Into the Darkness

Chapter Sixteen

I screeched to a halt in front of Jared’s apartment complex. It took me three seconds to register that unnatural cold. One or more of those beasts were here, and judging by the freezing marrow in my bones, it was probably leaning towards more.

I sprinted up the walkway and through the door balancing precariously on one hinge. The light in the entryway of the apartment complex flickered, a telltale sign that something was horrifically amiss. At least, that was always the case in horror movies. Then again, the rent here was cheap, and the landlord never got around to fixing anything. It might have been normal.

 Still, the door was broken. Something was amiss.

 I sprinted up the stairs, my sanity having been left in my apartment. On Jared’s floor I heard screaming. Loud, high-pitched, unnatural screaming, like a rabbit that felt the first pinch of the wolf’s jaws.

 A burst of speed had me standing in the doorway of Jared’s apartment, staring at two…things. One looked like a four legged spider, equipped with red mandibles and grisly brown fur. Maybe human once, maybe all creation, this thing was so unnatural my stomach started to twist. Beside it stood an alien—oval head, long limbs and bulbous kind of fingers.

I blinked a few times, not believing my eyes. Somehow, the weird spider thing made sense. I’d seen some pretty gross monsters lately. The alien-looking thing, though, seemed a bit…childish somehow. Like the conjurer was telling some sort of joke.

 Or it really was an alien…

 Clearing my mind of the panicked fog, I zeroed in on what could only be the remnants of a human. Red head lulled, eyes staring, face slack. His body bent unnaturally, his heels able to touch his head, like his back had been broken.

 I stared, horror creeping into my awareness eradicating every other feeling. Rubber limbs fell to the floor, the body splayed unnaturally, dead.

 At the back of the apartment another scream erupted. My gaze drifted that direction, my body numb. A giant held Jared by the hair, my boyfriend crying and screaming, scratching at the hand carrying him by his scalp.

 This wasn’t a monster.

 Hazel eyes flashed to mine, connecting us in a moment. Power pulsed inside of me, registering the danger. My forehead beaded with sweat. That’s when the monsters turned toward me slowly. They honed in on me, sensing the magic I knew called to them like a turkey leg to a starving man.

 The man’s eyebrows dipped in confusion, his head tilted. He slowed.

 “What is this?” A voice of masculine honey poured across the apartment floor, crawling up my legs and covering me with slime.

 Something wasn’t right with this man, besides the fact that he carried my boyfriend by his hair.

 “Come to rescue your love? I heard him calling someone—you? Why not the police, I wonder. And why…” The monsters stepped toward me. My chest throbbed.  The man’s eyes turned calculating. “Bring her with us.”

 Power pulsed through the room—from me or them, I had no idea. Sweat dribbled down my forehead. The man kept coming, Jared screaming and crying in his grip.

 I tried to push them back, like I’d done before. I stuck out my palms, desperately trying to destroy them somehow, but I didn’t know what had caused it. Maybe fear deterred me. Maybe my near-death experience had me holding back. Whatever it was, nothing came!

 “Shit.” I grabbed a baseball bat, ready to go down fighting.

 It didn’t glow. Maybe that was reserved for metal?