"You watched too many Hammer Films as a kid," she whispered, but the image remained as she walked up to the porch. She wasn't surprised when the first step squealed under her footstep.
The screen door was ajar, a stray breeze moving it slowly back and forth. Elizabeth raised her hand to knock but hesitated. Why am I here? To meet some strange relative? To see the place where my dad was born? This made no sense.
The front door suddenly opened with a loud creaking noise, startling her.
"Can I help you?" the man in the doorway said, rubbing sleep from his eyes. He looked pale, his skin a dull gray and his thin hair filthy and matted to his forehead.
"My name is Elizabeth and I…" she had no idea what to actually say now that she was here. He was actually creeping her out but she couldn't look away.
"Elizabeth what?" He asked.
"What?"
He looked annoyed and rubbed one eye again with a slick hand. "I know you," he said quietly. "At least, I think I do."
"Elizabeth Marsh," she said and wasn't surprised when he immediately came fully awake. His face changed from a look of astonishment, then fear, and then his eyes fell into slits. Like… a snake, she thought.
"Who was your father, Miss Marsh?"
She decided this wasn't such a great idea and wanted to run. His mannerisms and his eyes were a bit off…
"My name is Harrison Marsh, and I need you to come inside," the man said as he gripped her wrist with a clammy hand.
Elizabeth went to pull away but his grasp was electric, shocking her into immediate submission as she stumbled into the decrepit house behind him. He paused, still holding onto her, to shut the door, before leading her into the living room and guiding her to the couch.
Harrison sat down across from her, in a plush chair, gazing over the pyramid of rotting pizza boxes on the coffee table. "Would you like something to eat?"
Elizabeth gazed at the cardboard pile.
Harrison chuckled. "I have actual food and drink in the kitchen. I'm afraid I'm not much of a cook. My wife, Nicole, used to do all the household things when she was around."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Elizabeth said. "Did she, uh, pass away?"
Harrison shrugged. "I thought she was alive, but now I'm not so sure."
"I don't understand."
Harrison stood and glanced at the ceiling before putting a finger to his lips. "It isn't safe to talk inside the house. They are up there, listening."
"Who?"
Harrison closed his eyes. "Our relatives, of course."
Elizabeth knew he was right, but she didn't know how it was possible or what it really meant. The familiarity of this dwelling was very strong to her, but she didn't think she'd ever been here. It was more of a presence than an actual memory she was aware of. But she felt as if she'd been in this living room before, years ago, as a child…
There was a subtle thump from upstairs. Both of them jumped.
"What was that?" Elizabeth asked.
"I think someone has returned."
"Your wife?"
Harrison frowned. "I doubt it." He glanced at the stairs leading to the second floor. "At this point, I hope not."
Elizabeth stood.
"Where are you going?"
Her reporter mode was kicking in, and she needed to do something before she was completely freaked out and ran from the house. "I'm going to see who it is."
"You can't go up there," Harrison said and stood to block her. "I won't let you."
"Where is the kitchen?" she asked, trying to throw him off.
"I'll show you," he said and tried to grab her wrist again.
"The next time you put your hands on me you lose a finger. Do you understand?"
Harrison actually smiled pleasantly. "Of course. Forgive me. My nerves are shot at this point. Are you hungry or thirsty?"
"I could use something to drink," she said. Her goal was to follow him toward the kitchen but then dash up the steps. She tried not to show her disappointment when he kept between her and the stairs as they moved, watching her every step.
The kitchen was filthy. The appliances were old and antiquated, and everything was covered in a sheen of dust or dirt, obvious animal droppings littering the four corners. The kitchen table was overflowing with more pizza boxes, empty plastic two-liter soda bottles and old books.
"The maid is on vacation this week," Harrison said. He dumped a tall stack of loose papers off one of the kitchen chairs. "Please, sit."
Elizabeth made to drop down onto the chair when she spotted the closed door on the other side of the kitchen. With any luck, it led to stairs going up. Without another thought, and as Harrison turned to the grease-streaked refrigerator, she made a dash for the door.
It swung open into darkness.
"Don't go down there!" he shrieked.
Too late, she took the steps two at a time and plunged into the pitch black.
* * * * *
What are you doing? Elizabeth thought as she stumbled off the last step and nearly twisted her ankle. She felt around for a light switch but there wasn't one when her fingers brushed against the wall.
She looked back up the steps, but it was dark. Did he close the door behind me? She was expecting him to be up there, sunlight behind his head, screaming for her return. There was only an eerie silence and a wet earthy smell. Now she was trapped.
The ground felt spongy beneath her feet, like mud or loam. Elizabeth took a tentative step forward and then another. She could sense a vast space all around her as she slowly moved. She snapped her fingers and heard the echo.
A flashlight or lantern would be a nice addition right about now, she thought. Elizabeth took another step before she had one of those face-palm moments.
"My cell phone!" she said, pulling it from her pocket. She turned it on and grinned at her ingenuity.
There were many red, angry eyes shining back at her in the small area the feeble light penetrated…
But she didn't have time to think about them because her panicked next step didn't hit solid ground, or even squishy ground. It hit nothing, and she toppled forward into a dark pit.
* * * * *
Her cell phone was buzzing on vibrate next to her head and it sounded like angry bees trying to crawl into her ear. The faint light was on for a second as her eyes struggled to adjust, but then all went black again.
Elizabeth wasn't afraid of the dark as a child, but this was absolute black. She couldn't see her hand in front of her face. She felt around on the dirt floor until she found her phone and was comforted by the soft glow of the screen.
As her eyes adjusted again, she spun around slowly and took in the chamber she was trapped in. There were no tunnels or exits except one, set about ten feet above her. She couldn't see the ceiling with the light.
When she completed her full circle, she gasped. Directly behind her, seated against the wall, were two men and a woman.
One of them, obviously a priest by his dress, smiled through cracked lips. He was old but looked positively ancient. Emaciated. "Don't be alarmed. We are the few good people you will meet down here."
"Where are we?"
"Hell," the gruff biker-looking man, next to the priest, said. He didn't stand but offered a hand. "I'm Bones and this here is Father Rocco." When Elizabeth didn't take his hand, he pointed a meaty thumb at the woman lying near them in the fetal position. "She's Nicole. I imagine, if you came in through the house, you've met her crazy sonofabitch husband. He doesn't even realize she's with us."
Elizabeth's head hurt and she leaned against the wall. The reporter in her was trying to process the data but her emotions were getting in the way. She wanted to cry.
"Are you injured?" Rocco asked her.
"No." She patted herself down, but knew nothing was broken. "Not a scratch." She looked up. "How far of a drop is it?"
Bones shrugged and stood. "No clue. I was attacked by the townspeople and knocked out. When I came to, I was here."
Eliza
beth looked at Rocco.
"I got sucked into a painting."
Elizabeth waited for the punch-line but Father Rocco wasn't laughing. "Should I even ask?"
"Probably not. I don't understand it myself. This house… this entire town, is under the grip of immense evil. The Esoteric Order of Dagon has sunk its fangs into the good citizens of Keyport, it would seem."
"That's being a bit dramatic, Rocco. I seriously doubt there were ever any good citizens of Keyport. These in-bred monsters have been doing this for eons. Who knows how many others have been trapped down here?"
Elizabeth used her cell phone glow to look at the only exit from the cavern: the natural-hewn hole. "Why don't we just go through there?"
Nicole whimpered.
"They live through there," Father Rocco said quietly.
"Who?"
"You mean what," Bones said. "They are like blind vicious dogs, with rat heads and… weird tentacles."
"Hell Hounds," Rocco said.
"Here we go with the dramatics again. Not everything has a religious connotation," Bones said. "They are just really fucked up monsters that get pissed when we try to get into the hole."
"How high up is the way I came in?"
"No clue." Bones pointed at Nicole again. "She has been useless since we got here. I'm not sure what her deal is. I'm guessing she's in shock. And she smells like she went swimming in the bay."
"She did. She was abducted by the Order and rowed out as a sacrifice," Rocco said.
"She doesn't look bad for a sacrifice. Usually, it entails being killed." Elizabeth held the cell phone as high as she could but she couldn't see the ceiling.
"Conserve your battery," Bones said.
"Now what?" Elizabeth asked.
"We wait for God to save us," Father Rocco said.
Bones snorted and Elizabeth turned the cell phone off, plunging them back into ultimate darkness.
* * * * *
Elizabeth must have been sleeping because her neck hurt and her senses came alive. Had she heard something? She was slumped against the wall.
"Keep the light off. Trust me," Bones suddenly whispered in her ear, startling her. "I think one of the, uh, Hell Hounds is down here with us."
She could hear the shuffling but couldn't gauge where the thing was. It was breathing heavily and maybe sniffing.
"They might be blind. Don't move," he said again in her ear. "The last time they came down, they sniffed us but no one got bitten."
Elizabeth wondered if he said it to make her feel better, or was just stating a fact. Either way, she was now freaked out. Even more than before, if it that was possible.
And the thing was coming up to her. She smelled it and it repulsed her. It stank of putrid sea water and dead fish. She had the image Bones had told her running through her mind, playing tricks with the dark before her. Could she see or hear the tentacles, or was it her mind playing tricks?
Elizabeth wanted to stand but it was suddenly right there, sniffing her face from inches away. The breath was as bad as the stench coming off the body, and she swallowed bile, refusing to make a noise.
Her stomach lurched. Do not throw up, she tried to will herself. Do not puke.
It burned up her throat and she spewed the contents of her lunch she'd had with her mom, some of it splashing back off the beast.
Elizabeth rolled to her right, puking again, as she raised her cell phone, defensively, and turned it back on.
The beast was blinded, its red eyes pulsing as it began to scream in pain. They can see, she thought stupidly. I blinded it. The creature was the stuff of nightmares, and just as Bones described but so much more hideous. Elizabeth convulsed again but there was nothing left to release.
Bones drove a biker boot into the thing's head. "Keep the light on it," he shouted.
She did as she was told, watching in fascination as Bones kicked and pummeled the creature, which was no taller than a German Shepard. The tentacles shimmered and danced but didn't seem to be attacking Bones as he drove it into the ground with each stomp.
Father Rocco was praying to God about forgiveness and killing one of His creatures, but Elizabeth knew beyond a shadow of a doubt this vile abomination wasn't created by God.
When the creature stopped moving, Bones kicked it one last time. He was breathing heavily. "We need to get out of here before his friends show up."
"How?"
"Up. The three of us can see how far it is to the top. It can't be that bad since you didn't break anything when you fell." Bones went to the side and planted is feet, putting his hands on the wall. "Climb up, and do it quickly. Father, you're first."
"What about Nicole?" Elizabeth asked.
"Nicole, can you hear me?" Bones didn't move from his spot but yelled to her, still wrapped up in herself.
"I won't leave without her," Elizabeth said with conviction.
"Then we stay here and die with her," Bones said. "Or we get the fuck out of here and get some help. She isn't going anywhere, look at her. Would you sacrifice all four of us for her?"
"Fine." Elizabeth turned to the priest. "Get up there before I think too much about this."
Father Rocco didn't waste time, climbing onto Bones and standing on his shoulders. "I think I can reach the lip of the crater if I stretch," he said excitedly. "But, without a third person, we'll never get out."
Elizabeth stood behind Bones and readied herself for the dash up the two men when she heard the growl from the tunnel behind her.
Only it wasn't a growl as much as a wet, slobbering barking noise, as if the monster was drowning.
"Let's get moving, ma'am," Bones said. "I can't protect us if we're still trying to climb out. Move that little ass of yours."
Elizabeth smiled despite the situation, knowing she was insane. Little ass of yours? I like that, she thought. If I ever get out of this shit-hole alive, I'm going to eat better, and go back to the gym, and live each day to the fullest. And get a new job.
She got up and over Bones with ease, since he was so much bigger than her. Once she gripped Father Rocco, however, she felt the man as if he were a sparrow. There was no way she was going to climb up and over him without breaking his ribs or knocking him to the ground.
"Here they come," Bones said.
Elizabeth put her hands on the priest's shoulders and her knee into his back, pushing him against the wall. He grunted but didn't complain. She pulled herself up, at the same time pushing down on him. He wobbled but held steady.
"Can you feel the cellar floor?" Father Rocco said through clenched teeth.
Elizabeth stretched as she managed to get her knees onto his bony shoulders. Her hands went up until the wall disappeared. "I think I did it," she said and tried to grip the floor.
But it was dirt, and she only managed to pull some gravel down on top of them.
"I can't get it."
"Stand up on me," Father Rocco said.
"Do something," Bones yelled. "You're getting heavy and they are sniffing my privates right now."
Elizabeth stood, using the wall as a brace and trying to keep the bulk of her weight off the priest. She knew instinctively, even in complete darkness, she was above the floor and felt the dusty air on her face. She planted her hands and pulled herself up and over, onto the floor.
"I'm up," she said. "Give me your hand."
Father Rocco grabbed her and she tried to pull him up, but despite his size, he was still too heavy for her to do it alone.
"I can't hold this pose for long," Bones said.
"I can't get a good grip and pull him up." Elizabeth sighed in frustration. They were so close to escape.
Father Rocco released his grip from her. "Go find some rope, or some help. We're wasting time."
Before she could reply, he let go, and she could hear him climbing back into the hole in the dark.
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"Hurry," Bones said. "They are all around us."
Elizabeth stood up and turned the
cell phone back on, hoping to find something in the cellar of the ancient house to rescue them.
The red eyes were all around her. The first Hell Hound stepped into her cell phone light and bared its insanely sharp teeth.
* * * * *
Bones tried to rub feeling back into his shoulders. Even as light as Father Rocco was, it was still a strain to keep him aloft. The demonic dogs were growling low in their throats, as if making sure Bones and the priest knew where the limit was for them to move.
They are keeping us herded against the wall, Bones thought. These aren't stupid animals. He decided to test the theory while they waited for Elizabeth to return with either a rope or the police.
Two steps forward and he could feel the beast snap powerful jaws near his crotch. Bones jumped back, slamming against the wall.
"I don't think we're allowed to move," Father Rocco said. "I vote we stay still and wait for her return."
"I am going to agree," Bones said. He didn't know how long before the beasts would attack them.
And that was when Elizabeth suddenly returned… or part of her.
Her severed arm, still clutching the lit cell phone, dropped into the center of the pit. It cast a beam of light on the two men, who both visibly slumped.
Father Rocco threw up and Nicole moaned softly behind the monsters.
The dozen Hell Hounds, fiery eyes caught in the glow, barked in unison and advanced on the two men.
DAGON
Matthew DiNardo didn't know which was sweating more in this oppressive heat: the glass of lemonade sitting on the kitchen table, or he with the thick ill-fitting suit jacket.
"My little girl will be down in a minute," the Minister Cecil said, dropping his six and a half foot frame into a protesting chair across from Matthew. His hand hid his own glass of lemonade. His emphasis had been on the words “little girl,” and Matthew put his hands in his lap so the imposing man couldn't see them shaking.
Keyport Cthulhu Page 6
