"The Creature That Lurks" by Jonathan B

     I wake up, a rare glimpse of sunlight bathing my skin, as it has shown through the window. Waking up felt like such a pain, my body aching from working long hours in a coal mine. I live in a town in Scotland called Fort Augustus. Our town has been known for Loch Ness monster sightings, but honestly, I believe in none of that crap, it’s obviously another outlandish way to get more tourists into our town. Honestly, I have never been the social type, I always hated associating with my neighbors and since I’ve always kept to myself my co-workers look at me like I’m crazy, they have no idea what I have going on in my life. I’ve been taking care of my mother for about two years now, she has been mentally diagnosed with schizophrenia and I feel like the stories revolving around our home town only make her condition worse. It has been really hard taking care of her, I really do try my best to afford her pills and give her a good life but it doesn’t seem like it’s enough. She’s been having recent hallucinations, talking about this monster that has been roaming around our lake.  Probably another one of the town’s stories for tourists, but I’ve been getting more worried about her.
There’s been a lot of commotion in town lately, news started spreading through the town like a flood. They say people are starting to go missing overnight. My mother isn’t getting any better either. When it hits dusk my mother yells on our porch saying she sees this beautiful creature in the lake, but every single time I look towards the lake I see nothing at all. It must be all the stories getting to her again; I just wish this God-forsaken town could move on from these myths and tall tales. Nothing but an old wife's tale that seems to take over the town. She’s constantly getting out of bed at night, at first it was sleepwalking but now she’s fully conscious. With all the rumors of how or why people are going missing, it only makes me stress out.
      The air felt colder; dark clouds started to stretch across the sky. It must be raining soon. I was sound asleep until lightning strikes and thunder roars. I know mother doesn't mind storms at all, but I felt the sudden urge to go check on her. I walked in her room to check on her but nothing, she was gone and it seemed like she disappeared into thin air. Was it the kidnappings! I grabbed my ax that was laid against the front door and run outside. All I heard was my mother screaming filled the air. I was frozen in fear, has she been kidnapped?
      My senses came back to me and I ran through the front door to follow her. There she was in the lake, I could not believe my eyes. It was a creature, not the Loch Ness monster, but some horse. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Beautiful was the only word that came to mind when I saw it. Its gorgeous silky white coat shone brightly in the moonlight, its long white hair looked softer than anything I had ever seen. It’s deep blue eyes shone in the night and sparkled like a pair of sapphire gems. A loud shriek echoed in my ears. I snapped out of my trance and saw my mother her body merging into the horses. This was wrong, the horse was no longer a beautiful white coat, but a murky black skin. This was a kelpie, an old tale of demon horse in disguise. They lure in victims with their looks and once they touch them their body turns into black sticky goo and they drag them into the water to eat.
     I saw my mom in agony and tried to help her but, she was stuck and I realized so was I. I panicked, I couldn’t get my hands off its thick fur, it was like my hand was trapped in ink. I remembered that my ax was on the floor and struggled to get it. After a couple of tries of tugging and pulling, I managed to get a hold of it. I knew there was only one thing I could do, I grabbed

the ax and hacked at my hand that was stuck. I could not bear the pain, it was so bad it felt like I was going to die. I tried swinging at the horse, but I became dizzy and weak. I just felt everything around me spinning, my mother’s scream was fading, I collapsed in the floor and I just looked at my mom, tears streaming from her face. Then it was pitch black.
     I woke up, and right beside me was what was left of my mother, body parts shredded and scattered. A nearby neighbor saw me and immediately screamed. I was still in a lot of pain and I felt weak. I couldn’t get up. After a couple of minutes, the police arrived. I saw them running towards me and I felt like there was finally a sense of hope. They were getting close and they started reaching for there guns. I tried to explain that I had nothing to do with my mother’s death, but they didn’t believe me. I yelled at them telling them about the Kelpie but they looked at me like I was insane. They cuffed me and took me to an asylum, where I was left to rot. I warned them that the monster was still out there, but no one believes me. One thing I do know is that every day more people are going missing, and that beast is still out there.