Faun-Bites: Now with Double the Holiday Spirit

I know, I know, its been awhile. I've been preoccupied with NaNoWriMo though, so I find that to be a valid excuse. Oh, and I won. So, now I'm a somewhat seasoned writer, with two, now three short stories, and two 50, 000 word novels. (They're not precisely 50k words long. Add a few hundred or so.) So in the spirit of doing crazy things, I'll put up some random story thing I just wrote. I blame the Pan's Labyrinth soundtrack, which is awesome by the way, though I still need to see the movie. This is why I have to be careful during freewriting for English class. (There was no editing done, as this is a first draft. It took around ten minutes. And no, I don't have mental problems.)

The Curious Death of Jay

“Remember to clean up the attic,” Jay’s father had told him a week ago. Despite that, he had neglected to do so. It was more of a fear of the attic; a fear of the dark, and those things that lurk in it. Even when you grow up you still keep that fear of the dark. It’s instinctive. You may try to logically persuade yourself that there’s nothing in your closet, but there is. Jay found that out much too late.

With a yawn Jay fumbled with his keys and swung open the creaky door to his house. The paint on the door, which was red, was starting to chip. Jay wasn’t exactly what you would call...quick to get to things. He was a slacker, and he even admitted it. He shrugged off his suit and tossed it over the railing. With a stretch he placed his briefcase onto the floor next to the railings before trudging up the steps. He walked into the bathroom and looked up at the ceiling.

There was a cord dangling from a panel in the ceiling. It was the door to the attic, though Jay had only been there once, when he had moved there. It creeped him out too much, to think of what horrible monsters lay in wake for him up there in the dark. No one would hear me scream, Jay mused as he pulled on the cord and watched with boredom as a small stairway unfolded itself. Jay walked over to it and took his first hesitant step towards the attic before running back downstairs. Flashlight, flashlight, Jay thought as he rummaged through his cabinet. At last, he took the flashlight and headed back to the staircase to the attic.

Jay flicked the flashlight on and then step by step, headed up the staircase. Every step made a creak, and scared Jay even more. At last he stood at the top of the staircase. He shone the flashlight around the room, fighting the urge to run back downstairs. The dark shadows dancing on the walls terrified him. They were monsters, demons reaching out for him. Jay shook his head before pulling the staircase back up. There was a click. Jay tried to push the staircase back down, but it had locked in place somehow. Jay felt an overwhelming desire to flee, but his only escape route was blocked off. Jay turned around, trying to think of an alternate way to escape, but found only a dusty window. The window was on the second story, and though Jay’s fear was great, he couldn’t bring himself to jump. Jay heard a shuffling noise from behind him and quickly turned and shone the flashlight at the source of the sound. Jay screamed at the sight of the culprit. It was what looked like a faun; from the waist up it looked like a horribly mutilated human. Below that it was built like a goat. Its skin could have been compared to bark like scales. It had two mishap horns that looked almost as if they were about to fall off of its head.

“Jaaaay,” The creature croaked. Jay stepped backwards and tripped over a nearby box. The creature advanced on Jay. Jay instinctively put up his hands and started to edge backwards towards the window. At this point, his fear had turned into a full out terror. It was a fear so strong that it made him consider the option of death for a moment.

“L....Leave...M.....Me alone,” Jay stuttered as he shone the flashlight at the creatures face. The creature let out a sickly bleat before it quickened its pace. Jay went to get to his feet so he could run away, but the creature grabbed him before he could.

“You’ll....diiiiie,” The creature hissed as it held Jay in front of it. Then it slowly hobbled over to the window. At that point Jay had simply snapped. He did nothing as the creature smashed through the window with a disfigured fist and licked the blood up. Jay made one last whimper as the creature threw him outside.

Jay landed with a sickening thump on the cold hard ground. He saw the figure of the creature in the attic window before he boarded Charon’s boat. A small pool of blood formed around Jay as the first snow of the year started to come down. It was stained with blood.