Angel of Malevolence

At about 7:06 a.m. on a warm Thursday morning, students on a school bus were shocked by a loud flapping noise just before a large, winged creature swooped down over their bus from the sky before going off into the distance. One boy on the bus managed to snap a quick picture of the creature as it flew over a barn before disappearing, but the picture turned out blurry and faint. The picture appeared on the local news that evening. There was discussion over whether it truly was a monster, a bird, a bat, or if it was a hoax. There were wild suggestions, saying the creature was the monster from Jeepers Creepers, the Van Meter Visitor, or even Batman.

The “Monster Madness” raged on for a week before it began to die down, and then it was forgotten.

Dusk was just beginning to fall on a small town in Idaho.

Summer had brought forth mosquitoes, which had frightened off many of the townsfolk who were taking refuge inside their homes. In addition to the mosquitoes, there had been vicious murders and violent attacks in the town, so children were forbidden to go out into the streets and the adults locked their doors.

One of the few people outdoors on this warm evening was a man strolling down a paved bike trail. He was going toward his home, but instead found himself trapped on a long, seemingly-endless sidewalk between two unrelenting walls of trees, the shadows of which grew longer as the sun set deeper and deeper. These trees were some of many, as the bike trail cut its way through a thick forest like a snake cuts through the grass. The man was lost in his own contemplation on the world, and the only noises were of his own footsteps thudding against the solid concrete.

Suddenly, a man with strikingly-blond hair stumbled out of the dense forest foliage and fell onto the sidewalk. He seemed to be terrified. The man noticed this new arrival was clutching a long, bloody knife in one black glove as he trembled on the sidewalk. The man was torn between desire to help him, and fear that he would be stabbed.

The man with the knife cast him one glance before a loud shriek rang out from the trees he had just emerged from. The shriek was high-pitched, and the man knew it wasn’t human. Perhaps an animal of sorts or maybe-

The man described a large humanoid figure with wings appearing in that moment. He tells the creature as having black skin with wide eyes and a gaping mouth drawn open to reveal long, jagged teeth. The creature was similar to a bat, but the man knew this was no bat.

The creature swooped down toward the bike trail. The blond man screamed as he swung the short knife blade. The bat seized him with long talons and brought him off into the air as a terrified passenger. The man reported watching the knife fall out of the blond man’s hand as the bat flew off into the skies. As the bat flew away, the man remembers hearing the unfortunate passenger’s scream slowly fade away as he disappeared.

Stunned at what he had just witnessed, the curious man walked into the woods in the direction the blond man had emerged from and found a woman who had been brutally stabbed in several places around her body. He immediately called the police, and told them he had found an injured woman. When they arrived with paramedics, the woman was determined to be deceased.

With a jolting chill, the man realized that the blond man with the knife had been the murderer, probably the one behind the murders in town. The man told the police about the murderer and the bat, but they did not believe him. He described the killer, and a police sketch artist drew up a picture of who he described. A few days later, the police found that the man in the drawing had disappeared around the time the woman was found.

With no other explanation for the blond man’s disappearance, the man’s story started to have reluctant believers.

Cassie was home alone.

She was having trouble adjusting to her new home, especially in such desolated conditions. Cassie had just moved after being raped near her old house in her old town. After such a foul and unforgivable act, Cassie had abandoned all her friends and her job of three years, basically erasing her life, to move to the next city over.

She had described the rapist to the police, but the man was never found. With lack of success on finding his whereabouts, Cassie could not sleep at night knowing she was not completely sheltered or protected. And she never would be.

However, tonight she had to go back to her old house to collect a few boxes of assorted, miscellaneous items she had left behind during the move. It was a particularly dark night, so she was a bit unsettled and anxious about going out under such conditions. Even the stars seemed to glow a bit dimmer, as if Night himself had closed his watchful eyes over the world.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t see well outside, but there was a sense of a dark foretoken.

Cassie briefly considered staying in her home for the night, but decided that she wouldn’t let something as stupid as fear of the dark stop her. She left her house and got into her car. After a half hour drive on the highway, Cassie arrived back in her old city and back to her old house. Sure enough, the boxes were still in her garage.

Getting out of the car and slamming the door shut, Cassie walked over to the garage and opened it. There weren’t that many boxes, and she figured she could fit them all in the back of her car and in the trunk. Sighing at the thought of manual labor, Cassie began to carry the boxes individually to her car.

She had just gotten the last one in her car when she saw her former next-door neighbor in his backyard, setting up a sprinkler.

Cassie blinked, and looked a little closer. It was a bit difficult to see in the blind night. She had never paid much attention to that neighbor before. Cassie looked closely at him, and with a terrified chill, she recognized him.

The neighbor noticed her, and discarded the sprinkler onto the grass, where it released a few short bursts of water before going lifeless. He stared at her menacingly, even though a large grin grew along his face. He began to walk over and Cassie stumbled backwards, nearly tripping on her own feet in her haste to get away.

Her neighbor was the rapist.

He advanced on her, the grin growing wider. Cassie was just about to turn and run, but he had gotten close enough to lunge out and grasp her roughly by her wrist. Cassie tried to scream, but only a frightened squeak came out. Cassie tried to fight, but only succeeded in falling to the ground while he kept a tight hold on her wrist. Cassie looked into his eyes, and she knew what was about to happen.

She tried to fight it even harder this time, but he wouldn’t let go. He smirked down at her, and then he was gone. Her wrist was jerked up toward the sky for a second and then his tight grip was released. Cassie looked at the spot where he had been standing, and then looked up into the sky.

She observed a large bat-like creature carrying him off. The night was silent except for the blood pounding in her ears and the flapping of the creature’s wings for a few moments, and then he began to scream. Cassie gained a small bit of pleasure from hearing him scream so devastated and terror-stricken. She felt guilty about feeling that way, and the feelings of guilt overwhelmed her sick satisfaction.

She watched the bat tote him off as he continued screaming, now throwing his head to the sides in either an effort to break free or denying that it was really happening. When they had gone off into the distance, Cassie got into her car and left.

The night now seemed significantly brighter.

Reports of a large winged creature have appeared all over the globe, dating back to even the beginning of the Modern Age. It is believed the creature actually is the Van Meter Visitor, the Mothman, and Olitiau. It was said in ancient times that the bat-like creature would appear to take away those who have done wrong.

Those who believe the creature is still around debate whether it is a god, an angel, or a demon. While reports of the bat-like figure are conflicting, most of them agree that those attacked by the bat are bad people, such as murderers and rapists.

These biased abductions have earned the creature the title "Angel of Malevolence."