"Sacrifice"

The moment I stepped out of the door, I realized something horrible: the apartment keys were not in my pocket. I was able to catch the door just in time.

I darted back inside and walked to the kitchen, certain that I had left the keys somewhere on the counter.

Then I heard the noises. Someone had entered my home. I hadn’t shut the apartment door behind me. Why would I have? I had figured nothing bad could happen in the few seconds it took me to walk to the kitchen and back.

Terrified like never before in my life, I got in a crouching position and started sneaking towards the kitchen door. There were several intruders, I could hear their voices.

Their bizarre, twisted voices.

-„She’s GONE, isn’t she?! ALL gone, and she left the door open! Ooooh, she left the door open, what a lucky day!“

-„What a LUCKY day! Today’s the day!!“

„Today’s the day!!“

-„Today’s THE DAY!“

How I cursed myself for having left my cell phone in the bedroom. If only I could get there… If only I could get past the intruders undetected…

But nothing prepared me for the sight of the intruders themselves. Or for anything else that happened afterwards, for that matter.

I only risked a quick peak into the hallway, but what I saw almost made me betray my presence with a blood-curling scream.

Three short, hunched figures covered in grey, wrinkly skin. Minuscule black eyes. Vicious looking incisors protruding from their tiny mouths. Their legs were ridiculously short, but their arms were long and spindly, giving them an attack radius of four meters, at the very least.

They waddled into my bedroom, of all places. So out of the apartment was the only viable option.

I crept through the hallway, wondering at which point I should just get up and sprint towards the open door.

I tried to ignore the ruckus the intruders made as they went through my stuff, tearing my clothes apart, tossing furniture around. But when I passed the bedroom, I couldn’t keep myself from peaking around the corner.

-„YESSS!““

I almost jumped out of my skin. But it wasn’t me they had discovered.

The biggest of the intruders held up one of my red high heels. Triumphantly.

-„We HAVE it!“

-„Ooooh, there it is, there it isss!“

-„The PERFECT sacrifice!!“

-„Thought it could hide! Thought it could hide from US!“

-„Silly goose! Silly animal!“

Incredulous, I watched as the three intruders hopped onto my bed – because of course they could jump like raptors – and put the shoe at the centre.

When one of the intruders raised a pair of scissors it had grabbed from my desk, the shoe started screaming in a high-pitched voice.

„NO! OH GOD, please no!! Let me goooo! Noooo!!“

The shoe was struggling under their claws like a fish in a net, desperately trying to get free. To no avail.

The intruders were chanting now. The shoe’s screams grew ever more desperate, until they were nothing but high-pitched squawks, blending into the monotonous chanting of its captors.

Then the knife came down. A fountain of blood erupted from the shoe, and after a nerve-wrecking crescendo, its screaming finally stopped.

After a few seconds of silence, the intruders cheered.

-„It is DONE!“

-„It is done, children!“

-„It is DONE!! CHILDREN! CHILDREN!“

They started licking the blood off the sheets, gurgling euphorically, shouting triumphantly.

Before I was able to pull myself away from the nightmarish scene, they got off the bed and started heading back outside.

I managed to flee into another room, just before they could spot me. They were chuckling, patting one another on the back, burping, farting. Not that I could really read their demeanour, but it looked to me as if they were drunk.

The last I ever saw of the creatures were their backs as they waddled out into the staircase.

I let myself sink to the floor, staring at the wall until I was absolutely sure I couldn’t hear them anymore.

Later, I somehow mustered the strength to walk back into my bedroom. As if I was possessed, I reached out to pick up the filthy, gutted shoe on my bed.

When I touched it, it wheezed one last time, and I finally let out that scream that I had been holding back for way too long.