by Jason Brant
One of them tripped over something on the ground behind it, and rolled backward head over heels, before popping back to its feet. It bent down and struck the object it had fallen over, the blow sounding like a celery stalk snapping.
Kyle fished his cell phone from the sand and shook several grains free. He held it out in front of himself and marched down the beach, showing no fear. “What is that?”
Katie remained silent, but followed his lead, pointing her flashlight at the creature as it slapped at the object again. She gasped as they drew near, holding her free hand to her mouth, but not averting her eyes.
Bryan recognized Ben’s clothes as he came up beside Kyle. The angry beast stopped striking Ben’s dead body and recoiled away from the light, snarling as it went. Blood covered his shirt, dark and thick around his collar, where his neck still seeped. His head was missing.
“Goddamn it,” Kyle said. He stood in front of the body and stared down at it, his shoulders slumped, his stick dangling from his hand. “No one deserves this.”
“They took his head.” Bryan looked up from the corpse at the murderers as they continued their retreat. He wanted to vomit. The site of the headless body before him seemed too much to bear. His vision wavered as he stood there.
That was when he saw the water behind them. Katie’s light bounced off its still surface, reflecting further into the emptiness above it. No waves crashed on the shore. Even with the beach under their feet, Bryan hadn’t expected to find such a massive body of water without the typical sights or sounds that accompanied them.
He grabbed the end of Katie’s flashlight and pointed it left and right, inspecting the edge of the beach. Though they couldn’t see too far into the darkness, Bryan felt that they were staring at an enormous body of water, obviously an ocean by the smell of it.
One of the creatures bent down and lifted something from the sand, holding whatever it was out in front of its body. Bryan couldn’t stop himself from dry heaving when he realized what it was.
“Oh my God – that’s Ben’s head,” Katie said, her voice trembling.
“You sons of bitches!” Kyle charged them, his stilted movement betraying his rage.
The creatures fled, running down the beach to their left; leaving the one holding Ben’s severed head by itself. With a guttural growl it heaved the head into the ocean, before chasing after its pack.
Kyle stopped at the edge of the sand, watching as the monsters sprinted away at a pace he knew he couldn’t match. Bryan and Katie ran up beside him, eyeing the new ripples in the water. They all just stood there, trying not to burst into tears.
Bryan felt his feet step on something hard, like a slab of concrete or an oddly flat rock. He grabbed Katie’s light again and shined it at his feet. He stood upon a four-foot circle of stone, with the same symbols carved into it that they found underneath the altar in the church.
“Uh, guys, you might want to check this out.” He stepped off the engraving and stared at it in disbelief. “What did you say this stood for, Leviathan?”
“Oh shit,” Kyle said, looking down at it. “Who put this here?”
“It’s called the Sigil of Baphomet. As you recall, the symbols at all five points of the star are Hebrew letters that translate into Leviathan.” She bent down and ran her hands over the surface of the stone. “This appears to be incredibly old. How it got here, or who put it there... I have no idea.”
The light from Kyle’s cell phone reflected back to them from more ripples in the water. These were significantly larger than the ones caused by Ben’s head, and they came slower as if from further away. Bryan looked up from the stone, trying to see over the water and into the darkness beyond.
“I think there’s something out there.”
More ripples came: faster, larger, lolling onto the shore. They increased in size, lapping onto the beach, pulling the sand back into the water.
“What the hell?” Kyle asked.
All three of them took instinctive steps backwards. Bryan wondered what other horrors they could possibly see next. He wasn’t sure his mind could take much more. The stench that had been surrounding them all night intensified, causing tears to flow once again. The source of that awful smell drew near.
Katie held her light above her head, trying to get the beam shining at a downward angle as far out as possible. The dark water roiled heavily the further they looked, bubbling and churning out into the darkness.
“This can’t be good,” Bryan said, walking backward up the beach. “I don’t think I want to see what’s causing that.”
An enormous tentacle breached the surface, rising so high that they quickly lost track of its tip. Water splashed from its dark, slimy skin, splashing back to the ocean. Barbs ran down the length of its underside, wobbling in the air. In an instant it came crashing down across the top of the water, spraying the dark liquid in its wake.
The end of the tentacle landed on the beach, only a dozen feet from where they stood. Its tip splayed open, the skin separating to reveal a circular mouth, lined with small, pencil-length teeth. The flesh that had covered the mouth flapped as they moved around, globs of unknown goo dripping from them.
Bryan’s mouth dropped open, the rock falling from his hands, as he watched the tentacle slide back into the water. Its large girth, easily three feet wide, cut a deep swath through the beach, the mouth chomping at bits of sand as it went.
He struggled to move his limbs, knowing he should run with everything he had in the opposite direction, but felt planted in place. If one appendage could be that large, what could it possibly be connected to? He heard a low groan and realized after several long seconds that the sound came from him.
Dozens of tentacles exploded from the surface, showering them with water. Some were so thick and long that Bryan thought they looked like the trees in the forest they had come through.
“Run!” Kyle turned and sprinted up the beach, pulling at Bryan’s shoulder as he went.
Katie was already ahead of him, struggling to run through the sand. “Bryan, run!”
Bryan tried to spin as Kyle pulled him, but his feet tangled and he fell on his side. He rolled to his back and shuffled backward using his hands and his feet. With Katie running up the beach with her light, he was enveloped in darkness as he tried to look back at the monstrosity emerging from the ocean.
As he continued backpedaling, his left hand fell into a warm liquid, his butt brushing against something solid. After a moment he realized he’d run into Ben’s body, his hand dipping into the blood pooling by his shredded neck. He started screaming.
How long he sat there, against the headless body of an arrogant equipment technician, he didn’t know. It felt like ages, but was probably closer to seconds. Drops of water sprinkled all around him, and the sounds of waves crashing grew incredibly loud. The ground shook with massive tremors, some so hard they lifted him from the sand.
He could see the tentacles then, slamming against the ground and retracting into the water, dragging massive amounts of sand with them. More rained down, higher up on the shore each time, pulling whatever nightmare they were attached to closer to land. Bryan looked over his shoulder to see Katie running toward him with Kyle trailing behind her.
She aimed her light at the massive beast emerging from the ocean as she ran. Bryan stirred to his feet, glancing back at the ocean as he did. Through the cascading water, he could make out an enormous shape emerging from the surface.
What he saw stretched his mind to its outer limits.
Chapter 18
The body rising from the water was the largest living thing Bryan had ever seen. For a split second, amidst his panic and fear, Bryan thought it was probably the largest living thing any man had ever seen.
Its eel-like torso stretched out of the water as high as a five-story building, with untold lengths still hidden beneath the surface. The massive tentacles were attached all along its dark, slimy frame. At the apex of its body opened a mouth the size of the Danver church. Dozens o
f smaller appendages surrounded the opening, waving wildly through the air, scooping in water and small sea life Bryan had never seen before.
Thousands of serrated teeth lined its mouth and what little they could see of its throat. Like everything else in this world, it appeared to be eyeless.
It roared – the sound hitting him with such intensity that his eardrums felt like they might burst. Bryan held his hand to his ears and screamed, his throat burning, tears spilling over his cheeks. His mind felt loose, meandering, as if he had stepped out of his body and now watched the events unfold in third person.
When the roar subsided he could hear Katie shrieking beside him. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought she was screaming ‘Leviathan’. The sound of her fear and pain shocked him into action. He struggled to pull himself together and clamber to his feet. Pulling his eyes from the demon in the water, he grabbed Katie’s shoulders and yanked her up the beach.
Her feet didn’t move, resisting him as he tried to pull her away. She only stopped screaming long enough to take a breath before resuming. Bryan tightened his grip on her shoulders and shook her as hard as he could, shouting her name into her face.
“Bryan?” She asked. Her eyes fluttered as she peeled them from the beast and took in his face.
“Yeah,” he said, surprised at the hoarseness of his voice. “We need to go!”
He jerked her into motion and the two of them stumbled through the sand, ascending the slight slope. Kyle stood a dozen feet beyond them, still staring at the colossus pulling itself onto land.
“Kyle! Are you with me?”
“Let’s get the fuck out of here!” Kyle yelled. He grabbed one of Katie’s arms and helped pull her up the beach. The two of them dragged her along, her feet barely contributing in their escape.
The forest loomed before them, its ominous presence looking like the best thing Bryan had ever seen. Nothing could be worse than what came behind them. The ground quaked, knocking them to their knees, their grip on Katie broken. She sprawled on the earth, sliding in the sand, the flashlight jarred from her hand.
Bryan grabbed the light with his right hand and her arm with his left, hauling her to her feet. Kyle lost his cell phone in the sand and frantically searched for it, sifting with his hands as fast as he could.
“Leave it!” Bryan chanced a quick glance over his shoulder, shining the light backward. The Leviathan had crashed down; straddling the water and beach, its immense body squirming in a crater the impact had created.
One of its giant tentacles smashed into the beach by Ben. It curled in on itself, scooping up the body and shoveling it into the horrifying mouth. From his new vantage, Bryan could see further down its gullet, noticing that the rows of teeth descended further into its throat than made any kind of physiological sense.
“Fucking go!” He grabbed Kyle by his hair and jerked him to his feet.
Kyle swatted his hand away and helped drag Katie into the woods. They struggled with their footing in the darkness. Bryan tried to hold the flashlight steady as they ran, but his arm naturally pumped as he went, throwing shadows in every direction.
Trees snapped and popped behind them, the deafening destruction echoing through the woods. Bryan didn’t dare slow down, fearing the trees might topple over on them. He tried to increase his pace even more, hoping the forest would slow the sea monster enough for them to escape.
A tall, dead hardwood lay waist high in front of them, blocking their path. Bryan released Katie and scrambled over it, holding the flashlight in his arm pit as he went. It took several precious seconds to drag Katie across; her limbs still weren’t responding and her eyes were glassy and moist.
“Are we even going the right way?” Kyle asked as he vaulted the log.
Bryan couldn’t be sure. He hoped they were going in the right direction, but they could have veered off course in their panic. “Yes,” he said, not wanting to panic Kyle anymore than necessary. He could barely hear himself over the thunder of the collapsing forest.
A tree landed beside them, the top of it crashing to the ground less than twenty feet to their right. Though they were incredibly tall, having one land this close to them told Bryan that the woods weren’t slowing the Leviathan as much as he’d hoped.
Onward they ran, thorns and branches cutting their faces and arms, threatening to gouge into their eyes. Bryan felt his scabbed over facial wounds being reopened, but didn’t dare slow down. Katie’s head hung down, protecting her face from most of the damage.
The beast bellowed from behind them, sending rancid breath blowing past them like a strong breeze. It smelled of death. Kyle gagged, hunching over as he ran, but managed to keep up.
They reached the hill Bryan had tumbled down and looked up its slope in despair. In his terror the hill had slipped Bryan’s mind. Now he stood at its base and wondered how they were going to get Katie up it before one of those giant tentacles crushed them.
“Shit! How the hell are we going to drag her up this hill?” Bryan asked.
From behind them came another incredible roar, prompting Kyle to grab Katie around the waist and throw her over his shoulder. He started up the hill like a fireman carrying someone from a burning building. Bryan watched him for a second, amazed at the strength of his friend.
After a few seconds of climbing, Bryan passed them, but slowed so he could keep the flashlight in front of them both. His quads burned as he pushed up the hill, cursing himself for getting so out of shape. Kyle huffed behind him, but managed to keep up.
More rocks covered the hill the higher they climbed, their footing becoming more treacherous, and their ankles close to rolling with every step. Bryan heard stones tumbling down the slope behind him a moment before Kyle cried out.
Spinning around, Bryan saw Kyle leaning back too far, threatening to topple over backward along with Katie. His free arm pinwheeled as he tried to regain his balance, but he failed, and leaned at an even steeper angle as he looked for something to grab onto.
Bryan’s arm shot out, grabbing Katie’s ankle and pulling as hard as he could, falling to the ground and trying to flatten his body against it. Kyle tightened his grip on Katie’s waist, holding the two of them in place for a moment before he was able to step back onto a rock, gaining some stability.
“Jesus Christ!” Kyle said. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. His eyes blinked rapidly, trying to clear themselves.
Without responding, Bryan let go of Katie’s leg, rolled over, and clambered the rest of the way up the hill. He could feel his knees wobbling as he stood at the top, waiting for Kyle to finish the last few steps. The church wasn’t too far away; if his memory was accurate, but he couldn’t be certain that his legs would hold out long enough to make it.
Kyle crested the hill, his face beet red from exertion. With what looked like a significant effort to Bryan, he lowered Katie, setting her on her feet between the two of them. He dropped to a knee, panting and rotating the shoulder he’d carried her on.
The ground shook again, the forest booming from the impact of dozens of enormous tentacles. Bryan threw his arm around Katie’s waist and dragged her along, ignoring his shaking knees. Kyle staggered along behind them, trying to keep up.
The flashlight in Bryan’s right hand shook as he tried to keep it trained in front of them. The beam fell across a wet, dark stain on the ground. A severed hand sat in the middle of the soupy puddle. Bryan kept going, dragging Katie’s feet through the blood, forever staining her shoes.
Charles Danver had emerged from the woods forty years ago with the same injury. The man once famous for the supposed murder of his cohorts had suffered the same turn of events that they now dealt with.
Bryan remembered the creature he’d seen moving behind the trees earlier, its grotesque claw snapping shut as it fled the light. The woods were silent, but he swept his eyes back and forth nonetheless, hoping that whatever had killed Travis or Joey wasn’t watching them right now.
The trees were thinner and more spac
ed out as they went, allowing them to continue staggering along. A scream pierced the darkness from ahead, high pitched and pain ridden.
“Shit.” Bryan stopped, looking over at Kyle, unsure if they should continue, or veer off in a different direction.
“That sounded like Joey,” Kyle said. His breathing hadn’t slowed much since they’d topped the hill. He bent down and searched the ground, finally picking up a handful of marble sized stones.
“What are you going to do with those, annoy it?”
“I thought I could throw them into the woods if we see something – try and direct it in the wrong direction,” Kyle said, shrugging his shoulders.
“Should we keep going?” Bryan asked.
“Katie said that the church, or the land around it, or whatever, was the gate. Even if that worm thing is still in there, I don’t see what choice we have.”
Bryan knew he was right, but he was also aware that going in the church with one of those things in there would be suicide. The destruction of the forest behind them had fallen a little farther back as they walked, but was still too close for comfort. If he had to choose between the giant sea monster, and a large centipede, he chose the insect.
“What if we get to the church and it’s empty, but we don’t cross over before that... thing, catches up to us?” Kyle nodded his head back the way they had come, as if Bryan didn’t remember what chased them.
Bryan took a deep breath. “Then we’re fucked. We’re too tired to keep running and what would we do anyway? We clearly aren’t in Kansas anymore. Either we somehow go back through the doorway, or gate, or we die.”
They stood in silence, staring at the ground and contemplating their likely fate. Bryan shined his light in Katie’s face, hoping to see some kind of recognition in her eyes - nothing.
Kyle looked at him and grinned. “See you on the other side, Ray,” he said, before setting off in the direction of the scream.
Bryan laughed in spite of himself and went after him, pulling Katie along as best he could, every step a struggle. He thought about asking Kyle to help, but the way his friend staggered drunkenly told him that he was more fatigued than he let on.
