Roy didn’t have a lunch so he settled with grabbing a bag of cookies. Before he could take a bite; however, he remembered the monster in the store room and felt the need to share that information now that the group had decided to stay right next door to the horror.

“This slipped my mind earlier, but did you guys ever check out the caf, that’s where I got these cookies from,” Roy shook the bag he was holding for emphasis.

“I’m afraid not, is there something noteworthy about the cafe?” everyone stopped eating and waited for Roy’s next sentence. The silence was slightly unnerving.

“Well, when I was there earlier I wanted to go into the kitchen, cause these cookies don’t quite cut it, right? That’s when I saw this monster through the window pane. It was pretty beefy looking and...” Roy was at a loss of words to describe the Goliath so he settled with ending the description early.

“Probably should have spoken up a bit earlier,” Madelyn didn’t look amused in the slightest. No one did.

Roy wanted to continue, then almost as if on cue he could hear the sound of approaching footsteps from outside the gymnasium.

Everyone dropped what they were holding, except Cob who was holding his spear, and stood up. Except for the boy with the bandages who was now being woken up by the pair who were sitting together by the wall, Denton and Pyrene if Roy remembered correctly. As the group approached Roy could make out the sound of talking and the group visibly relaxed.

Then came the loud groan of metal and the crunching of cracking drywall. There was an unearthly howl, sharp like a dolphin’s call but stretched out and distinctly menacing in its subtlety. Things broke apart under the ferocious assault and Roy could feel the floor shake beneath his feet. Instantly what little calm remaining vanished. The beast had awoken.

Whatever misgivings about the pitchfork Roy may have held earlier disappeared and he pulled out the farming implement from his bag. The tool was easily as long as Cob’s spear and certainly looked menacing with it abundant fungal growth. Roy didn’t have enough bullets to stop the goliath so the pitchfork should be on hand. In fact he contemplated dashing out the fire escape this instant, but he waited for the rest of the group. If they decided to make a stand here then so be it, he would empty his gun on the thing, but no promises afterwards.

The rest of the group seemed hesitant to engage whatever was out there, Denton and Pyrene were already carrying the injured boy to the fire escape, and Madelyn was storing as much as possible into her bag. Only Cob and Lestrat seemed to debate whether or not to help out the group outside. Of course the two weren’t idle as they thought. Cob stretched his arms and waved around his spear, he didn’t seem remotely skilled with it, but then again the rusted knob of metal on a stick could hardly be described as a fine weapon. Lestrat on the other hand seemed almost to be meditating. Roy looked on for a second before he realized that the boy was casting a spell.

Slowly a ball of earth began to take shape in his hands; the ball grew with each passing second until it was roughly the size of a baseball, then is seemed to float in the air above Lestrat’s palm. Damn, Roy had to admit, he was jealous. He had always preferred to play the ranged combatants in DTDW, the warlock was undoubtedly his favorite.

Roy turned his attention back to his surroundings and made out the distinct sound of broken ceramic, if he had to guess, the metal door of the kitchen had just been broken off its hinges. Now the students outside were in a veritable state of panic, Roy could make out some of the more coherent sentences.

“IT’S COMING RUN!” Heavy footsteps began to sound; each landing seemed to shake the very foundations of the school.

“JACK!” Which was followed by a loud cry. That seemed to wake Lestrat from his stupor; the ball was now the size of a basketball. At a fast jog Lestrat ran to the door, gestured for everyone to back off, pulled out the baseball bat, and flung open the door.

The scene outside reminded Roy of a B rated horror film, it was an attempt to cope, and suppress the bubbling urge to curl up into a ball and cry. The blood, oh, the blood, it was everywhere. The halls were painted with it, the work of some utterly inhuman artist who picked up the few students who stuck around like paintbrushes. Some motion of its almost octopus like mouth unsealed its implements and allowed the vibrant red to flow out unceasingly. Bits and pieces flew out from the human containers and stuck to the halls, like impasto.

How could there be so much blood. How could bodies so small and fragile, how could a day so mundane, how could it all have turned out this way? Lestrat seemed to rewind as he backed off as fast as he could. Cobb’s spear butt hit the ground. The emergency door opened and the other three quickly ducked out of the gymnasium. Everyone in the hall was either dead or gone. No one would have stuck around after witnessing what they had witnessed. It would not have mattered anyways. The Goliath seemed not to have noticed the open gym door. It stood there, almost docile.

It stuck little bits of... into its mouth, where almost in breathtaking clarity its rows of needle like teeth ripped the meat from the bone. It then walked around and collected the recognizable wholes before retreating back into the kitchen. By the time that had occurred Roy was already running through the rain.

Roy ran, beside him was Lestrat, and behind was Cobb, who was using the spear as a walking stick as he followed at the back. Madelyn was in the lead, followed by Denton, Pyrene, and the bandaged boy who was now awake and aided by the two beside him. Roy had no idea where they were going, Madelyn had shouted something a few minutes back but Roy didn’t quite grasp the words.

The rain was still pouring down from the heavens, the thick clouds obscured the afternoon sun and tentacles of mist rose from the flooded earth. The whole combination made the visibility abysmal and Roy would have wondered if Madelyn even knew where they were headed. Right now Roy didn’t wonder, wondering would only take him back to a few minutes ago. He felt, he felt the rain drench him to the bone, smelled the musty air, and heard the thrum of the rain beating against a foot of water.

It was all surprisingly easy. Once upon a time Roy had been a part of the track team, nowadays he wasted away in front of his computer and let his body deteriorate, fueled by coke and potato chips. Despite that, he felt like he was at his peak, his breathing was controlled, his muscles were brimming with energy, and he was warm and comfortable despite his thoroughly soaked clothes.

It was another ten minutes before the group stopped in front of a quaint bungalow with a separate garage and garden at its side. Roy wasn’t keeping track of where they were, but he was fairly certain they had headed south and passed an intersection or two.

Slowly Madelyn made her way up to the door, no light showed through the windows, which was somewhat alarming to Roy. It was fairly dark outside already so unless the power had gone out in the short while they had been slugging through the rain, no one was home. Roy readied his pitchfork just in case; Cobb’s spear was already out.

The sound of Madelyn knocking on the door was almost drowned out by the sound of the rain. The boy with the bandaged arm was groaning and struggling to stand. His wound had reopened on the way here and blood now soaked his bandages. Quickly, Roy pulled out the vial of swamp berry juice and started shuffling towards the front.

“Hey,” Roy tapped Denton on the shoulder in case his voice was drowned out by the rain.

“I’ve got something here that might help with the wound,” Roy raised his arm and showed the other boy the vial of dull red liquid.

“You sure that thing’s safe?” Roy didn’t blame the other boy for doubting the efficacy of the potion. If it weren’t for the blue screens Roy would have though it blood or some other conspicuous liquid.

“Mostly,” Roy looked towards the bandaged boy and as if on cue he groaned again.

“Hey Simon, I’ve got some medicine here, I need you to drink it all up, do you understand?” Denton let the other boy lean on his shoulder and Roy passed him the vial.

Simon groaned again as Denton maneuvered the stopper of the vial and tipped the liquid into Simon’s mouth. Denton took a second to readjust Simon and then passed the empty vial back to Roy. Pyrene quickly hoisted up Simon by the other arm and lessened the load on Denton.

Roy turned his attention back to the house and as he had suspected, the door was still closed. He was about to ask when Lestrat walked up to him.

“We’ll let these three figure it out, let’s go see what’s up with the door,” quickly the two boys walked up to the door. Madelyn was fidgeting around with a small wrung of keys; her hands were quivering making the task agonizingly slow.

“No one’s answering the door,” Madelyn turned her gaze to Lestrat and handed him the keys.

“It’s fine let’s just head inside for now,” Lestrat quickly picked out the appropriate key, but he made no move to approach the door.

“My mom was supposed to be home, you know that,” her head was downturned, allowing her curtain of shoulder length black hair to obscure her features.

Lestrat took a step forwards, synchronously Madelyn swayed forwards and leaned on Lestrat. Hesitantly the boy lifted his arm and draped it across the girls shoulder. He stood there for a while, his whispers drowned out by the rain. Roy was about to take a few steps back and give the two some privacy when Lestrat waved him over with his free hand.

Lestrat passed him the keys and pointed to the one that opened the front door. Roy was about to start heading for the door when he felt a small nudge at his side, startling him. Cobb had shuffled past him and positioned himself on the right of the door. His spear was braced against the ground and facing the door.

Roy looked back at Lestrat and Madelyn who had slowly shuffled off to the side. According to Madelyn her mother should have been home, the fact that the lights were off could not be a good sign. Roy followed Cobb’s lead and took up position on the left of the door, beside the door knob. He then readied his pitchfork and unlocked the door. Roy felt the bolt sliding into the door and gave the door a hard shove, flinging it open and allowing the dim light to pour into the corridor beyond.

The corridor lead into a small living room, on the other end was a casement that allowed a view of the backyard. Through the din of the rain Roy could make out faint footsteps from upstairs. Perhaps it was the mother, coming downstairs to investigate the racket. Roy reached his hand through the open door and felt along the wall for a light switch. He thanked whoever had wired up the house when he located the switch and the hallway was lit up with a soft yellow glow.

The light seemed to cause the footsteps to speed up; there was almost a frantic pace to it as an imperceptible number of legs clacked against laminate. Then a small green thing that reminded Roy of a claw darted into view and leapt at the open doorway. Roy took a step back reflexively as he lifted his weapon to follow the curve of the monster. It flew closer and closer, until Roy could make out the mass of tiny appendages on its underside, each like the leg of an insect.

The force of the thing slamming against the head of his pitchfork forced him to take a few steps back and regain his balance. He was now in the rain again and a think green liquid was gushing out from the thing and flowing down the handle of the oversized fork and onto his hand. Irked at the sight, Roy tossed the trident onto the front porch, he was careful to walk around its body as he got out of the rain.

“Is it dead?” Cobb was still at the door, spear at the ready.

Roy focused on the body and though of looting it, immediately a blue screen popped up. The only good was a small vial of liquid; the content was colored like lime and shone inconsistently, like light rays penetrating through the water surface.

Small Vial of Aqua Liminus

0.5/s Corrosion Damage

(Venom) Paralyze with Potency 20

Roy was confused about the meaning of potency for a moment before the system, like before, delivered a small packet of information into his mind. Potency is often used in items to describe an effect’s strength, this he could compare to intelligence which strengthened the power of spells. Thus an item that shot a ball of fire with potency 10 would have the same power as a mage with an intelligence of 10 who fired a ball of fire, all other factors being equal.

“Yeah, it’s dead,” Roy replied as he knelt down to observe the four legged being. It was about the size of a raccoon, though its long appendages elevated it quite a ways off the ground. Each leg ended in an osseous talon, and the four legs were connected to an oval shaped body. From the bottom protruded the mass of insectile legs. The top was covered in thin green spikes.

Roy picked up his trident and gave it a few shakes to dislodge the body. He washed the tip in the water outside and approached the door. After a moment Cobb began to slowly creep down the hall. Apparently the silence had passed his test and now the house was safe enough to enter. Roy followed him from behind and slowly the two inspected every nook and cranny of the first floor. The kitchen was positioned off to the side of the living room. Along the sides of the short hallway was a stairwell leading up, a bathroom, and a small closet. The basement could be entered through a door in the living room that faced the casement.

After, “securing,” the first floor the two boys gathered at the bottom of the stair well. The monster had come from upstairs so it was possible that there would be more. The stairwell was located in the hallway and ran parallel to it. The top was open to the second floor which meant whatever was up there could drop down on them as they climbed up.

Roy took his trident and banged it against the railing. He then located the light and flicked it on and off a few times. The monsters earlier appeared to be attracted to light. Nothing seemed to be stirring upstairs so Roy pulled out his gun, the trident wouldn’t work well in the narrow corridor.

“Nice gun, left mine at home,” Cobb shrugged as he watched Roy ready his gun. It almost sounded as if Cobb brought his gun to school every day. Which was absolutely crazy, right?

Somewhat confident that the gun would fire Roy took the lead this time. All the doors were open upstairs, except one. Roy decided to inspect the rooms with the opened doors first, he tried to imitate the cops he saw on the Discovery channel, but he was fairly certain Cobb was laughing at him from behind his back.

The room with the computer and piles of paper was probably the office, another bedroom was meticulously clean and organized, a small picture on the desk depicting Lestrat, Madelyn, and two others Roy could not identity indicated that the room belonged to the girl. That left only the master bedroom.

Roy approached the room from the left and Cobb from the right, he caught the smell of citrus as he leaned against the doorframe. In the count of three Roy turned the knob and pushed open the door. The first thing that caught his eye was the mound of flesh on the bed, it took him a while to identify it for the human that it was. Roy’s eyes swept through the rest of the room, and then he backed out and trundled down the stairs.