He gazed at me for a moment longer, a strange gleam in his dark eyes as he studied me intently. He appeared strangely torn, seemed as if he didn’t want to leave. But that made no sense, we barely knew each other, and we certainly weren’t friends. At least we weren’t friends anymore, we hadn’t been for years. Finally he had returned my nod, sat back in the driver’s seat, and drove away. I’d watched him go until he took a left and disappeared from sight. We hadn’t spoken again since then.
I blinked as I was torn from the memory of that day by the shaking of the building. My heart jumped in fear, but a strange thrill of excitement ran through me as I studied Cade with a growing sense of wonder and curiosity. Then, the quaking increased and I forgot all about him as my terror spiked high again. The glass in the windows began to rattle in the frames, vibrating with the force of whatever was coming toward us. I took an instinctive step back. Cade’s hand fell briefly against my back, stopping me from moving before his touch slipped away.
I watched in wide eyed fascination, and dread, as he moved slowly toward the window. I wanted to reach out and grab him, wanted to scream at him to stop, but I was unable to move as I gaped at his back. He eased down a slat on the blinds, barely moving it as he peered out the window. Drawn by curiosity, I crept toward him. Pressing against his back, I leaned forward to peer over his shoulder. He shot me a look but didn’t try to stop me.
The shaking increased, the noise level escalated as it echoed throughout the store. My eyebrows drew questioningly together, I searched for the source of the sound, but I couldn’t pinpoint it through the narrow gap in the blinds. I jumped slightly as a large thingsuddenly loomed before us. And thingwas the only word that could be used to describe it. I had no idea what it was; I’d never seen anything like it. But it was awful, disgusting, gross in ways that I had never begun to imagine gross.
Cade grabbed hold of my shoulder, holding me still as I instinctively took a frightened step back from the monstrosity outside. I nearly collided with a table containing fragile figurines that would have shattered on impact. The saying bull in a china shop flashed through my mind, and I knew that I would have to be careful. I was about as graceful as that bull. And there were far too many fragile things within this store, and too many hideous things outside that we had to avoid.
The thing moved slowly forward. It was smaller than a Mac truck but there was something about it that reminded me of a semi without its trailer. It crept forward on numerous legs that were arachnid in appearance, but swollen, red, and bloated like an overfed tick. The legs seemed to pulse and vibrate with some strange life force that I didn’t understand. I was confused, completely unable to understand what the hell it was doing. Unable to comprehend what the hell it could possibly be. My mind simply could not wrap around the hideousness of this atrocity before us.
It stopped next to a few of the frozen bodies, hovering above them as it lowered slightly to get closer to the people. I watched in fascinated horror as one of those legs curled up before snaking out from the disgusting creature. The tentacle like appendage moved with an eerie, rapid grace that was almost as captivating as it was repulsive. I found myself entranced by its slithering, snakelike movements. The tentacle was clear; it slithered over the ground before snagging hold of a man holding hands with a woman. My mouth dropped, my eyes widened, a scream tore up my throat. Before I could utter a sound, Cade swiftly slid his hand over my mouth. He pulled me against him, pressing my back to his chest as he held me tight. My knees buckled as I found myself barely able to remain standing. Cade helped keep me up, but I could feel a tremor in his powerful, taut muscles.
The tentacle thingy slithered up the man’s leg before reaching his chest. It pulled back when it reached the man’s face like a cobra ready to strike. It remained there for a few moments before attacking with deadly, and startling, velocity. It sank into the man’s throat, burying itself deep within his body. The tentacle was clearly visible as it moved, slithering beneath the man’s skin as it made its way swiftly through his body. The clear tentacle began to fill with pulsating blood as the man suddenly, and violently, came back to life. Vomit rolled through me, and it was only the mortifying thought of throwing up on Cade’s hand that helped me suppress it.
The poor man thrashed against the thing moving through him, his arms flailed wildly against the brutal assault being waged on his body. He grasped at the woman beside him, but she remained still as stone, oblivious to his pain. The man’s fingers tore at the invader, trying to pull it free, but his efforts were useless and only caused more blood to spill from his already brutalized throat. I gagged, choked, nearly fell as every muscle in my body collapsed.
This time Cade was barely able to keep me up. I could feel the horror that filled his entire body as he clung to me. He took his hand away from my mouth, wrapping his arms around my waist he pulled me away from the window. I did not fight against him, there was no fight left within me. There was little of anything left within me besides fear and revulsion.
Cade led me swiftly through the store. He dodged the shelves, and delicate artifacts, with a graceful ease that even through my numbing shock and horror, I was able to admire. We passed by the counter. A gray haired man stood behind it, a duster was clasped in the hand above his head as he faced the shelves behind the register. His spectacles gleamed in the light of the lamps dangling from the ceiling above him. My heart went out to him. I moved toward him, wanting to do something, wanting to wake him if I could, needing to get him out of here before that awful thingcame for him.
Cade’s hand tightened on mine, he shook his head at me as he continued to pull me rapidly forward. I wanted to fight against him, but I was ashamed to admit that I was too terrified to offer much of a protest. Cade opened a door in the back of the store and pulled me into the darkened stairwell. Closing the door behind us, he reached up to pull the string on a dim bulb. Light filled the narrow, steep stairway, but it did not reveal the bottom of the steps.
Cade bent close to me, pressing his lips against my ear. “Stay,” he breathed so quietly that I barely heard him over the loud rush of blood filling my ears.
I remained where I was. A strange, uncontrollable shaking was starting to take hold of my body. My knees were trembling; I could not hold my hands still no matter how hard I tried. I wrapped my arms around myself, but it did nothing to ease the chill that had crept into my quaking bones.
Even in this darkened stairwell, away from the street, I could still feel the vibrations the thing caused within the building. I could still vividly see the man struggling against the awful creature greedily pulling the blood from his body. I felt nauseous again, and devastated.
Another dim light switched on below. Cade was silhouetted within the shadows as he reappeared. He moved with unfailing silence back up the stairs to me. His hand was gentle upon my arm; he clicked the light off before guiding me down the steps. I was oddly aware of the fact that though he was silent, I was painfully not.
He led me through the basement, guiding me swiftly through the clutter of boxes. The basement was surprisingly clean; there was no dust, no cobwebs. Amongst the boxes were antiques that had already been unpacked, and set out in preparation of the move upstairs. Others had been stored away until their new owners could pick them up, something they would never do now. Cade led me to the back wall. I stood staring at it as he reached to the side and pushed on something that I couldn’t see. I frowned at him, and then at the wall as it began to creek and groan. In my hypersensitive, over stimulated state, I was barely able to keep myself from screaming in surprise and terror.
He led me into the small, musty smelling room that had been revealed by the hidden door in the back wall. A crushing sense of panic settled over me, I could not see the walls surrounding me, but I could feel their nearness as it pressed against me. I wanted to turn and bolt from the room, wanted to run into the streets screaming the whole way. But I somehow managed to keep myself under control, mainly because Cade’s hand was strong and reassuring on my elbow and I could not humiliate myself in front of him.