The Dead
Page 14
The creature paused here for a moment. Something in this place was not right. It could smell the body stronger now than before, almost hear its heart beat, and it was coming from further on and below the house. A cellar perhaps? This was no wisp of life from the other side. It was a body – of that it was sure. Real and soft and warm. Juicy. And it was here. In the land of the Dead. Someone had been past this way before, and very recently. Someone alive. Someone walking. A body was strange enough, but a living person actually walking in this place? Surely it was mistaken …
The creature ignored these nagging thoughts and turned away from the stairs to face another door. It swung uselessly on one hinge, fading carpet split with mold just visible in the gloom beyond. The hallway turned left, along the side of the stairs and round to a room with an upturned table and chairs, all broken; smashed dishes littering the floor. But the smell wasn’t coming from there. It was coming from an opening under the stairs that led down into a dry, heavy darkness.
The creature slid into the black, drooling an oily film onto the floor, anticipating the moment it would find the body and push itself into the flesh.
Darkness gave way to a room of smashed shelves and desks, all covered with the dusty remains of clocks. A corner of the room reeked of rancid wine and the creature saw a mound of broken bottles. There was an opening in the far wall and steps faded downwards. It followed them to a cavern empty but for the crumbled remains of a few coffins. In the far wall lay another opening. The creature almost skipped with excitement. Here it was! Yes, this was it!
Now it found itself in another cavern, larger than the last. The room was lit strangely and at its center lay a mangled and wrecked mess of twisted metal. The creature had no idea what the metal thing was or could have been before it had been destroyed. But whatever it was, it shimmered a little, like it was on the other side of a pool of water.
The creature then heard breathing; the sweet sound of one of the Living was just footsteps away. It turned and saw the body lying against the cavern wall, covered in rubble and dust. It looked young, male. It looked … perfect.
It ghosted across the floor to the body, leant down so close it could taste the boy’s breath, then opened its own black mouth. In a few moments the body would belong to it. It would seep inside, take over completely, and the whole thing would be a delicious ecstasy.
Then something fell through the shimmering light around the wreck of metal at the center of the cavern. And when the creature saw what it was, it almost screamed with delight…
The Dead series
The Dead
The Dark (#2)
The Damned (#3)
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