and began getting matches to light candles. As he was lighting a candle in the living room, he thought he saw something move out of the corner of his eye, nothing. He shrugged and went back to lighting the candle but saw it again, this time on his right. Turning the flashlight on, he moved it around the room and saw a figure moving away from the light. The heck is that thing? He thought, before realizing that the figure was the same monster he saw in his dreams. The candles behind him were blown out and the flashlight was suddenly knocked out his hands, the monster came out of nowhere and slammed into Connor’s side, causing him to go flying across the living room and hitting his head on the coffee table. Connor’s vision was blurry and he felt something warm dripping down his face, he brought his hand up and lightly touched the area, when he pulled his hand back he saw blood staining his fingers. He heard the creature before he saw it, hearing a growl from his right, Connor stood up, ignoring the pain in his head and stumbling out of the way just as a long and spiky leg hit the area where he had laid, a second leg joined it, effectively smashing the table to pieces. Connor ran for the front door and tugged on the handle, it was locked, neither his key nor the keypad for his alarm would open the door either. The monster was turning the corner now, it was almost upon him. Connor remembered how it had run away from the light and noticed the flashlight on the ground a mere 3 feet away, but that was 3 feet closer to the monster. He glanced up at the monster, staring into its blood red eyes, and he dove for the light. His hand curled around the base just as he was plucked from the ground by the monster's claw, he quickly twisted around and shined the flashlight into its eyes. It howled and Connor found himself falling, he kept the flashlight aimed behind him as he hit the ground running and fled to the staircase.

He took the stairs two at a time as he ran up the stairs, hearing the monster behind him, however unable to reach him due to the light. He ran into his bedroom and locked his door, running to his window and crouching against the curtains. A crack resounded throughout the room, and Connor realized with horror that his door was splintering, a few more cracks and the monster came barreling through the remnants of the door, it’s eyes trained on him. Connor aimed the flashlight at it and it moved back, hissing at him through fangs. Connor laughed a little despite his situation.

“Yeah, you don’t like that do you!” He pestered, it hissed again and Connor looked down, the light had flickered out, he was out of time. He threw the dead light at the monster and scrambled to open the locks on his window, he was on the second floor, he’d survive if he jumped down. The monster had other plans though, it grabbed him and got right in his face, Connor grimaced as he looked right at the creature as it’s eyes seemed to glow. It opened its mouth and spoke in a raspy voice.

“We must become more, more chaos, more destruction. We must spread the infection that is us.” it said, the voice like nails on a chalkboard. Connor felt in his pants pocket and felt the rough texture of the matches box he had used earlier. He swiftly pulled it out and lit a match behind his back, he looked into the creature's eyes as the blood on his head flowed into his eyes. He felt the curtain behind him, and dropped the match.

Mark made a sharp right turn into Connor’s neighborhood, his friend needed his help. As he got closer to his house however, he noticed firetrucks and the sky darkening with smoke. He stopped the car on the side of the road and got out, jogging towards one of the firefighters.

“Hey, what happened here, this is my friend’s house, is he alright?” Mark rambled out. The firefighter nodded and patted him on the shoulder.

“It’s alright young man, your friend is just fine. Turns out he jumped out of his bedroom window and landed safely on the ground, as for the fire. We found matches in the ashes, it seems he may have been lighting something and the wrong thing caught the flame.” The man said, pointing him near another truck where he saw the familiar blue and pink hair of his friend. Mark nodded in a silent thank you and ran off to Connor.

He tapped his shoulder and Connor turned around, smiling brightly, had his teeth always looked that sharp? Mark pushed that thought to the side as he hugged him.

“Glad you’re ok man! I can give you a ride back to my place where you can stay till you can get a new place!” Mark said, motioning back to his car. Connor nodded, “Yes, thank you I would like that, maybe we can be roommates for a while.” he said.

Mark noticed that his friend’s voice also sounded a little strange, like he had inhaled an entire can of febreeze, but it was probably the smoke in the air so he didn’t comment on it. Mark smiled and led his friend to his car, as he got in he failed to notice Connor removing his small keychain light from his pocket and tossing it to the ground, the dying flames of the house behind them causing his eyes to glow red.