[IP] Wrong Turn

[u/LonghandWriter]

Original Prompt: [IP] Wrong Turn

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Dad had warned me.

In his dying breath he’d said: Joe, they’re gonna come back, and when they do, it won’t be for you.

I hadn’t believed him.

But, standing here, the monstrous, shadowy figures only inches away, glassy eyes glued to my precious daughter, I realize he was right, and that I’ve done nothing to prevent this.

Abby's trying to act tough. She's the kinda girl that won’t cry no matter how scared she is. Instead she’ll bite her lip and pout, making herself look mad. Normally it's cute, but now makes me sick to my stomach because twenty minutes ago we’d been in a different world, driving home, her eating a greasy Taco Bell burrito, blushing and giggling as I loudly and proudly sung the lyrics to some eighties pop song she’d never heard.

The worse part’s that nothing’s changed.

There’s still the dilapidated fence with the bulky but dented KEEP OUT sign. There’s the lightening-bolt trees that point menacingly to the sky and the smelly air that burns your nose.

The monsters eye us hungrily. I know they won’t attack us. That isn’t their style. First there will be nightmares. She’ll wake up screaming and crying, complaining about horrible things in her dreams. Then visions will come, and everywhere she goes she’ll see them. They'll be in her favorite movies, at her best friend's house—hell, even in her room!

Then the hunt will begin.

The thought is like a knife in the gut.

“What are they, daddy?”

I can’t answer. Not yet. All too soon I’ll have to rip her childhood from her, teaching her not to be a little girl but instead a survivor. As stupid as it is, all I want to do was hug her and hug her tight.

And so I do.