Chapter 2
Chapter 2
After making sure the house was secure and bringing a second bed down from upstairs, they settled down for sleep during the hottest hours of the day. If caught outside at midday you wouldn’t last more than a couple of minutes. A few species of very hardy cactuses with deep roots and a few shrubs with leaves tough to the point of brittleness were all the plant life left on the surface and it was generally thought that no animal life, not even an insect, lived above ground during the day; then again before today they wouldn’t have believed anyone telling them about what they had seen for themselves, so at this point anything seemed possible.
A rap at the door woke them, it was nearly five in the evening and the sun was dipping low on the horizon and it was cool enough for people to move around outside, another two taps followed, neither seeming loud or urgent, nonetheless The Dog got up out of its bed and let out a growl.
“Who is it?” he shouted to the door, picking up his rifle and re-holstering his pistol as he walked to the door.
“A Visitor; are you going to open up or shall I piss off already?” came the curt reply.
He looked over to The Girl, who looked back and shrugged her shoulders; “ It’s your house, up to you who you let in.”
“Thanks, that was a great help. Well didn’t turn out too badly last time, best hope my luck hasn’t run out.” With that he walked over to the door and began to unlock it, glancing back to see if The Girl was ready with her guns. She was already sat on the bed with her pistol pointing at the side the door was going to open from. He felt a lot less apprehensive about pulling the door open now that he wasn’t alone.
The door opened enough for him to get a good look at whoever was on the porch. Turned away as they were he could only see the long black coat the gnarled wooden walking stick they were leaning on.
“You decided to be hospitable eh? Mighty fine of you if I do say so.” As The Visitor turned he saw it was an old man with a striking white beard and black sun goggles. He strode forward purposefully towards the door and The Man opened it without thinking, moving aside to let The Visitor inside. “ Very cosy,” he said catching sight of The Girl following him with her pistol as he walked in, “A lot nicer than the caves and basements I’ve been forced to live in the past few months. This is the first house I’ve seen in months that hasn’t been burnt down or derelict. You must get a bunch of people knocking on your door just curious to see the place.”
“Not anymore. Before today I’d not seen anyone in ages, and now you’re all coming at once. Reminds me of waiting for a bus.”
“He he, I reckon it would.” Chuckled The Visitor, sitting down at the table, “but don’t they normally come in threes after a wait?”
“Already had number two, House guests down in the cellar.”
“I take it they weren’t quite as welcome as me and the pretty lady here by the looks of your expression.
”You could say that.”
“Well the smell of blood, gunfire and fear is still hanging in the air, and I’m guessing whatever was down there came off a lot worse than you did!”
“ Yeah, by all accounts it has been a very eventful day. Have you noticed anything following you on your way here?”
“No I’ve not seen a soul anywhere ‘til I clapped eyes on you pair.” He looked over to The Girl and gave her a disconcerting attempt at a smile. She had only just lowered her weapon; he made her feel uneasy for some reason.
“I didn’t mean did you see any people, did you see any thing following you.”
“I don’t quite follow your meaning my boy,” he said eyes glinting with curiosity, “what do you mean things?”
“Did you not see what was out the front of my house before you got here, it can’t be more than fifty feet from my front door.”
“There was nothing out there but the baked hard dirt and a few lonely old dry plants. Why what was you expecting to see out there?”
He had stopped listening to The Visitor and went back to the door pulling it open. He was right; there was nothing there now apart from a black stain in the dirt around a small hole, the thing that he shot this morning was gone.
“Stay here.” He commanded, grabbing a satchel and rushing out of the door, pulling it shut behind him.
“ I guess I’ll just have a sip of water while we wait for him to get back” The Visitor reached across the table and pulled a glass and the jug of water closer, pouring himself a drink with his back to The Girl.
He slowed and then stopped as he reached the dark patch. It looked as if whatever had leaked from the thing this morning had blackened the dirt here in a rough circle six feet or so across, and there was a sickly sweet smell in the air. There was more blackening leading back to where he had first seen it emerge, presumably from where The Girl had wounded it first.
Looking back to the circle he drew his attention to the hole in the centre. It was a foot across and a much denser black than the surrounding dirt, as he watched he saw two thin whips, like long dark blades of grass emerge from the hole and twitch with very faint movement in his direction. He nearly stumbled backwards over a rock and the whips now twitched more urgently at him. Reaching down he took the rock and backing up a few yards, threw it softly towards the hole. The whips twitched violently as the rock rolled across the dark earth towards the hole, it looked as if the ground itself was trembling.
There was a tearing noise and the dark earth itself split open like a trapdoor. As the rock fell it was caught by dozens more of the whips, wrapping themselves around it and drawing it into towards a great mouth, dark and terrible, full of jagged, irregular, wicked looking teeth. The rock was pulled into the mouth; the first bite splitting it clean in two then subsequently ground down into smaller pieces and swallowed. The whips flailed around looking for something else to drag down and when nothing was found they withdrew and the trapdoor was pushed back up into place.
The Man stood there momentarily transfixed, his eyes wide like saucers, disbelieving what they were telling him. He backed off further and reached down into the satchel and drew out two grenades with his right hand. He pulled the pin on the first and threw it out to the same place as the rock and readied the second. As with the rock the whips grabbed the grenade and drew it down into the opening pit, ready for consumption. The grenade exploded as the mouth began to open, vaporising the whips that held it, and forcing the mouth wide open, pushing the jagged teeth into the rank flesh that held them
He threw the second grenade. It rolled down into the hole and sat next to the mouth for a few seconds before detonating. A pig-like squeal accompanied the bang and a fountain of blood erupted twenty feet into the air. Blood, teeth still attached to pieces of the creature’s mouth and small pieces of the whip- tendrils rained down around the hole. The trapdoor lay open, what was left of the creature lay in a pool of its own pulverised body.
The Man turned to walk back to the house, but what he saw momentarily froze him. There were dozens of the same black holes surrounding the house, but he could see the tendrils from the others dragging sticks and stones and dirt and whatever else they could grab onto to camouflage their darkness. Running, but scanning the ground directly in front of him he retraced his steps back to the house, slamming the door shut behind him as he re-entered.
“What the hell happened?” The Girl had gotten up from the bed and approached the door.
“ There are things under the ground outside, they’re setting traps for us out there, there are dozens of them around the house.” He stooped slightly and stopped to catch his breath. “ There was one where I killed that thing yesterday, in a hole covered in black dirt with some kind of trapdoor on top. After I killed it the others started covering themselves with dirt as camouflage.” He started towards the table “Hey, old timer, how many of those things did you see out there?”
”I don’t know what things you’re talking about son.” The Visitor remained seated, sipping away at the water
“The things I’ve just told you about under the ground.”
“Can’t say I’ve seen anything like that around anywhere.
“Are you kidding? There was a black patch you must have walked past when you came to my door. There was something under that patch.”
“I saw no patch the way I came to your door.” The Visitors back began to twitch slightly.
“What do you mean the way you came? Where did you come?”
The Visitor didn’t answer, but rose up from the chair to stand, his stick falling to the floor beside him as he did. His back began to shift and squirm under his coat more as he rose.
The Dog hunched low and started to bark. A clacking noise came in response from The Visitor followed by a tearing sound. The Visitor now loomed in the middle of the room over seven feet tall, shrouded in his dark coat, under which could be seen a flurry of movement. He began to turn.
More tearing noises and rents began to appear in the coat, dark inky blackness could be seen through and nothing else, he kept on turning.
The coat was now shredded and hanging in tatters and the clacking, chittering noise had become deafening, cowing The Dog into a corner, they took up their weapons in anticipation.
The Visitor had now turned fully and they could see nothing but blackness against the bright white of his beard. He shed the coat and they saw that he was covered in a shifting mass of creatures. Thick black spiders, sallow hands with eyestalks, mouths walking on shifting beds of fingers, worms covered in hairy spines and a multitude of other grotesqueries scampered and crawled among one another.
They both raised their weapons to fire and The Visitor opened its eyes, searing white light issued forth, blinding against his blackness. They both dropped their weapons and brought their hands up to shield their eyes from his intensity.
He opened his mouth to speak, whip-tendrils lashing from its cavernous black and each word issuing forth an elimination of flies and putrid maggots.
“ SEE ME NOW AND DESPAIR” The sound of his voice was deafening in the enclosed space. “YOUR TIME HERE IS ALMOST AT AN END. PREPARE YOURSELVES.”
With that the light and sound grew to a terrifying crescendo and they passed into unconsciousness.
andrewsimaginarium 