The Novella Life of Illuscia Nester Himawari

    Before I divulge what I saw in that theater, let’s do a quick mental exercise. Hell. What does that word mean to you? More specifically, what do you visualize when you hear it? Put yourself in that environment right now. Are you walking through scorching flames while demons scream at you? A dark forest with thousands of beady eyes following your every move? Trapped underneath ice with something gnawing at your feet? Each one of us has an idea of what our own personal hell would look like. I found out what mine looked like in that theater. The film opened on a shot of a plain, abandoned city washed in dark blue. It was hard to tell what time of day it was. But the whole place just looked… depressing. After a few seconds, a figure came stumbling into the frame. A man wearing plain clothes with distorted facial features. His movements were desperate, stumbling through the empty streets in an ostensible attempt to evade something.

    My hands shook as I held the film reel in my hands. This is the source of it all , I thought. The reason Lacey went missing. The reason any of this shit had happened at all. As determined as I was to see this operation through, a lingering feeling of fear and hesitance never left my side. “What’s the film like, exactly?” I asked, my voice shaking just a tad. Collin shook his head. “I dunno. Not like I ever watched it. Can’t really prepare you for much there, sorry.” That was more or less the response I was expecting. Collin sighed, starting to look anxious. “We don’t have time, though. He could come back at any moment,” he looked at Jimmy. “You still got ammo?” Jimmy tapped his belt proudly. “Silly question. No monster’s getting the jump on me.” The haphazard plan that we’d formulated went as follows: We’d rush over to the theater where everything had started, since that was the only place where we’d actually be

  “It’s happened before.” “What has?” I was having a hard time keeping up with Collin as he ran. For a guy that looked like the product of an apocalypse, he sure as hell was fast on his feet. Sven and Jimmy followed behind, shouting after him. “Him disappearing. The southerner is right. When he bleeds over into our world, he tires himself out, especially if he keeps taking on different forms.” “What? How the hell do you know all this?” He suddenly stopped running, causing me to nearly crash into his back. “I…” he began, before taking a deep breath. “It’s a long story. I’ll have to explain quickly.” And as much as it scares for me to admit… his story sounded eerily similar to mine. It all started with the incident years prior. The last time Mr. Blank had made an appearance. When Sven’s fiancée had disappeared, Collin’s brother had disappeared along with her. He was living halfway across the country when it’d happened, t

    “GODDAMN! This freak sure is something!” The man with the shotgun seemed to be having a little too much fun. He’d “killed” Mr. Blank 3 more times. However… it was becoming more of a close call with every encounter. “Who is this guy?” I called out to Sven. “Uh… Jimmy. An old friend.” “I hunt weird shit for sport!” Jimmy said, in the midst of reloading his shotgun, a ferocious gaze on his face. “But don’t boil me down to just that! I like a lot of stuff!” What kind of stuff? I thought to myself. Well, I guess it didn’t really matter. I came to a realization. Mr. Blank had his hands full with Jimmy, which meant I had a chance. I bolted up and began running. Call it a selfish move. I hardly cared at that point. Shotgun blasts rocked the space around me as I ran, following the obscure tree carvings towards an unknown destination. I couldn’t tell you what I was expecting to find. I didn’t even know if there was going to be a

    I was frozen. Absolutely, unequivocally frozen. I could only describe the fear that gripped me as visceral. Like I was drowning in a freezing lake of incomprehensible dread, unprepared to face what was ahead of me in the slightest. I looked at Sven, the most capable one out of us. But even he looked petrified, face drained of any color. I looked back at the trees, watching as the pale, gargantuan creature wrapped its disturbing hand entirely around the tree. The high-pitched radio-frequency laugh continued around us, seemingly growing louder and louder by the second. And then, out of nowhere… it stopped. ”WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?” A deep, slimy, penetrating voice assaulted my ears. It nearly sounded like it was coming from my own head. I flinched, taking my eyes off the entity behind the tree for just a moment. It was gone when I looked back up. “S…seth….” I heard Rose call my name out. I whipped my head around, nearly passi

    “Is this asshole really following us?” Unfortunately, they noticed. “Shit.” I muttered. This wasn’t good. Nevertheless, both Mike and Rose were being rational about it. Although they were both visibly worried, they seemed to understand that freaking out wasn’t going to help. “Ignore them,” I said. “If they keep following us once we get into town, then I’ll call the cops.” “Hang on…” Rose began. “You don’t think they saw us leaving the apartment, do you?” “They probably did. Why?” Stupid question on my part. We totally left a dead guy in there. “Shit!” Mike shouted, upon realizing it. “Maybe it’s the cops themselves tailing us.” “That’s so dumb for so many reasons,” Rose responded. “Why would cops be following us to begin with?” “Who the hell knows what cops are thinking?” “They can’t pin it on us, right? We didn’t do anything.” “They don’t know that. They could argue that we forcibly shoved the pil

    And we’re off. The person who’d messaged me (online name: scr33ngrabber22, told me to call him “Jay”.) has agreed to meet up at a diner in a town about one hour away from us and two away from him. He seemed genuine enough while I was talking to him online, but intentions can be hard to ascertain over text. Still worth a shot, I guess. I’ll do anything to figure this out. Mike was all-in from the get-go. I suppose I felt safer with him around, given the fact that he stood at 6’2, 200+ lbs, boasting a 650 lbs deadlift and a borderline obsession with both French kickboxing and long-range shooting. Obviously, he didn’t like the idea that something might be happening to his sister. Hell, I had to stay on my toes just to stop him from knocking me out when he found out Lacey and I were first dating. He was also pissed as hell at both his parents for being so complacent about the situation and the cops for not yielding any results. On the other