99 Souls

by Thomas Malafarina

  Will lay flat on his stomach, with the wind knocked out of him. Up ahead he heard a slight gurgling sound along with what appeared to be an animal-like deeper breathing.

  Shadowed in the flickering light of the oil lamp, he saw what looked like an enormous clawed foot. The heel of the foot seemed to have a ten-inch talon-like claw protruding upward and out from it like an S-shape and the front toes seemed to have long razor sharp claws hooking downward. The front toes flexed, digging into the black dusty soil.

  Will could see coarse hair and sweat on the leathery hide of the foot, the color of which was a horrible shade of brown with hints of black and dark gray. Blue veins stood up pulsating, indicating the superior muscular condition of whatever owned this hideous appendage.

  Will slowly allowed his gaze to move up the side of the ankle, up to the brawny leg then toward the buttocks. The creature was naked, sitting down in a hunkered position; even so, the thing was still incredibly huge.

  He saw a pair of coal-dirt covered work shoes and workpants twitching and dangling in mid air against the wall, as if being suspended, dark liquid trickling from below the bottom cuff of the pants as if the owner had wet himself in fright, or perhaps it was blood. Will was not certain.

  One drop of the liquid fell slowly toward the ground. It hit the black dirt at the bottom of the tunnel as if in slow motion, causing a puff of dust from the impact. The droplet beaded and maintained its shape. It was definitely blood.

  An arm hung limply down to the side, its hand, slightly twitching, as was the entire body. As Will looked on helplessly, his eyes focused on the abdominal area of the hanging form as he heard a loud swishing sound as an enormous hairy arm passed quickly in front of his view, giving him a hint of its incredible size.

  A large clawed hand with massive talons ripped across the man’s belly. Will’s friend, Frank, hung suspended against the wall unable to speak or cry out. Will could do nothing but watch the events unfold before him as if in a slow murky nightmare.

  Will heard a sickly wet ripping sound as the claws sliced through the meat of the stomach and Frank finally screamed in agony. Will saw the clawed slices give their first signs of leakage when four lines of red formed, began to stream blood, then like a dam bursting the incisions fell open spilling Frank's insides out before Will’s unbelieving eyes. Will saw the intestines flopping back and forth like a nest of insane snakes spitting blood as their contents splattered about the tunnel. As the innards released from the body, they fell down past the still twitching legs, splashing to the floor with a sickening sloshing sound.

  He saw Frank’s eyes bulging from their sockets in terror. Frank twitched helplessly staring into the face of God knows what was before him, killing him. His mouth was open as if in a scream but he no longer made any sound.

  Will saw white swirling lights emerge from the man’s mouth, at first specks and blinks of light streamed out, becoming more plentiful until finally becoming a swirling mass of strands like hair or cloth fibers, weaving around each other slowly and gracefully. Will followed the stream of white follicles seeing the beast for the first time.

  Its massive right arm was extended with its right hand wrapped around Frank's throat, dangling him in the air, a steady stream of phosphorescent intertwining light flowing from his mouth toward the creature. This light actually seemed to be doing more to illuminate the tunnel then the oil lamp did.

  The creature's huge right arm hid most of its face from view, while its left arm rested on the ground under Frank's twitching legs. It enormous clawed fingers absent-mindedly played with Frank's spilled guts like a child playing with a plate of noodles.

  To Will, the creature appeared to be over fourteen feet high. It leaned it’s head back as if it were getting ready to howl and although Will could still not get a good look at its face he could see that bright white sparkling beam leaving Franks body and going directly into the open mouth of the creature. The creature appeared to be in a state of ecstasy as it swallowed the glowing light. What was that light?

  As the final remnants of the light fled Frank’s body, Will saw that the poor man appeared to be withering before his eyes. Frank's face shriveled as his milky-filmed eyes bulged out of their sockets. The left eye suddenly popped and exploded a splash of blood flying directly at Will, hitting the ground a few feet in front of Will who could do nothing but stare in terror.

  The light turned from phosphorescent white to dull white to clear then eventually it ceased completely as Frank's movements stopped, the body going limp.

  The light passing from Frank to the creature stopped completely, the creature turning slightly away from Will opening its huge mouth. With an ear-splitting roar, the light left the creature's mouth flying at incredible speed across the expanse of the cave where it splashed like water against the vertical far wall of the large cave.

  The entire cave beyond the tunnel erupted in bright light, giving Will his first view of just how massive the cave was, his eyes transfixed on the wall of the cave.

  At first, the light seemed to splash backward away from the wall as if deflected, but it quickly sucked back against the surface of the wall as if by a type of magnetic force.

  The light pooled like water, impossibly suspended vertically against the cave wall, then was absorbed into the wall itself. The cave was now again immersed into darkness, except for the glow of the wall where the light entered. The surface turned from shimmering white to glowing blood red.

  The surface of the wall began to transform and move as if it were alive. It began to take a shape. Initially, Will saw what appeared to be fingertips begin to stretch and push out from the wall then retreat back into the wall again.

  Then he saw a smooth and stretched image of Frank's face, begin to protrude from the wall in an expression of unbearable pain. Then it too, quickly sucked back into the wall again. Then more hands and fingers appeared and disappeared. Will saw the fallen miner Joe's tortured face start to emerge, slide to the side and go back into the wall. Then the other miner, Mike's face, then two of them, then the three.

  All of these horrible wall creatures seemed to be performing a hideous dance of pain just under the red liquid skin-like surface of the wall. It looked to Will as thought they wanted to escape, but could not. They all appeared to be in agonizing pain and the wall had become a fluid-like prison for these three lost souls.

  As the creature studied the wall with its back to Will, it seemed not to notice that Will was frozen in fear, watching this spectacle. The beast was spellbound watching the amazing sight before it; a sight for which it was responsible.

  The huge hulking creature turned back to the still dangling mummified corpse of Frank and flung it like garbage into the black depths of the cave beyond the tunnel.

  Then it completed its work by bending down and scooping up the entrails from the floor of the tunnel. The entrails slithered and slid through the creature's one hand and into its other.

  The beast brought its huge hands up to its face forming a makeshift bowl from which it began to feast. Will heard wet chewing, grunting and slurping noises coming from the being as it devoured its prize.

  Will covered his mouth to stop himself from vomiting. Regaining his control, Will began to slowly inch backward away from the creature, being careful not to make a sound.

  As he worked his way back, he did not notice that a small pickax on his tool belt was dragging along the wall and beginning to work its way out of the belt. Will continued to back up as unknown to him, the pickax climbed higher from his tool belt.

  Chapter 22

  When Will was about thirty feet from the creature the pickax slid completely out falling to the ground with a clanging sound echoing in the tunnel like a cacophony of church bells.

  The creature snapped its head up and for the first time, Will saw a full frontal view of its unbelievably hideous face in the light of the fallen oil lamp. Remnants of blood and intestines splashed against the tunnel walls from the creature’s rapid head sna
p.

  This thing was repulsive beyond comprehension. Will had never seen or even dreamed of such a beast in his worst nightmares. It had a pushed up snout like a pig, with large open flaring nostrils, that seemed to open and close with each breath. It had yellow-red eyes sunken in dark holes and long pointed black ears curling back away from its face. On its head was a mane of long black hair and covering its face was a tangled beard, matted with crud and crawling with insects and maggots. There were two curved horns protruding from either side of his forehead near the top of its skull, ram-like in appearance. The creature's huge mouth was full of long fanged teeth, the bottom row having two huge tusks protruding upward over its top lip. The mouth dripped Frank's blood as shredded remnants of flesh and Frank's guts dangling from the tusks.

  The creature stared into the darkness for a just moment then slowly tilted its head turning to the side flaring its nostrils as it sniffed the air.

  It lowered its head looking in Will’s direction, giving an evil smile of recognition speaking in its low guttural voice…”Hello Will… What's wrong, Willie boy? …. Don't you recognize your old pal Danny?”

  The creature's face appeared to slowly transform back into something that resembled the face of Dan O’Boyle, but not quite. It actually looked like a monstrously deformed version of Dan. Then, unable to hold onto its deception, the face reverted to the original hideous form.

  The creature appeared frustrated in its failed attempt to transform then said, “What's wrong, Will? Don't you like what I've become? It's a gift you know, a special gift from the Dark One. …….”

  The creature sniffed the air again saying. “I smell you Will…. I smell your soul…. I want your soul.”

  Without thinking, Will quickly stood, turned and in one fluid motion ran for his life out of the tunnel and away from the creature. The beast leaned back its huge head giving an incredible ear splitting roar.

  Will stumbled and faltered like a madman as he ran toward the giant opening at the chamber end of tunnel. It was pitch black, except for the meager light of the oil lamp on his hat. In the near distance he saw the end of the tunnel visible in the light from the oil lamp that poor dead Frank had left behind. As he ran toward safety, he was panting, mumbling hysterically and crying.

  From behind him, Will heard what sounded like the four-legged running of the enormous creature. He could hear it snarling and grunting deep in its gullet. He thought that he could hear his name repeated between the grunts over and over. “Will… Will….”

  Will broke out of the tunnel into the large chamber remembering to immediately turn left and head for the small tunnel that he and Frank had dug. Within seconds, he was in the tunnel on his hands and knees crawling faster than he ever thought possible.

  The creature erupted into the chamber from the large tunnel, standing a full fifteen feet high waving its arms, throwing its head back and howling like a rabid beast. Its long matted hair waved in the air and blood soaked spittle flew in all directions. It bellowed at the top of its lungs “Will…”

  The creature turned heading directly for the small tunnel, pounced on the tiny hole and began digging, spewing rocks and debris, enlarging the opening, burrowing toward the main shaft.

  Will continued to crawl quickly to escape his horrible fate. From the faint light of his oil lamp he could see that he was scratched and bleeding from his efforts but did not care. He knew that if necessary, he would crawl for miles on bloody stumps to escape the thing that was pursuing him. He was crying and raving as he crawled on, heading for the opening just a few feet away and what he could only hope would be the safety of the main shaft.

  As he entered the main area on his hands and knees, he turned backward and could see the creature far behind him. Although the creature was much too large to fit through the opening in the small tunnel, Will saw that the beast was furiously digging to enlarge the tunnel and was working his way through the pile of debris very quickly.

  Will stumbled to his feet and started to clumsily head up the gangway of the main mine shaft past the working miners; toward the safety of the top of the mine. He was staggering, tripping and struggling, weaving from side to side. He was crying, shouting, screaming and mumbling incoherently.

  As he raced past each worker, he grabbed and pulled at each of them to try to warn them to get out of the mine. He shouted wildly at them, “Get out!.. Hurry… Get out.. Now... it's a demon... It’s a creature... it's Dan. run… get away.. now. Hurry…. it’s Dan O’Boyle…. He's some... kind of demon.. It's got Frank.. hurry….run!”

  No one understood what he was saying. They thought that he was drunk or playing some sort of a prank. They all laughed and jeered at him and push him back and forth between each other along the gangway, all shouting a variety of insults.

  “What the Hell, Will.”

  “Are ye mad?”

  “I think you must have had a bit of whiskey down there with ye, Willie boy.”

  After being pushed and prodded upward along by the gauntlet of workers, Will ended up near the top of the mine. Turning back and he could see the miners all looking up, pointing and laughing at him.

  Looking past the jeering men, Will could see the small opening of the tunnel at the bottom of the mine shaft. He heard a loud, low guttural steamy grunt; like that of a wild bull.

  Chapter 23

  The miners stopped laughing; turning as one to look at each other, having all heard the same unbelievable sound. Then as if in a choreographed performance, they looked toward the small opening at the bottom of the mine.

  A deep growl came from the depths of the mine. Suddenly the wall around the small tunnel opening exploded in a flurry of debris as the huge snarling beast entered the main working shaft.

  The giant creature had to stay down on all fours to maneuver about the area. This however did not greatly inhibit its ability to move.

  The demon pounced on the closest miner as the other men attempted to escape. With its massive right hand, the beast grabbed the unfortunate man by the throat pulling him upward. The creature opened its gigantic mouth wide. Its bottom fangs jutted forward to enter the worker’s skull through his eye sockets, popping his eyeballs like grapes then exploding out of the top of the man’s skull shooting blood and brain matter.

  With a mighty tug, the beast tore the man’s body loose from its head and tossed the carcass aside. The creature slammed its massive jaws together as, amid a shower of blood and brains, the bottom half of the man’s head fell to the mine floor. The creature spat out the top of the man’s skull, which fell to the ground, spinning like soup bowl, splashing blood as it spun.

  The beast grabbed the next miner who had fallen down on all fours and was attempting to crawl up the gangway. The man hung desperately to a railroad tie. The creature pulled and the worker’s fingers broke, releasing his grip. The creature swung the miner by the leg like a rag doll. The man’s skull crushed first against the right then the left rocky sides of the mineshaft. The beast threw the miner’s dead corpse far up the shaft with incredible force, the body striking two support timbers just in front of Will, causing the mine to begin collapsing from the entrance downward.

  Will looked up at the ceiling of the mineshaft as dust and debris fell, certain a total collapse was imminent. He tried to reach for one of the nearest miners, but the attempt was useless. He heard the screaming miners and the roaring beast. Will turned, heading for the mine entrance. As he jumped through the entrance to freedom, he hit the ground rolling, stopping on his side facing the entrance of the mine.

  As the mine collapsed, the creature continued climbing higher ripping miners to pieces along the way. One by one, the creature tore them limb from limb. Will heard screams of pain and terror. The creature did not bother taking the time to gather any souls along his way. This was a frenzy of blood lust.

  Will knew that surely those unfortunate miners who did not immediately die during the creature’s rampage would later suffer a fate similar to Frank’s sad demise i
n the tunnel. The creature swung its massive arms madly and knocking down support beams and timbers in its wake.

  Will lay on the ground outside of the mine panting, tears streaming from his eyes. There was another explosion-like sound, as dust, and debris came streaming from the mine that had collapsed for its final time.

  In Will’s mind he believed he could ‘hear’ the creature that was once Dan O’Boyle. Somehow the beast was sending Will a message in his mind. Within the passing of just a few seconds Will saw everything that Dan had experienced, from the initial mine crash, to his blasphemy, to his making the deal with Satan, to the soul sucking of the miners, and finally the murderous rampage taking place now. Somehow Will had briefly formed a mental connection with the monster and knew that this was truly Dan O’Boyle transformed, and the man was now a demon, doomed to spend eternity tormenting humanity. He also knew about the ninety-nine souls and that somehow this creature would have to be stopped before it could collect the souls and escape the mine.

  Will stared wild eyed at the massive cloud of dust spewing from the mine entrance for a few moments, then collapsed into blessed unconsciousness.

  Chapter 24

  Elizabeth stared at the old man with utter fascination. She asked, “You expect me to believe that this creature killed all of those poor men, and nothing was done about it? That the mine collapsed, and then it was just abandoned?”

  Willie replied, “Yep. That's pretty much how it happened.”

  “But, what about Bill Coogan?” She asked, “Didn't he order the mine reopened?”

  Willie continued, “He tried, but it did no good. You see. My Daddy was driven half-crazy by what he saw that day. For a while, he went around telling everyone he met pieces of what happened down there. Most folks weren't sure what they did or didn't believe. Most thought he was overcome by hallucinations from mine gas or was just plain crazy.”