Liefe

The leech

10:32PM Thursday, February 11th

The night was rainy. A knock on our manor's front door brought me to wake. A man. Not old, yet, not young. His essence was that of a smoldering fire, beckoning me to rekindle him.
"He looks cold, we should bring him in.", I say as Margaret, my older sister, and I watch him shiver in the pouring rain.
We take him to the lounge and strip him to put new, fresh clothes on him. Thankfully, we are able to gift our fathers clothes since he is away traveling with his merry band of merchants. The linens fit just well I'd say.  The mysterious man smells of perfume and spices, a true gentleman's smell. Perhaps I'll ask what cologne he adorns when he wakes.

"Fetch me some spare blankets from the closet Matthew.", Margaret says calmly as if she had taken care of a man chilled to the bone before. I nod and depart.
Quietly, I rush to get the cold man some blankets that often keep myself warm in my time of need. 
I stop.
I think.
Could this man die?
I hurry along just at that thought alone.
As that thought crept out of my mind, I heard a window slam shut! A window that should be locked. I take the blankets and investigate the noise. The window, now shut from the storm, was covered in a thin green slime that must've came from something like a snail the size of a grown dog! And the stench! It feels as if I could suffocate in the hallway with the window wide open.  I'm too flustered to pay it any mind so I take the blankets before I'm responsible for a man dying of pneumonia.
Or maybe I'd die myself from the smell.
The putrid air is the only thing lingering in my mind as I run off to a pellucid foyer and a sick man.

"Here you are Margaret." I say, out of breath from my jog across the parlor.
"Thank you Matthew. Our guest Charles here seems to have remained conscious just long enough for me to learn his name. He has no source of identification or any belongings either. He must've been robbed and left to die in the storm. Poor thing. Before he collapsed again, he tried to tell me something but couldn't get it out in time. Something about snails or slugs."

It seemed that Margaret looked through his person as she got him ready for us to redress him. He doesn't even seem like the type of person to harm a buzzing fruit fly. What could this man have had to do with such insects though? I reconvene my thoughts as to not worry Margaret with my indecision.

"It's inconceivable that someone would do something to some random person minding their own!"
"I'm going to call the police, please watch after our guest and call me if anything happens, okay?" My sister says to me, taking full hold of the situation.
"Aye, aye!" I say, as if I had forgotten about the mysterious gel I'd found on the window sill, just moments before.

I go to take a seat while Margaret goes to let the cops know of our new friend. The lack of her presence lets the thoughts of what could have made the foul ooze deposit into my mind. Perhaps it was just the rain? Or, perhaps it was something I don't want an explanation for.
As I come back to reality to pay attention to Charles I notice he's not where he'd ought to be or should I say he's gone missing! The blanket that was covering his shivering body sat motionless with no man underneath. Instead, a familiar smell began to fill the parlor that completely covered what used to be Charles' cologne.
"Margaret!" I yell out my sisters name to see she was alright but I get no call back so I rushed to the phone room as fast as a panicked man can.
When I dart past the kitchen to get to the phone room I notice a figure larger than either my sister or Charles. I pull back enough to see through the dim kitchen doorway to see what looks to be Margaret's flailing legs engulfed by a pulsating blob of brown mucus. The smell is the strongest here and I freeze. No air can get to my lungs while the creature pulsates faster and faster, drawing the now still legs within its construct.
"Mar...garet..."