The Ash Hollow Curse

Chapter 10: The Cost of Survival

The hospital lights buzzed softly overhead, casting an eerie glow in the sterile room where Simon lay. His body ached from the journey through the demon's realm, but it was the mental exhaustion that weighed on him most. Jared sat across the room, bruised and bandaged, staring out the window at the fog that had rolled back into Ash Hollow, settling like a shroud over the town. The air outside still felt wrong. The sense of dread had not fully lifted.

Simon couldn't shake the feeling that they weren't finished.

That night, Simon jolted awake. His heart pounded as a deep, guttural sound echoed down the hall of the hospital. He sat up, groaning as pain shot through his body. He looked toward the door, where shadows flickered under the dim lights. For a moment, he thought it was just his imagination, but then he heard it again—a wet, sloshing noise, like something being dragged across the floor.

Simon climbed out of bed, wincing as his feet hit the cold tile. Jared stirred, his eyes snapping open. "What is it?" he asked, his voice hoarse with fatigue.

"Something's not right," Simon whispered, reaching for the gun on the bedside table, a comforting weight in his hand even though he knew it wouldn't protect him from what lurked beyond.

They stepped out of the room and into the hallway, the smell of copper thick in the air. Simon's stomach twisted as they moved closer to the source of the noise, which now sounded like wet tearing and... chewing. It was coming from down the hall, near the morgue. The shadows on the walls danced unnaturally, like something was moving just beyond the edge of vision.

Simon motioned for Jared to stay back, but Jared ignored him, his gun drawn as they approached the door. The closer they got, the more they could hear—a chorus of rasping breaths, the gnashing of teeth, and the wet squelch of something feeding.

Simon kicked open the door, his flashlight cutting through the darkness—and immediately, both he and Jared staggered backward, the sight before them more grotesque than anything they had encountered.

The bodies from the morgue had been torn from their gurneys. Limbs hung in grotesque angles, flayed open like meat prepared for butchering. Their innards were strewn across the floor, slick with blood. And in the center of the room, hunched over one of the bodies, was a creature unlike anything they had seen in the demon's realm.

It was humanoid, but wrong in every possible way. Its skin was pale and stretched thin over a skeletal frame, and its long arms ended in claws that were dripping with blood. Its head was split down the middle, revealing rows of jagged teeth that chewed through flesh and bone. Eyes—dozens of them—dotted its face, glowing with a sickly yellow light as it raised its head to look at them.

For a split second, the room seemed to freeze in time. Then, the creature let out an ear-piercing screech, a sound that vibrated through their bones, before lunging toward them.

"Get back!" Simon shouted as he fired his gun, the bullets slamming into the creature's chest. But it didn't slow down. Blood sprayed from the wounds, but the creature seemed to relish it, its grin widening as it charged forward, swiping at Simon with claws as sharp as knives.

Simon barely dodged the attack, stumbling as Jared opened fire. The bullets tore through the creature's body, but it continued moving, undeterred. With a sickening crunch, it grabbed one of the bodies on the floor, slamming it against the wall as it fed on the gore that spilled from it.

"We need to get out of here!" Jared shouted, his voice tinged with panic.

But Simon wasn't ready to run—not yet. He had seen this thing before, during one of the brief moments in the demon's realm. It wasn't just a mindless creature. It was a reaper, a being that crossed into the human world when the veil between realms was thin. And now, with the gateway sealed but not destroyed, these creatures were slipping through, feeding on the remnants of the demon's energy.

The reaper lunged again, its claws slashing through the air. Jared fired again, this time aiming for its head, but the creature moved faster than they anticipated. Its claws caught Jared's shoulder, slicing through flesh and bone with ease. Blood sprayed from the wound as Jared fell to the floor, screaming in pain.

Simon grabbed a nearby metal cart, slamming it into the creature's side with all his strength. It staggered for a moment, letting out a guttural snarl, its body convulsing as if it were laughing. Blood dripped from its claws, the smell of rot thick in the air.

With a sickening crack, the creature's body began to split open, revealing layers of sinew and muscle beneath. From the gaping wound in its chest, smaller creatures—parasites—began to spill out. They were insect-like, their bodies writhing as they skittered across the blood-soaked floor, their mouths filled with needle-like teeth.

Simon barely had time to react before they were on him. The parasites swarmed up his legs, biting into his flesh with relentless hunger. He gritted his teeth, stomping and swatting at them, but they kept coming, crawling over his body as if they were trying to burrow into his skin.

Jared, still bleeding but alive, crawled to his feet, grabbing a nearby bottle of disinfectant. He poured it over the parasites, and they screeched as they began to burn, their bodies dissolving into a foul-smelling sludge. Simon gasped for breath as the last of the creatures melted away, leaving the reaper writhing in agony on the floor.

Without thinking, Simon grabbed a piece of shattered glass from the ground and drove it into the reaper's chest, twisting it until the creature let out one final, gurgling screech before collapsing into a pool of its own blood.