by Andy Morris
hissed in a voice that only Connor would hear. “Every night she stays over could be the night that the demon comes for you. You need to keep yourself safe”.
“It will make no difference. Abiku will come if I’m with Laura or not” Connor tried to explain again but there was no point trying to change Alicia’s mind once it was made up.
“You don’t know that for sure. Anyway, I’ve got go. I’ll see you tomorrow at Mum’s”. Connor shut the door a little harder than he had intended and quickly went back to Laura.
“Sorry about that” he apologised.
“That’s OK” Laura said amenably. “I do sometimes wonder if I’ve maybe done something wrong or said something to upset her I don’t know what it is but she doesn’t seem to like me very much”
“No” Connor quickly reassured her feeling a desperate urge to deny everything. “No, it’s nothing to do with you. She’s just got some issues she’s working through at the moment. Plus she gets cranky having to get up at 4:30 every morning for her breakfast show. It’s nothing personal, really”. He had always found it hard lying and his discomfort sapped his enjoyment from the rest of the evening.
He couldn’t tell Laura about Abiku. How could he? This was something that came around in his mind from time to time; how to tell her, what she would think if she suddenly woke up and found him… Never mind. When Abiku does come he’d be ready!
Connor rolled over again, fighting the covers that felt too hot tonight. He didn’t want to think about the future but his mind was buzzing this evening. This wasn’t the time to be thinking about relationships, anyway, he told himself as he glanced at the green glow from his digital alarm clock. Worrying about Alicia and Laura wasn’t making his headache any better and he should probably try to get some more sleep. In the morning he’d try to find out where that smell was coming from before he set off to work. Connor turned over beginning to feel tired but no more peaceful as he waited for sleep to come again.
At work he was developing a new action game; AKW Untamed. It was based on the popular Animal Kingdom Wrestling series. Images of the characters in the game floated up before him as he started to drift off to sleep. He relived a conversation he had with his colleague Darren at work about the colour of a certain characters shorts and whether they should be red or green. He replayed the exchange again and again as his body relaxed and the weightlessness of sleep began to carry him off. He didn’t have chance to drift into a deeper sleep as he felt something in the darkness jump onto the bed, landing clumsily with a thump onto his right leg just above his ankle.
A sudden shot of adrenaline jolted him awake again and the potential dream instantly evaporated. He remained very still, feeling hyper-alert as all his senses buzzed at the unexpected disturbance. It had felt like a small dog or heavy cat jumping onto the bed and for a moment he thought it may be Tinkerbell but it couldn’t be her. He gingerly tried to sit up and ease his foot out from beneath the thing on his bed. Perhaps a pile of clothes had fallen over and his dreaming mind had become confused? But to his horror it moved and then all doubt was gone - something had crossed over from the other side.
It climbed off his foot and a second later a something solid jabbed down onto the covers where his foot had been just a moment before. It felt sharp and hostile Connor instinctively pulled both legs up as the stabbing punching thing trailed after him as if whatever it was was trying to spear him. Connor frantically wriggled out of his covers and leapt out of bed. Taking up both top corners of his duvet as he climbed out he threw them back over the thing in the middle of his bed to stop it from going any further.
Thing was an accurate description. For when Connor slapped on the lamp at the side of his bed the disgusting creature had disentangled itself from the bedding and squatted in the centre of his bed staring at Connor through it single milky eye that seemed to bulge like the puss-filled head of a large zit. From the centre of its head grew a thorny protuberance of bone. Its body, if it could be thought of in that way was a bloated mottled grey-green sack beneath the eye. A wide mouth housing rows and rows of wicked looking fangs filled almost the entire front of its body. While flanking its monstrous jaws was a pair of twitching mandibles like an ants’ but only thousands of times bigger. Connor saw what had stabbed at him in the bed; two folded limbs like those of a praying mantis, wavered in the dim light, ready to strike. The demon waddled forwards on stubby legs. It could be little more than two and a half feet tall. It was nowhere near as big as the demons he had seen before so this must be some kind of lesser demon. Still, that didn’t make it any less deadly.
Images from that dream last night flashed through his mind and he realised the demon must have followed him through his psychic doorway as he woke up this morning.
Without warning it leapt at him, flying through the air so fast he barely had time to react. Connor barely saw the legs stretch out as the creature sprang off the bed. Its mantis-like limbs diving towards him while its ugly mouth leered wide open. He raised his arms instinctively. Connor was surprised how heavy the thing was as it hit him in the chest, making him stumble backwards against the bookshelf. Up close the reek of filth and raw sewage emanating from the demon stung the back of his throat and watered his eyes which explained that smell he had noticed earlier.
Connor managed to shove the monster off him. He managed to fling it back across the room with his hands, but not before it scratched a deep gouge in his shoulder. The impossible creature stumbled as it landed on its back but it quickly righted itself, spilling the bedside table and knocking the lamp onto the floor. The bulb died in a hollow pop and the room was plunged into darkness once again.
Connor stood where he was in the blackness, trying to hear where the thing was over the pounding in his chest. He knew the creature was moving somewhere but he couldn’t see it. It could be on the far side or it could be by his feet. Claustrophobia was pressing in from all sides. It could crawl over him at any moment. His toes curled at the thought of it. He still couldn’t see it anywhere.
It was close. Connor could hear its breathing, somewhere nearby, a throaty rasping sound like a death rattle. It was by his bed! Connor tried to peer through the darkness but was still denied any site of it. His own lungs were straining to suck in oxygen.
There was movement now the monster was by the bedroom door. It sounded further away but now another noise swished through the blackness. It was the sound of something whipping through the air like a child swinging a bamboo cane like a sword. A thought occurred to Connor; perhaps it was blind. Maybe it didn’t know where he was and it was lashing out with its forelimbs in the hope of catching him.
It was clever though. He felt sure it had gone to the door on purpose. Connor wanted to shrink down into himself. He wished his bedroom door was open so it would go away and leave him alone but he knew it wouldn’t.
It had gone quiet again and in his lapse of concentration he had lost track of it. He listened intently, trying to pick out where it could be. There was a movement to his left. He knew where it had gone. He didn’t have time to think as he heard a slight intake of breath from beside him. The creature had climbed the curtains next to him. As he became aware of this, the thing leapt off, landing on his back. As Connor struggled the curtains must have become caught up with the monster and they came away from the wall, letting the pale moonlight spill from outside.
The disgusting odour of the creature was assailing his nostrils and his skin crawled. The weight of the thing was dragging him backwards. He knew if he went down it would finish him off with those long stabbing claws in no time. He took hold of one of the mantis-like limbs that was clawing over his shoulder, trying to gouge its way into his soft unprotected flesh. Gripping the forelimb in both hands he pulled and twisted. Spinning around in a martial arts style move, he managed to throw the creature off him. Connor’s back ached as he stood up straighter, only now feeling where the mandibles had been biting at him from behind.
There was no time to consider his op
tions as the thing came at him again. Like a rabid dog it charged across the floor at him raising its forelimbs ready to shred his legs as it got within range. Without thinking Connor stepped forwards to meet it and kicked it hard. It rolled over on the floor and his bare foot was scratched badly as it ripped against its monstrous teeth. The creature tumbled back towards his bedroom door. The pain in his foot shouted angrily at him but he tried not to think about it. Wasting no time, Connor leaped to the side of his bed and withdrew the weapon. As the demon charged at him again he slashed out blindly but managed to connect with it in mid-air. There is an angry hiss and insane gibbering from the demon. The creature dropped to the ground but quickly turned and came at Connor again, slower this time but no less savage.
This time, however Connor was ready. He activated his future door and saw the infinite possibilities of actions and reactions play out before him until he saw what he needed to do.
He paused, and then slashed out with the blade, seeing where the creature would come at him, watching the angle of its flight, and following the strike of the sharpened weapon. The creature howled as it dropped at Connors feet. The moonlight
