Picture by @f3nix
Source:https://steemit.com/finishthestory/@bananafish/finish-the-story-contest-week-50

Here is my entry for Finish The Story Contest - Week #57!

You can find the contest at:

https://steemit.com/finishthestory/@bananafish/finish-the-story-contest-week-57

Original Story

Shiro

by @Brisby

Shiro paid the street vendor for his lemonade, unfazed by her curious glances to the glove on his hand. Any other day, he would have answered the unspoken questions of the smiling woman with a light quip. A bit of banter went miles in getting people to overlook his many...eccentricities.

Today though, he couldn't muster anything witty. Throngs of people were milling about the square, mindless to those who were in a hurry. His quick errand run had become a snail-paced slog behind wandering looky-loos. The brown jacket he wore was sodden thanks to the blistering bake of the summer sun. He'd give anything to shed his sweaty layers but the memories of what had happened the last time...

Compounding his exhaustion were his ever-present traveling companions. Their desperation for his attention had begun fraying his nerves since he left home. Ignoring their antics and way they clung to him had worn his energy to a hair's breadth. Sheer obstinance was all that kept him from screaming at them in the middle of the crowd.

Shuffling aside to savor the crisp drink in the shade of the over-sized umbrella, Shiro felt something crunch beneath his heel. Dammit! Whatever he had broken, it sounded expensive.

Behind him a voice shrilled, "You're paying for that!"

Shoulders slumping as he fingered his wallet, he turned. "Sorry! I didn't know...", his voice choked to a halt. Not because the person was intimidating. The blonde slip of a girl glaring daggers at him wouldn't have been able to frighten a hamster. Nor was it due to her beauty, as she had been graced with an unfortunate nose.

It was the reaction of his companions that stole his breath.

Gone were the shadowy undulations and static flickerings who had doggedly followed Shiro since he was a child. What remained were swirling vortices of crimson and pitch. Amorphous, they writhed. They wailed. The air thickened with the depth of their need.

Without warning, unctuous tendrils sprang. Shiro cried out but it was too late. Oozing with hunger, his companions snaked to envelop the girl. Her wide hazel orbs rolled to the heavens before she collapsed to the ground.

---

Here is my ending

Shiro left the site immediately.

"Damn it!" shouted Shiro.

"What did this idiot expect us to do?" asked one voice to another.

"Let them kill our host?", answered the other with another question.

Shiro sighed. He listened to them but he had to find another place where he could shout at them without anyone calling him crazy.

Far from the place, Shiro locked himself in a lonely alley and fell to his knees, shouting

"Are you crazy? Both of you! You mustn't kill people! I have told you thousands of times"

His knuckles broke as he bumped his fists against the ground.

"It's only been 532 times," replied the male voice without giving importance.

"533, darling," corrected the female voice with a giggle.

"I'm sick of you! I can't even drink a lemonade in peace."

"Always hiding, staying away from people."

"Remember that if we did not combine our body with yours, you would have died," answered the female voice.

"If anything, is this life?" Shiro wiped a tear from one of his eyes.

Suddenly, he stopped hearing their voices and felt his body lighter.

Shiro looked at a couple walking holding hands. He rose and shook his trousers

To his surprise, the blonde girl was waiting for him at the entrance to the alley.

"I'm glad to see you're still alive."

The girl threw herself at Shiro with the knife.

"Damn it!", shouted Shiro

"What's wrong with you?"

The girl kicked Shiro, falling meters into the alley.

Shiró could barely get up. The helpless girl he had seen just a while ago had become a monstrously horrifying being, her arms and legs thickened, her faction became more grotesque.

"Guys! Guys! I need your help"

The pair of voices were talking to each other.

"I told you. Didn't I tell you," the male voice repeated to the other voice

"It will be convenient for us to make him understand why we are here," replied the female voice.

"Not yet. Let her bruise him a little bit more." answered the male voice

Poor Shiro could barely open his eyes swollen from the blows of the monster.

"Help!" he shouted as much as he could

The monster was holding him by the neck a meter high. He could hardly breathe, his eyes began to close as did his throat.

The monster girl drew a perverse smile as she watched Shiro's life slip away.

A stream of blood splashed across Shiro's face and the monster's head rolled across the floor.

Shiro fell next to the decapitated body

"You still want us to go?" asked the male voice.

Shiro rubbing his throat and coughing heavily, trying to catch his breath, replied

"God Damn it! Did you have to wait until the last second?"

"I think our friendship will improve from now on," the female voice replied mockingly.

"We're not the only monsters in your world" said the male voice.