Beneath our feet, Behemoth roared.
Earl staggered backward into the living room and Carl crawled after him. The two of them grappled and rolled onto the couch, which had also begun to slide across the floor. Carl’s fingers sought the bullet hole in Earl’s chest, and he shoved one inside. Shrieking, Earl snatched up a heavy glass ashtray from the coffee table and brought it swiping down on Carl’s forehead. I heard the sickening crunch from where I was pinned in the kitchen, even over the cries of the creature. The ashtray shattered.
The house slid another foot, swaying like a boat at sea. The couch crashed into the recliner and Earl jumped free, abandoning Carl and wheeling on the rest of us. He still clutched a dripping shard of the ashtray in his hand.
Lying in a prone position, Sarah aimed and fired. The shot went wild.
The thing beneath our feet hissed like an industrial furnace ready to blow.
Sarah fired a second shot, catching Earl in the shoulder. He jerked backward and then grinned. Sarah pulled the trigger again as he flung the shard of glass at her. The third bullet plowed into Earl’s thigh. Another quake shook the house and Earl charged Sarah, leaping into the air despite his wounds. It was almost like he was possessed.
Gritting my teeth against the pain, I fought to stay conscious, while Kevin ran to help Sarah. Earl’s teeth sank into her wrist and her blood welled around his lips. Sarah shrieked, dropping the gun onto the tilting floor. The house rolled again, rattling the foundation. Kevin slid away from them, his hands grasping uselessly.
The tremor shook the hutch, and both it and the table slammed into me again. This time, something snapped—I heard a wet sound inside my chest. I cried out in agony, struggling to free both myself and the rifle. Every tiny movement was excruciating.
The floor splintered beneath Kevin and his lower half dropped through the hole. He clutched the broken timbers, holding on for dear life.
“Oh Jesus,” he screamed. “I can see it! It’s in the basement!”
With her free hand, Sarah dug her fingernails into Earl’s face, slashing at his nose and cheek. Skin peeled away, leaving red racing stripes. Worms burrowed beneath the wounds. Earl tried to scramble away, but Sarah rammed her elbow into the bullet wound in his shoulder.
“Not this time, you son of a bitch,” she snarled. “This time, I’ll make sure you don’t get back up.”
Carl rolled off the couch, dazed and bleeding.
“My God is hungry,” Earl rasped, and then punched Sarah in the face—once, twice, three times in rapid succession. Sarah’s shoulders sagged and blood streamed from her nose. Then, twisting her hair in his fist, Earl forced her head down and marched her past me across the rolling floor. Her body was limp and she put up no resistance. They were heading towards the basement.
I don’t know how he kept moving, how he stayed alive. Earl was in bad shape; a bloody, shot-up mess. But somehow, he refused to die. Perhaps whatever was crawling around inside his body had reanimated him. Taken control. Maybe there really was something to the black magic gibberish he’d been spouting before, or maybe he was just being bullheaded. I don’t know. I can only tell you that it was almost as frightening as the monster digging up through my basement floor.
Earl and Sarah reached the door. He gave her hair another twist, and she squealed.
“Sarah!” Kevin screamed, trying to free himself from the hole.
The rain pattered against the kitchen tiles.
“Carl,” I shouted. “Get up! My leg’s busted and I can’t get loose! You’ve got to help Sarah and Kevin!”
Carl shook his head, trying to clear it. He wiped the blood from his eyes and tottered to his feet.
“Come on, Carl,” I urged. “Move!”
Earl flung the basement door open and Sarah screamed. At the same time, Kevin freed himself from the hole.
I don’t know if it came from the open door or the chasm in the kitchen floor, but the stench was overpowering. It immediately filled the house, choking me with its ammonialike stench. My eyes and nose burned.
But as bad as the creature’s smell was, the sound—my God—the sound was worse. That same forceful exhaling of air that I had heard the other worms make, now magnified tenfold. It pushed against my eardrums, making my head throb.
Sarah teetered at the top of the basement steps. “Let me go, god damn you!”
“My pleasure, bitch!” Earl pushed her forward. Her shriek was cut short, lost beneath the cry of the great worm.
Kevin crept unsteadily past me as the floor began to shimmy again. Enraged, he threw himself at Earl and they both pitched forward into the cellar.
Carl made it across the floor to where I was pinned. Grunting with exertion, the two of us managed to push the table and the hutch aside. My leg and side throbbed when I moved, sending a fresh burst of pain that made further movement impossible.
“Where’s it hurt?” Carl asked me.
“My leg’s broke,” I panted, “and I might have busted a rib, too. I’m not sure. But don’t worry about me. Kevin and Sarah fell into the basement. Help them.”
But Carl wouldn’t listen. He lurched away, looking for something.
“Carl, what are you doing?”
“Finding something you can use for a crutch. Now hush. Just rest.”
I glanced around the kitchen in confusion, staring at the wreckage of my former life with Rose. Amazingly, the only thing that didn’t seem to have been destroyed was the kerosene heater. It had slid a few inches, but remained upright. The kettle had fallen to the floor and rolled away, but the heater itself stood firm.
“Carl, just forget about it!”
He didn’t answer, and passed from my sight.
I dragged myself forward to the doorway—each inch that I crawled was excruciating. Sweat broke out on my forehead and under my armpits, and my body began to tremble. The creature’s stink grew stronger—overpowering my senses as I drew closer. Finally, I reached the basement stairs and peeked over the edge, afraid for what I would find.
I screamed.
The cellar floor was gone, replaced by a giant, slavering mouth—at least twenty-feet wide. It sounds crazy, but that’s the only way to describe it. The entire floor had vanished and Behemoth’s mouth occupied the space where it had been. A small outcropping of concrete at the bottom of the stairway was all that remained. Kevin and Earl struggled on this tiny alcove, while Sarah lay bleeding on the stairs. Below them, the worm pulsed and quivered hungrily, the massive throat convulsing. Its mouth was lined with lamprey-like tentacles, each one tipped with another tinier mouth of its own. These smaller mouths opened, even thinner tendrils emerging from them. Then, rising from the center of Behemoth’s throat, rose a stalklike tongue composed of more worms, blind and wriggling. All of the tentacle-worms chirped greedily, sensing the prey above them.
“I found this—my God…,” Carl gasped behind me. Blood still dripped from the ugly-looking gash on his forehead. He held a baseball bat in one hand, which I guess he’d thought I could use for a crutch.
He gaped at the creature below us. Then, without another word, he turned and fled.
“Carl!” I was shocked and dismayed. I’d known Carl for most of my adult life, and never once had I known him to be a coward.
Earl shoved Kevin toward the edge of the pit. Kevin punched him in the temple. Snarling, Earl punched him back. Kevin dodged the blow, brought his knee up into Earl’s crotch and then grabbed the madman by his neck and waistband. With a single, mighty heave, he threw Earl over the side.
Behemoth roared, as did the small worms inside his mouth.
Earl screamed, twisting in midair. The wormtongues stretched forward in eager anticipation. Pale slime dripped from their mouths. Earl latched on to a jutting piece of floor support and clung to it, dangling over the stinking maw. The earthworms inside of him wriggled from his gunshot wounds and burst through his arms and cheeks. One uncoiled from his ear and plummeted down into the pit.