Claws in the Dark | ✔

XI

✫✫✫✫✫

Ten minutes later, Lou was turning the key to head into his uncle's apartment above the garage. "Uncle Max? Hellooo?" He called for his uncle, but never got a reply. The living room was the first room as you entered the apartment, and it was obvious that his uncle wasn't there, since it was empty. He looked across to his right, past a counter that separated the kitchen from the living room. No one.

He advanced deeper into the house, towards the bedrooms. "Uncle Max, come on. You're gonna be late for the funeral. The pastor's already there." He walked along the narrow corridor and turned into the first room on his left – Maxwell's room. He observed it to be occupied by everything necessary, except his uncle. Where could the damn man be?

Lou continued down the corridor until he approached the bathroom.

Empty.

Soon, he was at the back of the apartment, atop the stairs which led to the shop they owned in the garage. He descended, his heart beating furiously in his chest. Fear etched in his stomach at the thought of something terrible happening to his uncle.

He walked into the garage but halted as soon as he saw a bloody corpse, dressed in the same clothes as his uncle's, and impaled by a piece of metal, opposite him. He ran over to it, tears streaming down his face. "Oh, Uncle Max! No, no, no! Who could've done this to you?" He wailed as he removed Maxwell's body from its skewered state, cradling it as he slumped to the floor on his knees.

Creaking metal caused him to cease his crying, darting his head in the direction the noise came from. "Hello?" he called out. "Who's there?" He searched, in the gloomy room, for a hint of a shadow. When he saw nothing, he searched his pockets for his phone.

His hands, now covered in blood, were slippery, and it was hard to get a good grip on the phone. It fell from his hands, face down on the ground. He crawled towards it, leaving his uncle's corpse to lie on the ground.

When he finally reached the phone and stretched out to retrieve it, the Clawden that killed his uncle appeared in front of him. The sight of the creature's long, sharp claws on the ground, near his phone, made chills run down his back. He gulped as he looked up at the monster. It growled like a dog would when it sees a stranger approaching.

Lou panicked and jumped away from it, but the beast crept up to him when he bumped into a car. It became aggravated and slashed at Lou, scraping the flesh off his face and removing his eyeballs in the process.

Blood drowned his face like a river and covered his body with the crimson colour. He slumped to the floor, on his stomach, and began to crawl towards the garage door. The Clawden stood over him, sinking its claws into his back, and flipped him over. Lou sent a final prayer up to heaven, asking that God continues to protect all those he cared about. With his final breath, he said to the creature, "And may you burn in hell!"

With a loud roar, the Clawden ripped his body apart, one limb at a time, and splattered his guts across the cold, gray floor of the garage.

✫✫✫✫✫

◀ MARDAIS ▶