It looked human but... not quite.
Its limbs were too long, its joints were bent backwards so knees were inside out, its skin was gray and shining like leather.
... And its face was....
It looked like it had been stitched together from two different people of two different complexions.
Its bottom lip was overly plump and huge, and its upper lip was very thin and small.
Even its eyes were thoroughly mismatched and wide open.
It looked at us, then it opened its mouth, mimicking Rachel's voice perfectly.
"Help… me…"
My jaw dropped open, and I had to look at Rachel beside me just to be sure of what I just heard.
From the corner of my eyes, in a short glimpse, I could see Ethan and Miguel briefly do the same before suddenly, Ethan bent and picked up a stone and unintentionally, some hot sand in the process.
Then he threw it at the creature, causing the stone to hit its shoulder and part of the sand to enter its eyes.
Letting go of Rachel's ankle and leaping into the air, it shrieked.
... So loud that we all pressed our hands to our ears to block the sound.
Screaming as well from the pain throbbing in my head and ears, I sunk to my knees, only briefly catching sight of the creature running on all fours into the distance, moving so fast that my eyes couldn't keep up with it.
When we regained ourselves, we got up, not bothering to dust ourselves before sprinting to our heels.
We didn't stop running until we found a small ranger station by the highway, and by then it was late afternoon.
By evening we had paid for a motel outside the reservation just upstairs in the last rooms, and could finally breathe of relief.
I couldn't believe it though; it had mimicked Rachel, PERFECTLY.
I couldn't even tell the distance.
Was that who... I mean, what tried getting into my tent that night?
I wasn't sure, and the others weren't agreeing to talk about it
Miguel said it was best we moved on and forget about it.
I sighed; how could I not talk about it?
Hell, I couldn't even stop talking about it.
Around 2 a.m., a knock sounded on my door, making me raise my head from the pillow were I'd been sulking deep in thoughts.
"Hey… Mia? It's Ethan. You awake?"
Finally, someone to talk to.
Ethan had been quiet when Miguel suggested we never talk about the creature again.
So surely he wanted to talk to me about it.
Relieved, I got up to a sitting position on the bed. "Yeah, one sec."
I walked over to the door, my right hand reaching out and closing around the door knob in a grib.
However just as I was about to twist it and pull the door open, I stopped.
What if...
What if this wasn't Ethan?
Unsure, I bit my lips for a few seconds, "Ethan?"
There was silence for a while, then suddenly the door got slammed hard, forcibly, and I gasped, shuddering and taking two steps back.
The knocking grew louder and harder, till it became frantic.
"Mia! Let me in! Please!"
It sounded just him; the same voice and same tone.
Breathing through through just my nose, I licked my dry lips nervously.
Was I overreacting?
Carefully I walked towards the reaching my hand out to it.
My hand reached the door knob again and I closed my eyes for a second, trying to wrap my hand over the door knob, but I couldn't.
My hand wouldn't stop shaking.
So I withdrew my hand.
Unsure of what else to do, I bent my head and looked through the peephole, but I saw nothing.
Surprised, I stared at it for a while, then gathered courage and opened the door.
But just as I did that, Ethan jumped at me.
"Ahhhhhh!!!!" I screamed and punched him, turning to get back into my room.
But in that instant, his hands wrapped around my waist and he pulled me, half carrying me down the corridor.
"Don't, please," I sobbed as I clawed at his hands, trying to get away.
One minute I was facing the corridor hallway, and the next, I was facing him, IT.
Scared, I closed my eyes, and he pressed his hands on either side of my trembling face.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey," he called softly.
"It's me. Open your eyes. It's me Ethan, Mia."
Slowly I opened my eyes, blinking repeatedly as I stared at Ethan who was closely looking at me and still holding with side of my face.
"You okay?" He asked, and I nodded then shook my head.
"It came here, it was at my door."
"I know, I know. Miguel's dead."
I paused, my eyes tearing instantly while my lips quivered at the news, "Wh--- what?"
"It got him. Come on, let's go."
"But, what about Rachel?" I asked, my feet following Ethan hurriedly while he pulled me forward.
"She's------" He started to say, but then------
"I'm right here."
I turned to see Rachel between us and the door leading to the staircase downstairs.
"Rachel..."
Her eyes widened instantly when she saw Ethan beside me.
"Mia get away from him!"
I froze.
"What?"
"Ethan is dead, that's not Ethan."
I stumbled back away from him instantly my eyes glancing at him fearfully.
But he shook his head, "Mia don't. Rachel is dead. I'm Ethan."
"Mia don't listen to him, come to me. He'll kill you."
I was confused now, both of them were claiming they were my real friends, and both of them were on either side of me, reach out their hands.
I was looking back and forth between them, desperately wondering who was real.
I was scared, what if I went with the wrong person.
Then my eyes went to Rachel.
"Mia," Ethan called, drawing my gaze to him.
His voice had gone soft now, "I didn't kill you at the door did I? You know me, look at me. Do I look like a monster?"
"He'll eat you if you listen to him," Rachel interjected, but I wasn't paying attention to her, my eyes were on Ethan instead.
"She's killed everyone in this motel already. Just listen do you hear anyone?"
I paused.
That was true, I couldn't hear any noise whatsoever, now goosebumps filled my skin.
"Mia!" Rachel called urgently and I turned to her.
Her right hand was placed on her chest. "I'm your friend."
"Mia," Ethan said, his voice slightly breaking so much that I turned to him again, worry, confusion and fear blending into one on my face.
"She has six fingers."
My head whipped around instantly, my gaze dropping down to her fingers splayed on her chest.
Indeed there were six fingers.
But Rachel never had six fingers; we were friends for a year, and I'd never seen her have six fingers.
I paled, turning around in a split second and running into straight into Ethan's open arms.
"I got you, I got you," he muttered into my ears, then added in a deep grovel-----
"Good girl."
I froze, jerking in his hold, but he held me tightly.
And I trembled when hus eyes turned pitch black with no white in them.
I'd chosen the wrong person!
"Good job brother." Rachel said from behind me.
"But I'm catching the next prey myself. I don't like this skin I'm wearing so much."
My hair suddenly got yanked back forcefully, making me turn to look at Rachel, IT, with its black eyes staring at me with hunger in them.
"You're so dumb," she muttered and bit into my neck.
I could barely scream, my own words were choking in my throat that was bleeding out.
Pain shot through me, and I tried to move my hands to stop the bleeding and push IT away from my neck, but I couldn't.
... What was wearing Ethan's skin was holding me tightly.
"What are you doing?" He rasped in a tight growl.
"We're supposed to take this to the tribe to feed."
She gurgled in response, tearing flesh out from my neck and shoving it into her mouth while I convulsed in pain and sputtered blood from my mouth.
"You worry too much. Relax and eat first, you can take the other bodies to the tribe so they can feed later."
With a growl, Ethan's skin wearer lets go of me and drops to his knees in from of me.
And before I can even think what's going on, he rips my stomach open, making me gurgle and spit a tuff of blood, screaming with a strength I didn't know I still had left in me when he reached his hand and dragged my intestines out.
He was making slurping noises as he swallowed them whole, reaching up at a point to take a large bite directly from my open stomach.
And all the while, Rachel's skin wearer kept drinking and chewing from my neck as she mentioned how it's her favourite spot.
Suddenly the both of them stopped biting and chewing at me.
"Well, isn't it another food and skin."
Weakly I raise my eyelids that I hadn't realised I'd closed, to see Miguel standing close to the stairway.
Miguel.
He was still alive.
My lips trembled as they spread into a pained smile.
However, numbly, I felt THEM let go of me, allowing me to fall harshly to the floor and leaving me to walk towards Miguel.
Blood was leaking from me, and from the odd angle I'd landed on the floor, my inside out through was directly dripping blood into my eyes.
It hurt, and I tried to blink it away, but more kept falling right in.
I was in huge pain, still I forced wherever last bit of strength into my tongue and said to Miguel.
"Run."
He got the message, and I watched him flee while THEY went after him.
My eyes were blinking rapidly now, but it wasn't just because of the blood entering into my eyes now;
I was losing blood, every last bit of strength and energy was slipping out of me, and with how my inside were spilled everywhere on the floor, I...
I knew that I wasn't going to make it.
I just hoped that Miguel will survive.