A Beast with a Smile

I walked out of the door and was immediately surprised by how many people were walking and smiling like Jet and Veronica did. They paid no attention to me; they seemed like they were on drugs. It’s just being far from home for a long time and I’m just not used to how crazy people are in this town.

I began to walk in the road towards Old Al’s since very few people owned cars in this town and because the sidewalk was a safety hazard.

People were walking into their homes and shutting all of the blinds. I have to say, I kind of missed the weirdos in this town; kind of always feels like someone could be abducted by aliens at any moment.

Harrison was one of those towns that would have the redneck on the news saying how he found a UFO, but it would really only be a toilet seat he found in his cornfield. Sure, they aren’t normal, and they are definitely really boring (except for the occasional natural disaster), but they are my family.

I continued on the path until I passed the last of my creepy, introvert neighbors. The sun was beginning to go down and it would soon be dark.

I froze and looked at the formal accident zone that claimed the life of my best friend. For the past five years I have avoided this road at all costs. The sight of the newest edition Caution Deer Crossing sign sunk my heart. It became harder to catch my breath, my heart started to beat faster, and all I could do was stand there and let the memory of that day take me away.

I tried to not think about it, but when I did, the memories were fuzzy. Trying to remember things in detail felt like when an old fashion TV loses signal; I just couldn’t make a clear picture in my head. Veronica would say it has to do with denial and me not allowing myself to believe he’s dead, but this felt different. I couldn’t think about major details, they just made the memory even more blurry. All I could remember was that there was an accident and that Tyler broke his arm, but I can’t remember how. I don’t even remember the glass on the truck being broken. I’m over thinking this. It was a traumatizing experience and my brain is just telling me what it thinks I wanted to see. I just need to get away from this place and stop thinking about it.

I walked away onto the parallel street towards downtown. It was nice always having a ten-minute walk away from downtown, another advantage to living in a small town. I have been making a mental list for reasons to stay or leave ever since I returned.

I walked past the sign that said Downtown Harrison towards Old Al’s. I entered the town square, a long corridor of shops and outlets with a decorative fountain at the end of the road. The square was covered with skeletons, graveyards with funny headstones, and fake rotting corpses. The town was obsessed with decorating when it came to festivals; they always went all out.

I ducked under a giant fake cobweb to the entrance of the giant red barn that was home to Old Al’s, but the doors were locked. It was a small shop that has been around since the town was founded and the look just never got updated. The sign hanging on the window said Open. Hours 6am-9pm. It was currently 6:30 p.m. and all of the lights were still on. I tried pulling instead of pushing, but the small door didn’t budge.

The door knob was vibrating and making a humming noise. It sounded like an electric toothbrush when it’s left on the counter.

I backed up and looked around. The entire area was a ghost town. “HELLO?” I asked to nothing.

The vibrating stopped. I looked around again and still saw nothing.

A massive roar came from the opposite side of town and it shook every building in sight. The vibrating started again, but much faster and more powerful. Those are stomps from something very, very big. It has to be a prank or a decoration or something... right? I know monsters aren’t real, so whatever is making all of this noise has to be a big animal or something made by humans.

The vibration and shaking grew louder and louder; it was almost impossible to stand because the ground felt like walking on a trampoline. I sat down and leaned against the wall, attempting to contain my lunch from escaping my gut.

Bricks and pieces of roofs began to fall like snow all around me. Old Al’s lost some of the letters on its barn door sign. The town square quickly lost all of the hanging decorations to the death shake and the fountain lost one of its little boy peeing statues. The fountain became a geyser, flooding the nearby ground, causing sparks from fallen orange and black lights. The river flowed over to what might as well have been my final resting place, conducting an electric current that made it glow and spark.

I shot up and raced away from the water, “I GUESS THIS MEANS I’M GETTING MY DAILY ELECTROLYTES,” I mentally screamed as I leaped onto the Old Al’s barn door sign.

The shaking added a greater degree of difficulty to the already impossible long jump, but my mad dash leads me to the safety of an old barn door to rest half of my body on. The electrified flood made an ocean that covered every part of the town square.

Clearly my cries for help will get me nowhere and my swimming abilities are not as effective in a pool of electricity. At least I have this earthquake to keep me shaken like a milkshake.

There was another loud roar as a giant shadow leaped into view. The creature was about thirty feet tall, pure white, fluffy, and a giant bunny rabbit. The only thing that came to my mind was that I was in a dream. I was looking at not only the biggest animal I have ever seen, but also the biggest and scariest bunny I had ever seen.

My jaw hurt from the speed that it fell; I was expecting a bear or elephant or something, not a rabbit. The bunny had a blue collar around its neck with a hanging tag. The tag read “Tiny”.

His wild red eyes met mine and his tail began to wag. He let out a non-bunny sized screech and jumped up with joy, but when his feet met the ground I met a 10.0 earthquake. The buildings swayed, and the water went airborne. I was thrown from the door and ascended toward the sky. Well this is it, I thought, thinking of my own silly gravestone, Scarlett Archer: Death by One Small Step for Man and One Giant Leap by a Giant Bunny Rabbit.

There was a giant flash of blue, as if lightning had struck in the town square, that was followed by a clunk from my body landing on something hard and metal.

“Hi there.” said a friendly voice.