Never Say Such Things by Alexia Purdy Read Free Book Online Page A

fell for its beauty, the slight pleasantries of bad things. I fall for it every time for I had nothing but faith that everything and everyone was good. This was my undoing.
    As I turned to head back home, the sky seemed to darken even more. It was late morning, but the morbid skies sucked the light away as if a late evening’s light had traded for the now. I felt the hair on my neck rise and the gooseflesh contract along my arms as the feeling of being watched made my stomach knot up. I threw my eyes about, finding nothing out of the ordinary in the grime of the alleyway.
    Large garbage cans stood rusty and rank with most of their contents strewed about the cobblestones of the walkway. Musty rot clung to the corners where the building met the street. An old stale and ripped couch stood soaked and smelling of old cigarettes and dog hair, flushed to the wall. I wondered briefly if someone slept on it. It was disgusting and I shook the dread away.
    As I stepped forward a voice echoed against the walls, snarling and contriving.
    “Lost are ya?” the man snickered.
    I turned around slowly, gripping the strap to my back pack and readying to run. The man was dressed head to toe in black, and a soaked, black ski cap framed his face, hiding his eyes and hair. His face was covered in stubble and his teeth flashed a sinister smile. A flash of metal twirled in his hand as he crept closer, obviously looking to rob or maim me.
    Great.
    “Er…nope. Not at all, thanks.” I turned to run but the guy grabbed my pack and pulled me down with it. I struggled to grasp my footing and tug back with all my strength. My expensive textbooks were in that pack. No way did I have enough to replace them. What would he do with a bagful of books anyway? His ignorance made me seethe and more determined to win.
    “Just give me the damn bag!” he grunted , as I pulled and kicked him in the shin. His grasp waned and sent me flying back into a cold splash of muddy water. My pants were ruined but I had my bag. I looked up at my assailant as I scrambled to my feet, but he wasn’t there. He wasn’t anywhere, anymore.
    “What the…” My words slipped out of my mouth as my eyes came to rest upon a scene from a horror movie. A ghastly looking gargoyle with vast wings, like a bat’s, stood on hind legs as its massive muscular arms held up the robber against the rough brick o f the building. His face turned a rancid shade of purple as the thing squeezed its taloned fingers around his neck, whispering to him just low enough for me to not understand its words. Even the whispers rumbled around like a growl. I couldn’t move. My feet refused to take me−frozen in shock and disbelief. Nothing I’d ever known would’ve ever prepared me for this. Nothing.
    “Please…don’t kill me..” The robber’s own breath barely croaked from his lips as he begged the thing for mercy.
    “You have no grounds to ask for that. Your soul is tainted. You belong to me .”
    With that, the demon pulled in a breath, sucking out a vapor from the man’s lips as she snapped his neck. It savored his essence as it dropped his lifeless body with a dull thump onto the wet pavement.
    N o .
    I inched back, trying to pull my unwilling body into motion. It was stiff , like something held me in its grasp, pushed at me and turned my bones into lead. Nevertheless, I moved back, slowly, away from this unearthly beast.
    “Stop.” Its voice boomed in my ears, making me gasp as the rain spilled down harder, stinging my skin and making it harder to see.
    “What are you?” a foreign voice asked, making me wonder who would be so brave to demand questions from this beast. The Gargoyle smiled, its stone teeth sharpened to points that nothing but a shark could compare to it. I was surprised to realize it was me asking this of it.
    “You cannot leave. I compel you to stay.” Its voice smoothed out into a woman’s voice, but it still echoed in my head like a gong.
    I remained in my spot. Unable