Narrative Essay Winner

      I will always remember the night that El Cuco descended into our house trying to kill Uanita, Velia, Delia, Pita, and myself. It was a dark and cloudy night, although it was quite warm outside. We were just finishing up dinner when our mom told us to go to bed. We were surprised because it was rather early but we did as she said. We went up the creaky stairs to our nice but small woody smelling bedroom. At this point, we didn’t suspect that anything was wrong. We weren’t sure what to do because it was too early to go to bed so we decided to talk and hang out. A cold wind blew through the window so I shut it. I was surprised because it was warm out a little bit earlier. We heard a muffled scream and then…

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     Our mom walked into the room to say goodnight. But something was amiss. Something wasn’t quite right. As she approached us we became skeptical. Everyone has heard of the legend of El Cuco, the shapeshifting boogie man that ate naughty children at night. But that was just a story, right? Suddenly our mom dissolved into a ghastly beast that was some horrid mix between a ghost and a zombie. It lunged for Delia and I screamed “Run!” We rushed down the stairs and outside. The horrid creature that by then I had identified as El Cuco lunged out of our upstairs window and I got a closer look at it. It had long fangs and was very pale. It seemed to flicker in and out of existence. Its face had an eye missing and chunks of flesh had been removed.

 

      Not sure what to do and utterly petrified we ran speechless for quite some time while El Cuco was in close pursuit. I soon realized that we couldn’t keep this up all day so I gestured toward a cornfield and we hid there in order to have time to regroup. In all of the stories that I had heard about El Cuco, I had never heard of him appearing during the day. “If only we could hold him off until morning,” I told the others.

 

     “But the night has just begun!” exclaimed Pita. We certainly were in a predicament.

 

      “Ok,” I said. “I have an idea. The nearest town is only about a mile away. If we can make it there we could get a ride, outrun it, and then hide until morning."

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      “That sounds good to me,” Uanita said.

 

     We started off running toward Marfa, the small town just a mile to the north of us. When we arrived El Cuco was still in very close pursuit, so we immediately found someone who let us ride with him. After we told him our story he was fascinated. He said his name was Dan, and he wanted to see El Cuco for himself, we insisted was a bad idea, but he stopped the car on the side of the road anyway, about an hour later. When El Cuco caught up to us even Dan was terrified and we took off down the road. He said he could take us to his house where we could try to kill it. About an hour and a half later we arrived at his small country home.

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     “I have a shotgun in my room that we could use to shoot it!” Dan exclaimed. We agreed that that would probably be the best option. A short 10 minutes later we heard a knock on the door. We approached cautiously, weapon in hand. It turned out to be Dan’s neighbor whom he let in and told her about our situation. Suddenly she transformed into El Cuco! El Cuco lunged at Dan, who dropped his shotgun and screamed. I quickly grabbed the weapon, carefully aimed, and shot El Cuco. It was the first time that I had ever handled a firearm and the recoil surprised me, but the damage had been done. A horrible noise arose from El Cuco’s mouth. It was a loud screech of pain, an evil laugh, a dark and threatening sound all at the same time. Dan, who had gotten past his shock immediately grabbed the beast, threw it in his closet, and slammed the door.

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     We were all panting after that unexpected encounter. Dan quickly reloaded his rifle, opened the closet door ever so slightly, and shot again. He was a much more experienced shooter than I. We could still hear the beast making that horrible noise. We waited a few hours until the sun rose, but it felt like years. As the early morning sun shown through Dan’s kitchen window, the screeching sound slowly stopped, and when we opened the closet there was nothing there. Dan was then kind enough to drive us home so we could find our mother.