He could feel his insides being sucked out from the vile larva that had forced its head into his guts. It moved and feasted, pushing his intestines and internal organs about as more and more of him was greedily gobbled up. Jim could feel every single sensation, as countless bites chewed at him and pulled away more and more flesh.
His vision started to fade. While the pain never let up, Jim knew he was quickly dying. He cast a look down his body, what little of it he could see that wasn’t covered with these things. It was now merely exposed flesh and bone, a skeletal outline that glistened red.
Ada.
Jim peered up to see the proud, insectile parent looking down. But it wanted its fill too, it seemed, and quickly leaned forward, opened its mouth slightly, and gently took hold of what was left of one of Jim’s arms. He was pulled free of the nest, his body raging in pain, then thrown up into the air. The horrifying mouth of the creature opened wide below him. After catching him, the mouth snapped shut around him and blocked out Jim’s vision for the last time. The last thing he saw was the fleshy and gummy insides, and Jim’s head was pressed deeply into the stinking pit. He couldn’t scream. Pressure came in from all sides, and what was left of him squashed together in a sickening mess.
46
Beth struggled to walk, even with Josh supporting her weight. He was leading her back towards the seal, where the grass had been removed and the symbols of the Order were marked out. They had to pass that infernal black tower as well, and Beth felt a sensation emanate from it, a draw, as if there was a connection there somehow.
She thought of what grew within her.
There were faint murmurs on the clifftop, uttered by members of the Order who had stayed. However, it was painfully obvious that these few would be of no concern. All were curled up on the ground, and none were in any condition to even move. One had his thumbs buried into his eyes, and blood and clear liquid had dried on his cheeks like the slop from runny eggs. Another had clawed the face from his skin, down to the skull beneath. They sobbed and muttered insane things, their minds broken. They all had their heads turned up to the great eye in the sky.
Other than the cultists, and the dead bodies of their brethren and those creatures that had died during the earlier attack, there was something else up here as well. A body. The huge corpse of a beast—Beth would have guessed it over twenty feet tall if standing. It had black skin on a relatively thin frame, with four arms sprouting out of each side. At the ends of the arms were long hands with three fingers. A stumpy tail was nestled between two strong-looking legs, and the head of the dead thing was a thick elliptical shape, and was a mix of holes, ridges, veins, and exposed bone—seemingly a random pattern of madness. It lay on its side, stomach split open, and black intestines streaked the floor before it as if they had been pulled out by some unknown assailant.
However, one thing Beth could not see was the Dark Priest.
Even if there was a way to make it happen, there was no chance the entity would agree to help them. They reached the seal and Josh moved Beth to the centre, where he then let her drop to her knees. Aiden and Jess joined her inside, and Josh stepped away. He looked around, searching the area.
But the dark entity was nowhere to be seen. Beth kept casting glances over to the huge body that lay on its side, just to make sure that it was actually dead. The corpse hadn’t been here earlier when they’d fled from the clifftop, so something had clearly killed it recently.
‘Come out!’ Josh screamed up into the air. ‘I know you’re here. Come out!’
‘Josh!’ Beth scolded. ‘Stop shouting. God knows what you’ll bring down on us.’
But he wasn’t listening, and simply paced around frantically. ‘It’s still here,’ he said. ‘It has to be. There has to be a way.’
‘Wretches,’ a weak but distorted voice suddenly called out from somewhere beyond the large corpse. A figure slowly emerged from behind the dead beast, stumbling as it walked, keeping a hand on the armoured flesh of the husk in order to keep upright.
Black blood oozed from its mouth, an arm was missing at the elbow, and there was a nasty dent in the cranium. Lastly, the right leg was twisted and bent inwards.
It suddenly became clear what had killed the large creature on the ground, though the battle had obviously not been an easy one. Beth forced herself to a standing position.
‘You don’t look well,’ Beth taunted.
‘Your human bodies are weak. I was forced into this shell at birth. This was not my destiny.’
‘Well, now you’re fucked.’
The entity, however, just laughed. ‘I will heal soon. Just as a heart regrows inside of me now, these superficial wounds will right themselves. This weakness… is only temporary.’
That was something Beth did not want to hear.
Josh wasn’t inside the seal, and he stood instead between her and the slowly advancing being that had started all of this. Beth started to move over towards her brother, steadying herself on her feet. Aiden cowered in one of the inner three circles within the symbol, seated on the ground and holding on to an angry, barking Jess.
‘Tell me how to fix her!’ Josh demanded. ‘How do I get out what’s growing inside her?’
The entity just laughed again. ‘You don’t, wretch. Nothing will stop what is happening to her now. The birthing will proceed as planned. A new Great One will come into existence, Vao will cast its gaze down onto us, and the worlds will be connected as a doorway is permanently opened. And then, Ashklaar can claim all the souls it desires.’
‘Bullshit,’ Josh shouted. ‘There is a way. There has to be. Tell me!’
The thing kept limping closer, but Josh wouldn’t back down. In response, the Dark Priest raised its remaining hand and thrust it forward. Josh was thrown back a little—he stumbled a few steps before falling to the ground. The attack was much more muted than Beth had expected. She had seen the entity pull a person apart with its mind, and now it could do little more than shove someone. It really had been weakened.
Beth stepped up from the dug-out area and moved next to Josh, helping him to his feet. It took a lot of effort on her part, and she realised just how much weaker she had grown as well.
‘Get back inside the seal,’ Josh said. But she started to gently pull him back towards it as well, hoping to get him within its outer edge before she destroyed the symbols herself.
‘Come on,’ Beth pleaded. ‘You need to get out of here.’
Josh looked to her, then back to the entity. He shook his head. ‘No.’
He then broke free of her weak grasp and sprinted towards the cackling monster.
47
If the limping demon wasn’t going to willingly tell Josh how to help his sister, then Josh knew he would have to extract that information physically.
He also knew he was insanely outmatched. However, the being was hardly at its strongest, and Josh wasn’t about to let Beth die—he had to try. But even as he sprinted, Josh’s mind—some small part of it—told him he was running to his death.
The entity gave a look of surprise before raising its remaining arm again. But Josh was quicker. He leapt into the air and slammed into the body of the demon, tackling it hard before any attack on him could be made. Both of them tumbled to the ground, with Josh landing on top of the monster. His hands quickly found its face, and he pushed his thumbs into its eyes. Black fluid pooled around his appendages and sloshed to the ground. The entity howled in pain.
Josh hadn’t known it could feel pain.
‘Tell me!’ he screamed. ‘Tell me or I’ll rip your head off!’
But the dark entity’s hands quickly found Josh’s wrists, then grabbed them tightly. Despite fighting against it, Josh felt his hands forced upwards.
‘Wretch,’ it seethed again. ‘Your sister is now ours. And you will die.’ It began to slowly bend Josh’s wrists, and a sharp pain lanced up his arms. No matter how much Josh fought, this thing was simply stronger than he was. Josh quickly dropped his head a
nd took a mouthful of flesh between his teeth. Yanking his head back, he tore away a chunk of cold meat from the cheek, which caused more black bile to pour free. The pain forced the entity to relax its grip just enough for Josh to slip free and roll to the side. He quickly pushed himself up and swung a kick, but the dark entity blocked the blow with its arm. It then arced its hand around, and Josh was thrown through the air again, back towards his sister. He landed in a crumpled pile at her feet, the wind knocked out of him.
That throw had been noticeably more powerful than the last.
‘I will tear you apart!’ the entity said with a snarl, and brought up its arm again, aiming an open hand at Josh.
But… nothing happened. The entity just stood frozen, with a confused expression etched on its pale and scarred face.
Josh turned to Beth, expecting to see her looking down at him, weak and unsteady.
But that was not what he saw.
His sister was standing strong, feet set apart, planted into the ground. Her body was locked in place, unwavering, and her arms were held out towards the demon. Her skin was now mottled and blotchy, with the black veins beneath even more pronounced. Her eyes were clear white. But she was standing firm.
‘You first,’ Beth stated, her voice ethereal, echoey… not quite human. She then quickly moved her arms apart, and Josh turned to see the dark entity cry out in agony before it was ripped in two. The head clung to the larger right side, which was pulled clean away from the left. Bones split, the legs separated, and black blood and meat showered the floor.
Josh was in awe.
But a horrible realisation overtook him. Beth was changing. And these changes occurring were now more than just surface level.
Beth wavered, her breathing suddenly heavy, and then she dropped to the floor, wheezing and drained. She turned to look at him and smiled sadly.
‘It’s over,’ she said.
‘Not yet,’ Josh replied. ‘Not until I save you.’
Josh pulled her to her feet again and hugged her. She felt cold in his arms. Eventually, she pulled away, and he looked into her blank, milky eyes.
‘This was never about you saving me.’ And with that, she swung her arms, launching Josh through the air yet again. He landed in a heap back in the seal. As he hit the ground, he rolled into Aiden, who still held Jess.
‘Beth!’ Josh cried, looking back up to his big sister.
‘It’s okay,’ she said. ‘I’ve got you. I always did.’
Another sweep of her arm. The blood, guts, and markings that had made up the symbols burst apart while Josh, Aiden, and Jess remained inside of the seal’s boundary.
Josh yelled out again for his sister. He then felt a sudden and intense wave close in around him.
48
Beth saw her brother—along with Aiden and Jim’s dog—suddenly snap from existence. The exposed earth beneath glowed red like hot embers.
After Beth had destroyed the seal, an immense wind and current had pulled inwards, gusting past her and almost blowing her from her feet. She’d felt a static shock, though the whole thing lasted only a few moments. Then, everything settled.
They were gone. The doorway was closed. The red circle had been pulled from the paper.
Beth remained now in this other world, alone. And though she knew that she could not stop what was going to happen, at least it would happen removed from her own world. There would be no permanent link, and no way for the nightmare reality to seep through and bring about a hell on earth.
Beth looked around, feeling weak, faint, and alone.
She heard a faint laughing.
It was that thing. The Dark Priest. Though it had been torn asunder, its head turned to look at Beth, and she could see the jaw rise and fall as the cackling continued. Feeling a wave of anger, she strode over to it.
‘Something funny?’ she asked through gritted teeth. ‘Because the way I see it, you failed. You’re dying. I won. My world is safe.’
It coughed black blood and spoke. ‘I can never die. I will be whole again soon. And I am home now. Your world’s safety is only a temporary reprieve. Soon, thanks to you, my creator will bear another child.’
Beth glanced up at the titanic, black column that touched the sky. Was that the kind of thing she was going to give birth to? A living nightmare?
‘Actually, no,’ she said with a smirk. ‘I still have time to put a stop to that. I see plenty of ways to die around here.’
The entity laughed again. ‘Fool. Like me, you cannot die. Not now. It is too late for that—you are too far gone. Regardless of what you try, your body will knit back together, and what is destined will take place.’
Beth clenched her teeth. ‘No, the thing inside me will die. I know it. I’ll kill it.’
The laughter grew louder. ‘How little you know. You talk as if what is inside of you will be purged from your body when it’s ready. But there is nothing growing in you that can be pushed out. You are to be the Great One. The birthing is your… transformation, my Sister.’
It closed its eyes and continued to laugh. More anger rose in Beth.
That can’t be true. It can’t.
She brought up her foot and quickly and savagely drove the sole of her shoe down into the face of the entity, again and again, hearing cracks and squelches. With each blow, her fury built. The release felt good. Beth only stopped when the laughter died and all that was left of the Dark Priest’s head was a pool of black mush.
‘It isn’t true,’ she said and began to cry.
49
Josh got to his feet.
He looked around, but he didn’t recognise what he saw. The dirt beneath his feet was now higher than the ground around it by a few feet at least.
The general shape of the landscape off in the distance was as he remembered it to be, but instead of seeing the buildings and streets of Netherwell Bay, there were simply the slopes and hills of the topography. No roads, no pavement, just clays and soil. The buildings had all gone, as if they had never existed.
Netherwell Bay had been wiped off the face of the earth.
The sea behind him was normal, not a boiling or blood-red mass. And there wasn’t a single nightmarish creature in sight.
‘It worked,’ he heard Aiden say. ‘We got back through. We made it!’
Josh clenched his teeth, feeling absolute anger and pain at what had just happened, at leaving Beth behind. He swung a punch at Aiden and sent him sprawling to the ground. The young man cried out, then clutched his cheek, his eyes wide with shock and fright.
‘My sister didn’t make it,’ Josh replied coldly. ‘And it's your fault.’ Josh advanced on the fallen man, who begged and pleaded, crab-walking backwards as Josh came forward.
‘Don’t,’ Aiden said. ‘Please. I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry.’
Josh stood over him, ready to tear the weaselly little fucker apart.
But he stopped himself. Though his fists were clenched and rage coursed through his veins, Josh knew he wasn’t a killer. He’d known that when the Order had tried to make him murder someone only a few days ago.
He would let this cockroach scuttle off. After all, without his masters to serve, Aiden would likely be lost and useless. Josh turned away from the sobbing man.
Tears streamed down his face. It was supposed to be him. He was the fuckup. Beth didn’t deserve what happened. He should have been the one to give his life for her. He should have looked out for his sister for once. But no, he’d failed again, and Beth had been forced to clean up his mess.
The madness of the last few days, hell, the last few years, had been unbelievable. But Josh knew he couldn’t let his sister’s death be for nothing. While the sect in this town was gone, the Order at large still remained.
No more drifting through life. No more ducking responsibility.
Josh had purpose now. He would make all of those fuckers pay. Alone, if he had to.
‘Come on, girl,’ Josh said to Jess as he started to walk away. The dog follow
ed, head held low. She cried.
Josh knew her pain.
50
The moment Beth had crushed the head of the dark entity underfoot and strolled out of the town of Netherwell Bay unchallenged, she’d felt the changes within her speed up.
She walked and walked and walked, making her way through the alien hellscape, seeing nightmarish things. Eventually, her body had stopped responding and she fell. A surge rippled through her, blasting out an invisible energy that gave off a booming sound so great Beth thought her head would explode.
Then, she felt a weight on her. Not a physical feeling… but something else. Looking up to the skies, she’d gazed at the great cosmic eye, and somehow felt its maddening and infinite gaze focus in on her. It had taken notice.
Over the course of what felt like days, her form bloated and expanded. Beth felt every part of the transformation. Her limbs stretched, fingers worming themselves into the ground like the roots of a plant. She noticed the change in her skin—thicker, darker, with diamond-shaped scales forming. Seeing her own body slowly morph and elongate was terrifying.
The process was horribly slow and prolonged an unimaginable agony. Beth expanded further, wanting to die, and her body bloated out into a massive and pulsing mess of flesh and congealed limbs. Over the course of many agonising weeks, the disgusting lump she had become grew upwards. Her tumorous form rose into the air as her roots burrowed deeper into the ground. Soon, her sight was lost as her own flesh swallowed her face. Then, Beth took on the shape of a fleshy pillar.
Her skin darkened. Hardened. She grew and grew. Her mind broke.
In the years that followed—hundreds and thousands of them—Beth’s new form grew to touch the sky. A new and expanding knowledge coursed through her, giving Beth a greater purpose and meaning far beyond what her original mind could have comprehended. Over the aeons she changed to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ashklaar and others like it in this world. She reached up to Vao, while at the same time casting dominion down over those below her. Beth was long lost, a faint echo mixed in with the tortured souls who had been consumed since the new and great formation.
The Netherwell Horror Page 22
