Coolest Story of the Month

The Nameless
by Luna

It was a crisp, autumn evening in the Bronx, typical of any other in my childhood, and the sun was starting to disappear. My best friend was only eight years old and I was seven. We had been playing outside for hours and realized it was almost time to go inside for dinner. It was just about dusk and it was starting to get a bit chilly as the wind blew the fallen leaves around in circles. We picked up our toys and ran up the stairs to find out if dinner was ready yet. The apartment building I lived in was actually a large private house, and when you'd first open the front door, you would see a large, narrow staircase going up about twenty steps to the top floor, with two doors on either side of the bottom and top of the stairs. My apartment was on the bottom left. There was a sunroof at the very top of the staircase, between the two facing doors of each upstairs apartment, with a good amount of twilight leaking in for us to make out the hallway and each others' faces. As my friend knocked on the door so we could be let in for dinner, I casually glanced up the stairs and was absolutely shocked by what I saw. Praying that my eyes deceived me, I gazed upon a tall, leathery, winged creature with glowing, blood-red eyes, standing directly under the light of the sunroof.

I could describe it as somewhat reptilian, but with visible human characteristics, albeit gruesome ones. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before and nothing I ever hope to see again! It stood upright on two legs, if not a bit stooped over like an old man, had abnormally long arms with what appeared to be talons at the ends of its spindly fingers. The arms were thin, yet muscular. Its torso was unnaturally long as well, and I could easily make out the shape of the thing's rib cage. Its legs appeared strong, but gangly, with knobby knees and large, bony feet. I am almost positive there were also long, sharp looking talons on its toes, but this is more of a vague remembrance, as it is 20 years later. Its wings were rather large, with taut, thin, greenish-gray skin. The skin itself looked to be dry, yet with a bit of gleam to it. Perhaps this was because the skin was pulled so tightly across its bones. It was easy to see the details of its flesh; the wrinkles, the ripple of muscle underneath with a hint or two of what might be veins. As I dared to stare into its sinister face, I couldn't help but notice that the creature's fiery eyes were indeed fixed firmly on us. The being had a large, gaunt skull set on impossibly bony shoulders. This was most definitely a sentient being of some kind, and not knowing its intentions made it all the more terrible to think about. Looking back, I can't tell whether it was merely observing us or whether it might have descended upon us if we'd stayed any longer. It could have been guarding one of the doorways upstairs for all I knew, but when in such a situation, one doesn't really care to find out!

Gazing upon this winged creature, gripped by absolute terror and fear of the unknown, it felt as if I'd been there for an eternity. I knew, however, somewhere in my rational mind, that I couldn't have been there for much more than a minute. By this time, my friend had noticed I was too quiet and I'd been staring upwards, transfixed by this eerie sight. She had obviously just noticed what I'd been seeing for way too long and the realization was almost too much for us. We were BOTH seeing this unearthly entity and it was NOT just my eyes playing nasty tricks on me! We started screaming and pounding on the door, crying, "PLEASE LET US IN!", and were practically hysterical at this point. The creature still watched us with blazing eyes and boldly stood its ground, probably rather pleased with itself for causing young girls to go out of their minds with such desperate fear.

I cannot remember many details of what happened next because we were both in an intense panic and nobody appeared to be home, no matter how loudly we shouted and pounded our fists on the door. I believe we just couldn't take being it this thing's evil presence any longer and we ran out the front door to my friend's house. Thankfully, it was only a few houses away so we didn't have far to go. There we found our mothers sitting at the kitchen table, smoking cigarettes and having coffee as usual, and we explained everything we'd seen. I am very fortunate to have a mother who has always experienced the unexplained, so our seemingly outlandish tale was not met with disbelief, but rather compassion and complete understanding. Later that night, we had no choice but to go back to the apartment, so I could sleep and possibly go to school the next morning. I begged my mother check to see if the horrible thing was still there first and it was not, so I ran as fast as I could into the apartment and dove into my bed. It's amazing how a comforter on a bed can feel so safe, though it's only mere fabric. I insisted on having the lights and the radio on in a rather feeble attempt to distract myself from the events of the evening. Many hours past my bedtime, in the wee hours of the morning, I finally slept. It was a light, uneasy sleep with many dreadful dreams where I ran and ran from a nameless thing that chased me, endlessly.

To this day, I still don't know what it was that we saw so many years ago. As a very young child, I recall having seen at least one ghost and instinctively knew where lost items could be found when asked. Over the years, this ability has been toned down and I don't always see things as much as feel or sense them, sometimes rather strongly. I've retained my lifelong fascination with the unexplained, which every so often leads me to speculate about this occurrence. It's always been an extremely vivid memory, and I cannot figure out whether this was in fact a demon, a gargoyle or some other weird creature I've never even heard of. It makes me wonder if anyone else has seen something like this and if anyone else has given it a proper name.