by Sean Stone
“Well that was a let down,” I said. Then I noticed something. As the breeze blew past it it made an odd whistling sound as it passed through the bush. Almost as though it were travelling through a tunnel. Carefully I took a handful of leaves and pulled it aside to reveal the opening to a narrow cave. I’d been to Mote Park on a couple of occasions; I’d even been in these woods before and never once had I realised there was a cave here. Judging from the blood on the floor and the fact that this was most probably the screaming thing’s lair, I’d say that nobody else knew the cave existed either.
“Great,” Ashley muttered.
“You don’t have to come in,” I said.
“Like I’m going to let you have all the fun,” she said in a poor attempt at bravado.
I forced my way through the bush and into the cave. I shone my torch around and saw that it stretched on and downwards leading under the ground. There was a lot of blood trailing over the floor. And I mean a lot. It was completely silent as we made our descent, barring the sound of our own footsteps. It seemed like it took a long time but finally the passage opened up into a wider cavern and the sight nearly had me releasing my dinner all over the floor. There were over a hundred strips of what looked like fly catching paper hanging from the roof of the cave. Only it was not paper but human skin. Ashley let out a small horrified moan as she came to the same realisation I had.
“I guess we found the missing people,” I said quietly. I couldn’t see it but I guessed my face was as white as hers by now.
Ducking to avoid the skin strips I carried on into the cave. There was something piled up against the wall. I knew what it was before I even reached it. Bones. It didn’t take three guesses to figure out they were human. I opened the camera app on my phone and got to work. I snapped pictures of the skin hanging from the ceiling first. Then I moved to the pile of bones. I got several shots of the pile from different angles, I made sure to get the skull near the top in at least one of them. I turned to photograph the rest of the cave and my light fell upon a pair of boots. They were still being worn. I took a couple of nervous steps forwards and saw the body laying discarded on the far side of the cave. It was a woman and not one of the missing people. She looked like she was in her early thirties and she’d been stripped from the waist up. I would’ve though it was a sexual crime were it not for the lack of a left arm and the massive chunks of her torso which were missing. Chunks which looked like bite marks. I guessed we’d followed her blood down here. Her throat had been almost completely torn out which explained the lack of any noise from her. The most horrifying thing was that the skin had been stripped away from the left side of her body. Her eyes were still open and frozen eternally in an expression of horror.
“Eddie,” Ashley said. I could hear the quaver of fear in her voice. No bravado now.
“Hang on,” I said. My phone clicked loudly as I took a photo of the half eaten woman.
“Eddie,” Ashley hissed more urgently. I turned and saw that there was something more than fear on her face. More than revulsion. She was visibly shaking. She jerked her head at something across from her, something she was too frightened to take her eyes off of. I looked over myself. I stared into darkness and saw nothing. Nothing except two silvery orbs staring back at me.
“Eddie, don’t,” Ashley warned but her warning came to late. I shone my light directly at it. All I saw was a pale blur dart out of the light at the same time as that hideous shriek rang out for a second time. This time it was right in front of us and the sound reverberated off the walls of the cavern, rebounding around us, threatening to shatter our eardrums. I barely managed to keep hold of my phone in my violently shaking hand.
“Run!” I yelled and we both fled the cave.
I could hear the creature chasing after us up the cave tunnel. Its claws tapped on the stone quickly as it moved. Ashley reached the exit first but got tangled up in the bushes. I didn’t slow. I ran straight into her and threw her out into the woods. We both crashed to the floor but I knew there was no time to recuperate. I hauled myself back up grabbing Ashley as I went. I took her shoulders and pulled. The creature reached me at that moment. Something hard collided with my upper back and sent me spiralling into a nearby tree. My side connected with the trunk and my kidney exploded in pain as I fell in a heap on the floor. The whole woods were spinning around me. I looked over in time to see the thing. In the darkness its pale form was still easy to see. A large thin spindly shape like a starved human was crouched over Ashley. Its head was down looking at her, thick, dank strands of black hair hung down concealing its face. One spindly arm stretched out, its fingers long and tipped with claws the size of sharks teeth. The hand moved for Ashley’s head which was still face down on the ground. She curled into a ball and lay quivering on the grass.
“No!” I screamed and tossed a massive force of my magic at the creature. It hit it full on in the chest and knocked it over. That might seem like a good thing to you but believe me it is not. A massive bolt of my magic should have at least knocked it out cold. Instead the creature pulled itself back up onto all fours and its pale glowing eyes found me in the darkness. It opened its mouth letting out that hideous cry for the third time and then it launched itself at me. I rolled out of the way just in time and it collided with the tree instead of me. It grunted in pain but was already getting back up.
“Ashley get up!’ I yelled at her still shivering form. The creature was already preparing to strike again. I wiggled my fingers and prepared another spell. The creature lowered itself ready to strike and just before it did I launched a stream of bright orange fire right at its face. It shrieked in pain and what I hoped was fear. It shielded itself from the flames.
“Ashley get the fuck off the floor!” I screamed angrily and this time she moved. She rose her head like a tortoise from its shell and saw the creature held off by my fire. I jerked my head away from the monster indicating that she run in that direction and she obeyed. As I turned my head back I saw my phone, torch still on, shining up from the floor. If I left that here and the police found it then I was certainly going to get blamed for all this. Knowing fully the consequences I reached out with my free hand and summoned my phone. My phone came to me but I wasn’t able to concentrate on both spells at once and the flames diminished. Trying to multi-spell under intense pressure is not a good idea. I wrapped my hand around the phone as it hit my palm and jumped out of the way just in time to avoid the leaping monster, tucking my phone away as I did. We both got our bearings and faced each other. My blue eyes met its pale ones and we stared down like two cowboys from the Wild West. I’d been paid to kill it but I seemed to lack the necessary weapon to do the job. It seemed to have learned that pouncing at me wasn’t going to achieve anything and this time it stayed still. It was smart. Not your average beast. Well I’m smart too. Everything can be killed; it’s just a matter of figuring out how. As we both stared each other down, both trying to figure out our next move, the creature rose. It came up off all fours and stood only on its legs. If its aim was to frighten me then it succeeded. Standing up straight it easily stretched to at least ten feet tall, probably more. Towering above me it stared down maliciously. Then it swung one long arm at me. I ducked just in time but I felt the hair on my head ruffle with the wind it caused. Then I did something it wasn’t expecting. I ran at it. I’m no fool and I knew there was no way I was going to take this thing on in a fist fight. I only made it look like I was attacking. At the last second I threw myself down and rolled between its legs. I was up before it turned around and I ran through the trees, searching desperately for something I could use as a weapon. Then I realised I was surrounded by weapons. Nature provided the perfect weapon if I could just command it for long enough to take this beast down. I could hear it hurrying after me, its feet moving nimbly through the woods. I turned but it was not behind me. It was silent. Unmoving. Hiding. Preparing to jump out and rip my head off or worse. A branch cracked and I looked up. There it was crouche
d in the tree directly above my head. I moved just as it came down. As it touched the floor, I blasted another bolt of magic at it and knocked it down. This time that was all I wanted to do. I had to act fast. I thrust my palm to the grass and dug into the dirt beneath it. I’d only attempted this once before and it had barely worked then. Many sorcerers have a sort of alignment with nature. They can call on the power of the earth when they need to. Warlocks do not have that ability because they are unnatural sorcerers. I, on the other hand, am a natural warlock which makes me a bit of a special case. I called on the earth beneath my hand and sighed with relief when I heard it answer. The monster’s eyes widened in surprise as its feet sunk abruptly into the earth. It tried to pull them free but I commanded the earth to hold the beast in place. This alone would not take it down but I couldn’t hold it in the earth and attack at the same time. I watched it sink further as it struggled against the dirt. Then a rogue fallen brach whistled through the air and pierced the beast straight through the midsection. It let out a horrible cry of anguish and then another branch came. Ashley was back. She’d managed to get a hold on her fear and was using her magic to propel nature’s own spears at the monster. She couldn’t warm herself up but she could launch branches at monsters. Figure that one out.
To my horror the creator took hold of one of the branches and with one disgusting looking hand it tore it out of its stomach and tossed it aside. The wound closed itself in a matter of seconds. We could not kill it. All we were doing was pissing it off. Sooner or later my magic would be exhausted and then it would break free, heal its injuries and kill us both. Killing it was not on the cards tonight. I needed to get us out, do some research and come back when I knew what it was and how to kill it. Luckily the magic symbols were keeping it from leaving the park. We just had to escape the park ourselves.
“Ashley, stop!” I called. “It isn’t working. Get ready to run,” I told her and I wondered if the creature could understand me. If it could it showed no signs.
I waited until the monster was sunk to halfway between its knees and its waist and then I bolted. Ashley ran with me. Side by side we tore through the park trying our best to ignore the furious cries behind us.
“How can we kill that thing?’ she asked as we ran.
“Later!” was all I said.
It didn’t take long before it was back on our tail again. Luckily we weren’t that far from the main gates. The monster’s feet were literally pounding against the floor and it was only a few meters behind us and closing that gap fast. I could see the gates. I didn’t bother calling for Derek to unlock it. I waved my hand and the gates exploded right off their hinges and went skidding across the road. Claws scratched the back of my head just as I passed through the space where the gates had been. My foot hit something and sent me face first into the road. I barely felt the pain thanks to the adrenaline coursing though my veins. I rolled over and looked back at the park. The monster was no longer behind me but I did glimpse something pale disappearing into the darkness . Ashley came up behind me and her hand fell on my shoulder. “What the fuck was that?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No idea,” I replied and then fell back onto the road.
CHAPTER EIGHT
I didn’t get to rest for long because Derek appeared staring down at me. He was not amused.
“The gates. The bloody gates,” he said in horror. I was amazed at his priorities.
“In the grand scheme of things I think the gate is the least of your worries,” I snapped as Ashley helped me to my feet. “You alright?” I asked her.
She nodded. “You?”
“Never better.” I turned back to Derek. “You need to get your contact on the phone and tell her to close the park now. There is a bloody monster in there that is eating people. That’s where your missing people went.”
The colour drained from his face and I assumed he had not caught even a glimpse of what had been pursuing me and Ashley. “Eating them?” he repeated.
“Yes. It has all their remains in a cave.”
“Cave? What cave? You said you’d kill it,” he said. A small stutter was emerging in his voice.
“Is he having a laugh? Why don’t you kill it?” Ashley demanded of Derek.
“We’re paying him to!” he protested. He had a point there.
“I will kill it,” I said loudly before they started full-on arguing. “But I need to figure out how first.”
“Eddie, you can’t be serious,” she said. “You’re not going back in there with that… thing.”
“It’s my job, Ash,” I said. I thought she understood that.
“Then get a different job. I think Primark is hiring.” I really wasn’t sure if that was a joke or not so I decided to ignore the comment. As if I’d work at Primark.
“That gate is going to cost a fortune to replace,” Derek said, looking back at the wreckage.
“Stop worrying about the fucking gate. There is a pile of bones in there. Worry about that. I’m going to go home and figure out how to kill the monster. You make sure that park does not open again until I say it is safe to. Do you understand?”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “But the gate…”
I ignored him and walked away. As Ashley turned I noticed something stuck on her shoulder. I peeled it off and held it up under the street light. It was one of the flaps of skin. Lovely. I pulled out a sandwich bag and tucked the skin strip inside before Ashley could see what it was. The last thing she needed was to learn she’d been walking around with someone’s skin on her.
I offered to keep Ashley company at home, to make sure she wasn’t still in shock after her near death experience in the park, but she said it was too risky with a house full of sick people. She didn’t want me to catch it. I wasn’t worried about some bug; I could easily knock up a potion to take care of it. It still confounded me that Margie was too stubborn to do so herself. It was none of my business, though. I had enough to think about.
#
The following day I met Matt in town and we did a spot of shopping. When I say shopping what I actually mean is walking in and out of shops whilst chatting. We do this once or twice a month. We rarely pay attention to anything in the shops we just go in, walk around and leave again. It’s weird I know but it’s something we’ve always done.
“To be clear, you want me to risk my amazing new job because you want a DNA test done on an old but of skin?” Matt asked. I had just asked him to use one of the labs at work to run a test on the skin I pulled from Ashley’s shoulder. I was pretty certain it belonged to one of the missing people but I had to be sure. The only body I’d seen which still had skin on it wasn’t any of the four missing people.
“Yeah, that’s right,” I told him.
“What if I get in to trouble? Do you have any idea how much this job pays?” he said. I understood his concerns but this was really important. Actually, on reflection it wasn’t that important; it wasn’t going to help me kill the monster in anyway, it was just to satiate my own curiosity. If I’d thought about that back then then maybe I wouldn’t have bothered asking him. Still, too late now.
“Matt, you’ve been on the luckiest streak I have seen in my life lately. You won’t get into any trouble,” I told him. I’d honestly never seen someone come into so much good fortune. If I didn’t know otherwise I’d think he’d found a magic lamp or something.
“I haven’t been that lucky,” he said, but there was no conviction in his words. He knew what a lucky bastard he was.
We stepped into the Apple Stormfront store and were immediately greeted by a loud trumpeting noise followed by confetti showering down from above. My first instinct was to raise my hands ready to fight but luckily I quickly realised what was happening before I incinerated anybody with magical fire. One of the staff approached Matt, beaming as he came, and took hold of his arm.
“Sir, you are our one-thousandth customer this week. You get to choose one item from our entire range and you
can take it home for free!” he announced.
“Not that lucky, eh?” I said. If only I’d taken the first step into the shop and not him.
“I’ll get the test done,” he said and then went off to pick his free product.
I was definitely starting to suspect something was up with Matt’s good fortune. This was more than simple luck. There was something behind it. Something causing it. But he wasn’t in any danger so I didn’t need to worry yet. If his circumstances changed then I’d look into it. I had enough going on.
Ashley was looking into the monster in the park for me. She said her mum had a lot of books about supernatural creatures. I welcomed the help. Whilst she did that I could spend some time on my inoculant. I liked the distraction this case was giving me but I had not forgotten about Rachel. She was still in town and she was going to come for me. Ashley kept asking how I was about that and I said fine. I couldn’t admit to her that I was scared. That’s a rule you know. Guys never admit they’re scared to girls. Especially not the ones they fancy. Not that I’m saying I fancy Ashley. Shall we move on?
I spent most of the day in my storage unit working on the inoculant. When I had my eighth strain I popped out into the lobby. I couldn’t kidnap test subjects anymore because Inspector Richards was watching me. I doubted he was watching me all the time otherwise he would have seen what had happened last night. In any case I didn’t want to risk getting caught kidnapping someone. That meant breaking one of my rules; you don’t shit where you eat. Someone taught me that, I don’t recall who. I usually avoided abducting people I saw on a regular basis because things could get tricky if the memory erasing potion failed. Sometimes potions do fail. Mine rarely do but there have been instances.
Anyway, I went into the lobby, put the guard to sleep and then brought him back to my unit. I gave him the inoculant followed by force feeding him the serum. Then I waited a few minutes for him to get up. I’d given him both whilst he’d been unconscious to avoid the fighting.
