A dark reminder

Shirley ran to the barn like her life was on the line. She nearly tripped at every bump on the cold, loam soil.
The barn lighting had gone down ever since she heard the incessant growl that had woke her up in the middle of the night. She nonetheless saw the white gooseneck arm of the outdoor barn light. It glistened under the moonlit sky like a homing beacon.
Her back hit the barn’s door with a loud thud. She cussed through her teeth. Her hope ran on fumes, but it still gave her the impulse to reach for the door’s metallic handle.
She took a big mouthful of air before she squeezed the handle. The thing that was after her bided its time. Shirley scanned the immediate surroundings but nothing out of the ordinary popped up. The forest near her parents’ house seemed to act like a buffer, thwarting all the noise.
Once inside, she barricaded the door with a wooden beam. She took a few steps back and drew a steadying breath once she got the backup generator going. It was then that she heard the sound of flapping wings and paws hitting the ground.
Two sets of orange eyes shot her a piercing stare from a hole in the side of the barn. Sweat beads ran down her cheeks in what seemed to be a desperate try to keep calm.
She frantically looked around for something to defend herself with. The creature let out a guttural noise that sent a shiver down her spine. She tripped over a bucket filled with water. When she got up, her curly, blonde hair was muddled.
The barn’s old wooden roof shook under the creature’s paws. It wanted to find the best way inside the barn to grab the young woman. Drops of water fell down Shirley’s face. They left muddled tracks on her beautiful face.
Time seemed to freeze. Shirley grabbed a fork and, ever so slowly, spun around to pinpoint the creature’s location. It hadn’t made any sound since it landed on the roof.
“I don’t get it. Why is this happening?” she thought. She scrunched her face to push back her tears, but kept a solid grip on the fork.
The creature’s terrifying growl echoed across the area again. It decided to claw its way into the barn, ripping through the metal door like it was made out of paper.
Shirley’s eyes widened when she saw a manticore about to enter the barn. She had only seen these creatures in video games or books. The creature, with its dark orange skin, face of a lion, dark brown wings, and a scorpion-like tail, inflicted dread into every fiber in her body.
The manticore disposed of the last wooden beams above the door that stood between it and its prey. They felt like mere toothpicks between its sharp teeth. It growled again in sign of victory. Its pungent breath reached Shirley’s lungs. She coughed hard as the manticore entered the barn.
“You ugly piece of shit!” Shirley mustered her strength and launched the fork as a missile straight into the creature’s left set of eyes.
The manticore not even shuddered as blood gushed out from two of its eyes.
Shirley tried to keep her composure and search for another farm tool to use as a weapon. But she didn’t get the chance. The creature flapped its wings so hard that a gust of wind blew Shirley outside the barn through a wooden wall. She spat out a lot of blood in mid-air before she tumbled down to the ground. Wood splinters blanketed her slim body.
The world seemed to spin around as she got up, bruises and all. She saw how the manticore ripped through the back door to reach her. Her vision was foggy as well. She took a step back and hit the side of a rusty, old hay loader. The machine was still attached to a tractor.
The manticore jumped high in the air only to land smack down on the hay loader. Shirley barely managed to dodge the attack. Contorted metal flew every which way.
Extreme pain rattled her left leg. Shirley saw that a metal spike impaled her calf.
“Fuck!” she yelled her lungs out. Tears flooded her face. She tried to pull out the spike, but forgot to look at the manticore for a split second.
The huge, eerie creature towered above her. It opened wide its mouth, and its gross, acidic saliva drenched Shirley’s clothes. The fork was not planted in its left set of eyes anymore. A big scar ran across the manticore’s face like a canyon as seen from a helicopter up above it.
Shirley’s heart thundered but she managed to evade the first bite by rolling on her side. The manticore’s huge size played to its disadvantage. The surge of adrenaline in her veins helped the young woman to evade the creature’s foot stomping.
She took shelter behind what remained of the hay loader. The manticore tried to bite her whole, but instead it bit the contorted metal. It roared of pain as metal spikes scattered in its mouth like shrapnel.
Visibly shaken, the manticore spat out blood as it moved in erratic patterns. Shirley took advantage of the moment to pull out the metal spike from her calf.
Blood ejected turbulently like the eruption of a geyser. The pain was excruciating. She limped around but she used the creature’s acidic saliva to cauterize the wound and covered it with a piece of her shirt. Strange relief encompassed her but it wasn’t to last.
“What can I do at this point?” she thought as the manticore stopped and shot her a piercing stare again.
It darted towards her. In the heat of the moment, Shirley grabbed hold of a rusty wheel from the broken down hay loader. The manticore launched its scorpion-like tail in what seemed to be a finishing move.
The stinger at the end of the tail was as sharp as an obsidian knife blade. It tore through Shirley’s make-shift shield to put a hole in her stomach area. Her blood sprayed the ground below like fertilizer.
The young woman’s body convulsed while her mind began to fade away into darkness. The manticore pulled her up in front of its injured mouth.
“You can’t escape your fate. You shall be my rider from now on,” it said through some sort of telepathy.
The last thing Shirley witnessed was how the creature’s acidic saliva cauterized her stomach wound. She was then placed on the creature’s back, and off it went in the distance under the cover of a starry night.