Mutante

Chapter 9

Copyright 2023 Elizabeth Frerichs

Cross-posted on elizabethfrerichs.com and fanfiction.net

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Inside seemed safer than out in the open, so she knocked roughly on the door. It swung open, apparently unlatched. Rosie bit her lip.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Robert said in a hushed voice.

"So do I," she agreed. "But what else can we do? I have to find my grandmother. If you'd prefer to stay out here—"

Robert shook his head vehemently. "Are you kidding? I will not leave you out here! There could be something inside." He drew his sword. "Let's go find your grandmother."

The door creaked as they pushed it open the rest of the way, and, by common consent, they avoided touching the walls. Rosie pulled at Robert's arm, directing him past the living room and down the hallway to Grandma's work room. In her experience, Grandma spent most of her time there.

Rosie took a second and nerved herself to flip the switch that would turn on the lamp nearest the door. Shadows shifted in front of her. A blaze of light burst forth, illuminating a monstrous creature—half glass jellyfish and half something else.

And inside its clear stomach, Grandma Essie was clearly visible. Rosie's stomach rebelled at the sight. Her grandmother looked quite peaceful—in fact, the way the wrinkles had smoothed out made her look more like the kindly grandmother she had been so many years ago.

The monster gluped to one side, and what looked like a bag of eyes attached to the glass jelly suddenly all fixed them with a beady stare. Rosie shuddered.

"Let's get out of here!" Robert yelled.

The eyes zeroed in on him, and he pulled her away from the doorway, slamming the door shut. Before they could move more than a tail's length away, though, tentacles slid under all the edges of the door and then it suddenly imploded, sending splinters flying.

Rosie gasped as a jagged piece of wood slashed her cheek, and then threw herself back down the hall, Robert just in front of her.

"Where's the front door?" he asked, turning in the opposite direction from the door.

Tentacles brushed against her tail, and Rosie put on a burst of speed. "We'll never make it," she said. "This way!" She made a sharp left and pulled him down a tunnel towards the lower level. There was a hidden entrance to the workroom down here. If they returned to the workroom without being caught, they could avoid the creature and sneak back out the front door.

The tunnel was too small for the creature to come down all at once, but it began ooching its way down, tentacles sliding first, body shifting to accommodate the space. The sound of something solid bumping up against the tunnel walls nearly made Rosie retch. Grandma Essie's body was . . . .

She pulled Robert into the workroom and locked the door behind them. Now they just had to swim up a level, and then—

"Miss Rose!" a man's voice called.

Rosie came to an abrupt halt.

"Over here," the voice continued.

Robert drew her behind himself, his sword in one hand and the other cautioning her to stay put.

Rosie scanned the room, trying to find the source of the voice. Shelves and nooks that overflowed with bottles of unknown substances lined the walls of the two-story workroom. One wall had a long work table running the length of it and above the center of the table, on yet another shelf, hung a medium-sized mirror. Said mirror held the ghostly outline of an older man's face, despite the fact that they were alone in the workroom.