Harvest

by Steve Merrifield

  The pain in his leg was excruciating and blotted out the feel of its movement or the feel of the floor beneath his step, but he pressed on. Rachel jogged at his side with a hand rested on Cat’s leg, splitting her looks between the stairs ahead and the dark behind. Craig’s manoeuvrability was seriously impaired by his leg and by Cat. He couldn’t see what he had seen in his nightmare, but he knew it was there, and they had to keep running. They stumbled down the darkened steps into the light of the landing below. A wide-eyed Kelly waited with shock and confusion written upon her face.

  She shouted above their echoing scuffing footsteps. “What was that noise?”

  Craig didn’t know what had just happened with the door and he didn’t have the wits or breath to answer, he was a pull-back car fully charged and committed to on one action and direction.

  A shape lunged from the darkness of the landing above them and a wide flat blade caught the light as it flashed violently across Rachel’s face. She fell away and slammed Craig against the wall and Cat’s weight dug into his chest and winded him. He stumbled and lost his footing and was left grounded before their attacker.

  The undertaker from his nightmares lanced seamlessly from the darkness and his blade flashed again in a downward stab. The blade snagged on Craig’s cradled load, hitting home with a force that pushed him scrambling further down onto the steps, the jerky flexion of his leg sent fresh bouts of pain into his groin and gut.

  The elongated angle of metal snapped sharply back into the shadows as soon as it struck, reflecting a flicker of light under the brim of the dark top hat, giving detail to the skeletal face of sinew and raw muscle, split in a silently-laughing death’s-head grin. The knife lashed out again at Kelly, and Craig witnessed her slide clumsily down the stairs to the landing below.

  The ambush was sudden and in seconds Rachel and Kelly had been sent to the floor and Cat had been struck leaving Craig prone for the next stab. Riding a wave of desperate adrenaline Craig pushed himself upright and charged forward using Cats limp prostrate body to force the stunned Rachel scrabbling down the stairs to where Kelly was drawing to her feet. Craig’s legs continued to stamp at the stairs, corralling Kelly and Rachel down flight after flight, pushing Kelly passed her own landing (there was no safety there) to escape the building.

  Kelly and Rachel didn’t seem to be slowing, or show any obvious wounds, their only concern was running. Craig knew Cat had been struck, but he had no idea to what degree and he couldn’t alter his hold of Cat for fear of dropping her or falling himself. No matter how injured she was, or how uncomfortable and awkward his hold, he had to keep his grip and pace. With the noise of their footsteps it was impossible to hear if they were being followed, and he wasn’t going to stop, in his mind that grisly undertaker was on his heels. The steps and landings blurred by as they focussed on getting to the bottom of the stairs.

  On the ground floor landing it seemed to Craig that they all unconsciously agreed to break from the fury of their escape. With the kill switch thrown on the frantic workings of his body, he sucked in gasps of air to counter the smothering humid heat in his chest. His legs swam as they adjusted to being immobile, like sea legs on land, and his bad leg burned as if he could feel he friction in his tendon. A slick of sweat formed all over his body. Craig’s underdeveloped biceps and triceps were strained to what felt like a painful ripping point with the constant dead weight of Cat in his arms. He lowered her to the ground and allowed himself to feel the pain from his injured shoulder and leg.

  Rachel and Kelly hugged briefly for comfort. Kelly craned upwards to try and catch some sight or sound of their pursuer on the silent stairwell above them. “I think it’s stopped,” she panted. She looked down at her top and fingered the puncture in the fabric at her belly.

  She had been close to being badly injured. Craig felt sick at the thought of Kelly being injured. He remembered Cat had been struck so he sank down to her side and ran his hands over her body in a crude pawing, searching for any injuries. He found the rip in Cat’s tee-shirt where the knife had cut and he probed some fingers within but didn’t find a wound, just the soft climb of her breast.

  His head rang with a blow to the side of his face from a suddenly animated Cat.

  Cat struggled awkwardly onto her elbows. “What the FUCK!” she barked viciously.

  Craig’s hands leapt from her body into an open-handed gesture of surrender. “Whoa! Calm down! I was checking for injuries!”

  Cat fingered the tear in her top and nodded her understanding without apology. She looked around at who was with her. “How did we get away…?” Cat climbed onto her feet but her legs buckled beneath her. Craig braced her instinctively and she leaned into the support. “You’re quick with your hands.” He withdrew his hands reflexively but there was a fleeting panic in her eyes and she snatched hold of him before she could fall. “No. Really. It’s appreciated…”

  A sourceless breeze swept across Craig and Cat. She looked into his face, deathly pale with her lips trembling with despair, and in the intimacy of the moment he could feel her fear. “It’s coming for me again.”

  The lights of the stairwell began to flicker. Rachel and Kelly drew closer to Craig and Cat. The landings above them broke abruptly away into nothing as the landings blacked out one after another sending the darkness collapsing down upon them.

  The ground floor lights failed and they were buried in the darkness.

  Craig heard Kelly shout that she would get the door to the lobby. The door sprang open and a coruscating green light flooded in, bringing with it a shrieking displacement of the atmosphere and two unnaturally long arms flailing through the air. They swatted Kelly aside, slamming her into a wall, while the hands reached into the landing to snatch at Cat.

  The hands wrapped their elongated fingers around Cat’s arms and Craig could feel her being tugged away from him. He was completely startled by the suddenness of the attack and tottered on his toes, unprepared for the tug of war. Despite the shock he locked his muscles and fought to keep his grip and balance against the luminescent creatures pull. He became Cat’s anchor, locked into close quarters with the creature, staring into its six hauntingly human eyes divided between two gash-like sockets, its jaws gnashed and snapped like a wild dog from behind a muzzle of thin bones, which resembled a chicken carcass fused to its face. Craig cursed in shock and exertion.

  Rachel lunged forward in wide-eyed horror and snatched instinctively at the creature’s arms to free Cat. Its cadaverous face snapped in her direction and creased into a vicious leer at her interference. It shrugged its arms out and slapped Rachel down onto the punishing concrete steps.

  Craig’s grip slipped as Cat thrashed in the manacle hands of the creature, squirming against its hold. Rachel sprung back to her feet and clutched at Cat’s ankles and legs to aid him in stopping Cat being dragged away. The creature snarled and yanked harder, loosening Craig and Rachel’s hold on Cat and stretching her prone and defenceless between them, the aura grew around her as she was drawn further into its swallowing maw. The creature walked its grip down to a more secure hold under her arms, pulling her snug to its legless body. Her face inches from its bared internal organs braced against its fleshy cage of ribs. Craig panicked as his grip slid from her thighs to a weaker purchase on her knees.

  Kelly lunged into the skirmish with a fire extinguisher and smashed it into the creature’s face. It ignored the blow and yanked Cat further into the light, leaving Craig and Rachel with a foot each. Kelly returned with a second strike, but it effortlessly batted the blow aside and snatched its hand back to Cat again.

  Craig watched Kelly reel with the creatures parry, then turn her momentum into a one-hundred-and-eighty degree swing that brought the metal extinguisher slamming down on the creatures head and the arm that had just returned to secure Cat.

  The creature lost its grip and Cat swung to the floor striking her head on the concrete. Rachel and Craig stumbled backwards in the direction they had both been pulling, drag
ging Cat sprawling across them. The heavy extinguisher tumbled into the light and disappeared. With a mournful howl the creature swatted Kelly back against the wall and receded back into the light.

  Without words the four picked themselves up and fled from the building.

  It watched them disappear into the night and the world. It did not feel frustration or anger at losing the thing called Cat to the others that were now becoming aware of It, for at the exact same time It watched them escape It was in other places. It was in Vicki Day’s thoughts, riding her madness. It stood before Alec Jacob’s in the guise of his distant mother pleading for him to accept her as real – and he spoke back. It controlled the undertaker that carried the body of Neil Harris down the stairs, one of many bodies It would fetch down to the basement. It was in the mind of the father who scrubbed at the pool of blood that had drained from his two teenage sons that had killed each other. It understood so much about flesh, what would be painful, what would cripple, what would kill. It knew as much about their minds, what they feared, what hurt, what would break one of these things, what could drive one to kill. It got the mother of the two sons to speak to the scrubbing father “I’m glad they’re dead.” It watched the violence unfold, and It had only used four words of their language. It could feel the Billy-infants gnawing hunger, a wanting and a need that It also understood, but unlike the Billy-infant It was not weakening, but growing stronger. Stronger from the flesh of Clive Jenkins, Maureen Brooke, Jim and Sylvia Smith, Moll Dancey and all the others It had just taken, and was now dissolving and merging together in a shape that It willed. Their life-forces flowed into It, increasing Its power and Its hunger. There were so many to feed upon in the tower, and so many more beyond.

  Part Three: Facing the Monster

  Chapter Thirty Four

  Craig found the forced quiet at Rachel’s dining table unbearable; he was regretting joining Kelly and Cat there and wished he had sat with Jason on the armchair. He could feel Jason’s eyes burning into his back and could sense the boy’s stifled urgency to know what had happened, it was emanating from him like radioactivity from a power plant on meltdown. The others shared Craig’s shock from their encounters and none of them had wanted to recount their experiences to Jason upon returning. Jason had seemed to accept Craig flagging down his racing questions and he had sat watching the silent group, waiting for answers. At least there were answers now.

  Craig and the others had finally seen what was behind the disappearances and violence. He had only seen fleeting glimpses of the undertaker-thing on the stairs and had spent most of the struggle with the other creature with his eyes closed against its light, but he could recall every grisly detail of both creatures into his head with the clarity of one of his photographs, and although those things were terrifying and their reality nauseating he experienced euphoric relief whenever he thought of them. The fact that they were real, and could exist outside of his nightmares, completely exorcised his self-doubt and fear that somehow he was responsible for their actions.

  With undeniable confirmation of there being something supernatural or paranormal behind things they now needed to decide on what the next step was. He looked over at Kelly propped up at the table on her elbows with her head in her hands and the fall of her dark hair hiding her face from him. Her belief system was probably in tatters.

  Cat sat slumped in the dining chair nearest the door, securing her exit, he doubted she wanted to be there with them at all, but she was probably too much in shock to be alone. She divided her attention between petting the kitten that nestled comfortably on her lap and scratching at the reddish splotches that trailed from her wrists in pink veins. She had bluntly refused any concern or offer of aide from Rachel with a heavy dose of contempt that had sent her scurrying to the kitchen to prepare drinks for everyone, and probably to fall apart in private. He wasn’t sure what to make of Cat, or what she felt, she seemed to spend most of her time in anger. The rash looked painful and he hesitated around asking. “Looks sore…” Craig braved nodding to Cat’s wrists.

  Cat smiled wanly and stopped scratching. “I said I’m okay. It’s just like an allergy I think.”

  Her tone was softer than he had expected. When the creature had let her go she had hit her head on the concrete floor, but he decided not to ask about her head in case he should lose his in return. The rash was all up her arms where the creature had held her. In places he could make out the welts where the creatures’ fingers had been. Rachel appeared in the doorway bearing a tray of hot drinks and set it down on the table and handed them out. She gingerly sat a hot chocolate down in front of Cat.

  “You said you didn’t want anything, but it’s there if you want it. I remembered that you will only drink a hot drink if it’s hot chocolate.”

  Cat looked up and fixed Rachel in a firm stare. “Things change. I prefer coffee now.” Cat raised her eyes at Rachel’s flustered apology and her offer to make a coffee, and shooed her away with a wave of a hand.

  Rachel looked dejected, and then hesitant when she saw that the only seat available was next to Cat. Craig realised that he and Kelly should have put more thought into where they had sat. Cautiously, Rachel took it, and Cat shuffled her chair a few inches away from her. There was a frosty exchange of looks that Kelly caught as she emerged from behind her hair to claim her drink, she responded with a look of disgust at Cat. Craig silently took in a deep breath and held it, but fortunately Kelly’s face softened before Cat could notice her expression. Three volatile women sat around the table. Craig joined everyone else in nursing their drinks and decided he would take the first opportunity to join Jason at the sidelines.

  After an awkward silence he looked up, just as Cat raised her mug in a toast to the table and a spiteful grin twisted her face. “Get the marshmallows out! Anyone know any good camping songs?”

  Craig looked down at his drink again. Focus on your drink. Don’t look up, don’t make eye-contact with anyone.

  “Having a tea party is hardly pro-active,” Cat pushed.

  “How would you prefer to react to what’s happening?” Kelly’s response was quick but calm and even, while the question was challenging, and Craig hoped it was sobering. He was relieved at having a negotiator at the table and he dared to look up again from his mug and found Cat glaring back at Kelly, her vivid green eyes as hard and sharp as emeralds. Kelly didn’t appear shaken and didn’t seem to need to posture in return, just held her gaze. He was sure Kelly had faced off against much more intimidating girls than her.

  “You wanted to escape that thing and you had a choice in where you escaped to. That choice is still open to you any time you would like to take it.”

  One-point to Kelly! Craig called out in his head, careful to not let any of his satisfaction be read in his face. An uncomfortable brace of tension had settled across the table between the two women. He felt a pang of guilt at leaving all the peace making to Kelly. He decided to jump on the grenade of a situation, and hope it wouldn’t go off. “Maybe we should all just chill out a bit? A lot’s happened. Hopefully I’m not the only one in shock. Maybe we can just focus and work out what’s going on?”

  He was rewarded by a weak smile of gratitude from a beaten and vulnerable looking Rachel, and Kelly softened her steely glare and allowed it to drift from Cat to the others.

  “How about something to calm our nerves?” Kelly slid hers and Craig’s mug to Rachel.

  Rachel looked caught, then left her seat and retrieved a bottle of brandy from beside the armchair. With a trembling hand she sloshed a shot into Kelly’s mug then his. Cat slid her mug over and Rachel looked unsure whether to dose her, but gave in. “Good for shock,” she colluded, it was clear that Rachel saw the opportunity as some kind of inroad to Cat.

  “If you say so. I just think there’s always an excuse for alcohol – don’t you?” Cat took a deep slug.

  The comment felt pointed but Craig didn’t have a clue what about. “I’m with you on that one,” and he took a swig.
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  Cat ignored him and kept her focus on Rachel. “Aren’t you going to top your own up?”

  Rachel hesitated in sitting back down. “I… er, yes. Of course.” She finished seating herself and poured a meagre shot into her own mug.

  “That wasn’t much. Or are you just topping up on what you added in the kitchen?”

  A little voice from over Craig’s shoulder cut in insistently. “So, what happened?”

  Craig wanted to twist round and thank Jason for the timely interruption. The three women looked surprised, as if they had forgotten Jason was even in the room. Rachel and Kelly shared a look of uncertainty with each other that Craig understood. Jason was young, how much should they tell him?

  “It came for me.” Cat stated, deciding for them.

  “The same thing that came for me?”

  “A creature that reaches out from a burst of green light to grab you. Sounds like it.”

  “There was a skeleton thing too,” Kelly offered reluctantly.

  Craig could see that Kelly and Rachel were uncomfortable sharing this with Jason, but he had already encountered the thing that had tried to take Cat, it had come for Jason and he had faced it alone. Craig twisted round in his chair so that he could see Jason too. “It was more like a zombie, actually.”

  “Is there a difference?” Kelly asked incredulously. “It was dead and it shouldn’t be walking-around-dead.”

  “Actually, he’s right.” Cat played with the handle of her mug as if she couldn’t be bothered to impart her insight, Craig guessed that it was the lure of pointing out that Kelly was wrong that drew her in. “It had flesh; so that makes it a zombie.”

  “Oh. So it is a zombie. I feel so much better now.” Kelly shook her head and took a long drink.

  Rachel grinned fondly at Cat. “You always did know your horror stuff.”