Firefly

Unfortunately, Orrin stepped out of the way just before my fist collided with his jaw. The force I had exerted myself with then turned into the catapulting energy that sent me flying toward the open window. Thankfully, I caught myself just before I toppled over the ledge. While regaining my balance, I felt a stony, bitterly cold sensation wrapping around my throat. Before I could react, something had me pinned by the collar, pressing me down, and holding me over the ledge of the window threateningly. Panicked, my eyes slowly trailed up its sleeves, to its shoulders, finally landing on Orrin’s monstrous countenance which was now icily glaring down at me. His cigarette, held between his tightened lips, tilted upward as his mouth twisted into his familiar baleful grin. “I’m warning you,” he hissed through clenched teeth. The cigarette bobbed up and down over his lips, sending hot speckles of ash falling on my face, burning my nose and eyelids as he spoke. He pressed me further down. I could feel my body weight shifting, further affecting my balance over the window seal, dragging me toward the ground far below. I then watched in horror as Orrin’s ashen eyes lost all color, fading into a solid white. His skin morphed into an ashy pallor that only the sting of death itself can provide. And his lips shriveled into a thin, scabby slit that cracked and twisted itself around the cigarette. Somehow, I knew this was no mind trick--that this monstrous vision before me was the real deal. The smoldering, toxic air that was in Anna’s bedroom had returned, scalding my eyes and throat as I struggled to breathe despite the tight grasp of Orrin’s marble hand clenching my throat. The atmosphere was now consumed with the smell of sulfur and charred flesh, announcing the presence of evil.