Jack
charged up the filthy stairwell taking three steps at a time. Below him
the chaotic jabbering of a hundred mouths grew in volume. He had only
made it up another level before the monstrosity poured into the
stairwell on the ground floor. He paused to look over the edge to see
what followed him and wished he hadn’t.
A
horrid mix of flesh and random body parts boiled together into a
howling mess. Hundreds of bloated, non-blinking, hate filled eyes stared
up at him. Drooling mouths muttered and wailed while everything from
mismatched feet and hands, even faces, helped propel the horror up
toward him.
“Crap,
I should have burned the place. Too fucking late now,” he said as he
redoubled his efforts to keep ahead of the thing, even if he knew he
headed toward a dead end.
He
had just turned around another flight of stairs when a new figure
descended toward him. Vaguely female, the antler topped Xemmoni had a
flowing dark skirt that trailed behind her. But what drew Jack’s
attention was the large shotgun she held in one hand.
As
the figure raised her gun, Jack dove to the side. A loud blast sounded
as the buckshot roared over his head. A few stray pellets hit his
shoulder, but between the thick leather jacket and his protection of Yig
it caused little damage. Getting a foot under him, Jack dove forward as
another blast just missed taking off his head. At all times he remained
conscious that each second he was delayed gave the thing below a better
chance of reaching him.
“Guns
aren’t usually your kinda style,” Jack said as he hit the shotgun to
the side with a one handed swing of his axe. A dagger had filled his
left hand and he went in for a gut shot only to have the figure’s free
hand shot forward and grab him by the neck. A second later he was being
lifted off his feet.
The
creature opened its mouth, but instead of a single speaker a jumbled
mass of a thousand voices spewed forth. Somehow, over this insane
caterwauling, several voices joined into a jagged union and bellowed.
“Soon you life will be crushed and your soul will join the rest!”
“That’s all I needed to know,” Jack said and then hacked the figure in the side of her face with his axe.
The
thing screeched and then hurled Jack down the stairs. His body didn’t
stop until it smashed into the wall. Stars spun across his vision and he
tried to fling the dagger at the creature, but it got batted away by
the shotgun. She cocked the gun loudly and before Jack could recover,
shot him in the center of the chest.
The
impact sent him crashing back into the wall and turned his jacket into
ribbons. If it wasn’t for the protection granted to him by his patron,
Yig, his body would have followed suit. Instead, he struggled to draw
breath into his punchered lungs as the thing drew closer. Below them
both the jabbering monstrosity neared.
He
waited until she came closer and then healed himself. She seemed to
sense what he did and raised the shotgun, but this time Jack grabbed it
with his free hand and kicked up with his boot. The unexpected blow
proved enough to free it from her grip. He tossed the gun away as he
brought the axe around in a long arc. The blade connected with her neck
with a meaty whack. The figure stumbled and Jack stuck again and then
again.
Its
body collapsed once its head hit the floor, but to his horror, Jack saw
that foul beast from the basement was already beginning to pool on the
stairwell below him. Two things that looked like arms attached end to
end lashed up at him. These grotesque appendages stretched over twenty
feet in length and ended with a bloated hand. One grabbed his ankle and
pulled him off his feet. A moment later, he was being dragged to the end
of the stair. His axe went to chop it, but the second appendage grabbed
it from his fist. 
He
continued to be dragged into the hundred mouth horror as the axe
slammed into his head and shoulders. The blows were awkward, but still
hurt like hell and didn’t make anything easier.
As
he neared the edge of the stair, his groping hand landed on the
shotgun. Without thinking, he aimed at the elongated arm that held him
and shot it a foot below from where it held him. The arm severed and he
pulled away just as the first frothing of foulness began to spill over
the lip of the stairwell. Ignoring the blows from the axe that continued
to rain down on his battered form, Jack hurried up the next flight of
stairs. As soon as he was a floor higher, he turned and emptied the
shotgun into the churning mass below.
Looking
up, he guessed he had about four more flights to go. Without glancing
back, he drew the sledge hammer off his back and headed for the roof of
the haunted high rise.
To be continued next Monday
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