THE WHITE CREATURE

I was walking down the road at night. There was no one in sight, not a sound anywhere. It was so
quiet that I heard the ticking sound of the big clock in the clock tower, from half a mile away. I
looked at my watch, but it was hard to see properly and to maintain a clear vision because all the
street lights were flickering. Under different circumstances, all of this would’ve been scary, but
I was used to it. I had been in the library all day studying for my exam tomorrow. This exam was
very important to me. But, I admit I might’ve gone a little off topic when I saw a book called
‘Urban legends.’

The part which grabbed my attention was a half ripped page about a creature in white appearing at
midnight to scavenge and rumble in the dumpsters in search of food. That was all, the other part of
the page was torn for some reason. I kept on walking without stopping. I was so sleepy and
stressed out that I didn’t realize I was walking in the middle of the road. I felt as if something was
watching and stalking me, but when I looked behind me, no one was there. I kept on walking and
started hearing strange noises all around me. Noises like something was being strangled by its neck
and was trying to scream with a mouthful of saliva.

I shook off my now intensifying fear and kept walking, a little faster this time, because it was
getting creepy. I passed some pitch-black alleys, the moor on the other side of the road was silent
and eerie. On other nights, the moors were beautiful with a lot of fireflies, lighting it brighter than
any street light in town. Then, just when I convinced myself it was all pretty normal, a trash can
fell with a ‘clank’ and rolled towards my feet. My heart raced, and I looked at the place where the
trash can had rolled from. I couldn’t explain much about what I saw, but it was like a flash of
white disappear in lightning speed.

I started running. I wanted to call somebody, but who would believe me? I ran for about fifteen
minutes and stopped, panting. I thought the trouble had passed and started walking towards my
house which was still thirty minutes away. I started to feel dizzy, and my head hurt very badly.
After a minute, I passed out in the middle of the road and the last thing I remembered was hearing
the strangling noise again, much closer this time.

I woke up with a start and looked around me. I didn’t know where I was. Slowly my vision
cleared, I was in the town’s hospital. I felt better. Sunlight entered the room through the window,
falling on my cheek; it felt really good. I touched my head and took it back suddenly; I realized my
head was bandaged and wondered what happened that fearful night, about how I got to the
hospital. I groaned as I got off the bed and realized something that I didn’t notice before. There
was no one to be seen, the hospital seemed abandoned with not a sound anywhere. I started
walking around the hospital calling out “Hello?” every few minutes.

The inside of the hospital was very dark; it was really hard to see. I was in the first-floor hallway
when I saw a green light flickering from a ward on the side. I quickly went in and saw a nurse in a
dark corner of the ward, crouched with her hands on her head, mumbling something in a strange
tone. The room was lit up by the pale green colour of the TV which was flickering. I backed
off terrified.

Call me what you like, but I took my hint and ran out of the hospital. The sun had gone down; it
was almost as dark as the hospital. How could it be night? Surely I couldn’t have been in the
hospital for that long. Scared now, I kept running all around the town looking for someone, for
anyone. I was in tears and my body was trembling. I knelt in the middle of the road, crying. Just when I thought I was going insane, I heard some noises like whispers. It was people! I was so
happy to hear that sound and started following it until I realized where they were coming from. It
was coming from down the sewer.

I removed the lid, gently placed it aside and started climbing down the sewer in complete darkness.
Just as my feet hit the ground, the noises stopped. I stood there for a while until I pulled myself
together and started walking forward. After about three minutes of walking, I hit myself on
something that felt like a wall. My nose hurt. “Ow!” I said, as my voice echoed continuously down
the sewer lines. I realized that I had hit a door, not a wall. Slowly finding the latch, I opened the
door.

It opened with a creak and the next thing I saw was extremely terrifying. I saw all the people in
the town glued to the wall. They were inside things that looked like massive amber-coloured eggs.
I stood there petrified for a moment and then nervously stepped forward and got close to one of the
people and realized that none of them was dead. They looked like they were in a never-ending
nightmare, doing quick and quirky movements inside the eggs.

I desperately searched for my mother and found her at last; she was on the side of the wall in an
egg-like thing. I called out for her but nothing happened, so I tried to break the egg-like structure
but it was no use. Suddenly, I heard the door close behind me and then I saw it. It was a
humanoid creature with large eyes, a mouth full of razor-sharp fangs, a reptilian-like white skin
and talons. I screamed as the thing jumped at me.

I woke up and found my mother hugging me. I wasn’t sure about what was real and what was fake,
but my mother’s hug seemed so warm and comforting that I knew she was there. She found out I
was awake and started telling me everything about how I was found, lying in the middle of the
road. I looked around, the hospital was bright and busy as ever. Never have I been so happy to see
people again!

Three weeks after being discharged from the hospital, I was once again walking down the street at
night from the library. But, I stopped when I heard the strangling noise…

Geinoth Oshada