FIVE

The door to the library splintered to the boy’s amazement. Raptorial forelegs poked through the wooden door, tearing it apart like cloth. Full of anticipation the boy waited for what was moving those legs to appear into the room. When it did he wasn’t disappointed. It looked amazing, uncanny and… Otherworldly.

The creature skittered into the library, mandibles snapping, it’s many eyes scanning the room for prey like crazy. Yes, this was exactly the caterpillar-creature from the book. Something to fear, surely. But still, the boy registered nothing of the sort.

The creature hissed at the boy as it neared him as soon as the six pair of pro-legs could. The boy stepped back. While he wasn’t afraid, he had the feeling this wouldn’t end well as soon as those mandibles or raptorial forelegs came to close. Looking for some kind of weapon to defend himself the only thing he could find was a chair. He hurled it at the creature, that just swatted it away like a bothersome insect. With a louder hiss the creature suddenly speeded up, perhaps annoyed by the projectile. Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick the pro-legs sounded.

The boy ran to the window, trying to open it before the creature reached him. The window was either locked or stuck though. With all his strength the boy kicked at the window. Once, twice, the third time being the charm and breaking it. He crawled through it, body first. Something tugged at his jeans. He looked behind him and saw the creature had caught hold of his jeans with one of his forelegs. With his other leg he started to kick at the creature. It felt like kicking a leather couch. The horror didn’t seem to be discouraged much by his kicks. He needed something else to get out of it’s grip. He grabbed hold of a shard of broken window and stabbed behind him with it. He felt it dug into something, ripping through it. There was a hiss, higher this time, always like a wail that satisfied him he had hurt the Otherwordly thing. He felt the grip on his jeans go and launched himself through the window.

As he hit the ground the rolled with the impact like he’d learned from skydiving and quickly got up again. He looked at the broken window where the raptorial forelegs were widening the hole, eager to get through. The boy understood he had to be fast. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, away from the house. He managed to reach the road, his lungs burning, his side aching. A loud screech, something barreling into him as he got up in the air and landed again on the concrete. So much pain.

Legs standing next to him as he lay there on the road. A voice, “Why the hell didn’t you look where you were going? I could have killed you?”

The boy rolled around so he was on his back, able to look the source of the voice in the eyes. It was a muscular looking man in his forties wearing a sheriff’s uniform. He had a three-day beard and cool blue eyes. So he’d managed to get run over by a sheriff’s patrol car?

The boy pointed at the house. “There’s a monster in that place. And it’s coming after me. We need to get away from here, fast.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” the sheriff said. “Are you on drugs or something?”

“No, just look! Look! It’s coming through the window!”

The sheriff turned around, his jaw going slack. “What the actual bloody hell…”

They saw the creature slither through the broken window, down the wall of the Kingsbury house. The sheriff looked at the boy, wide-eyed, back to the creature and back to the boy again.

“What is that thing?”

The boy got back on his feet, leaning on the hood of the patrol car that had hit him, body bruised and bleeding from several cuts and scratches. “I think it is something from another dimension,” the boy said.

“Another what?”

“It’s complicated. But I think we’d better get away from here.”

“I can’t let that thing loose on my town,” the sheriff said. He drew his gun and aimed it at the creature that was skittering across the grass towards the road.

The thing hissed again. The sheriff fired at it, bullets digging through the dolphin-like skin. Green blood oozed from the wounds, but although it seemed to be slowed down by the bullets it didn’t stop it. To the boy’s amazement the wounds just closed again.

“Those bullets are not stopping it,” the boy said.

“Fuck that! I’ll just need bigger bullets,” the sheriff said and got a shotgun from the patrol car’s gunrack. He racked the shotgun and fired at the creature again. Shards of flesh flew off where the shotgun hit. Unfortunately, the flesh just grew back again.

“Damn! Damn!” the sheriff cursed, his back against the patrol car, still firing the shotgun but knowing it did no good. The creature was coming their way and there seemed no way to stop it.