He gave it another ten seconds to be certain, each one counted down slowly in his mind. Then he opened his eyes and darted quick glances left and right.
His jaw dropped open as the crashing realisation hit. His surroundings were dark but not that dark. Dave didn't dare to believe it at first but no glinting surrounded him now. The smooth surface of the crater was clearly visible beneath the glittering stars. It appeared that the shadows had disappeared. It appeared as though...
It worked. It fucking wor–
The hint of a triumphant smile had only just started to crease his face when Dave looked down and it died away into a choking sob. Banished by the crumpled form that sprawled in a growing puddle at his feet. Beneath the moonlight it looked black but Dave knew only too well what it was. The weight of the knife in his hand a constant reminder.
Oh fuck I–
'Well that's quite a welcome, isn't it?' the overloud voice boomed from in front of him, cutting off his thoughts. 'Fucking hell,' it added and Dave's eyes snapped up to lock onto the form that loomed ahead in the gloom.
Dave's mouth dropped wide while he squinted, trying to make out the figure. A second later, it snapped shut again in a gasp. Out of the surrounding darkness, a chorus arose in response to the newcomer's words. One that would have been terrifying if the confusion it elicited hadn't knocked the fear down a few pegs.
It was clear what the congregated voices were attempting to achieve: an echo of the words that the figure in front of him had spoken. What emerged from the dark was another story though. A barrage of slurred words, grunts, groans, squeals and outright shrieks assailed Dave, and his eyes widened as slowly his body caught up with what was happening around him. Adrenaline pulsed through his exhausted frame and almost sent him reeling to the ground.
His hand shook as he scrabbled for the lighter. So bad he nearly dropped it on his first attempt to spark the flint. His second attempt was hampered by the thought that maybe he didn't actually want to see.
On the third try the flame took and Dave held it up.
This time the confusion that hit was so great it actually stopped the tears that had been tracking down his cheeks.
Revealed in the shaking glow of the lighter, the new arrival was not at all what Dave had expected. Rather than some horrendous monster looming before him there, instead, stood an unremarkable looking man.
Dave barely even felt the fresh heat from the lighter sear his already blistered fingers. His befuddled mind too busy trying to reconcile what he'd been through with the figure before him.
The man was chubby and dressed in an ill fitting black suit. It accentuated sections of the man's anatomy that Dave was pretty sure it wasn't meant to. The lumpy bulges of his frame topped by a grinning moon face and crazy, red, corkscrew hair that looked like it hadn't felt a brush's caress in months. He'd have cut a strange figure even if he hadn't been splattered in blood.
Now he just looked positively surreal as he made a show of patting at the blood spray.
'You treat all new arrivals this way?' he asked sternly, though the smile on his face belied his words.
In fact it spread wider and wider until the sight of it started to make Dave feel sick. It stretched a little too far across the man's face as though additional slits had been made at the corners of his mouth.
The sight triggered alarms that the man mightn't be quite as human as he first appeared.
A second later Dave had it confirmed.
After a few more lacklustre pats, the newcomer gave up. He simply shrugged and abruptly the blood that coated him vanished. As far as Dave could tell he simply absorbed it through his clothing but it was hard to be certain. Dave was thrown off by the chorus that erupted from the surrounding gloom once more. Yet another bastardised rendition of what the man in front of him had just said.
Dave wheeled around. The flame almost flickering out, he waved it so quickly. Only vague black silhouettes were revealed and he was forced to steady his hand and lean forward before he could fully distinguish the figures shambling forward toward him. Once he did though, he quickly recoiled. Even the brief glimpse he caught enough to force his brain right to the precipice of breakdown.
The figures that approached bore a lot of similarities to the man standing in front of him. But, like their parroting of his words, their appearance, too, was flawed to varying degrees.
Ranging from the odd clubbed foot and hunchback to things that Dave hesitated to label human. Extra limbs. Odd, lumpy flesh that flowed and billowed like curtains. Other things that could only barely drag themselves forward by misshapen hands. Dave caught a brief glimpse of all of them and then quickly extinguished the lighter, not wanting to see any more. It lasted all of a second though before he realised that not seeing them was infinitely more terrifying. He just pictured them nearing in the dark...
Dave made sure to keep his eyes straight ahead when he swapped hands and relit the lighter.
Though seeing the heroic arms akimbo pose the chubby man had struck while he looked around the crater, didn't exactly help get his reeling thoughts in order.
Even the voices in his head had started to ask, What the fuck?
'So, anything I should know about?'
Dave started when he was abruptly fixed in the man's piercing gaze.
'I'm sorry?' Dave managed to squeak while the bloody knife slipped from his hand and clattered to the ground.
The man watched it bounce absently for a second and then returned his eyes to Dave.
'For handover? You kno-oh!' The man cut himself off with a click of his fingers. 'Oh right. I sort of killed them, didn't I? Word probably hasn't filtered through yet, I suppose.'
'Hah,' Dave snorted and his legs abruptly went from under him. He toppled to his knees and swayed dizzily in place while the response from the other things rang out all around them.
He realised his mistake instantly. His new position only put him closer to the crumpled corpse of the boy but he didn't have the strength to get up again.
He tried to close his eyes but the man moved closer, drawing his attention.
'Anyway, I'm taking over. The way I was told, you lot have had more than your fair share now. It wasn't a bad defence you had going on here but I honestly think they weren't really trying that hard to get you guys out. I mean if those bastards out there can break through, anything can.' He waved his hands around vaguely. 'You know, I grew them myself. Needed a few extra hands and well, although I did need a bit of fresh meat by the end, I squeezed out enough. Went a bit,' the man spun a finger in circles next to his temple, 'but they get the job done, don't you think?'
Words failed Dave. His response was more suited to one of the shambling creatures out in the darkness.
'Yeah,' the man said as if Dave had provided an answer. 'Still they've gotten most of the heavy lifting done. Now there's just a bit of fine tuning to go. I always like to handle that myself, give it a bit of the...' the man trailed off, one hand held up in front of him frozen mid gesture. 'Ooh, what's this?' he asked and Dave felt the bottom of his stomach drop when he saw the man's eyes had drifted down.
Dave wanted to scream as he kicked the corpse and it rolled over, limbs flopping and slapping on the polished stone.
'Some sort of offering? Ha! Well you wouldn't be the first to mistake me for a god,' the man sniffed. 'Normally wouldn't go in for this sort of thing but well, crossing dimensions does take it out of you. And, I mean, you did go to all this effort and all...'
Dave finally found his voice and managed to shriek as the man abruptly exploded into a fleshy shower. Or at least that was what appeared to happen. Flecks and gobbets splattered across Dave and he recoiled, fully expecting a torrent to follow.
It didn't.
What actually happened was infinitely worse.
Dave screamed again as he saw the creature that had been birthed in front of him. The mass of glinting claws and twisted spikes framed by torn flesh. The gaping, needle filled maw that topped it.
/> He followed the first scream with another. Then another and another as one by one the other creatures in the shadows followed the man's lead. Each exploding until they were lesser reflections of the creature in front of him.
Dave felt something in his throat ping and the sharp stab as his voice blew out but still he croaked on while the creature leaned in closer. Its mouth gaped wider and wider and the smell that emerged set Dave's eyes burning.
'I'm John, by the way,' the creature growled, its voice having undergone a transformation to match the physical one. 'And this is my new home, for the time being.'
Then abruptly the creature morphed into a blur of motion and once more Dave was showered in flesh as it fell upon the kid's corpse, shredding it and absorbing the resulting gore.
Dave could only stare wide eyed while in the background a thousand slurred and raspy voices intoned. 'I'm John, by the way and this is my new home, for the time being.'
And as the babble washed over Dave, all he could think was...
... Fuck!
TO BE CONTINUED IN JOHN'S WORLD COMING IN 2012 FROM LEGUMEMAN BOOKS.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
R. Frederick Hamilton is a young up and comer.
LEGUMEMAN BOOKS
www.legumeman.com
Extreme and/or Unusual Fiction for
Extreme and/or Unusual People
Also by LegumeMan
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Archelon Ranch by Garrett Cook
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10 A BOOT STOMPING 20 A HUMAN FACE 30 GOTO 10 by Jess Gulbranson
The Place In Between by The Reverend Steven Rage
Snake Jaw by Andrew Gallacher
Tales of Sin and Madness by Brett McBean
Table of Contents
Title page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
THE SKYSCRAPER
1.
2.
3.
HENT
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
ESCAPE
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
THE CLAWS IN THE SHADOWS
20.
21.
22.
INTO THE DARK
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
JOHN
29.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Should Have Killed The Kid Page 28
