“Gonna be a busy day, Walt. Lots to do! I’ll text you!” Ruth ran out the door and I was close behind her. Her white Honda headed towards the downtown area and I followed closely in my old truck. I didn’t care if she saw me. In fact, I’d hoped that she did see me so she’d know I was there and maybe she’d not do anything.
The white Honda parked outside of Osborn’s Department Store so I stopped further up the street and watched Ruth walk into the store. There wasn’t much in the way of stores in Dunwich. Most folks bought their food at the old IGA up on Aylesbury Pike. There was a Wal-Mart outside Arkham, but most people didn’t bother to drive that far. I waited but Ruth didn’t come out.
Cautiously, I got out of my truck and walked down the street, looking around for her. I stopped at her car and looked inside. There was nothing unusual there. I stopped and turned around but she was nowhere in sight. As I walked up to the front door of Osborn’s, I heard tires screeching and someone shouting. I turned around and saw Ruth riding in a white Mustang convertible and hooting and hollering like she was riding a bull.
“Hey, Walt! Missed me!” she yelled as the car tore by me. I could see young Bill Osborn in the driver’s seat. She’d never even spoke to the guy before last week. He was one of the town’s young punks. His family owned the town store ever since there was a town, I guess, and he liked to spend that money on booze and drugs. I was getting a real bad feeling.
Even though I rushed back to my truck, it wasn’t fast enough. I couldn’t see the white Mustang anywhere. I felt stupid. I should have known that just following her wouldn’t make a difference. If I really wanted to stop Ruth, I’d have to take more drastic steps.
I stopped at the hardware store and bought an axe. I used my hands the last time but I knew that wouldn’t be enough now. A gun would be good, but I didn’t have one and didn’t have the time to get one. I was going to have to move fast if I had any hope of succeeding. I didn’t know what the hell she was now but I figured that anything will die if you chop it into enough pieces.
The rest of the day was spent driving around. I never saw her but her car never moved. Around 3pm, my phone rang. It was Ruth. I gripped the wheel tighter and clicked the button.
“Wallllllttttt! Where you been, baby? You know, you could’ve just come with me. All you hadda do was ask!”
“Where are you?”
“Aw, ain’t that sweet? You miss your baby, Daddy Walt? You’re gonna make me cry. Well, I’m having a little party, sweetie. You wanna join in? I’ve got me a nice, quiet cabin at Morgan’s Motor Lodge out on the Pike. I’m in number 21. I’m waiting for you.”
She hung up the phone and I turned the truck around. Morgan’s Motor Lodge was one of those old places with separate cabins. I don’t really know why it was ever even built. Dunwich was never much of a tourist place. The place was mostly used by junkies and prostitutes out of Arkham.
I thought that there was someone following me but I was probably just nervous.
Pulling into the back of the motor lodge, I could see the Osborn kid’s convertible in front of #21. There was another SUV that I didn’t recognize. The cabins consisted of nothing more than a bedroom and a bathroom, usually in really ugly colors. I used to come here before I met Crystal. As I walked up to the cabin, I could see that the window was open and the shade was up. I knew that meant that Ruth wanted me to see. The closer I got, I could hear the sounds of three different men and Ruth all moaning.
Telling myself that I needed to look so I’d know what I was getting into, I peeked through the window. I wish I never looked.
They were all naked and thrashing on the bed. Ruth was gyrating on top of the Osborn kid while some other guy was behind her working like a piston engine. A third guy was standing next to her, thrusting himself into her mouth. My hand tightened around the axe handle. I hadn’t expected this. I couldn’t take all of them.
I figured I might have to fight off the Osborn kid but there was no way I could get through three of them before getting to Ruth. I was turning away from the window when Ruth saw me. She spit the guy out and squealed, “Walt! You made it, baby! C’mon in and join us!”
I started to back away when I noticed that there was something wrong with the guys. They were moving, but only in the same way that a machine will keep running if you leave it on too long. Their eyes were completely white. Their pupils had risen completely up into their heads. They were already dead; they just didn’t know it yet.
“Hey, Walt!” Ruth yelled. “Pay attention! You wanna see something really special?”
She started laughing again. That hideous, high pitched laugh that sounded more like a screech. As I watched, her flesh started to ripple. It wasn’t from the rough sex. It was like when you look at the street on a really hot day and the heat just makes the air pulse.
Suddenly, her head flattened and caved in. Tentacles popped out including what was once her tongue. They moved and flexed about as they attached to the third man next to the bed and begun sucking.
Her chest bulged and a milky eye burst through the skin, blinking and looking around. Her hips and waist exploded outward but what came out had never been inside a human before. There were snake like appendages with mouths and tongues whipping about. They crawled over the Osborn kid like leeches, attaching and sucking. Her legs became scaly and clawlike, looking like a wet lizard. The men never stopped thrusting but I didn’t want to know what they were touching. I couldn’t get the image of a dead cow being milked out of my mind.
I started screaming and backing away when the tentacle mouth reached through the window at me and spoke.
“What’s the matter, Walt? Don’t I turn you on anymore? Doesn’t the real me make you hot?”
I screamed and ran for the truck. I could hear her laughing behind me and the sounds of something sucking and licking.
As quick as I could, I got to Abe’s Bar. Abe saw me come in and didn’t say a word. He just put a bottle of whiskey in front of me and walked away. I couldn’t decide what to do. A part of me really wanted to just get in the truck and run away even though I hadn’t been able to pull together enough money. And then there was the issue of Crystal and her son. I couldn’t just leave there here. Ruth would get them. I had to get them out. Then we’d all get the hell out of here and just deal with whatever happened.
Staggering, I threw some money on the bar and left. When I got outside, I was surprised to find that it was already dark. I’d been drinking for over five hours. The birds were loud, louder than I’d ever heard before and they were everywhere in the sky. I climbed into my truck and started to drive home.
About halfway there, I was sure there was a car following me. The lights moved the same way I did. It was Ruth. It had to be. My hands were sweating and shaking and I reached for the axe on the seat next to me. But, when I turned a corner under a street light, I could tell it was just some old black Ford.
Relieved, I turned down my street. I could see that Ruth’s car wasn’t at home but neither was Crystal’s. I already got a bad feeling. I pulled into the driveway and walked up to the door.
Inside, everything was dark but, before I even put on the light, I could tell something was wrong. I flipped the switch and saw that the living room had been torn apart. It looked like there had been a huge fight in the room. Furniture was turned over. Pictures were smashed on the floor. And, over everything, was a kind of slime. It was like some thick spit. I was already too late. While I sat at the bar getting drunk, Ruth took them.
I slumped down into the corner and cried.
Sometime later, my phone rang again. It was Ruth.
“Hey, baby! I guess I just missed you before.” I could hear Crystal and Kyle screaming in the background.
“Where are you? I’ll kill you, you fucking bitch!”
Ruth laughed. “You wanna try, Walt? Bring it on! We’re having a big party here. Everyone’s having fun, especially Kyle. Remember I told you that all I needed was a little practice?”
&nb
sp; I heard Kyle screaming louder now and begging.
“You leave him out of this! It’s between you and me!”
“Then come and get me, big boy. You know where I am.” She hung up the phone and, just like that, I did know where she was. She was in the woods by Cold Spring Glen; where I killed her the first time.
I looked around the house quickly. I still had the axe in my truck but I knew I’d need something more, especially if she had those three zombie-things with her, so I grabbed a big carving knife from the kitchen and Kyle’s old baseball bat. It was all I had so I’d have to make do.
The drive there took longer than I ever would have thought it could. The birds in the sky were going crazy, screeching and hollering, but I tried not to pay attention to them and the traffic around me. I just had to get there as quickly as possible. I didn’t think she’d kill them before I got there, he’d want me to watch first but maybe I could throw her off if I got there quicker than she expected.
I pulled off the road in the same place I did before. I thought I saw headlights somewhere behind me but, when I turned to look, they were gone. I tucked the knife into my belt and walked into the woods; axe in one hand and baseball bat in the other.
It was like I was following a path. I was on some trail made a long time ago by something so monstrous that nothing would grow there afterwards.
As I walked, I could feel myself climbing higher. I was already beyond the point where I had killed Ruth before and I kept walking. It was like I was in a trance. I must have been because, not only were the birds screeching and howling, but I could swear that I heard voices coming from below the ground as well. Shortly, I could see points of light ahead of me. Moving closer, I could see that they were small fires. As I crested the hill, there was a clearing before me. There were large stones set in the ground in odd places. In the middle of the clearing was a large, flat stone almost like a table. On that stone, tied down, were Crystal and Kyle.
Ruth and the three zombies were dancing around the table. They were naked and gyrating and chanting something that I couldn’t even say for sure was any kind of language. It sounded like a bunch of grunting and barking, but every time Ruth made a noise, the men answered. She was back in her human form, her body naked and wet from sweat. I didn’t have any time to waste.
Leaping forward, I rammed the axe into the back of the Osborn boy and he fell like a sack of wet sand. At the same time I swung the baseball bat and saw the second guy’s lower jaw flying outside the clearing. The third man rushed me but I had time to take my batter’s stance and swing for the bleachers. His head came clean off his shoulders and I felt the impact run up my arms. As soon as they hit the ground, their bodies started to bubble and melt. Within seconds, they were only piles of green slime.
I jumped towards the table and started cutting Crystal free. I took a second to look at Ruth who was just standing there, giggling. She wasn’t even trying to stop me. I turned back to look at Crystal, just about to say that we had to get moving fast, when she brought her hand up and smashed me in the head with a rock.
X
Everything was dark but I tried to swim through it as hard as I could. I must have woken up faster than they thought because they were still trying to tie me to the stone. They’d stripped all my clothes off and there were these strange symbols carved on my chest and down my legs.
Crystal was trying to hold my arm down while Kyle was failing to tie me up.
“What the hell are you doing?” I yelled.
“Shut the fuck up, you stupid hick! You’re going to ruin everything!” Crystal screamed. “Kyle, tie him down, now!”
Kyle tried to loop the rope around my leg but I reared up and kicked him square in the head. He fell back hard and didn’t get back up.
“Kyle!” Crystal screamed. She looked square at me. “You’re not going to fuck this all up, Walt! I’ve worked too hard for this.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I was trying to get off the table but she had a grip on me like I’d never felt from her before. My chest and legs burned and blood was dripping from a hundred places. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Ruth down by the bottom of the stone table. She was covered in blood. Probably my blood from all the cuts she’d made. Her eyes were white and she was chanting.
“You think this just happened? I’ve planned it! All of it! I looked years for a dumb fuck like you. Someone who could be influenced so easily. Do you think any woman would want you, you ugly piece of shit? I used you!”
I could see the axe lying on the ground. It was in the middle of a pile of green slime that used to be the Osborn kid.
“Did you think it was your idea? You haven’t had an original thought your whole fucking life! I put it in your head! I made you want Ruth. I told you where she ran because I sent her there! And you did the job all right. But that’s all a dog like you is good for.”
Ruth continued to chant. Her flesh started to ripple again. I knew what that meant.
“I needed someone to rape and kill her so that the dhole could enter her body. Then, it was just a matter of getting you back up here for the last part; the Scarlet Ceremony. It would give her the power she needed to open the gate. But you were too stupid to do it right!”
She lunged to push me back down on the stone and I moved out of her way. Her head made a really satisfying smack with the stone. I punched her in the face, hard, and jumped off the stone.
I didn’t have much time. I grabbed the axe and brought it down on Crystal’s head. You hear about people’s heads splitting like ripe melons but it doesn’t happen like that. It’s more like cracking open a coconut. She screamed and fell forward onto the stone. Her blood fell into the grooves of the stone, making patterns and symbols like the ones on my chest.
“Ooooo, Walt, you like it rough, huh?” I turned and looked at Ruth. Her whole body was shaking. “Mom or you. Don’t really matter. It’s all good.”
I wanted to ask what the hell she really was and what she was trying to do. I wanted to understand what all of this meant and why it had happened to me but I didn’t have the time. I swung the axe with all my might and felt it thud into her throat.
“You gotta try harder than that, Walt.” Ruth laughed, blood foaming out of her mouth. She drew back her hand and smacked me hard. I fell back on my ass. “So simple. Speak the right words at the right time and open the way. Like computer instructions.”
She turned away from me and went back to the table. Her body was shifting again but not as much as last time. The tentacles came out of her waist and started feasting on Crystal’s body. Ruth turned her head to the sky and chanted.
“N’gai n’gha’ghaa, bugg-shoggog, y’hah; Yog-Sothoth, Yog-Sothoth!”
Ruth raised her hands to the sky and the stars started to shimmer and blink. The birds grew quiet.
“Ygnaiih... ygnaiih... thfthkh’ngha... Yog-Sothoth... Yog-Sothoth! Y’bthnk... h’ehye-n’grkdl’lh!”
Crystal’s body began to shrink, like a balloon with all of the air let out. I staggered to my feet, axe in my hand. Without a word, I brought it down on the stone, splitting her tentacles in two. She screamed and grabbed my head. She started to squeeze and pull my head towards the hole that had been her stomach. I swung the axe blindly and felt it hit her leg. Her blood sprayed on my face.
The birds were screeching again, the cries getting louder and louder, almost like a symphony that had spiraled out of control.
Ruth stepped backward and that was all the break I needed. I lifted the axe high above my head and brought it down on her with all my strength. It split her head in two. Some sort of liquid steam oozed out and she began to melt. I tug the axe out and was getting ready for another swing when I heard someone shouting behind me.
“RICE! Put it down! Put it down right now or I’ll shoot!”
I swung around and it was Detective Armitage with a couple of cops. I smiled. They’d understand. They’d know that I had to do it; that Ruth was some sort of thing
from outside. She had to die. But before I could tell them anything, Armitage fired.
X
Three days later, I woke up in the hospital in Arkham. I was handcuffed to the bed. My head hurt like several mules had taken turns kicking it. I laid there, laughing and crying until the doctor came in. He shined that light in my eyes, took my pulse and left. No matter what I asked, he wouldn’t answer.
I couldn’t even turn on the TV.
I fell asleep again and, when I woke up this time, Armitage was there. He just glared at me. “Did you see it?” I asked. “Did you see her?”
“Oh, yeah, I saw her all right, Walt. I saw all of them. Your wife. The boy. And the girl. All hacked to death. By you. With the very axe we have videotape of you buying. I knew there was something hinky with you. That’s why I’ve been following you since Ruth came home, but there’s just one thing I don’t understand, Walt. Why’d you do it? Why?”
“What are you talking about? Didn’t you see her? The tentacles? The... the mouths and suckers? She was a thing. A thing from outside. She was going to... to... (what the hell did she say?)... open the way! She was going to let something in that would’ve taken over the world.”
Armitage just gritted his teeth and stared at me. “So that’s how it’s going to be, eh? Going with the insanity defense? Going to say you sacrificed them to some ‘voice’ in your head? That’s why you cut yourself on your chest and legs with the knife we know you took from your kitchen? Thought you were a man, Walt. Thought you’d stand up and take responsibility for what you did.”
“I am! I killed a thing! I don’t know what she was but she wasn’t human!”
“Not human. Right. Here, Walt, take a look at this.”
Armitage dropped a file in my lap. I opened it up and there were full color pictures of my dead family. But something wasn’t right. Crystal looked fine. Well, except for being dead from an axe to the head. But she didn’t look like she’d had the life sucked out of her. And Ruth... well, Ruth looked like any other 16 year old dead girl. No tentacles. No big eye in the middle of her chest. No scaly legs. She looked perfectly normal... and perfectly dead.
New Tales of the Old Ones Page 15