I was fetching myself a glass of water in the middle of the night when whatever had eviscerated my roommate attacked me. It chased me through the flat. Fear, like liquid fire, coursed through my veins. I was gibbering. Shrieking. I’d been so desperate to escape I’d leapt through my living room window. Luckily, in the aftermath I was found by a neighbour. I ended up in the hospital soon.
When I’d first returned to my senses all I could see were those dark claws slashing. That wriggling, monstrous torso. That rubbery human face. An insectoid body. Human limbs and arthropod claws fused together into some horrendous amalgam.
I felt nausea boil in my stomach.
I thrashed and yelled.
I was blind to the doctors and nurses around me. They had to strap me down to sedate me.
When I woke up again I was much calmer. My head was dizzy. I felt like I was staring down a long dark corridor. A doctor was by my bedside. His expression was serious but empathetic. He pulled up a chair next to me. He looked like he was in his fifties and his hair was black and speckled with grey. “Good afternoon, Mr. Anthony Wynthorn. My name is Dr. Joshua Stern.” My vision cleared. Soon I felt hot pain all through my body. I felt like one giant bruise. Dr Stern paused. He was in the middle of picking the correct words. “Well, there’s no easy way to say this so I’ll just say it.” He coughed softly to clear his throat. “Sometime last night you and your roommate” he glanced down at his clipboard, “Benjamin Harper, were attacked by some kind of wild animal. What animal it was, is of course, not yet known.” He paused again. His gaze grew sympathetic. “Unfortunately, Ben did not survive. At least that’s what I heard from the cops before they left.
You were unconscious until earlier this afternoon. You were very, very lucky you didn’t break any bones. We gave you the standard shots and course of antibiotics. Your wounds have been washed and stitched. We’re going to keep you overnight just to make sure everything’s in order.” He then suddenly added, “You understand? Do you have questions?” Then he eyed me for a long moment. “How’re you feeling?” I stared back at him hotly. My gaze betrayed my annoyance. “Well I feel just fucking great, don’t I? Don’t I look great? Just saw my roommate ripped to pieces. What do you think?” My voice was croaky, dripping with sarcasm as it echoed through the room. Dr Stern looked back at me. His eyes were wide and annoyed. “No need to be shitty with me. It’s my job to gauge the extent of your injuries. You’ve suffered a major trauma. Not just physically, but mentally.” His gaze suddenly softened. My anger waned. I felt suddenly ashamed for snapping. I broke eye contact.
The memory of seeing Ben’s corpse flashed through my brain.
The blood. The viscera. The gnawed bones.
I couldn’t even tell what parts of him were left over. He’d been skinned. And eaten mostly to the bone. Then that thing. It had come out of the shadows of his room. Leapt at me.
My breathing quickened. I felt my limbs shake with horror. I winced in pain. I was covered in bruises and scratches and moving, even slightly, caused me great discomfort.
Dr Stern continued to eye me. “You know, we have therapists you could chat with before you leave. I’d highly recommend it actually.” I looked back up at him. My annoyance completely gone. All I could feel now was horror and sadness. Ben had not been my favorite person but he’d not deserved to die like that. “Maybe I will. But not right now. I think I should just rest. Could you give me something to help me sleep?” Dr Stern agreed and left me the details of a local therapist he recommended. Before he left he turned to tell me, “and the cops want to interview you tomorrow morning. Just so you now. It’s just to get your side of things.” Then he smiled. I couldn’t help but smile back; his was so genuine. “Okay, well I’m off home to the missus. Take that pill there if you need help sleeping. Hope you feel better.” Then he was gone.
I was alone for the first time since I had awoken. My brain was still groggy from all the sedatives and I finally got a good look at my room. It was relatively nice for what must have been a public hospital. Despite having an ensuite bathroom my room was quite small. My room door was within arms-reach of my bed. I turned my head and tried to sit up slightly. I yelled in pain as my stitches pulled in my side. “Ahhgh” I grunted.
I then realized they’d tied some kind of gauze and brace around my stomach. I guess it was meant to hold me together or stop me from messing with my stitches? I rolled onto my side with great effort and with many more grunts of pain managed to get to my feet. I hobbled over to the bathroom and peed. I tried for a number two but it was a no go. Too painful. Oh well. I limped slowly back to my bed and slumped back down. I felt like I’d been sliced all over my stomach and chest.
As I lay in bed I remembered that’s exactly what had happened. I drank a bunch of water and nibbled on some cheese biscuits they’d left me for my tea. Then I took my blue sleeping pill and got myself as comfy as one could get in those scratchy hospital linens. As I lay in the dark of my room I felt an anxious sweat bead my forehead. I played the events of the last twenty-four hours over and over in my brain.
I had awoken in the early hours of that fateful morning. It had been a Sunday. I felt that horrendous sticky, sweaty heat one gets from drinking way too much alcohol. I had hot coals in my throat from all the shots and cigarettes I’d chocked down. Ben and I had gone out with some friends. It had been pretty wild.
I don’t remember how I got home that night. All I remember was waking up with an unendurable thirst. With eyes half-open, I groped and shambled my way through our dark flat to the kitchen. I noticed something was wrong when my barefoot stepped on something cold and slimy. I heard a loud squelch. “What the hell is that?” I mumbled. I groped for the lights but couldn’t find them. I was still too asleep and half-drunk. I held up my phone and turned on the flashlight.
There on the floor, just beneath the fridge, was some kind of goo. It was translucent but had a slight blue tint. It smelled sweet but also had strange sour note. Like decaying honey. My forehead was a knot of confusion. Then I noticed the fridge was ajar. It was an old fridge, one of those models with rounded edges from the 1940s. The kind that was made before planned obsolescence, so it just never needed to be replaced. It was dark blue with a silver outline. It always reminded me of my uncle’s prized blue Cadillac series 61 sedan. I looked up and saw traces of the same goo on the sides of the fridge door as I pulled it open.
When I saw what was on the other side I simply gaped.
My mouth hung open in disbelief.
My eyes stared unblinking. Within the fridge. Well, there was no fridge. The inside of the fridge was completely gone. No light. No half rotten veggies. No left-over Chinese food. No. In place of all these things was a worn stone staircase. Cut from a shiny, black stone; I believe it resembled obsidian. The maw of the doorway yawned as cold as the arctic. I felt an icy wind blow softly from within. I shivered. Small icicles had formed on the circular roof which sat above the darkened staircase. I gaped and slowly studied the impossible staircase. The light of my phone cast long shadows. The stairs were coated with a thin film of that slime and went on forever down. Deeper and deeper until darkness swallowed them up below. “No fucking way. Nope. Not today.” I said stupidly and slammed the fridge door shut.
My heart was beating hard. I felt confused and sick. I spun around when suddenly I heard something scuttle in the corridor. I then noticed, using my phone’s flashlight, that a line of that goo ran from the fridge all the way through the kitchen into Ben’s room. I saw through the kitchen doorway that his bedroom door was open.
I should have just run at that moment. I should have run and never looked back.
But I looked through the doorway. Transfixed, I stumbled forward. In the blue glow of the moon I saw Ben lying on his bed, spread-eagle. But when I looked closer I saw that it was not him. It was what was left of him.
Then I heard a horrible clicking noise. A click-click-click of giant pincers. I heard a loud trilling.
Then I saw the thing come out of the shadows. Imagine a person except every limb was dislocated. Like someone tried to do a tricky yoga pose but ended up all stuck, twisted and wrong.
The thing ran on all fours, with limbs bent all backwards. It had two heads. One faced me and it was a human mask stretched across something else; something black and slimy. Was that face it wore Ben’s face? The human face-mask was all out of shape. The other head was at the end of a hideously long neck, held in the dark. Its body was a wriggling fused mass of human flesh and some kind of carapace, like that of a crab or arachnid. The way the thing moved toward me reminded of a giant spider. It had ten segmented limbs that ended in large onyx claws.
Those claws lashed out at me. What felt like hot blades sliced through my chest and stomach. I screamed in pain, nearly fell over. I just managed to back away.
I felt something sticky cover my wounds. It was that slime. I looked up again. That whole creature was covered in blue slime! I felt bile rise in my throat as I sprinted away screaming a primal scream of pain and terror that did not sound human.
The thing chased me. It came scuttling on its arthropod legs, slashing at me; clipping my ankles once or twice. My yells and its clicking and trilling filled the darkened flat. I wondered if perhaps a neighbor had heard the noise? Could the police be coming?
As I entered the living room I realized there was no way I was going to have time to unlock and leave my flat through the front door.
I knew I didn’t have time to call someone. And then wait for them.
I needed to get out now. Right now!
In desperation I picked up the nearest chair and hurled it at the large window. The chair smashed clean through with a loud crash. I prayed the single storey fall wouldn’t be fatal and leapt right through. I remembered nothing else until I woke up here.
I kept my eyes closed as I lay in the hospital bed. My heart was hammering in my chest as I remembered how that thing had nearly got me. Where had it come from? Were there more staircases like that nearby? I shivered at the thought. By around nine o’clock that evening the nurses made one last visit to collect the left-over food I had for tea. They gave me my evening medication and then left.
I went over those memories again and again. I was deciding what I would tell the cops and what I would omit. I would stick with the wild animal story. I mean, how a wild animal could just appear in a flat in the middle of a city, kill one person and maim another, then just disappear completely? It’s crazy to me. But I’m also not interested in sounding like a crazy person to the cops. If I told anyone about the fridge. About the creature. It’s true nature. Well, I would end up in some terrible mental institution. So, I’ll just stick with whatever crazy story they have. Agreeing with their madness is better than drawing attention because of my own.
As all this raced through my head I felt a pleasant warmness start to spread through my body. I realized the sleeping pill must be working.
My thoughts slowed.
My breathing calmed.
Soon I was fast asleep.
My ears heard a clicking noise as I awoke. My eyelids were heavy. I opened them slowly. My door stood open. I yelled with terror. At the end of the hallway I saw that same twisted creature! It stood eerily still. Staring at me. It trilled. I yelled, “Help! Help! Nurse! Anyone?” No one answered me. Were they dead? What had happened? I tried to sit up but my wounds screamed at me to stop moving. The hallway remained dark and silent. As my eyes grew accustomed to the gloom I saw that most of the fluorescent lights in the hallway were smashed. Glass littered the floor. Then the thing started walking towards me.
My lungs turned to stone when I realised the corridors were also covered in dark stains. The corpse of a nurse who’d checked on me earlier lay sprawled. Her head was about a meter away from the rest of her body. It lay in the middle of my doorway. Her empty eyes stared up at me.
The monster scuttled so like an insect it sent shivers rippling down my spine. My blood burned with fear. I tried desperately to get up. But I could barely move.
The pain was excruciating. I yelled as I pulled myself to a sitting position. But it was too late. As I turned to see where the thing was, I bellowed. It was hovering right over me. It’s horrifying masked face staring down at me. Its eyes were wrinkled and hidden behind disfigured flesh. I saw its second head too. The one on its long neck. That second head was like the head of a reptile. But with the composite eyes of a gigantic fly. A horrible, slimy proboscis hung flaccid between its eyes.
It pressed a large slimy, claw against my cheek. Then it stood back and used another claw to grab my left ankle. I felt all the bones therein snap. The pain I felt cannot be fully described. It was like someone had spilled liquid fire on my leg. I screamed brutally; with full force.
I think I may have blacked out because the next thing I remember I was on the cold floor. I blinked and moaned. I was being dragged along by that thing. My ankle screamed with pain and white-hot pangs leapt up my leg. I used all my strength to lift my head and look where I was going. The thing was dragging me through the hall. A fluorescent light started to flicker as we approached a door.
The thing winced at the sudden light and reached up and smashed it so that the flickering ceased immediately. It lurched forward and pushed the door open. Inside was a small communal space. It must be where the hospital staff come to take breaks and make coffee. Of all the pieces of furniture within this room the one the monster cared about most was the door of a large pantry.
A chill spread through me.
I twisted my ankle but to no avail. The thing moved slowly but pulled me inexorably toward that wooden door. It stretched a segmented appendage forward and knocked on the pantry door.
Once.
Twice.
Three times it knocked.
There was a pause.
The wooden surface of the door rippled. Even in the dim light of the hospital I could see it.
All I could hear was my heavy breathing and the soft clicks of the monster. Then it pulled the pantry door open slowly. I knew the chance there would be no staircase was zero, but I still hoped it would be filled with normal food like a normal pantry. But, of course, there was the black staircase; gaping up at us. descended forever down into darkness. I moaned in horror and feebly kicked at the thing. My left leg twisted very slightly as the thing bent forward and suddenly I felt its grip on my leg loosen. Then my leg (thankfully still attached to the rest of me) fell from its grasp accidentally.
It hit the floor.
I was momentarily stunned.
It was too.
As it realized it had lost my leg it turned to grab me again. In that instant I mustered all my strength and kicked it as hard as I could with my right foot. It clicked loudly as it tumbled forward, already bent out of balance. I heard it fall hard on the stone. It shrieked with pain as it fell down the stairs. Within a few moments the sound of it had faded from my ears. I lay still. My body felt cold. Could I have lost too much blood? Was I going to die? My entire left leg was now numb. I slowly shambled onto my right leg. I shut the pantry door. Then out a strange instinct I knocked on it three times. As I did I forced my eyes closed and willed the doorway locked. The stairway gone. Then I opened the panty door again. I yelled with delight when I saw that there was very normal almost out of date food in that pantry.
The cops are terrified. And they have a new ridiculous theory. They now believe a madman was responsible for my initial assault and the brutal murder of Ben. That he had followed me to the hospital to finish me off and was then also responsible for the carnage last night.
I was found unconscious in front of the pantry by the first nurse from the morning shift. She also found the bodies of everyone else. It had been absolute pandemonium. There were cops and forensic workers everywhere. I even saw a couple of them puke their guts out. I can’t blame them. There was so much blood. So many bits and pieces of human limbs that needed clearing. It was unbelievable. This creature had killed everyone. Every nurse, patient and doctor on that floor had been torn to pieces. Among those dead were Dr Stern and many nurses who had helped me. I tried really hard not to think about them. I had really liked Dr Stern.
I figured that sleeping pill made me way too out of it to notice anything. What upsets me more than all the death is that the thing hadn’t killed me like the others. No. It had wanted to take me away. To take me to its home? Its dimension? I really have no idea. I shiver at the thought. I’m still in the hospital but the cops have left someone behind to watch over me. They are looking for some psychopathic killer. They’re wrong of course, but at least we agree there is something dangerous after me. I’ll take their help. And once my leg has healed I’m going to get far away from here. But I still wonder: have I killed that thing? Or just pissed it off? Would it be back? I guess, only time will tell.