The Rising - Ennead 2

Scene 12.5 - Through the Looking Glass

My ears were ringing, and for maybe a moment there was silence. "What on earth were those?"

Again he was shocked when he asked, "You can see them?"

I nodded as I cowered closer to him (brave, right?), "You can't?"

"Of course I can. I'm supposed to. Dust devils... I think around here your people call them something else."

"Mmotia... dwarf gods" I knew the answer, but my mind refused to accept it as part of reality. Mmotia are like kakai, monsters that parents tell us about. Everyone knows they are stories, right?

"You're kidding." I murmured to myself. One of the dark shapes shook off the shock of what Trip had done. My sight gradually focused on it and I saw... a real life monster.

Its skin was pruny, covered in patches of dark brown and black. It propped itself up with skeletal, elongated arms and then inflated an already large barrel-chest.

The head wasn't large, and the eyes were smaller, tiny beads of black on a drawn, emaciated human like skull. Its mouth though - it stretched out larger than any natural jaw should allow, and then the thing screamed.

The sharp keening shriek sapped my will power. I began to whisper my last prayers.

The keening achieved more than just turning my bones to porridge. It woke up the other four monsters. Each one seemed just a little more horrendously malformed than the last, and each of them added on a new screech to the terrifying symphony.

I covered my ears, almost missing it when Trip told me stay close. Kid was as chill as frozen cucumbers. He was present enough to try another phone call whilst hell rose around us.

The first monster spread out its arms and started to spin. It's paddies quickly followed suit. In regular horror-movie style their screaming faces remained fixed towards us whilst their bodies melted into debris and whipping wind.

Trip didn't take the offensive. Like he had done with the three headed dog, he stayed still and waited. He didn't have to wait long; dust-devil-mmotia-monster-things move really fast. The first one was impaled on the bronze blade that sprung out of his left glove. With the next one he wasn't so lucky. It sprung away, barely clipped by a right hook.

Again, I noticed how his feet barely left the ground as he moved. If this was boxing, then it was clearly no boxing I had ever seen before.

The four remaining monsters backed off and spun around us in formation. They were wary of Trip. Which was good. I didn't believe for one second that they came to spar with him for fun. Their beady little eyes were hungry for something more sinister than murder.

All of a sudden they were on us at once, with more ear-splitting wails. I couldn't see what was happening to Trip, he was enveloped in a mass of whirling and shrieking darkness.

That was when those cold bony fingers wrapped around my throat.

It was heavy. Heavier than it looked, and it rendered me immobile with terror. Those eyes, those beady little eyes were pleased as they drunk in my fear. Before my sanity could return it dropped its jaw, unusually wide- like something out the Mummy movie – and it began to inhale.

I swear, it pulled the air out of my lungs. I have never drowned, but that had to be worse than the water sort; I was drowning on dry land. Only my mind could scream in silence, because my lungs had no air to do it out loud.

My body began to spasm, as my lungs fought for air that wasn't there. Too late, I remembered what Trip had said, and I tried to jab at it with my too-weak fists.

I flailed several times, before I caught it in the torso. It was a glancing blow, but its skin or whatever, sizzled, bubbled and then began to flake away. I tried to give it another go, but the thing would have none of that. It pinned my right hand down and opened that horrible orifice even wider.

My vision grew dark as I began to go under.