Who is the Mysterious Creature?
"Ellie don't fall, Ellie concentrate, no matter how hard he hits you, just stay put," shouted Judy from the stands in the empty gymnasium, as I stood on top of a pyramid made by the school's cheerleaders and the black hooded figure kept hovering above, attempting to push me down but I moved sideways cautiously, maintaining my balance.
The figure made a dozen more attempts but in vain. In the end, it sped towards me at a rocket's speed and unveiled his face, exposing the spiky incisors and bloodshot pupil-less eyes. The fiend gave its best this time and I swerved to avoid its attack, hence, losing my balance and causing the pyramid of cheerleaders to tumble, and I fell terribly through never-ending blackness….with a scream which could probably send shivers down hell.
I woke up with a massive jerk, as though a high electric shock had been delivered to me by doctors through a defibrillator to revive me from cardiac arrest. My entire family, my friends, and Mrs. Riley our principal gathered around me in the school infirmary, all possessing highly concerned and scared expressions on their faces. My left leg had been plastered thoroughly that it felt extremely heavy but barely had any feeling left in it. I was still shaking from the gymnasium's event and the nightmare which added salt to the wound.
"Honey, how are you feeling now?" mum asked, placing her soothingly soft and warm palm on my burning forehead. "Lord! You have a fever," she said, beseeching the matron to get a thermometer. She gently shoved the device in my dry mouth, making me uncomfortable as I barely had any strength left in any part of my body.
A few seconds later, she removed it and gasped. I suffered from a hundred and three degrees fever, no wonder my body seemed to have been freezing pathetically. The matron wrapped me in a jet-black blanket and implored everyone else, other than my parents and the principal, to leave.
"How….how long have I been here?" I managed, unable to even lift my head or move my neck to look at everyone.
"About a day Ellie, it's nearly ten now." replied dad, with a warm and immensely worried expression on his face. This came as a pure shock to me, I had been unconscious for the last ten hours. The time since my fall during gymnastics and in the nightmare, both caused by that ruddy hooded figure, seemed to have occurred within seconds for me. My heart raced with the nightmare still fresh in my mind. Already the castle had been ruining the peace of my sleep for the last ten years, and now to add onto the terror others had joined forces with it.
"Can we take her home, ma'am?" James implored to the matron, who looked highly affronted at the question.
"Of course not, at least not tonight," she snapped, bringing a fat injection. She dried the needle with a woolen ball and pinched it roughly in my arm, as I succumbed to the pain and forced back a screech. The needle pinched me hard, and escalated the pain in my body rather than reducing it. However, something else crossed my aching mind at that moment.
"Mrs. Riley," I began slowly, fear racing through my blood like hemoglobin, leading to goose pimples all over my fragile body. "What about the gymnastics, can I have another go at it?" Mrs. Riley looked at me sympathetically and moving closer to me answered my question with quite a regretful face.
"I am really sorry Miss Parkinson, but since you fell, most, unfortunately, judges had to disqualify you and declare Miss Brown the winner," the news hit me like an iceberg, and my heart sank like titanic. I had been training and practicing for gymnastics finals for the last one and a half years, desperately wishing for a win, however, now there was no use of crying over spilled milk but I couldn't help but curse the horrors that surrounded me. What was this despicable malice which had begun to cast its aura around me? Or was I just hallucinating? As these questions began tormenting my head, James and Jared made an attempt to raise my spirits a bit.
"Hey, beauty queen! No worries at all, you'll definitely win loads of medals and sports honors at university!" James exclaimed, punching his fist in the air.
"Yes girl, you just wait and watch, we will enroll you in the best gymnastic class during summer and you see how you'll conquer your college," Jared added, holding my hand and squeezing it gently. This support from my brothers cheered me up a bit. Nevertheless, I was grateful at heart that only my leg had been fractured and I was alive, and that it could've been my head instead, which perhaps could have either damaged my brain or could have killed me. But still, the fear of the nightmare and the hooded creature continued to devour me from the inside.
I was discharged from the infirmary the next day, as the fever had subsided, but the fracture still continued to prevail, thus, causing Jared to carry me across the school and seat me inside the car. Fortunately, it was a Saturday and thus, it saved me the embarrassment of being carried away in front of the entire school. The drive from school till home, despite the heavily gloomy snowfall, felt quite graceful for some reason, it was the very first time in fifteen years that Jared had taken out his Toyota Corolla which apparently had been gruesomely damaged when I was a toddler. Its broken parts had been marvelously repaired and a glossy paint job had been given to it.
"Jared, this is so damn cool!" I cried, enjoying the comfort of the front seat. "You got this car repaired!"
"Just for you, my doll! And from today onwards I'm going to pick and drop you to school myself every day, and wherever you wish to go,"
"Will you teach me how to drive too?"
"Definitely doll, this car is for you, but you first get well soon!"
But the euphoria suddenly evaporated, as an icy cold realization hit me piercingly. It must have cost Jared his entire salary to turn the car into a brand new one. I succumbed to tears, as I felt blessed beyond belief. As the car's door opened upon reaching home, a pair of hands grabbed me by the waist, I expected it to be James, however, I received the shock of my life…. it was Matt. Alex and Judy were there to welcome me too along with my family.
It was a huge surprise for me. I blushed terribly as he carried me in his arms and dropped me on the couch inside. Mum came arrived from the kitchen dancing merrily holding a dish, while dad opened uncorked two bottles of champagne which were immensely stunning as alcohol was strictly prohibited by them. And James jumped from the side of the stairs and held a brand new pair of jeans for me and a hand-knitted sweater by mum. Mum uncovers the dish to reveal my favorite roasted turkey. I was kind of confused at the surprises and the gathering until they all screamed,
"Merry Christmas Ellie!" and I hit my forehead with my palm. I felt pathetically stupid that I had forgotten that it was Christmas morning. The ridiculous events of the last three days had hampered my memory so badly that I had forgotten it was the twenty-fifth of December. Shoving aside sympathy towards my hopeless memory I actively joined in the festive cheers. My house had been prettified; two small new chandeliers were hung on the ceiling, a large home-grown Christmas tree was placed beside the burning fireplace which was about seven feet tall, at the top was a gold star that extended towards the ceiling and small twinkling lights were hung on the tree in shades of red, green and blue that rest on a white garland that was wrapped around the tree.
Beneath the tree on the ground, was a royal blue skirt with a snowflake pattern. In addition to that, an old-fashioned train moved across the peripheral of the tree skirt and medium-sized square boxes wrapped in gold wrapping paper were placed behind the train. Small models of Santa Claus stood on tables beside the couches. The walls had been painted golden which intensified the glamor of the house even for the festive season. I was puzzled to notice these decorations, but also a tiny bubble of guilt was blown inside me as I couldn't assist my family with these decorations and also coz they had made such expensive decorations to cheer me up, which they had never done on any previous Christmas.
"Everyone gather around the table, your Christmas brunch is ready," mum called, removing the pan from the dish to reveal the luscious turkey. As I tried getting up, supporting my plastered leg, which according to the matron I had to wear for the next two weeks, I was about to lose my balance when Judy caught hold of me and took me to the dining table. The dining table was a food lover's paradise: the roast turkey laden with spiced mashed potatoes, a variety of pie's including apple, raisin, and pumpkin along with a steak and kidney pie and glasses filled with champagne (the only time of the year when alcohol was permitted by my parents).
My family and friends supported by me ravenously attacked the turkey, and as the first succulent piece hit my throat, my entire pain seemed to have vanished instantaneously. Mum's cooking was unparalleled and by the awed look on my friends' faces, I assumed that they strongly agreed. After going through several mouthfuls of the turkey and steak, and relishing the last bit of all the three scrumptious pies with some champagne, we all sat down near the fireplace warming ourselves and totally spellbound to mum's tales of my childhood.
"Well kids," she began, clearing her throat and getting seated on the couch beside the fireplace. "When Ellie was in my tummy, it was tremendously astonishing that I hardly ever felt any pain. I mean it's common knowledge that during labor every mother feels pain at some point or the other, however, this wasn't the case for me," she paused, taking a sip of tea from her mug as we all surrounded her on the ground.
"But the most mind-boggling incident was during the night before her birth. I witnessed a dream, wherein, a sagacious old lady sporting floor-length white hair appeared out of a cloud. She was dressed in a very unusual type of gown, unlike I had ever seen anyone in but possessed a glow that brightened my surroundings. She gave me glad tidings for the future, and vanished into thin air,"
Alex, Matt, and Judy were fixed on mum and eating her every word as though hypnotized by her. Even my brothers looked dumbfounded at this revelation, apparently mum had conveyed this only to dad as he seemed completely unaffected and continued reading the newspaper and smoking his cigar. It was utterly ironic, that mum experienced such appeasing dreams with regards to me, I, on the other hand, was continually tormented by those appalling nightmares which affected my reality lethally.....
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