What Would Become of Her

Even though it was her last day of high school ever, Charlotte decided to play hooky. She left home with her backpack, waved goodbye to her dad from the sidewalk, then ditched her twin after they walked out of their dad’s view to gallivant in the woods. There wasn’t exactly a path to follow, but Charlotte knew her way around. She knew every nook and cranny. She knew which trees provided the best shade to rest, and which streams were shallow enough to walk through without getting the bottom of her skirt wet. The woods were like a second home to her.

She knew when something about them changed.

A log lay beside a shallow stream, and she loved to sit on it and listen to the natural world. Yet, when she sat on it today, she didn’t hear the birds or see any squirrels climbing up and down trees. Everything was quiet. The wind didn’t dare brush against the trees and tickle the leaves.

After sitting down, it took Charlotte a few moments to see why. The woods had a new inhabitant.

On the other side of the stream before her, a white head poked out of the grass. It was facing straight up to the sky. The rest of its body was unseen, perhaps still buried. Many thoughts popped into her head, but the first was, what the hell is this thing? It had a human-shaped head, but did not look like any human she had seen before. Nor any animal. While the head was white, it didn’t look like bone, but not exactly like flesh either. It was almost slimy. There were indents where eyes belonged, but all she saw were two black orbs.

Is it alive? Is it breathing? Just looking at it, she could barely breathe. More thoughts polluted her mind too, about how long it had been buried, and who buried it—who unburied it?

Standing up, Charlotte threw her backpack onto the ground, picked up her skirt, and began to cross the small stream. The water was very warm, which she should have expected, given the rather humid air. Not only did the sun mercilessly beat down on her, but on everything it had the displeasure of meeting.

As she crossed the stream and got closer to the creature, a bit of water slipped into her shoes, and sweat started to pool on her brow. For a moment, she considered turning around, but the idea of putting her back into the creature filled her with dread. She chose to leave her backpack—and the stuffed bear she carried with her everywhere—behind. She would just have to make do without both now.

She was doing the bear a favor anyway. He didn’t need to see this thing’s face. They couldn’t both have nightmares.

The closer Charlotte got to it, the quieter everything seemed. She stepped out of the stream and onto the grass and knew that in the mind of the woods, she was the center of attention. The star of the show. Creatures of the forest would poke out of their hiding spots and watch her; see what would become of her for getting so close to the creature.

Closer and closer. Charlotte calmed down more. The creature didn’t seem alive. It wasn’t moving and certainly couldn’t be breathing. Yet it unnerved her that even up close, its face was so barren. It had no details. Except it was glossy. No, slimy; she was right before calling it slimy. The creature’s face had a slickness to it.

All in all, as startling as the sight of it was, the creature wasn’t scarier up close than it was far away. It almost looked peaceful.

Charlotte kneeled beside it and wondered what to do. Part of her yearned to learn more about the creature, to study it. To unbury it and discover every little secret it had. And yet most of her wanted to slowly back away from it until she could no longer remember its face. Without the wind to offer her a reprieve, she decided it would be best to leave the creature alone. She didn’t want to get any sweatier than she already was. Besides, surely, someone else would stumble upon it soon. If the creature was meant to be discovered, then it would be.

So, for now, Charlotte just continued to stare at the creature with wide eyes. It was a little difficult as her bangs kept getting in the way. They desperately needed a trim; just long enough to get into her face, but not quite long enough to stay tucked away behind her ears. They stuck to her skin too, and made her feel disgusting. She was grateful for summer for many reasons, but the heat wasn’t among them.

Summer meant more time outside, which was always a blessing. It meant no school, which Charlotte loved because she was rather lousy at school. Now that she was graduating, she couldn’t wait to start working. Though she had little idea what she wanted to spend her life doing, she figured anything would be better than school.

Summer meant more time with her sister too. They were best friends, and also each other's only friends. The two of them were not only identical in appearance, but also in personality. While both were quiet, people seemed to interpret Charlotte’s silence as judgment and Vesta’s silence as respectful. Maybe that was just a complicated way to say she needed to smile more.

Charlotte sighed and shook her head at the mysterious creature. She took her eyes off of it, as a bird rushed from one tree to the next, and as she did, she heard rustling in the grass. Her head snapped back down to the creature.

No longer was it looking directly up at the sky. Its head turned to face her.

Charlotte jumped backward and screamed. Dust and dirt flew into the air as she scrambled back from it. But for every step she took away, it took two steps closer.

It seemed then, to Charlotte, that the creature being buried was just an illusion, or a trick, because when it stood, the dirt hardly held it back. It stood with ease and towered over her. Not only was the creature twice her height, but it was so lanky that it looked to be half her weight. While stained brown from the dirt, she could see that underneath it all, the body was the same slick, slimy white as the face.

Before she could even think of standing, the creature stuck its arm out and clamped its warm, clawed hands around her throat. It lifted her off the ground, and though she tried to claw at the arm, it seemed the creature hardly even cared.

Her eyes bulged, and her face turned bright red, then her vision went black, and the creature tossed her lifeless body to the ground.

The creature would continue on to town. It was one of many creatures that would trample over Charlotte’s body, for it was not alone in whatever horrific plans it had for the small town it set its sights on.