The rat doesn’t stand a chance. It goes down my throat like dirt up a vacuum pipe – and another – and the rest – I swallow a whole valley of vermin within minutes.
……
My carcass, on all fours, purges the liquid remnants of the reanimate version of junk food. Disgusting.
My stench seeps through this black basement; it reaches Casey’s nostrils first, “It’s OK Kirk, the smell don’t bother me – at all. It’s a good thing, you needed that feed, we’re safe!”
The girl I really like only feels safe around me after I eat a pile of rats. How can anyone like me?
“Where are you Kirk?” hollers Casey.
I’m wrenched under a discarded desk, ridding my carcass of the last rat I sucked up. The basement is shrouded in a darkness that unnerves Casey, “It’s OK Casey, I’m here, I’ll be done soon.”
......
A rising panic infects Casey’s voice, “Jenna, where you, are you OK?”
Silence.
I shuffle backwards, place my hands on the table and pull myself upwards. A splat from my nose hits the concrete floor; the last drop of liquidized rat; gross.
“Kirk, is that you?”
“I’m here Casey, over here, follow my voice,” I say, reaching my hand out into the darkness to aid her connection.
Casey’s hand finds mine; I hold it, tight. Together in the darkness I ponder if my end is close.
……
The darkness is so dense that our eyes don’t become accustomed to it. Casey’s voice, crackling with tension cuts through the blackness again, “Jenna – Jenna – if this is a joke it’s not funny.”
Silence.
Then a sound breaks through the quiet.
Behind us – a soft thud hits the cold concrete floor. Casey jolts, “What’s that, Jenna, is that you – Jenna?”
Silence again.
Then a second thud from behind, this one delicate, almost elegant in its sound and soft shuffle.
A familiar knowing seeps inside my empty head. I pull Casey’s face into my chest, gently place my hand over her ear and slowly rotate my head. From the corner of my eye – I see them.
Yellow, glowing eyes. The Dark Side is on its way.
......
I know the cats are benign – a watching, sinister symptom of the Dark Side’s imminent presence. But, I need to shield them from Casey’s view; they’re a frightening sight to living humans.
“Is it rats Kirk?”
“Yes,” I say, shuffling us both forward in a blind attempt to reach the stair well and away from the evil eyes.
“Eurgh, I don’t want em touching my legs Kirk; use the light from your Cell,” says Casey.
I hold my cell outright and press it. The flash of light coincides with a surge of sound above us.
The crashing sound causes Casey to jump, the way living people do when they receive a shock. Her jolt dislodges the cell from my hand. The sound of its impact on the concrete floor is drowned out by the loud commotion emanating from above.
Casey pulls me to my knees in an instinctive, protective, bracing position.
“Oh My GOD! I've got the most horrible sense of foreboding Kirk. I really feel something nasty is going to happen," says Casey, with a tremble in her voice.
