The Amphiblets

by Oghenegweke, Helen

  ‘I do and I intend to keep them, thank you very much,’ smiled Bear.

  ‘I’m going in whether you follow me or not.’ Sam tried the door – it was locked.

  ‘It’s telling you something. Don’t go in there!’

  ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again,’ sang Sam, aiming his gun and firing at the lock. A bright spark accompanied a loud bang. He dashed through the door before Bear could grab him. Bear quickly retrieved his radio from his pocket.

  ‘I’ve got a situation here. Sam has entered the house through the back door. I want to go in after him.’

  ‘The stupid fool! No, don’t go in. Wait for back-up!’ The communication ended abruptly.

  ‘Come back!’ shouted Bear, muttering, ‘Stupid kid! He’s got more brawn than brain!’ Bear was prepared to wait until he heard a scream inside the mansion. It was a chilling sound. Sam was hurt and needed his help. Bear rushed in without giving a thought to his safety.

  He couldn’t desert the boy, however much he might want to. ‘Stupid kid,’ he muttered again. What if something bad had happened to him? It would be the boy’s fault, thought Bear, hoping it wasn’t too late to persuade Sam to leave with him.

  He entered a dark room and removed his gun from its holster. He aimed it before him, whilst retrieving his pocket torch. He shone the light around an old-fashioned, spacious kitchen. He heard nothing. He stepped further into the house. Still, there was nothing but silence.

  ‘Sam!’ he whispered. No reply. He tried again ‘Sam!’

  As he was about to step through the door, there came a deep growl from within the room. He dived to one side as something huge flung itself against the door, ripping it from its hinges.

  Bear turned and shone his torch towards the commotion. Huge black eyes returned his gaze and a powerful alligator like mouth snapped its jaws towards him. A thick, long body and a powerful tail swept behind it, breaking the legs of a table. With blood dripping from its jaw, the beast approached Bear, who stood frozen to the spot. Although it resembled an alligator, he knew that was not what it could be. It was something else entirely. Something devilish. Voices outside, approaching the room, broke the terrible silence and the creature turned sharply, it’s long thick tail knocking the gun from Bear’s hand, breaking his wrist.

  He cried in agony as he collapsed to the ground.

  With lightning speed, the beast scuttled across the room and into the night. Shots echoed outside, and voices called in the kitchen.

  ‘I’m over here!’ shouted Bear, slowly getting to his feet. ‘I don’t know where Sam is. I haven’t found him yet.’

  ‘I told you to wait,’ said an angry voice, belonging to the sergeant. ‘Didn’t I tell you to wait?’

  ‘I heard Sam scream. I couldn’t leave him,’ insisted Bear.

  ‘We saw something leaving the building. What was it? You must have seen it.’

  ‘Some kind of alligator, but not like one I’ve ever seen before. It’s as if it were an entirely new species.’

  ‘Men, check the hallway for Sam. He must have gone through there. I’m calling for back-up. This is too big for us. If the Professor is still here then that beast might have killed him too.’

  Four men disappeared into the hall. Bear awaited anxiously for news of Sam. He prayed that the boy had escaped – prayed he was still alive. The group returned a few minutes later. Judging by their expressions it was clear they didn’t have good news.

  ‘Sam’s dead, Sir,’ they explained, ‘the floor is a glistening pool of his blood.’

  Then, if that wasn’t bad enough, a sudden sound of gunfire, in the distance, startled the men. It came from the direction of the boat shed. The night air was filled with ominous screams. The crackle of gunfire continued as the sergeant and his team sprinted towards the chaos. They arrived within two minutes, only to find everyone gone.

  It had become so quiet – too quiet.

  ‘I don’t like this! Where are they all?’ whispered the sergeant.

  Torches were shone around and lit up guns scattered on the ground. There was the gruesome discovery of a hand, amputated from the rest of its arm but still clutching a weapon, and a few metres away a boot was found still containing a foot.

  Keeping together, the men slowly inched their way towards the water’s edge. In the dim light they saw something floating in the water. Torches were shone on to the surface. There in the gleaming light, bobbing close to the boats, were the heads of the missing men.

  ‘What on earth are we up against?’ whispered the sergeant in terror.

  For the next five minutes the men regrouped in a circle, facing outwards, keeping watch for the mysterious monster. But it did not resurface.

  Relief flooded through them all, when a few minutes later, three helicopters could be heard in the distance. One helicopter remained airborne, so the pilots could use its heat sensitive equipment in order to track the ferocious killer. The other two helicopters landed on the vast lawn, their swirling blades gradually slowing to a halt.

  This was now the beginning of a massive hunt for a murderer who had already managed to kill ten men.

  7

  Unknown Creatures

  The sun rose, announcing the new day and casting light on what had been a most ill-fated night. But there was little to celebrate, for ten men had died in a murderous rampage, and a terrible loss faced their families. A hundred men from the armed forces now dominated the area since the army had sent scores of their men to help hunt for the killer.

  Unfortunately, there had been no further sightings of the ferocious beast. The helicopter crew had reported nothing unusual and no one else had anything to report. It was as if a phantom had manifested and then disappeared into the shadows of the darkness from whence it had come.

  Not until the early hours of daylight had anyone dared to set foot inside the mansion. At seven in the morning, the men received permission to enter the property with caution, checking every shadow and behind every door. Despite the sunlight outside, the mansion interior was gloomy. There were no electric lights in the main house but several old lanterns rested on dirty tables or cabinets.

  Men positioned themselves on the ground floor and on the stairs, keeping watch, while the rooms were being thoroughly searched. The house was neglected and dirty. The room where Stan had been murdered was filled with soft cushions, stained with his blood. A team of forensic scientists was already at work, recording everything. Cameras flashed as photographs of the crime scene were taken and video footage recorded. With patience the entire area was examined for clues. Nothing went uncovered.

  While this area was being investigated, the first floor was being searched. Many empty rooms had been discovered as well as two abandoned bedrooms and a locked door. It appeared that at this point only two people had been living there. While the men were pursuing to unlock the door, another team went upstairs to the second floor. The floorboards were thickly covered in dust, indicating that no one had been up there for many years. The rooms were all completely empty.

  Meanwhile, on the ground floor, the cellar door had been opened and a team of ten men were now descending the stairs.

  ‘This must be where Penny was kept a prisoner,’ said a man, wearing small round spectacles and who, with his tiny black eyes and jet-black hair closely resembled a mole. ‘At least she managed to escape.’

  ‘How did she escape?’ asked one of the team.

  ‘Apparently she was saved by a giant.’

  ‘A giant?’

  ‘He was well over seven feet tall by all accounts. Penny describes him as a gentle giant. She doesn’t believe he had any idea what the Professor was up to. He released her from the cell door and reunited her with her children briefly before she fled the island. Luckily the Professor had a visitor that day and Penny stowed away on his boat.’

  To their amazement, one of the men discovered a light switch. The cellar was obviously the only place with electric lighting. At the foot of the steps
to the right were two metal doors.

  ‘They’re locked!’ said the leader of the group. ‘Best we get the expert in here.’ He called for assistance on his radio and a few minutes later a locksmith showed up; a hefty man who appeared capable of knocking the door open with a single fist. He was out of breath.

  ‘I’ve been to open another door upstairs,’ he explained.

  Within seconds he had one of the doors open. It was an anxious time, since no one knew what was inside the room. Holding the weapons at the ready, they breathed in deeply and counted to five, then burst the door open and ran inside.

  The sizeable, square room was an abandoned laboratory, filled with empty glass tanks and with an array of different posters on the wall, picturing dissected amphibians.

  The voice of the locksmith interrupted their discovery.

  ‘The second door is open now!’

  Leaving the laboratory, the group of men entered the small corridor lined with five metal doors. A bunch of keys could be seen on the far end of the wall. With the guns aimed and ready to fire, one officer retrieved the keys, which hung on a silver metal ring. He passed three locked doors but the last two were standing wide open. Another three officers stood facing the cells armed with guns and torches. After a thorough search they found them empty.

  There was a particularly bad smell in the cellar of body odour mixed with human waste. The men covered their noses with their sleeves as they peered inside the three occupied cells and shone their torches.

  They found themselves peering at three strange and disfigured monstrosities, the like of which they had never seen before. When the chief spoke on his radio to report their find they learned that something similar had been discovered on the first floor of the mansion.

  The men upstairs had entered a room that the locksmith had opened. On both sides of the window, red velvet curtains draped to the floor. There was a cluttered wooden desk piled high with papers and a wall of wooden shelves, stacked with leather-bound books. There were two other doors in the room. The door on their right led to a bathroom, whereas the door on their left led into a plain square room. It was this room that was most interesting.

  At first, because the light was so poor, they were unable to see anything. But they discovered a closed window had been painted black preventing daylight from entering it. The only light was that which came though the open door. A particularly nasty smell forced them to open the window. A ray of light entered and shone on to a bronze cage in the far corner from which something groaned softly.

  The officers froze.

  ‘What was that?’ someone exclaimed.

  ‘Your stomach,’ mocked another.

  ‘What is it?’ they whispered.

  A great creature, the size of a gorilla, was crouching in the corner of the cage, uttering strange, garbled words. The officers stepped as close to the cage as they dared. The first thing they noticed was the warty, brown skin that covered the creature and a hideously ugly face: deformed, bulging eyes, a wide upturned nose and broad mouth that suddenly gaped open. It had human-looking teeth that were bent at bizarre angles. Its back was severely hunched and its legs were twisted into a peculiar a shape.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Call Geoff, he’ll know. He was an animal expert before he joined the force.’

  But minutes later, when Geoff showed up, he too was completely astounded.

  ‘I’ve seen nothing like this in all my life,’ he said, watching as the creature blinked and tried to retreat further into the cage. It appeared to be shy and nervous.

  ‘You don’t think we’ve found our murderer, do you?’ came another question.

  ‘No, this one moves too slowly compared to the one last night – that one moved with lightning speed. Besides, this one’s in a cage.’

  ‘Perhaps there’s more than one,’ someone suggested.

  While the conversation continued, another officer was busy exploring the adjacent room, concentrating on the papers that covered the desk. He had already come across various newspaper clippings concerning people who had gone missing and, most importantly, he had found a black notebook filled with drawings of people going through what could only be described as a metamorphosis of some kind. Names had been recorded along with dates and times. It was all here in this handwritten journal. Penny was mentioned, although her transformation hadn’t been so drastic.

  ‘I’ve found something!’ said the officer. ‘I don’t think that’s an animal in there.’

  ‘Of course it is,’ said the others. ‘What else could it be?’

  ‘I think it’s a human, or at least used to be.’

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘Here, take a look at this,’ he stepped forward and showed them the brown leather journal.

  ‘Well, I’ll be…’ came the stunned reply. ‘The Professor was abducting people in order to experiment on them!’

  They turned once more and peered into the cage. It seemed impossible to believe that the deformed creature staring nervously back at them could have actually once been human.

  ‘The poor fellow!’ they murmured, finding it hard not to stare.

  Minutes later, Geoff was called to the cellar where he explained that they had found something similar upstairs, which they suggested might once have been human.

  Since the abnormal creatures might be dangerous in their present state, a request was made for four sizeable cages to be brought to the mansion to transfer them to the mainland. Then perhaps they could begin to find answers and in turn provide comfort for the poor creatures and help them recover – if help wasn’t already too late.

  8

  The Decision

  Eight Years Later

  In the heart of the Midlands, safely tucked away in the countryside and shielded from view by beautiful woodland, stood an old house. Thin vines of ivy grew everywhere, twisting their fibrous hooks into each available space, until they covered the brick walls and the roof entirely, like a disease. It was as if the owner wanted to hide the house from everything, including helicopters.

  In a study, an old man, with a long straight-pointed nose and wild grey hair, was busy organising his papers. Today was an important day and he wanted to make sure everything went according to plan. He checked his watch. He would be receiving a phone call soon.

  A few minutes later the phone rang on time.

  ‘Hello?’

  ‘Professor?’ It was a man’s voice.

  ‘Yes?’ The Professor glanced behind him to make sure no one was listening.

  ‘Have you thought any more about what I proposed?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘I will sell only one, for the same amount. That’s my final offer. Take it or leave it!’

  ‘I wanted all three. It’s not fair to separate them.’

  ‘Take it or leave it,’ said the Professor once more.

  There was silence for a brief moment. ‘You drive a hard bargain. I’ll take one. Which one will it be?’

  ‘I haven’t decided. They are all gifted in their individual ways. You won’t be disappointed.’

  ‘No, I’m sure I won’t be. I’ll see you later at the convention. I’m bringing a friend with me, I hope you don’t mind.’

  ‘I do mind. It’s an exclusive gathering. No one else should be there. Professor Kyle Adams won’t allow it.’

  ‘It just so happens that she’s also a good friend of his. He’s already agreed to it.’

  ‘Has he now?’ said the Professor, gritting his teeth in a bid to control his temper. He couldn’t afford to upset the man on the other end of the phone; it would be detrimental to his future. ‘Fair enough. I shall see you later and make further arrangements.’ With that he slammed the phone and immediately rang Kyle.

  ‘Hello?’ came a deep jovial voice.

  ‘It’s me,’ said the Professor.

  ‘Ah! Professor Snipes. I was just thinking of you. Is everything well?’

  ‘No. I under
stand you’ve allowed an extra person to witness the event this afternoon.’

  There was a slight pause. ‘Yes, only a dear friend of mine. Scarlet Raven is an adept scientist and just as capable as you and me. She’s as secretive as they come. How did you know?’

  ‘Let’s just say that I did,’ said the Professor. ‘Is there anything else I should know?’

  ‘I’m not sure what you mean,’ came the reply. ‘Today is your day and we’re all looking forward to it. I wouldn’t have agreed to arrange it here otherwise. Remember I’m doing you a favour. By the way, two people have sent their apologies – Mr Peashore for one. He will not be able to attend following his unfortunate accident yesterday: he shot himself in the foot while out hunting. And Ms Honeysuckle won’t be coming because she’s currently recovering from a bee sting.’

  ‘I’ve heard some excuses in my time but a bee sting?’ mocked the Professor.

  ‘Well, actually … and you didn’t hear it from me … a recent experiment of hers was to calm a swarm of bees. Well, it failed. They became angry and aroused instead. She was stung by more than two hundred of them in the end.’

  The Professor tried not to laugh. ‘Oh, well. That’s what is known as a stinging failure.’

  ‘Yes quite,’ replied Professor Kyle Adams stiffly. ‘Well, I have much more to do so I’ll see you later.’

  ‘Yes, goodbye.’ The Professor replaced the phone and took a deep breath. Scarlet Raven. Who was she? He had never heard of her before. He shrugged and made a note to meet her before the talk went ahead. If the wrong people knew about his experiment it could cause a lot of problems he didn’t need right now. The rest of the world wasn’t quite ready to hear of his achievements yet. They were just too astounding.

  The Professor shuffled through the papers on his desk, before gathering the relevant ones together in a pile. As he neared the end of his task the pouting face of young boy peered around the door. He was a tall, thin lad, with short, dark hair and refined features in a narrow face. He was frowning miserably and his bottom lip stuck out petulantly.