The Girl in the Garden

Chapter 18

Ben wanted to run to Sparrow, but he watched as each mushroom started to bulge and bubble. The twitching black tendrils of fungus that connected the mushrooms quickly expanded and filled in the circle of dirt. The gleaming black mass quivered and moved like the earth had just revealed its own giant muscle lying beneath the soil. The ligaments wrapped up around Sparrow's body and he disappeared, and Ben watched the strange black abyss consume his friend.

"No..." Ben whispered, finally regaining control over his body. He ran towards the black circle but another bolt of lightning connected with it, right in the center. Ben shielded his eyes, and when he looked again, he saw a hand sticking up from the quivering mass of mushroom. "Sparrow!"

He dove forward and grabbed hold of the hand. He was so concerned with saving his friend he didn't stop to consider that the hand was too big to belong to Sparrow, too strong, too sticky. He pulled and revealed a muscular black arm, then the face of a demon.

Her mouth opened like an insect, splitting her chin right down the middle and revealing rows and rows of large sharp teeth. Ben tried to jump back, but her grip on his hand was too tight. As he pulled against her strength, he felt his rage bubbling, the hot kind of rage that had been igniting flames and hurting people. Until now, he had been afraid of it, but in the face of this monster, he knew that there were far worse things to fear in this world or any other. The last option he had, other than roll over and die, was to welcome the fire and unleash it.

He let out a forceful roar, and a jet of flames erupted from his hand. The monstrous face screamed out in pain, and she released Ben's hand, sending him tumbling backward. He got to his feet and glanced down at his arm, which he realized had a number of wiggling, writhing, black leeches suctioned all over it.

With his panic overflowing, he ripped them from his skin. One, two, three. Twelve little leeches in all, each leaving a circle of red blood on Ben's arm. He watched as one of the leeches flopped over in the grass, twisting and turning like it was in pain. As he watched, he realized that whatever the black things were, they were not leeches.

The thing began to bubble and stretch, growing to the size of a cat before its mouth erupted and a new head sprouted in its place. The new head looked more like a dog, but its mouth opened to reveal rows of deadly teeth, and it snapped closed again just centimeters from Ben's feet.

Ben blasted the thing with his fire, a surge of strength filling him as he embraced his power for the first time instead of denying it. Another one of the leeches began to transform, and Ben blasted it as well, and then a third. Finally, they were all shifting and growing into vicious-looking predators, each on four legs like a dog, but with the giant gaping mouths of bloody monsters.

Ben glanced at the black pit and saw that the demon inside it was slowly crawling her way out, revealing more of her twisted body as she dragged it with a terrible squelching sound from the slippery abyss. As if he had just realized that he was in control of his own body again, Ben turned and ran as fast as he could away from the black pit and the screeching demon who had manipulated him. He could hear the blood-sucking creatures trying to chase after him, but they still seemed to be in mid-transformation, and they stumbled over themselves, awkwardly adjusting to their new legs.

The upper body of the demon woman was still slithering out of the slimy black pit. She screamed a terrible scream, and Ben kept running. He flew out the iron door and felt a sense of relief wash over him at the sound of Rani's voice.

"Benjamin," she shouted out to him as she came billowing across the grounds. "That lightning, what's going on out here?"

"Run!" Ben screamed, tripping as he made his escape. Struggling to get up out of the dirt, he heard one of the mutating monsters screech from behind him. He turned to see the beast emerge through the open door. He tried to shoot it with flames as he had done with the others, but his rage was gone, replaced entirely with fear.