Chapter 4 – Oblong Beast

Lopez, he saw that. He shouldn’t have. He isn’t safe anymore. He has a family too. I need to get him out of here. So, when he’s asleep I am going to take him out of here in the back of his truck. I hate to do this, but I am going to.

So that nightfall, when the stars start to wink, I woke up, closed him in his sleeping bag, and dragged him to the car. Luckily, he sleeps like a lazy cat. Even falling down the stairs did not wake him up. I put him in the boot, and click the door shut. I get into the car and begin driving the oblong beast of an SUV.

I park up near the woods, next to a cabin, and drag him into there. I shut the doors and drive back.

When I got back, I fell right to sleep, covering my face to hide the other. I woke up the next morning feeling shy of caffeine. A local man knocks at my door and walks up to me. I lazily open my chameleon eyes and feel the light burn into them.

A second later, I notice that the man has a cup in his hand. Looks like coffee. So, I sit up and accept the cup. “Lopez, is he safe?” I think to myself. I better go find out after this cup of coffee. As soon as I take a sip, my right cheek quivers, and my eyes nearly fall out.

That is a STRONG cup of coffee. Then, I look out the window to see EVERY LOCAL stare at me and begin laughing. This is a prank… stupid me.

A sip is enough to be wired for eternity. I leave the cabin, put on my fedora, and begin walking to the cabin I had left him in.

The door is open. I call out to him and I hear no response. I speed up and jog to the door. No one is there. But a few footsteps are leading out.

They look very sloppy as if he was sprinting from something or someone. A woman from the village is searching there too. It is Delores.

“He was just here. I came to get him some coffee.” She says. “yeah… he’s like that. He might have run away from that coffee.” I say.

I don’t know what it is, but there is something strange about her. I can feel the strangeness. She looks calm. VERY calm. Too calm. But then, tears break the surface of her eyes. No facial expression, but gasps, head twitches, and tears. That is when I know, she faces autism.

I take off my raincoat and put it around her, gently wrap my hand around her shoulders to hold the coat in place, and walk with her to the village, anticipating the presence of Lopez there.

When I get there, however, he isn’t there. Now, my heart shifts a gear up. I manage to remain in my little metaphorical box and not freak out. He must be somewhere else then. His car wasn’t there either, so, maybe he drove out for a pub.

I need to check on him. So, I got back to the cabin and yet see no one there from a few feet away. But when I walk over to the cabin, I see a kid. Not alive. Not on the floor either. They’ve been hung by their neck to the ceiling. Suddenly, something pokes into my back. Feels like a spear.

“It chased me. It wanted me to do this. HE wants you!!” Screams Lopez’s voice from behind me. I put my hands above my head and talk to him, “Lopez, it is not ‘making’ you do anything. You just chose to follow it. Let me go. I swear, it will all be over soon.”

He hesitates and then lets me turn around. He has a revolver. I thought I had it…

As I look behind him, I freeze as I notice vines growing down from a tree. Vines that weren’t there before. They are getting longer and longer, inching towards us. From inside that, I hear faint screams of, “ME AJUDA! ME AJUDA!”

Lopez drops the gun and then runs away, into the vines. Soon enough. A shake in the vines follow. He disappears. I call out, no response I hear.

But, another shake in the vines follows. Then, the voices from ‘Me Ajuda” are being screamed by Lopez. Immediately after that, a boy drops out.

He matches the description of Morgan. And he looks like hell. Delores was around again… She sees him and paces towards him. She carries him in her arms, and limps away, towards the village.

I think I know what this thing is. The ‘carcere animam meam’. Or in English, that means ‘Prison of a soul’. I have encountered one before, but not one this hungry for fresh souls. It has never attacked children before.

Immediately after that, a gooey brown substance salivates through the gaps in the vines. It plops on the ground and starts to flow together. The chunks overlap each other and build up, to become something like a human… A seven-year-old. But soon, flames shoot out of little pores of the creature. Then, the color starts to form. It makes a very accurate figure of the scorched body of Morgan. As soon as it opens its mouth, it has the same teeth as my ‘revanchist’-self. Only that as he screams, he hisses and squeals.

The carcere needs just one soul… but why is it coming after me now?

Then, my phone rings. It goes to voicemail straight away. And my wife screams, as something metallic stabs her and she chokes on her own blood. Then, my infant screams too. Something sinister with the same voice as this ‘scorched’ Morgan hisses, and slowly eases out of the hiss. Then, the voicemail goes out.

It’s true. My family is in danger. I have to save them… I have to kill it.