“How was I supposed to know it was haunted?” Jacob asked, watching as the shadows started swirling ominously, and the temperature plummeted.
“I don’t know,” Jade replied, glaring at him. “Maybe it was the obscure dialect written in blood, on an ancient artifact you stole from an unmarked grave at an archeological dig?”
Echoing laughter filled the air, and Jade felt something pull at her hair. She batted at the air around her head, but connected with nothing.
“Well, besides that!” Jacob said, his eyes flicking around the room, knowing something was there, just out of sight.
“That wasn’t enough for you?” Jade’s skin prickled, as though being poked by hundreds of needles.
“I didn’t think curses were, you know, real,” Jacob explained, trying to fight the sudden vertigo that washed over him, struggling to stay standing.
“Next time, don’t read the fucking words out loud,” Jade snapped, the ringing in her ears growing louder and louder. “Have you never read a book, or watched a movie?”
“That’s fiction, not real. Just like this isn’t!” Jacob shouted. “There was probably a drug or something on the artifact, and this is all hallucinations.”
Suddenly, everything stopped. The room was still, the temperature cool but not freezing. No shadows lurked, no evil laughter or strange murmurs.
“See?” Jacob panted, leaning over and bracing his arms against his thighs. “I told you. Not real.”
Jade opened her mouth to retort, before seeing a huge dark creature rear up behind Jacob. Fangs, claws, matted fur mixed with muddy scales. Its eyes glowed a sickly yellow, drool dripped from its jowls, and the smell was otherworldly. It was a nightmare creature.
“You just had to go and taunt it, didn’t you?”
Inspired by a writing prompt from The Character Comma’s prompt generator.
© The Lightning Tower, 2020