Believe Me - Luke Castellan

p r o l o g u e || LILY

THINGS had gotten worse.

At first, I had been led to believe that I just had an overactive imagination. That the creatures I saw lurking outside of the school were nothing but hallucinations. It got to the point that I believed it myself.

Until my thirteenth birthday.

School had been the same as usual. I struggled through my classes, not being able to focus on a thing. Part of it was my ADHD, but I couldn't stand to sit still when I was reminded of the festivities my mom had planned for when I got home.

It had always just been my mom and I. She was the best. She worked her butt off to make sure she could afford to send me to these fancy schools that would help me learn better. I didn't think they ever truly helped.

Anyways, when school had finally ended, I practically ran from the building. My mom had promised a full evening of activities, just the two of us. I was so focused on getting home that I almost didn't notice the beast that had been watching me from an alleyway across the street.

Key word: almost.

At first I had thought it was a sort of deformed deer. But then I realized it was far too large. It stood on all fours, but still was at least seven feet. Its face was unsettling. I wanted to say it looked like a deer, but the more I looked at it, the more things seemed to be wrong with it. Its antlers were huge, for one. They stuck out of the side of its head, twisting over themselves. And its eyes were way too far apart. It looked like something a second grader would have drawn for art class.

What is that thing?

Just your imagination. I reassured myself.

I squeezed my eyes shut, willing the thing to go away. I counted to ten, just as the school counsellors had told me to do. When I opened my eyes again, my stomach dropped.

The thing hadn't disappeared.

In fact, it had moved closer. One of its hooves was above the ground, frozen in place, almost as if it had stopped walking when it had seen my eyes were open again.

Screw my imagination.

I decided that I would run.

This deer/moose thing wasn't real, but I couldn't help but get a sinking feeling in my stomach when I laid eyes upon it. If I could just get home and hear my mother's voice, all would be well.

"Lily, sweetheart, where are you going?"

I stopped running, my eyebrows pinched in confusion. Why was my mother on the street, a block from our house? I turned towards the voice, expecting to see Mom with grocery bags in her hands or something. But instead, I saw the creature running at me, its mouth spread impossibly wide.

I let out a yelp of fear and dove to the side, narrowly escaping the large antlers of the monster, which I now noticed were also razor sharp. My palms scraped against the asphalt, but I had no time to register the pain, for the monster had spun back around, its beady eyes trained on me.

"Lily, honey, come to mama."

It sounded like my mom.

How did it sound like my mom?

It pawed at the ground while continuing to speak to me in my moms voice. I had watched enough television that I knew it was about to charge. Instead of running as I had last time, I stood my ground. It charged.

At the last second, I dove out of the way. The moose monster blew right past me, running at a speed that surely would have flattened me hadn't I moved out of the way. The monster ran for at least ten more yards. When it stopped, it let out a huff of frustration and turned back. I realized that when it turned, it had to move its entire body. It couldn't move its neck.