Eventide

Chapter I

Darkness had never been anything I desired. Many fear the darkness, just like me. Children fear the darkness because the boogeyman could be hiding under their bed. Adults fear the dark because what comes out when night falls, like burglars who could potentially ruin your life. You never know where you're going in the darkness and someone could point a gun to your forehead in any given moment.

I don't fear the darkness because of thieves or mythical creatures, no, I fear the dark because what is born in the darkness.

I can see things. Terrible things. Things that people aren't supposed to see. Monsters exist and they are nothing like the boogeyman under the bed. They are ruthless murderers who thirst for people's blood. I remember the first time I saw one of those monsters, my parents thought it was just my imagination, they never knew about the monsters. After that, I didn't say anything about them or else they would think I was crazy.

As I grew older, the monsters grew bolder. They could pace back and forth underneath my window, but they never made any attempt at coming inside of the house. They left behind large mysterious footprints from their massive feet and scratches from their claws. If my parents found them, they would definitely call the cops and things would get out of hand. I couldn't let that happen. Every morning at sunrise, I would give the excuse of taking a morning jog, when in reality I covered their tracks.

One terrible night, I couldn't keep my mother inside of the house. I could hear the monster pacing outside of the house, happily slurping up the saliva that dripped from its mouth. I screamed at the top of my lungs, cried my heart out, begging my mother not to leave the house. She promised she wouldn't leave the house and I was able to go to sleep, to the sound of the monster still pacing outside of my window.

She broke the promise. I awoke when the monster roared loudly and I saw my mother's car drive away from the driveway and the monster galloped right after it. That was the last time I saw my mother.

The next morning, she was in the news. Her car had been utterly demolished and her body was ripped into pieces, scattered all over the road. The police covered the whole event as an animal attack. The monster returned to my window that night with my mother's blood covering its jaw and claws.

My father didn't take my mother's death easily. We moved a month after she died and we never stayed long in each city. He never liked getting attached to a place since he was afraid it would slip away just like my mother had.

My father always looked at me with dead eyes, he knew I knew something important, why I was so reluctant to let her leave the house and why I had always wanted them to stay inside when the sun went down. He never questioned me, but I knew he hold me accountable for my mother's death. During a drunken night, he had said it right to my face. "I know it was you who killed her. Why else would you want us to stay inside of the house all the time? You are hiding something about her death. I know it."

Everything changed when we came to the small city called Death City in the Nevada desert. My life made an one-eighty and for the first time, I was okay with seeing monsters.

In one hour the sun would go down and the monster will be outside of my window again.

He blew it again. I had been waiting at the small café by the school for one and a half hour but he never showed up. This isn't the first time he stood me up. I'm getting really sick of this.

I unlock the front door to the apartment and I find my father passed out on the couch, bottles of booze littering the floor around it. Even after all of the years after my mother passed away, he still hasn't been able to coop with her sudden death. I never know where he works, only that it is when the sun is up, but he never told me where. All I really knew was that he brought in money for food and the rent.

Locking the front door behind me, I grab some leftover pizza in the refrigerator and heat it up. The microwave goes off after a minute and I grab my warm pizza and walk back to my room. The sun slowly starts disappearing from the sky. Soon it will be dark.

My phone buzzes and starts playing a little melody that came with the phone. I sigh loudly when I see it is my boyfriend calling. I don't really want to hear anything from him at the moment. He always blows off dates, never showing up and when he does come to the dates, he only stays for a couple of minutes before his phone goes off and he is off running without even an explanation. That is how our relationship has always been. He never explained anything, never said anything about him or what was going on in his life. He was like a wall, every question I asked him, he reflected it back at me and made me answer it. It was like talking to a wall.

I answer his call and lift the phone to my ear. "Hello."

"Maka, I'm sorry." He quickly apologizes.

"I guess I'm not going to get an explanation this time either?" I hope he will give me an explanation for his absence, through the past two months we have dated, he was always like a wall. A stone wall and my questions were like tennis balls, simply bouncing off the hard surface.

"Actually, there is something I need to tell you." His deep voice speaks from the speaker of the phone. His voice, it is so husky. "You know Jaqueline?"

I start nodding when I realize he doesn't see it. "Yeah, what about her."

My boyfriend has a gang of friends he's always with. They are the only people who truly know him. He always put his friends above me, he never even hesitated if they needed help, but if I wanted to just spend some time with him, he had to check in with his gang if he had time for it. It was frustrating.

He sighs through the speaker. "I have cheated on you with her. It isn't the first time, we have done it more than three times at least during our relationship. I can't keep pretending like it never happened when I'm with you, I hope you can forg―"

"What?!" I shriek into the phone. "You expect me to forgive you for cheating on me multiple times?! I can barely forgive you for constantly standing me up!" Tears start prickling my eyes. "It's over between us. Don't ever call me or talk to me again!" I hang up and I can't hold back my tears. They escape the prison of my eyes and roll down my cheeks.

He had cheated on me with his ex. He would rather go fool around with her than actually being with his girlfriend. That hurts a lot.

My life has always been very lonesome. My father hates me due to my mother's death, I can't have any friends because if they are out after sunset, I'm sure the monster will kill them. The only friend I have is Tsubaki. We only hang out at school, I have never ever let anyone know where I lived. If I brought someone home, even though they would leave before sunset, my father would be a problem. How do I explain my father's constant drunken state then? I wouldn't even want to tell them anything about my father or my mother. That is the one area I don't talk about, well, and the monster outside of my window.

My tears soak my pillow. My heart weeping out the sorrow.

He had been the first one I had really trusted myself with. He was my first boyfriend and first kiss, and now, my first heartbreak. Luckily, he wasn't my first love, I never had the chance of really loving him due to not knowing him. I don't even know why I went out with him for that long. It must have been his wild hair, hair products could even tame his hair even the slightest. His body was so toned and trained, every muscle perfectly curved and with the scar bisecting his chest. He always enjoyed walking around with no shirt, but he always refused to tell me where he got his scar. He refused to tell me anything about the bruises and the wounds that would appear on his body.

His eyes were my favorite part of him. Those deep ruby eyes of his, just as dark as blood. The first time I met him, I was enchanted with his eyes. His eyes always made an illusion of safety and familiarity. Looking into his eyes, I drowned in them and forgot everything about the monster outside of my window and about my sucky life at home. Everything was swept with the wind.

I would have called Tsubaki and told her about the break-up, but I was worried that she would try to get my address out of me and get out of her house. The monsters could take her and I wouldn't want that to happen to my only friend.

The sun went down behind the trees in the distant and slowly the shadows grew larger and the darkness grew thicker. The leaves from the bushes at the edge of our lawn rustles and two bright red eyes lit up in the darkness.

I should be scared, but after all of these years of being stalked and haunted by this monster, I'm not scared anymore. As long as I stay inside of the walls of my house, I will always be safe.

The monster stomps loudly toward the house. No other person can hear it stomping here while the claws of the creature digs up the grass as its being dragged on the floor. Saliva drips from its mouth and it gurgles loudly as it stares right at me. Its inhumanly large tongue licks its wounded lips as it stares at me with hungrily eyes.

He isn't going to get me.

I pull down the curtain, successfully cutting out the view of the monster. It must have stopped sitting like a puppy staring at the window since I can hear it stomping back and forth while its claws drag on the ground.

Gently, I weep myself to sleep, leaving the pizza uneaten and my homework half-done.

Tomorrow will be a rough day catching up on my homework and meeting my ex. I really don't want to look at him or talk to him. I won't be able to handle seeing Jaqueline and him together. Not now at least. Hopefully they will be "sick" and stay home.

As much as I want to believe them to be sick, I know they won't be.