A large hand thrust out and grabbed her ankle.
‘Gotcha,’ he said. She heard him groan as he slowly squeezed himself forward. The pain in her ankle from his grip was immense, like the bone was actually being crushed in his hand. He grunted again and Ashley realised they were sounds of exertion as he was trying to push himself through the narrowing gap. It would have been the ideal time to put some distance between them, but he had hold of her tight.
She was going nowhere.
Unless...
Without thinking, or really caring anymore, Ashley acted. Instead of pulling away from Henry, as he would have expected, she twisted herself in the tunnel and lunged herself forward towards his bulk. She heard a surprised grunt as the hand released from her leg and grabbed at her waist. Ashley fell into him, face to face, feeling his breath on her. It made her gag.
‘Decided to give up? Well, too late, I’m not going to go easy on you.’ His grip tightened, squeezing her waist. ‘I’m going to make this hurt. Going to pull your arms and legs off, make you suffer like the insect you are. In fact, I’m gonna—’
He stopped his taunting and began to scream.
Ashley did not wait around to listen to him any longer. While he had been letting her know what he was going to do, she had already acted and brought her hands up to his fat face. His rubbery skin was sweaty, but her hands felt their way into position, and she plunged her thumbs into his eyes, as hard as she could.
As her appendages pressed into his eyeballs, Henry shrieked and howled and brought up a big arm to swat her away. Ashley expected it and pulled her thumbs free, ducking down. His large arm sailed over her, and she was quickly up again, continuing her attack, again burying her thumbs, digging the nails in first, into his beady eyes. The first time she had felt a resistance, this time she felt a gooey pop.
Warm liquid ran down the heels of her hands. Ashley screamed in anger, in absolute fury, and pushed harder and harder, letting out every bit of pent-up aggression that had, so far, been repressed by fear.
Henry’s hands rose again, but she had done what she needed to. She quickly turned and scampered away as the large, grotesque monster continued to howl.
Through his screams, Ashley heard another voice grow close. It was Adela, the mother, and she was yelling at her son, telling him to move. Henry just continued his childlike wails.
‘I can’t get by you,’ Adela screamed at Henry, ‘and she’s getting away!’
And so she was.
Ashley crawled as fast as she could up the tunnel, much faster than she had on her descent, renewed by an adrenaline rush borne from genuine hope. Against all odds, she knew she had a chance at escape.
On and on she went, pushing up the incline, forcing her muscles to work harder for her. Soon, she saw a dull light source in the ceiling up ahead, one that lit the end of the tunnel.
It was the hole Kim had pushed her down earlier.
Ashley crawled to the light and looked up. The heavy, metal grate was open, bent into an odd shape. She took a moment to steady herself, got to her feet, and jumped, managing to grab onto the lip of the opening. She used her legs to give herself purchase against the dirt wall and, with great effort, pulled herself up, back into that room of desecration.
It was horrifying to once again see what had become of Craig, but Ashley stopped dead in her tracks when she saw poor Kim’s headless body sprawled out on the floor. An enormous pool of blood nestled at the torn and bloodied stump of her neck.
Ashley then slowly walked through the room, trying to keep her eyes forward, not wanting to look at what had become of her friends. Especially Kim, who had given her life for Ashley.
As well as ripping Kim’s head from her body, the family had evidently decided to feed on her as well. Her coat had been removed, piled next to her body, and patches of skin were savagely torn away. Her stomach, too, had been pulled open.
The thought of leaving Kim’s body there in such a state didn’t sit well with Ashley, but what else could she do?
An idea struck her, but she would have to be quick. Maybe she couldn’t get Kim out of there, but she could at least bring back something her friend valued. She would make sure that one item didn’t stay here in this hell with these things.
Ashley squatted next to her friend, but looked away, not wanting to see too much. It was a mistake, though, and she pulled in a disgusted gasp. She had turned her gaze to the side, but only succeed in seeing Kim’s dismembered head in the corner. It lay on its side, eyes wide in horror, mouth open.
Like it was mid scream.
It looked both real and like a cheap dummy at the same time.
‘I’m sorry,’ Ashley whispered and dug through the pockets of the coat, quickly finding what she was looking for; the gold lighter left to Kim by her mother.
Ashley put it in her own pocket and got back to her feet. She couldn’t hear anyone else approaching through the tunnel, but knew she still needed to be quick. She set off running again, up the stone steps, back to the basement. While the hanging bodies of victims past was still a macabre and gruesome sight, given what Ashley had just escaped, it felt like a step closer to sanity.
A step back towards the real world and out of this nightmare.
She ran past the hanging meat and bones as carefully as she could and took the timber steps two at a time back up to the kitchen, back up to the main level of the house.
She paused for breath, leaning against a wall in the hallway. Soon she would leave this place behind, forever.
But before she did, an idea grew in her mind, worming its way to the surface.
An idea of how she could get revenge on these people.
Leaving the place standing, after what had happened, not just tonight, but over who knows how many years, seemed wrong.
These fuckers, what was left of them, shouldn’t get to just carry on. Something had to be done. And she had an idea of what that could be. She had seen one of them die. And how had it happened?
Fire.
That, and some horrific, impossible being that had abilities she couldn’t comprehend. But what if fire was the key to it? What if that was the element that could actually hurt them? She remembered how Tim had always been afraid of fire and the story he had told as to why. Clearly a lie used to build sympathy, but what if the fear was real?
The jigsaw pieces fell into place.
Her mind was made up, now driven more for revenge for her friends than to save her own life.
Ashley would scorch the place from the earth.
Working quickly, she retrieved Kim’s mother’s lighter. The kitchen was littered with junk, some of which were old rags of clothing; rags which were quite dry. She held the lighter to the bits of cloth until a flame took hold. Then she did the same again and again to whatever else she could find that was flammable.
Small pockets of fire began to grow, but she needed more, and there was another room she knew would be a good place to go next.
The library.
A room they had investigated earlier, back before their nightmare had started in earnest.
It seemed like a lifetime ago now, not just a few hours.
She ran to that room and again got to work with the lighter, getting most of the books and loose sheets of paper to take quite easily. However, as she worked, a particular book caught her eye. For the first time in a while, Ashley thought ahead, to what she would do if she actually made it back to civilisation.
She would need to tell the police about what had happened. Her friends were dead, not something she could ignore, but how was she supposed to explain it all?
She picked up the leather-bound book, which had been sitting on the small writing table, and quickly skimmed through some of the pages. Flames danced their way around the shelves, crawling over the wood and books like liquid, but that did not impede her concentration. Ashley quickly realised the book was a kind of journal, written by Benjamin. She saw passages mentioning other places not of this earth, and ther
e were sketches of things that were absolutely not human; one of which she recognised.
A crudely sketched rendition of the thing below the ground.
Grandpa.
The rapidly spreading fire begin to give off a strong heat, and Ashley knew she had to go. She tucked the book under her arm and ran outside, onto the porch, into the night air.
Into freedom.
Almost.
As she broke free of the threshold, a fist swung from beside the door and caught her hard on the side of the chin.
The force of the blow shook her jaw and rattled her teeth, and she fell sideways to the porch floor. The book spilled from her grasp and she rolled to her back, dazed and disorientated.
Tim looked down at her, his mouth smeared with blood.
‘Hello, little mouse.’
Chapter 36
Tim couldn’t believe it.
Surely it was impossible.
No one had ever returned from seeing Grandpa, at least not as the same person they were before going down.
Mother, Ted, and Henry had all gone down there after her, and even Father had followed, in his pathetic state, clutching at his neck. She had been outnumbered by things infinitely superior and stronger than her.
So how was it she was able to escape?
And her, of all people?
The fucking mouse?
It was insanity.
After Mother had ordered them all down after her, Tim had hung back. He’d made as if to follow, but after she dropped down, he simply waited. They were all too distracted to notice he wasn’t with them.
And besides, he knew he only needed a little time.
The food left in that room would soon spoil, and Tim was not a fan of waste, so leaving it was a crime. He had approached Kim’s headless body.
And started to feed.
At first, he just wanted a small amount, just enough to fill him a little. More than the meagre scraps he’d been given.
But as he tasted the succulent, salty flesh, he couldn’t stop. The hunger, the desire to feed, had taken over.
So, he got to work.
Tim didn’t care if they all came back and found him like this. Fuck them, he’d waited long enough for what he was owed and was tired of being on the fringe.
He was one of them, one of Grandpa’s children just as much as the rest were, and as far as Tim was concerned, that meant getting what was promised.
No more waiting.
He gorged.
And had kept going until he heard commotion in the tunnel.
The noise, which sounded like Henry and Mother, snapped him back to reality. They would find him and see he had disobeyed them.
He remembered Father’s threat of a trip down to see Grandpa.
Fear of what that meant, and what would become of him, forced him to flee, and he ran from the house, hoping to give them time to calm down.
He hadn’t eaten enough to change him, hopefully, so there was no need to overreact. He could still do his job, just as he always had.
So, he hid in the trees.
Watching.
Waiting.
Then, Tim saw something he couldn’t quite believe.
Ashley, the little mouse girl, was free. And, judging by her actions as she set fire to Father’s books, she had clearly not been turned.
But at the same time, she wasn’t her old self, not the doormat Tim knew.
She looked full of anger and hate and... purpose.
He couldn’t even begin to comprehend how she had gotten away, but he saw an opportunity, an opportunity to prove himself again to the family, make them forget, or not even notice, what he’d done. He would capture her, the girl who had obviously given them the slip, and prove he deserved to be among them. Not as a little worker ant, but shoulder to shoulder as an equal.
He slowly made his way to the doorway, hiding just beside the frame, and ducked below the window to the library. He pressed his back against the wall and waited.
He knew, eventually, he would have to deal with the fire the girl was starting, and that was something he did not look forward to, but first he needed to deal with her.
He didn’t want to just run in and attack her. Tim didn’t know how, but Ashley was up here and the family weren’t. They were nowhere to be seen. He didn’t know how that was possible, but there it was, so he knew he needed to afford her some respect. At least until he could figure out what kind of threat she realistically posed.
He waited a little longer and soon heard her running footsteps make their way down the hall. She ran from the house, oblivious to his presence.
Tim was already poised and let fly with as hard a punch as he could muster. His fist hit its mark.
The feel of the impact was satisfying, as was watching the girl flail to the floor.
That was easy.
He strode over to her and looked down.
‘Hello, little mouse,’ he said.
Chapter 37
Ashley saw stars.
Her vision was spinning, her jaw ached terribly, and she felt a pressure push down on her throat.
Tim had taken his boot and stepped down onto her neck, pinning her to the floor. He bent forward and studied her.
‘Where are my family?’ he asked. At first, she didn’t answer, but he increased the pressure, causing her to gag. ‘Where?’
‘Still down there,’ Ashley said.
‘And how did you get away?’
‘I ran.’
‘Bullshit, I don’t believe it. What happened?’
The pressure on Ashley’s throat eased a little, allowing her to speak more freely.
‘What happened?’ she asked. ‘You really wanna know? Well, first, that fucking thing down there, your Grandpa, killed your father. Burned him alive.’ Tim winced. ‘Then I cut your brother’s throat. He’s still down there, probably gurgling on his own blood. Then I stabbed your mother. Right in the gut. And to finish? I gouged out that fat fucker’s eyes and left him in the tunnel like a stuck pig. That’s what happened.’
He was silent for a moment, giving serious thought to her words. ‘Bullshit,’ he said eventually. ‘You couldn’t have done all that. No one could have, let alone you.’
‘Go and see for yourself,’ she said. He paused again, looking her over.
‘What happened to you? What are those marks? Those burns?’
Ashley had seen the blisters, red and angry, on her skin. Whilst ugly, they hadn’t been as bad as she’d feared. However, she had only seen what they had done to her arms and had no idea what state rest of her body was in.
‘That fucking monster, it tried to do to me what it did to your father,’ she said. ‘But I didn’t let it’
The fire in the house behind them began to spread. Ashley could hear the flames crackle.
‘You’re lying,’ Tim said through gritted teeth.
‘No,’ she said, ‘I’m not. And you know I’m not, don’t you?’
‘I don’t know what to think,’ he said, shaking his head.
‘What is that thing down there?’ Ashley asked, partly playing for time, partly genuinely curious.
‘Grandpa? He’s nothing you can understand. Besides, why should I tell you anything?’
‘Just curious,’ she said. ‘Not every day you see something that goes against everything you ever believed in.’
Tim laughed, but he wasn’t mocking. ‘Yeah, I guess he is something to behold. I remember a similar feeling when I first saw him. Kinda takes your breath away, doesn’t he?’
‘So, what is he? Things like that don’t exist.’
‘Well, Father knows more than I do, but apparently Father is dead now, isn’t he?’
‘Tell me,’ Ashley said. ‘I need to know.’
Tim shrugged, but went on. ‘It was Father who first found it down there. He was with his father at the time. They were mapping out a tunnel they found, or something like that, when they came across... whatever it was. It looked different back then, according
to Father, but it took the older man, used his body as its own, and then turned Father. That was the start of it all. Father followed its instructions and found someone else, someone suitable; his wife at the time. She was turned—that would be Mother—and they started to build a family. And we grew from there.’
‘But why does it need to do that? What is it?’ Ashley asked.
‘Hard to explain, I only know what Grandpa showed me. When he turns you, when his old blood works its way into your veins, it shows you things. I don’t know if it’s deliberate or not, but you get these... visions. The blood in us craves food. Sustenance. So, we oblige, and the more we eat, the more it shows us. About how things really are in the universe. I was never one for learning when I was... like you. Didn’t care for it. But let me tell you, the kind of knowledge that thing shows us, it’s addictive. We also get stronger the more we feast, but it changes us, too, makes us look different, as you’ve seen. And, contrary to what you might think, getting people out here isn’t easy, especially these days. People go missing nowadays and it’s a big thing. The world’s a small place, and word gets around quick. So, it isn’t easy for us to stay hidden. We don’t want too much attention here, and the woods are protected to an extent. Grandpa has made it his domain, and it gives off a certain vibe, for lack of a better term. People just want to avoid the place. Bad in some respects, because we don’t get people just wandering though anymore, but it protects us as well.’
‘So you have to work for your supper?’
‘Yeah, I guess so. Don’t judge me, Ashley. I mean, yeah, it turns out being a monster is actually kind of fun. Fuck it, it’s more than fun, it’s euphoric, but we do it out of necessity. Grandpa’s blood is in us and we can’t ignore what the blood wants. So, we oblige.’
‘But our families will realise we’ve gone missing,’ Ashley said. ‘They’ll send the police to look for us. People will come.’
The Extreme Horror Collection Page 19
