#OpenTheDoorChallenge

Chapter Eight

Their jaws were collectively dropped.

"It... it just... what the fuck?"

All night, they have been witnesses to the poor victims who get emboldened enough to open the doors. If the message that doors weren't to be trifled with wasn't clear enough, then they probably deserved to die.

But no. They played by the rules. Twice, they've had doors opened in the house by accident. But both times, they came out relatively unscathed, save for a few acidic burns and Mason getting screamed at until he became unconscious.

It wasn't like they tried to tempt fate. They actively avoided the doors, especially after the kitchen incident. They all knew the consequences of the doors.

So with that known, how in the fuck was the shadow monster thing able to just walk straight out of the front door?!

"... Can we do that?" Cheri asked tentatively, being the first out of the group to voice the collective opinion.

"Fuck that." Grant spat, shaking his head in the negative. There was no way that they could do the same without dying. It was too good to be true, "That thing is trying to set us up. Don't touch that damn door."

"But we're hungry, the kids are hungry." Andre countered, finding his voice once again. The shock of what just happened took him by surprise, but he couldn't stay like that forever. He still had two little responsibilities to worry about.

Tommy and Mimi.

Speaking of...

"Since that thing is gone for now, let's go back and check on Ashley and the kids." Andre suggested once he eyed the door for a couple more seconds. He didn't wait for any answers. He just got up and went to the room.

What he found once he got there was nothing out of the ordinary. Tommy looked at him with a unreadable expression, "Andre, you got some food yet?"

No, no he didn't have any food. That question brought him back to the shadow just leaving to go get pizza, "Just sit tight Tommy, you'll get fed soon enough."

"Andre, did you guys get him back?" Ashley asked with a hopeful tone. She really wanted to hear that Mason was back with them safely, "Please tell me you did."

Andre gave her a tired smile in response, coming over to sit beside her and hug her, "Yeah, we got our boy back. He's in the front room with everyone else." With that said, he looked at Mimi and Tommy, "Come on you two, the big bad shadow monster is gone for now so we can all sit in the front room again."

That... thing was gone? How? Mimi had no clue as to exactly what it was or who it could be, but she knew one thing. One thing for certain.

That monster was out of everybody's league here. Just one look into those eyes of the monster let Mimi know that there was something ancient, primordial, and incomprehensible about it.

It put her into the mind of an eldritch abomination. She remembered hearing about those things and how they were bad news from her father a few weeks ago.

"Once you start travelling dimensions for your hunts, there will be a lot of people, places, and things to be wary of. Superpowered beings, ungodly creatures, angels, demons, aliens, hell, even gods." Mimi noticed her dad pause and shiver violently, and became worried for his health, "Daddy?!"

James fought down his sudden outburst to look at his daughter and grab her firmly by her shoulders. She was such a beautiful little girl, one of his biggest accomplishments in life.

She also looked like she'd be delicious if seasoned and drizzled in honey, then slow roasted over an open fire. Low enough to the flame to get a little bit of crisp, but not too low to get fully charred, "Mimi, the one thing I want you to avoid at all costs... is anything that can drive you insane or alter your mind for the worse. There's things out there that humans weren't meant to know of, meant to experience, like knowing of other dimensions, for one thing." Ironic since their culture primarily consisted of assassinations in other dimensions for profit as well as food, "But the creature, the monstrosity, an eldritch god, one of the Olds, the Unspeakables, if any dimension has even a hint of a presence of one, you stay the fuck away from it, do you hear me?!"