The Wicked Valentine

Vanessa was alone for Valentine's Day. Again.

Now she did not meant to be alone, but it was more or less her fault any way. She was fairly self-isolative, putting up barriers around herself to anyone that tried to talk to her. Nobody knew who she was for the most part, just another face in the classroom.

Pitiful? Perhaps. Did it really matter when she got that black paper heart cut-out in her locker? No. She was fooled by the assumption it was a good omen when she should have known better.

THE WICKED VALENTINE

“...Right, did you hear about what Laura did?” asked Samantha. Vanessa listened to the three girls from afar, more or less because she happened to be near them as opposed to actually snooping on them. Samantha whispered to Maria something Vanessa couldn't hear, but a couple seconds later the three were walking away.

Vanessa sighed. She opened up her locker after remembering that was what she was doing to begin with. She simply shuffled her books from her bag to her locker, the typical… everyday… routine. She was about to close it when she saw a paper heart taped to the inside of her locker door. She ripped it off and looked at it.

It was black, that was the first thing that popped to her. It had this weird, otherworldly sensory vibe to it, she felt like it was alive in a sense. Beating like a unhealthy heart, it's beats off and on time, uneven.

There was writing in white in a scratchy way. She began to read.

Don't read this.

Well, too late.

''Ten years ago, something was sealed in this school within this very card. Stop reading. Upon finishing reading this card, it will be unleashed again. Stop reading. You don't want to be responsible for this right?''

She had read the whole thing. She looked at the card and flipped it over and then turned it back to the writing. Alright, weird joke. Whatever. She dropped it and headed to class.

The heart began to spread out across the linoleum floor in a vein like pattern. It began to beat louder and louder.

Vanessa took her assigned seat down and looked at the board. Nothing on it yet. She took out her sketchbook and started doodling. She had been doing this for about fifteen minutes, making all kinds of tentacle monsters when she realized the teacher hadn't shown up yet.

The classroom was full of conversation, ranging from how much of a “bitch” Jess was or whether Tommy was a fucking maniac or not. There was this odd breathing sound coming from outside the room, and it seemed to seep ever so closer into the classroom, causing conversations to die down into full-blown panics. Vanessa hid under the desk and seconds later, the door blew into the room.

A sweltering green, oozing black vaguely humanoid creature came into the room. There was an odd texture to it, as if were made from plastic and sap. Swollen eyes, or what could be assumed to be. A gaping hole for a mouth, a thin resin over it with bubbling holes.

Vanessa was oddly attracted to it. She wasn't sure why. It was not exactly a looker, and judging by it's actions, it was a violent killer out to do what horror monsters do best, which is murder everyone. She adjusted her glasses as she saw the monster tear through the classroom, desks flying towards the wall.

She made a run for it, sliding under the desk and escaping out into the hallway like so many had done. The classroom was empty and full of severely injured students. She ran past the lockers and hid under a bench as she got a look at the monster's distorted elephant feet, with a couple of strangled tentacles hanging between them.

Did she see it's junk? Furthermore… what was wrong with her? Everyone was repulsed by this thing but her. They were running, trying to get help, meanwhile, she was thinking on whether she had just seen the thing's junk.

Samantha screamed as the thing approached her, attempting to hit it with a book. Vanessa got out from under the bench and crept slowly up to it. It turned around as she nervously looked at it, before running herself. She wasn't running for the same reasons anyone else was, although she was afraid.

She sat down in a corner to examine what was going on with her. She had gotten that shitty paper black heart in that locker, maybe it was causing her to fall in love with the damned thing. She looked back to the past as she attempted to relax herself with a cigarette. She normally wouldn't do this in school, but it was chaotic enough that the rules no longer really applied.

“Vanessa…” said her mom. “What is this?” she held up a graphic depiction of a tentacle monster having sex with a human woman, in as much detail as a twelve year old with poor motor skills could do.

“They're in love.” said Vanessa, her feet moving inwards and out.

“No… look, you can't be drawing this stuff, it's disgusting!” she said. She crumbled it up and tossed it into the trash. “Have you been drawing any more of this?”

“No.” Vanessa said firmly. Vanessa's mom sighed.

“Look, I'm not trying to be mean, alright? But this…” she sighed. “Where did I screw up that my twelve year old is drawing… this?”

The young Vanessa wasn't really hurt. As her mom headed out, she uncrumpled the paper and looked at it again.

Love.

She had to go to therapy and honestly… she wasn't sure if she needed it in hindsight.

She stared at the thing, apparently heading towards her in the corner. Maybe it was here to kill, but if that was the case, she was welcoming the finale.

It stopped and stared at her for a minute, unsure why she wasn't in a panic. She looked at it and found a discarded heart shaped box of chocolates. Half of them had fallen out and it was badly dented during the chase. She grabbed it and offered it to the creature, who took it in surprise. She watched as it dissolved into brown fluids that spilled out onto the floor, but he seemed happy with the gift. She smiled.

Well, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad Valentine's day after all. She stood up and kissed it on the head and he looked at her confused.

“Sorry, is this… too sudden?” she asked. “I… don't know but… I like you.” She smiled.

The monster seemed to smile back.

“Jesus fucking christ, what the hell is going on?” asked Laura as she pushed her way through the crowd. “I take a ‘sick day' and the whole school is being attacked by a tentacle monster or some shit,” She grasped Tommy and Jess' arms as she made her way to the front doors of the school. She opened it as she took out a specialized rifle. “We gotta be real careful here, no telling if this rifle is gonna do shit.” said Laura.

The three split up into the different hallways of the school before Tommy came across the creature and a black-haired girl wearing glasses, talking as she smoked a cigarette. Laura ran into the amused Tommy and pointed her gun at the creature before Tommy pointed it downwards.

“Just two lovebirds, no need for monster hunter action here.” said Tommy as he headed back out to the outside of the school. Laura shrugged and slung the rifle over her shoulder.

THE END