by DC Alexander
I had a proboscis about two inches long embedded in my arm, the mosquito was stuck to one side of it, I reached over and scratched at it with my other hand and it sprang up and split into parts. That just didn’t look right. I poked at it, the end was sharp enough to scratch me but it was soft. The skin around it was reddened, as I watch it swelled a little and the redness spread.
I Looked back at the cell structure and saw an immense battle going on. Blood was rushing to the area carrying cells to attack and destroy the proboscis where it attached to me, that area was an infection of foreign matter and would not be tolerated. It was itching badly and it was all I could do not to scratch it off with my fingernails. I began the reverse mutation, the cells were at war and unresponsive and wouldn’t mutate. Any cooperation I had before was gone.
My arm swelled and rose in a mound around the proboscis and a drop of fluid appeared on the tip, it stank and it swelled and ran down the side of it. My body was treating it as a massive infection. The dead cells were clogging the tiny capillaries in the area, they were engorged, it was getting hotter as I watched and red lines radiated away from the spot. Damn, this little experiment was getting out of hand, it might kill me. As the waste was carried away it was attacked in turn, spreading the havoc.
I appealed to Dirt, “help?”
“Remove the infected portion.” Simple answer, yeah I could see that. It involved half the diameter of my wrist now, a hard, swollen knot bigger than three of my fingers laid side by side.
I got up and was surprised when I got a little dizzy. I went in and got my sharp knife. I took it outside, sat down, and braced myself, this was gonna hurt.
Wait a sec, I could block the pain! I checked out the pain center, isolated that area, and set the loop up, all sensation went away instantly. I could still see the knot but I couldn’t feel it.
Quickly, before I could chicken out, I grasped the blade of the knife between two fingers so only a half inch was exposed, stuck it in my arm, and cut a circle out around the infected area. It was sharp but the cut hit stuff that didn’t give, it was bumping on things I didn’t want to know about. I tried to make a cone out of it so the bottom edge would come loose, it didn’t work. There were tendons and all sorts of things I was hitting that were tough and hard to cut. I got the base of the proboscis lose and worried at it with the knife, I bumped bone and was really glad I couldn’t feel it. The sight made me sick, I pried at it and the lump came up but it wasn’t cleanly out. I leaned over and puked, dropped the knife, and damn near passed out. It was bleeding hard and I knew it had to hurt. I was having trouble holding the block and passing out and puking at the same time.
If I passed out I might bleed to death…no probably not, it wasn’t pumping blood like an artery was cut. I grabbed the proboscis and yanked it loose, it came pretty easily. The end of it was rotten and covered with pus. I dropped it and Looked back into the arm, there were muscles and skin cut and torn, pus all over the place, plugged capillaries and veins. I encouraged the dead cells, the pus and all the nasty to the surface of my skin and the blood welling out turned yellow. I started melding muscle together, cells were replicating like crazy, I watched as the hole filled up. I was sucking energy through my tattoos so hard it felt like an electrical current running up my arm.
I got the thing filled in, covered with skin, and nothing was left but a small indentation; the new muscle needed exercise to gain size and fill it in.
I finally registered the noise and looked up. Artemis was sitting in the grassy patch holding herself with her arms wrapped around her sides, rocking back and forth laughing. “That was absolutely without compare! I have existed for much time, and in all that time I have witnessed some amusing things. I believe you have surpassed anything I have ever seen! Oh!” she rolled over and held herself.”Run away, it’s Susan, the big mosquito! Ah, Ah, oh that’s just too good!” She fell on her back and kicked her legs in the air. Carl had walked up during her speech, I looked up at him and he smiled, he didn’t know what was funny but it was infectious. It was also obvious she didn’t wear anything under the short leather skirt and she never heard of shaving but she was naturally blonde and Carl didn’t miss anything.
“My name aint Amelia or Susan if you were talking about me and it really wasn’t that funny.” I was having trouble not joining in. She was really enjoying herself.
She rolled to one elbow and looked at me, “Amelia, George, whatever, yes, it was very funny; you couldn’t see yourself, I will treasure the memory.” She was smiling broadly and was absolutely not worried about exposing herself.
“You do not actually become something else when you change shape. That would lock you in the form, since whatever you changed into would probably not possess the ability to change shape. You copy the characteristics of the form you want using your body for the raw materials. Is that clear enough for you? I can see the attraction one so small might see in mimicking something normally even smaller” snicker “but it really isn’t practical.”
“Let me make sure” Any disagreement was forgotten, if she would teach me, I needed it. “If I want to become a dog, I make my own hair look like dog hair and grow it thick like a dog’s fur.”
“Yes. You shape your bones to conform to a dog’s bones, your organs to the correct shape and location, your muscles and so on. You must examine the animal you want to become closely to learn the details. The brain is important. Don’t lose the mass when you shift. Choose a creature close to your same build, a dog is an excellent choice, the bones and muscles are close to the same in number, location and function. To change back you reverse the process, so you must know yourself well. You do much of this continuously ever y day, you are just extending yourself.” She got up and dusted herself off, “That will conclude our lesson for today; I enjoyed it tremendously. Practice, but do let me know when you get ready to try it, I could use the entertainment.” She became bright, then blurred and faded till she disappeared.
“Alrighty, yeah, that went well, hey Carl, how you doin this mornin?” I got up and dusted myself off. “You ready to go check out that graveyard? It’s plenty early and we got all day.”
“Did she seriously just tell you how to change shape? You gonna turn into a dog?” He noticed the stuff on the ground “What was all the laughin about, what happened there, damn, looks like a pig stickin. You aint cut are you?” He anxiously looked me over, saw the blood on my arm, and caught it with both hands so he could examine it closely.
“I tried a little experiment and it went off a little, I’m good as new, but it went strange for a minute.” I pulled my arm away, I was a little embarrassed.
“Hey, you tried to make yourself into a skeeter? Was you gone be a big one, that would be scary, they’s some big ones around here but you wouldn’t fit in at all. They just kiddin when they talk about ‘flat footed with a turkey’ and like that, not that you would be interested, wow my mouth just sorta run on don’t it?”
“I tried to change a little place on my arm and it didn’t take. My body rejected it and it acted like an infection, no big deal, I fixed it.” I walked up the steps “Let me get my light and I’ll meet you out front.” I closed the door before he could come in, I needed to clean up a little and I really didn’t want to talk any more about it.
He thumped on the door before I could walk away, I opened it and he handed me the knife “You might want to keep this inside in case you gotta stick another skeeter.”
I slammed the door in his face and locked it. I just didn’t have the time.
We got out to the house around ten in the morning and drove right out to the graveyard. We acted casual and checked out the house to make sure nobody was there. The cemetery wasn’t visible from the road. The car was pretty well hidden.
Carl pulled up the locking pin and shoved the statue out of the way, it slid just as easy, and the steps were exposed.
I was first down the stairs this time, while he was spreading it open. I made it to the bottom, I’d a
lready sensed to see if there was anything moving or odd and it appeared to be clear.
The tunnel to the house ran a couple hundred yards. I couldn’t imagine why someone would go to this much trouble.
“Carl, why would somebody build a tunnel like this from a house to a cemetery? It aint like it’s a castle that needs an escape route, but that’s the only thing I can see this would be good for.”
“It don’t make any sense to me either. They might have buried something though, and needed to get out to it without getting caught. Maybe something like a whiskey still? Maybe it’s so they could bring drugs or whiskey into the house without anybody seein them.” We were walking down the tunnel toward the house.
I had a sudden, horrible thought. “Carl, come here with me a second.” I tried to make my voice light, just keeping the conversation going. “I want to look at something, here. I need you to hold the light. It won’t take but a second. I want to see if I can read one of those crypt doors, if that’s what they are.”I tried to move fast without running or seeming like I was in a hurry. It was taking forever to get back to the stairs, I kept thinking I heard the statue moving, the light changing; damn, damn, damn, I was stupid!
We made it to the stairs and I ran up into the bright daylight, I didn’t stop till I was all the way out of the hole.
Carl was on my heels, he had pulled out a massive, shiny automatic pistol from god knows where. He didn’t have any place to hide something that big. He said “What’s wrong?” Quick and low, he crouched down and checked all around us for whatever caused the problem.
“I wanted to make sure we could get out of there if the top got closed.”
Carl caught on instantly “Oh hell, you right, I can’t believe we didn’t check on that before we went down there. Somebody come by and close the top, we might be there a while. How we gone do this? I’ll go down, you close it, and I’ll see if I can open it from inside.”
That made a lot of sense. “Alright, let’s do it.”
Carl said “Hey, did you bring anything with you? I got a shotgun in the trunk in case you need it.”
“Damn, you a man after my own heart. I brought my pistol, it’s in my purse. Where did you hide that monster? I had no idea you was totin a cannon.”
He proudly showed me his shoulder holster, he had it under his shirt; said it rubbed but it didn’t show unless you were looking for it. He went down the stairs till his head cleared, ducked and said “Let’s do this quick before I lose my nerve.”
I pushed the statue back in place and it locking pin dropped with a final sounding ‘Clunk’, then I waited. And waited some more. I would have done a lot better down in the hole, I discovered I wasn’t cut out to stand around waiting. It wore on my nerves badly. After a few minutes, the sun hadn’t gone out yet so it couldn’t have been as long as it felt, the locking pin slid up and the statue moved aside exposing Carl standing there grinning.
“It was pretty simple once I looked in the right place, come on and I’ll show you.” I walked on down to join him, about halfway down he stepped to the side and reached up and caught a handle sticking though a slot on the ceiling. He slid the slab up top closed, the handle obviously connected to it. When the slab closed all the way I heard the locking pin drop, it was louder inside that it was outside the room.
“It opens with this slide” He put his hand on another handle made of iron, “Press it up and it lifts the lockin pin, then slide the lid off.”
”Ok, good, then we can get out when we want and nobody’s gonna see it open and come lookin for us. Let’s go.” We walked back down the tunnel, it was getting familiar. The stench didn’t seem as bad today for some reason, maybe it had been trapped and opening the top let it dissipate a little. The stairs at the end of the tunnel were bare and they looked strange, I couldn’t tell what was off about them but it bothered me. “The stairs aint right, there’s somethin wrong with them. You feel it?”
Carl said “No, just a regular set of stairs in a tunnel from a graveyard, same ol same ol.”
“Smart ass.” I went up the first few steps, looking at the walls for anything strange or unusual. The walls were brick, which was a little odd, but that wasn’t the problem. It hit me, a minor point, “They aint no handrails on the stairs, either side. I guess they don’t need them. That’s what was botherin me.”
Carl just grunted, I guess he didn’t really care. He was not so patiently getting up close behind me. They weren’t wide enough for us to stand side by side. We got to the top and came up in a room a little bigger than my bedroom which I knew was twelve by twelve. A couple doors led off to the sides and one more was straight ahead. There was some furniture and Carl spotted a kerosene lamp sitting on a table. Feeling in his pockets, he asked “Do you have a lighter or some matches? Never mind, I got a lighter,” he pulled it out and took the chimney off the lamp.
“Carl, wait a second, has anybody been usin that lamp? Look at the wick and see.”
He said “It’s bone dry, aint got a drop of fuel in it. Aint nobody used this in a while, this might be a hurricane shelter with an escape tunnel.”
“K, I just wondered. That makes pretty good sense. Whatever there is bad here must have just found the place.” I went to the first room and opened the door cautiously, there wasn’t anything in it. I noticed the light fixture on the ceiling and looked by the door for the switch; I tried it and the bright light blinded me.
Carl exclaimed “Damn!” when the light caught him unprepared. He went over and turned the light on by what must be the entry door and turned his flashlight off and sat it on the table. He pulled the last door open, reached for the light switch and leaned his head back “Oh my god, this is where the stink is comin from.” He found the switch and clicked it and nothing happened. “Bulb must be blown. That sucks. There’s something dead in here, it’s pretty bad.” He stepped back and went over to his flashlight. I smelled the stench. It was rank and ripe and thick and reminded me too strongly of the basement in the Village. I didn’t have a stick this time though.
I said “Carl, hold up” as he went to the door and he turned and looked at me, then he grunted and sagged. I saw the hand on his shoulder and I ran to him as he sank down, saw the bloodshot eyes and the picture came clear. A naked man shaped creature had him by the throat and shoulder and was choking him and pushing him to the floor as it bit him, Carl was fighting it, but it ignored his efforts.
I got close enough I could reach it, I slapped it overhand with my open had as hard as I could. It’s natural for me to hit with my open hand, I never made a fist to make my impact felt and I didn’t break my bones that way. The thing recoiled. It hadn’t expected to get hit that hard, its head was driven away from Carl and I saw the blood and meat and cloth on its mouth, it had torn a chunk out of Carl’s shoulder.
It moved enough Carl could reach his pistol, he had been trying but the ghoul was too tight on him. It recovered fast and pulled him close for another bite, I reached over Carl and held its head back and Carl got the gun loose and shot it.
The shot boomed impossibly loud in the small room, enough to make me sneeze, and it knocked the ghoul back, Carl shot it again and hit it.
Its arm was half torn off just above the elbow and the ghoul spun with the impact, Carl aimed for the next shot and hit it in the head. The entire back of the thing’s head came off. It slumped to the floor bonelessly in a spreading pool of black blood.
Carl was bitten on front of his left shoulder, he backed into the lighted room and leaned against the wall. He was pale and sweating and the hand with the gun in it was jerking. I pressed the gun away so I wouldn’t get shot and pulled his shirt away so I could see the wound.
He had two ragged spots on the front of his shoulder bleeding freely. The nylon strap of his shoulder holster had saved him from much a worse wound. I wadded some of his shirt up and pressed it on the bite to stop the bleeding.
He looked past me and his eyes widened and a truck hit me in the back and knocke
d both of us down. The back of my neck was on fire and something was bending my head back hard. I was pressed on top of Carl, I struggled to turn to the side and get off him, there was a tearing sensation in my neck amidst the fire, another impact and burning.
I got off Carl and turned my head enough to see the other ghoul on my back, it used my hair to pull my head back while it bit me between the shoulder and my neck. It was growling and shaking its head to tear chunks out of me.
I thrashed hard as I could to throw it off but it had me down good, I reached over my shoulder with my right hand and grabbed, I got its ear. I pulled and twisted and ripped its ear off, it howled into my shoulder as it bit me.
It pulled its head back and Carl hit it in the face with his gun. I got enough slack to turn partially so it was more on my side straddling me, I grabbed for it again, my right thumb went into its eye with a squishy feeling and I bore down on it.
Carl hit it in the head again and caught me across the fingers and it hurt like hell, I shoved and twisted and I think the eye busted open. It jerked back and I hit it with my left elbow in the chest and bumped it loose.
”Shoot it!” I twisted as fast as I could to face it and got mostly turned before it was on me again, it ignored Carl and dove on me mouth first, I saw the fangs coming for my face and snatched my head back, it bit my cheek as I turned.
Carl hit it in the back of the head as it pulled back for a fresh bite and that got its attention, it reared back and turned toward Carl and I got a good punch into its chest, I heard the air ‘whuff’ out of it as I hit. I followed up with another punch and got my left arm free. I was lying on my back with both of them on and over me. I caught it by the arm as it came back at me for another bite. I hit it in the throat with my palm and felt the cartilage crackle and tear, I closed my hand and would have ripped its throat out but my hand was too small. it finally noticed the damage and scuttled back off me. I still had my purse on my arm; I reached it and felt my pistol first try. The ghoul headed down the stairs and I shot as soon as the gun came loose. I pulled the trigger and hit it somewhere in the back. It kept going.
