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xi. the showdown
VERITY RAN AS FAST AS SHE COULD, HEART BEATING a quick staccato in her chest. The tunnels were like a winding maze, a seemingly endless labyrinth of shadows and stagnant water.
"Stan?" She called, voice rising in hysteria. "STANLEY?"
She opened her mouth to call again, but was cut off by a scream of pure, unadulterated terror, so anguished that she began to sprint blindly, knowing who had made that sound and why.
She could hear the others somewhere behind her, calling her name along with Stan's, but she didn't stop. She knew that if Stan died, a part of her would surely die too. Another scream rang through the tunnel, and Verity realised that it was closer this time. She turned one last corner, almost tripping on the uneven floor, and came face to face with Stan's worst fear.
The woman was pale and gaunt, dead eyes set high in a grotesquely misshapen face. Her limbs were unnaturally long, and she wore a long black dress, almost like a robe. She was hunched over, her jaws clamped tightly on the figure on the ground-
Verity's stomach lurched, and bile rose to the back of her throat. As though sensing she was there, the woman turned her hideous face towards the girl, smiling slightly. It was only when Verity saw the blood running from the creature's fangs that she snapped out of it.
"Get away from him," she said, her voice coming out as a whisper.
The thing made a sound almost like laughter, and Verity's eyes narrowed with fury.
"I said, get away from him!"
Footsteps echoed in the tunnel behind her, and she knew that the others were almost there.
Reaching into her bag, Verity slid her weapon out into the half-light of the tunnel. The woman's eyes shifted slightly, and she nervously loosened her grip a fraction.
"If you don't get the fuck away from him, I swear to God, I will put this through your fucking head, understand?!" Verity raised the axe, light glinting off the cruel blade.
The boys charged into the tunnel, but Verity didn't look at them. She kept her eyes trained on the thing in front of her, ready to attack.
"What the fuck is that?" Richie gasped, the beam coming from his flashlight illuminating the grisly scene.
Verity stepped forward, trying to walk straight as her knees trembled furiously. She brandished the axe again, and this time the creature lifted it's mouth from Stan's face, leaving him gasping and bloody. It backed into another tunnel, hissing and baring it's needle-like teeth.
