Tabitha turned red at the innuendo and faced Kashia, “We’ll be in Ms. Todd’s office if you need me.”
“No problem, Miss Reynolds. I’ll make sure you’re not disturbed.” Kashia grinned, taking pleasure in contributing to Tabitha’s embarrassment.
“That won’t be necessary. If anyone needs me, the door will be open.” she stammered.
Justin chuckled as they walked down the hall to Stacia’s office. When they were in the office, Justin grabbed her arm and gently turned her to face him. “So exactly what secret is the lovely receptionist keeping for us?”
Tabitha took a step back, aware that the door was open and she had a hard time controlling herself in such a close proximity with him. “I told her you were my boyfriend and that you were the best exterminator I knew.”
He pulled her back into his arms and ran his finger along her cheek. “You’re very sexy here, in your business suit, in an empty office with your hair done up like that. Makes my mind wander. What ever shall we do, Miss Reynolds?” he leaned in for a kiss when he felt a violent wave run through her body and he turned suddenly rigid. He became instantly aware, like an animal on alert and she heard him swear. “Damn things have the worst timing!”
Tabitha turned to the bar and saw four doors standing open. “There were only two open when Stacia and I left earlier.”
She heard him swear again as he crossed the rest of the room to the bar. “Justin, no!” she cried out when he whipped the remaining two doors open. Even though she stood by Stacia’s desk, she felt the heat on her face and a smell waft out of the open doors. It was repugnant to all of her senses, not just her nose. The heat was sick feeling, like a living fever, the smell was of sick, decaying flesh. There was a sound, almost vibrating, like the sound of thousands of tortured souls, animals and humans alike, all screaming at the same time. The taste that filled her mouth was abhorrent, as if she had been feasting on rotted meat.
She watched in horror as Justin kneeled down in front of one of the open doors and reached in. It felt like she was watching a bad horror movie, unable to change what the characters were acting out but cringing at what she knew would happen. This real life script wasn’t any different. Justin cried out in anger and pain as he struggled with an unseen menace, hidden in the shadows of the cupboard.
“Close the door, Tabitha!” he yelled, but she was frozen in horror. “Close the damn door!” he growled and was relieved to see her spring to life, closing the office door even as he pulled the monstrosity out into the open.
She wasn’t sure who had who, Justin had it by it’s long neck but it had it’s teeth sunk into the fleshy part of Justin’s hand between his thumb and index finger, it’s back claws wrapped around his wrist and it’s long, pointed tail wrapped around his forearm. The creature looked more like a lizard than anything she had seen before, with it’s long tail and sharp claws but that’s where the similarity stopped. Like the other boogymen she had seen, it had a gray mottled, leathery skin but this one had fine, off-white hair that protruded from it’s body, it’s head resembled more of a baby pig, it’s snout crinkled as it tried to get a better grasp on Justin’s hand. Justin seemed oblivious to the pain or the blood running down his hand as he grasped the scruff of it’s neck with his uninjured hand. He seethed in pain as he tore it’s mouth from his hand, taking a large portion of his flesh with it.
“Is there a box in here?” he asked, struggling with the thing that was still attached to his wrist and arm.
Tabitha hesitated, looking confused, “Whaa, what?”
“A box! Something I can put this damned thing in!”
“No! I don’t know!” Tabitha began to frantically search Stacia’s office for something to put it in. She found a heavy, cardboard file box and quickly dumped out the contents. When she rushed back to his side with the box, he raised his eyebrows at her. “Seriously?”
“Give me a break, I wasn’t expecting you would want to capture one!”
“Not sure how long a cardboard box will hold this thing but I’ll give it a try.” he drawled.
“Sorry for not being more prepared. Next time, fill me in on the game plan, okay?” she snapped sarcastically, knowing she was reacting more to the situation than to him.
Justin fought to get the demon into the box without any more injury. The scene was similar to getting a reluctant cat into a bath. After quick movements from Justin, he was able to cram the thing into the box as Tabitha shoved the lid onto the top.
“Can you find some duct tape or something?” he asked as he fought to keep the lid secure.
“I’ll be right back.” She ran towards the door and was gone before Justin had a chance to respond. She was back sooner than he had expected, not believing an interior design office would have such an item. He was truly amazed when she came back with the silver tape.
She saw him struggle to keep the lid on the box and saw a few slashes torn into the sides. Her doubts with Justin’s plan began to rise. “Aren’t you worried that it’s going to slash right through the box to escape?”
“No, I don’t think so. When I put the box in the sunlight, it stopped trying to tear the box to shreds and is now focusing on getting out through the top.”
“Do you think it’s the sunshine? Isn’t that a little cliché`?” she asked.
“Cliché` or not, we need to keep an open mind. I think sunshine is only part of the equation. I’ve seen them in sunshine before, granted it was at dawn and dusk, when the light isn’t as strong, but they can be in the sunshine. I’m thinking that when we touch them, it does something to them, or their skin and it makes them vulnerable.”
“But how? How would touching them make them vulnerable?” she asked, shaking her head.
“I’m not sure, I haven’t figured that part out yet but that afternoon, when I tested them, they were circling me, crossing into the streams of sunlight and they were fine. But when I grabbed that one and snapped it’s neck, I threw it aside and it burst into flames when it hit the sunshine. I always figured it was because I had killed it but when I put this one in the sun, it made one slash and instantly froze. When it started struggling again, it stopped slashing at the box, avoiding the torn area it had already created and tried to go through the top. Maybe it’s something in the oils of our skin, hell, I don’t know. I just want to figure it out and that means getting it back to my place.”
Tabitha gaped at him, “You’re place? Are you crazy? What if it gets loose, or calls one of it’s buddies? You can’t take that risk!”
“So what do you propose, Tabitha? We study it here? Put the entire building at risk? The only thing that makes sense is my place. It’s well protected and if I can keep them out, it should be good enough to keep one in.”
“You’re going to let it loose? You can’t…”
“No! I’m not that crazy! I’m just saying that if for some reason, it gets loose, it won’t be able to get far.” he explained.
She seemed a little more relieved but still thought his idea was crazy.
“Now, if you could just help me out to the truck, I should be fine from there.”
“No way! You’ll be in the parking garage again and to try and wrestle the box upstairs, what if you get ambushed? I’m going with you.” she stated in a tone that left no room for argument.
“What are you going to tell them?” he asked as he nodded towards the lobby.
“I don’t know, I’ll think of something. Let’s just go.” She grabbed onto one end of the box, trying to ignore the shivers and revulsion she felt being so near to one. When they started moving down the hallway, the thing seemed to sense being hauled away from the sunlight and it renewed it’s struggles to get out of the box.
FIFTEEN
They made it into the lobby without dropping it, Kashia standing behind her desk with her eyes wide. Before she could say anything, Tabitha told her to go hold open the elevator doors for them. When she hesitated, unsure of what was going on, Tabitha snapped at her, “Now! We
caught one, a big rat and we have to take it back to his lab to test it for rabies!”
“Oh my God! Rabies? You’re going with him? What about his staff? Can’t they help?”
Tabitha’s eyes glanced at Justin for just a fraction before she shook her head, “No, they got called out to another building. Seems that New York had an infestation of rats. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
At the mention of an infestation, Kashia tore off through the doors to get the elevator. When they moved past her to get into the elevator, Kashia groaned and closed her eyes. “You’re hand, all that blood! Are you going to be ok?” she asked Justin.
“Just a flesh wound.” he stated matter-of-factly.
“But what if it has rabies? Oh, Stacia’s going to flip when she sees the hospital bill!”
“No worries, my insurance handles it all. In fact, Stacia doesn’t even need to know about this. No need to stress out the boss right now, is there, Kashia? It might not even have rabies.” he dazzled her with a smile and gave her a wink.
“No, no need at all. You two be careful.” she nodded at Tabitha before glancing back at Justin. “It was nice to meet you, Mr. Murphy. Hope to see you again.”
“You can count on it.” he flashed her another smile and punched the down button.
Tabitha smiled at Kashia until the doors closed and then turned on Justin. “You’re incorrigible! Flirting with that poor woman that way so she won’t say anything to Stacia!”
“Incorrigible, huh. I would have used the term ingenious, smart, maybe even brilliant. I’m hurt, Tabs.” he tried flashing her that same dazzling smile but she snorted and shook her head.
“Misleading, that’s what it was. Now she’s going to follow you around like a little puppy dog whenever she sees you. You played her, Justin!” she teased but gave him a side-long glance, “Are you playing me too?”
She saw a flicker of pain flash through his eyes and his smile faltered on his face.
“Not you, Tabitha. You’re more precious to me than you’ll ever know. And if there wasn’t a box holding a demon between us, I’d show you how precious you are.” His voice was low and grave, making her regret the teasing question.
When they reached his truck, they decided to place the box in the bed of the truck, hoping the sunlight would keep it passive until they got to his apartment building. She kept an eye on it through the cab but didn’t see the box move. In the parking garage, he parked right next to the elevators for an easier transfer from the bed of the truck to the elevator car. Though there was no movement coming from the box, the weight indicated that the thing was still inside.
Justin was reluctant to leave Tabitha alone but she argued that he couldn’t block the door with his truck. “I’ll be fine if you’re quick. Just park it in the empty space over there and I’ll hold the doors open.”
After muttering a curse, he ran back to the truck, squealing the tires as he reversed into the nearest open spot. Tabitha kept a wary eye on every shadow she could see and only released her breath when he made it back to the doors and punched his floor number. They didn’t say anything, riding up in tense silence, waiting, prepared for anything to happen.
They made it into his apartment without any problems and shut the door. After they sat the now quiet box onto the kitchen table, Justin resealed the door with salt and grabbed a pair of shears from the entryway curio.
“We need to tend to your hand, Justin.”
“I don’t think we have time, besides, it’s already starting to clot.” he held up his bloody fist.
“What do you mean, we don’t have time? It’ll just take a few minutes, I don’t have to go back to the office immediately, Kashia will cover for me.”
“I’m not worried about your job, Tabs. I think that thing is dying. I don’t know that it’s even still alive. I need to get it out before it dies, if it hasn’t already. Can you go draw all the curtains while I cut the tape on the box?”
She quickly drew the heavy drapes in the little living room and closed the kitchen blinds. They were heavy enough to plunge the room into evening darkness and she flipped on the lights in the kitchen and was about to turn on the ones in the living room when Justin stopped her. “Leave the living room lights off. I think this is enough light and I don’t want to shock it to death. I can see just fine with the kitchen light.”
Tabitha took a deep breath and grabbed onto one end of the lid. She looked at Justin and when he nodded, they quickly lifted the lid, Justin’s good hand shooting out to grab the lunging creature. Nothing stirred.
Tabitha took the lid from him, absently setting it aside as they both peered in the box warily. The creature laid curled up on it’s side, it’s labored breath rattling in it’s throat. It’s fine hair was matted in places and it’s entire body was covered in a dark gray/green fuzz, as if it were molding away. Little pustules had formed around it’s mouth and Tabitha cut off a scream with the back of her hand as one of the pustules popped, smoke rising from the open wound. It mewled in pain and she almost felt sorry for it. It rolled a sunken, black eye at her, the bright red ember color that had glowed there an hour ago now looked faded and myopic. It struggled a little, keeping it’s diseased eye on her and hissed, a guttural growl followed and she lost all sense of sympathy. What she felt now was revulsion at the hatred the seemed to emanate from the goblin. If it had the strength, she knew it would attack her.
“Tabitha, there’s some old towels in the cupboard in the bathroom, can you grab two of them for me?”
She didn’t move, almost as if she were mesmerized, so he gently reached out and touched her hand. She jerked back as if something burned her and looked at him confused.
“Are you alright? I need you to get me some towels.” he repeated gently.
She shook her head as if to clear it, “Sure, bathroom cabinet.” and she walked away without looking in the box again. When she came back, she heard him softly talking to it and at first, she thought he was soothing it, then she got close enough to hear his words.
“Can’t handle the taste of my flesh, can you? You bastard. Is it poison to you? Does it make you weak? What about my blood, does it burn you from the inside out?”
“Justin! What are you doing?” she cried out in horror. It was one thing to study it, another to torture it.
“Tabitha, come over here. This is very interesting.” he waved her over without looking away from their specimen. “When you walked away, it’s eye followed you until you were out of sight. Then, it didn’t even blink at me, not even when I shook the box! Now look at it, it can’t keep it’s eye off of you!”
“So what are you getting at? It wants to kill me more than it wants to kill you? What’s the point?” she asked wearily, the day’s events beginning to take it’s toll.
He sighed in frustration, “I don’t know what it means, could be nothing, hell, it could be something! I just don’t know right now. Hand me one of those towels, please.” She handed him a towel and stood back. She watched in disbelief as he gently wrapped the towel around the incubus and carefully lifted it out of the box. He was as tender as someone lifting a newborn kitten and although she heard more hissing and growling, the creature didn’t struggle.
“Move the box, please. I’m going to lay it on the table.”
“On the table? What if it gets away?”
“I really don’t think it has the energy to get away. Plus, I’ll be right here and ready to grab it if it tries.”
She nodded, unsure if she agreed with him but removed the box as he asked. He gently placed the wrapped creature on the table and lifted the towel off of it. It was still alive but it’s myopic eyes were now sunken deeper, almost disappearing in it’s skull. The matted hair had wetly pulled away from it’s body and clung to the towel, leaving wet, gooey sores. It shuddered as if cold and let out one last growl before it laid still. It’s skin had shrunk around it’s skeletal frame, making it resemble a thousand year old mummy.
They were both silent,
still absorbing what had transpired when Tabitha cried out and dropped to her knees, her hands wrapping around her body. “Oh God, Justin! Something’s wrong, we shouldn’t be here!”
Before he could even move to her, they both heard a piercing shriek, like long fingernails running down a chalkboard, followed by a crackling, sizzling noise. Justin’s eyes flew around the apartment, searching for the source. It took several sweeps of the room before he spotted the source, swearing as he flew to Tabitha’s side to protect her.
Every reflective source in his apartment seemed to melt and distort. The glass of the coffee table, the surface of the television, the screen of the microwave. As Tabitha fought to control the tremors that wracked her body, she saw a long, gnarled claw break through the surface of the television. It was followed by another claw, then both arms as if the TV were birthing a monstrosity. She glimpsed around the room and saw similar births happening from the entryway mirror and the kitchen stove. She clutched on to Justin, frozen in terror. Justin moved as if to spirit them out the front door when he saw the one coming out of the entryway mirror. He pulled her back into the corner of the kitchen, farthest away from the hellions, placing himself in front of Tabitha to protect her.
SIXTEEN
All of the creatures were the same in appearance, like mutated cherubs with little pug noses and chubby cheeks. Their fat, short, little limbs gave them the appearance of being slow and uncoordinated but as Tabitha watched them move, knew that their appearance was not to be underestimated. As with the other boogymen, they had gray, leathery skin and sunken eyes. When they uttered their low, sepulchral hisses, their lips revealed small, needle sharp teeth. Their movements were quick and precise, despite their seraphic appearance. Their eyes were black as coal and Tabitha watched as they flicked warily from their deceased comrade to her and Justin. She continued to be bombarded by the shivers that ran through her body as the beasts moved closer to the kitchen table and to them. She heard Justin suck in his breath as the first two reached the dead body. Their lips curled back, sniffing it’s body and seemingly disgusted by the smell that they detected.
Shadows Page 8
