What was this bloodthirsty, feral beast Jill saw hunting naked in the moonlight?
How could she become a thing like that?
Could she still be saved?
Rene Asmussen
I hoped I wouldnt have to use any of them.
As it turned out, I only used one thing, but Ill get to that later.
I leaned out the window and saw the entire crew standing in the shadows.
Almost the entire crew.
Jeff stood at the forefront in a balaclava and a turtleneck.
He looked like a bank robber, complete with his own bag of tricks.
The handle of a baseball bat protruded from the zipper.
They just tied black t-shirts around their faces and peeked through the neck hole.
Khalil just wore a black t-shirt and gym shorts, no mask.
He kept glancing around like he thought someone was watching, but he stood his ground.
No jokes this time.
Jill was conspicuously absent.
As quietly as I could, I climbed out of the window and down the tree.
I could hear my parents go to bed hours ago.
Both of them thought they had an early morning.
Neither of them knew just how early they would be rising.
When I hit the ground I had to ask, What about Jill?
Shes the reason were all coming, Khalil whispered, Show him, Jeff.
Jeff pulled something out of his back pocket.
A folded sheet of notebook paper.
He told me, I found this taped to the outside of her window.
Shes in trouble, Paul.
I took the letter from him and read the contents in the dim light of the street lamp.
My stomach tried to lurch but there was nothing inside to shift.
I couldnt eat dinner that night, just played sick and went back up to my room.
The letter read:
Im in trouble.
I dont have much time to write this.
I bought some time by spilling a drink on my shirt.
I told mom I had to get changed.
I freaked up bad.
I told her about Sadie, about last night.
She hit the roof, screamed herself hoarse at me.
Made me call the Carmichaels on speakerphone.
Mr. C had that strange stilted voice just like Khalil said.
Said he wanted me and mom to come over to talk after dark.
Shes making me go.
Dont know whats going to happen.
If anyone finds this note, help.
The letter was simply signed,-Jill.
I stuffed the letter into my pocket and said, Come on.
Weve wasted too much time already.
Even in our dark clothes I felt terribly exposed crossing from my yard to Sadies.
The lateness of the hour was our greatest advantage and greatest weakness.
Once the trouble began, there would be no one to help us.
We had to play it smart.
In the shade of Sadies tree, I motioned everyone to gather for a change of plans.
Listen, I whispered, We cant all go in there.
Theres too many of us, too much risk of getting separated.
Someone should stay behind as a lookout, and someone should cover the door.
Im going in there, Jeff said, No matter what.
But maybe youre right.
So who stays and who goes?
Ashton and Ashley clasped hands, and in unison, they whispered, Well stay, together.
I knew they would volunteer, and I was glad to be right.
Im going in, Khalil volunteered, Im the biggest one here.
If it gets ugly and someones gotta fight off Mr. C, I can do it.
I wasnt so sure about that.
Khalil may have been big, but Ive never seen him get into a fight.
Something told me Mr. Carmichael would not be tranquilized with a quick quip.
Still, I didnt argue with him.
Lets make this quick, I said, already reaching for a tree branch.
Jeff stopped me with a hand on my shoulder, and said, You stay too, Paul.
If were not out of here with Sadie and Jill in ten minutes, come in after us.
Otherwise, be ready to run.
I wanted to argue, but it was no good.
Also, I was scared out of my wits, if Im being totally honest.
So instead of arguing, I nodded, and whispered, Okay.
Jeff, Khalil, stay out of sight.
Find Jill, find Sadie.
Grab Sadie, kicking and screaming if necessary, and get the hell out of there.
Weve all been in that house a million times, you know the quickest way out.
If you run into any trouble, any trouble at all, scream your fucking heads off, okay?
Without another word he scrambled up the tree to Sadies bedroom, and Khalil followed quickly behind him.
My concerns were ill-founded, it seems.
The hand disappeared again and they were gone.
I checked my watch with its glowing dial and immediately began to count the minutes down.
Is any of this real?
I could tell by the ragged edge of her voice that she was crying.
This doesnt feel real.
A month ago this was a boring neighborhood in a boring town and everything felt real.
This feels like… like…
It feels like a nightmare, Ashton finished.
Did she really eat Figgy?
Ashley asked, Was she really running around… naked?
She wouldnt make that up.
I havent seen Buck around either.
I havent seen any of the neighborhood pets around lately, have you?
Ashton asked, Remember at the barbecue?
There was like, six or seven dogs running around, at least.
When was the last time you heard a dog bark?
I wasnt thinking about it.
I- I started, not sure what I was going to say.
I thought I heard a sound from inside the house, and my heart jumped into my throat.
Four minutes, twenty seconds.
I didnt think I could wait ten whole minutes to run in after them.
My mind raced with a thousand terrible possibilities of what might be going on in that house.
If they screamed, would we hear?
This isnt just abuse, is it?
Sadie disappeared out of thin air.
Jeff said something else was in the closet with them that night.
What if Sadie didnt come back?
What if it just looked like Sadie?
What if it was something else?
There was no answer.
I had to consciously will my feet to stay planted there in the dirt.
It was maddening to stay there, asking rhetorical questions and knowing nothing.
They say no news is good news, right?
Whoever they are, they are assholes.
No news is torture.
But I promised, ten minutes.
I almost lasted eight.
When I could wait no longer, I rose to my feet and grabbed my gear bag.
Its time, I lied.
Go wait by the front door and be ready to move.
If you hear a scream, run home, call the police.
Ashton and Ashley stood up immediately.
Be careful, They said.
I nodded and scrambled up the tree.
They were already rounding the corner of the house by the time I hauled myself onto the roof.
The window to Sadies room was a yawning portal into total darkness.
A charnel house stench pervaded the space where so recently I took the odor of lavender for granted.
I smelled rot, blood, and filth mingling in the air among the buzzing of flies.
Sadies vanity and dresser appeared to have been flung across the room and crushed.
Her bedding was ripped to shreds and streaked with some dark, reeking matter.
The closet, I noticed, stood open.
That rectangle of a darker blackness in the gloom-filled me with unspeakable dread.
That something had been there from the beginning, waiting for the right moment.
Sadie told us so.
She thought it was a ghost lurking in the walls.
How could she have known how much worse it could be?
How could she know she would lose herself?
The answer wasnt here in her bedroom, I knew that.
I knew I couldnt stay there any longer.
I had to venture into the halls, had to search for my lost friends.
What I would do if the Carmichaels found me first, I had no idea.
I held no illusions that the encounter would be a friendly one.
As slowly and quietly as I could manage, I opened Sadies door.
When I found myself under no immediate attack, I dared to poke my head through the gap.
I reached into my bag for the flashlight, only to realize I didnt dare use it.
I would be shining a beacon to lead them to me.
The trouble with that was the risk of finding something that had already adjusted before I could.
The other trouble was, now that I was here, I had no idea of where to look.
Apart from the ever-present buzzing of the flies, the house was completely silent.
I hoped that was good news.
I tried to hope that was good news, but the silence brought no such comfort.
The silence was the sound of doom.
I had to get moving.
The house was huge.
My friends and the Carmichaels could be anywhere within.
If they already managed to save Jill and Sadie, would I even know?
I needed to find them fast, I needed to be planning ahead for our escape.
A gut feeling told me the living room and foyer were the greatest danger zones.
If the front door was unguarded we could simply dash through to the outside.
It wouldnt be that easy.
The back door led to the fenced-in yard.
I knew from experience that Mr. Carmichael left the gate padlocked at night.
We might be able to scramble over the fence, but only if no one was injured.
If we were being chased the attempt would cost us precious seconds.
I grimaced in the darkness.
A conflict seemed inevitable.
If we were all together again I would feel better about my chances.
I had to find Khalil and Jeff.
Why was it so dark?
Who turned out all the lights?
Enough with the hypothetical questions,I thought,Ive got to get moving.
I crawled instinctively toward the first pillar of light, the first open door.
It was a guest bedroom.
I slept there once when my parents were out of town.
Mr. Carmichael sometimes slept in the downstairs bedroom when he and Mrs. Carmichael were fighting.
Sadie told me so at some point.
The stench was worse in the guest bedroom, fresh, raw, and wet.
The buzzing of flies was so loud there it was like television static.
I should have left, but something drew me inside.
Curiosity maybe, and never mind what it did to the cat.
I crawled through the doorway, measuring every movement with the care of a bomb disposal technician.
Something that fascinated the swarms of flies.
I tried to swallow, but my throat had closed to a pinhole.
Have you ever tried to rise while every instinct you had screamed at you to stay on the floor?
I felt like Gulliver when he was tied to the ground by the Lilliputians.
When I finally found my feet I beheld a gruesome sight.
Something had died on that bed, died terribly.
My frantic mind tried to dance around the truth and failed.
The living thing must have been a human being.
The ropes were spread too far apart for it to have been anything else short of a gigantic dog.
And there was no fur.
Jesus Christ, I whispered, What have they done?
A voice hissed from somewhere in the room.
Panic flared in my chest so brightly that I thought for an instant I was having a heart attack.
It was a miracle that I was too choked up to scream.
The sound came from behind a heavy wardrobe.
There was a closet there, I remembered.
I whispered, realizing I recognized the voice once my heart stopped pounding quite so hard.
Quick, let me out of here before they come back.
Yeah, hold on, I whispered.
Jill squirmed through and we both ducked down behind the bed.
Did you see them?
Not yet, I answered.
Khalil and Jeff are in here somewhere.
Those things must have seen them.
Thats why they ran out of here in such a hurry.
Which way did they go?
They went downstairs, I think, She whispered, I could hear their footsteps thumping on the staircase.
I could hear something else thumping down the stairs too.
Her eyes darted to the bed and I knew at once what she meant.
Weve gotta go after them, I said, taking her hand.
It was slick with sweat, just like my own.
Frick, she whispered, but she didnt let go of my hand either.
She didnt run for Sadies window.
Like myself, she was too concerned about the safety of her friends to give in to fear.
Unlike myself, she saw what they had become and witnessed the grisly death of her own mother.
Her courage was not tempered by ignorance like mine was.
Ill never forget about that.
It now looked more like the den of a rabid bear than the home of a well-to-do suburban family.
I could feel deep gouges in the walls that reinforced that image.
What else could have done that if not a wild animal?
What could have happened to them?
Where did she go when she disappeared?
How could all this have happened in the space of a few days?
When we found her in the closet everything else seemed normal.
There was no sense or reason to any of this.
As terrified as I was, I was perhaps equally sorrowful.
How could our lives return to any sense of normality after tonight?
How could I look out my window and see this house and ever know peace?
At the end of the hall was a sunroom where we used to play as kids.
Beyond that was the landing.
I wasnt badly hurt but I was frightened and bawled my head off.
After that, the sunroom was converted into its current purpose by Mrs. Carmichael.
The curtains were all drawn now, just as they were in the rest of the house.
Or, I supposed, they simply grew to shun the light like vampires and other unholy things.
I could tell Jill was doing the same.
She still held my hand, but I could feel her jerking away as she dodged all the detritus.
She pulled ahead slightly and released my hand when I paused to adjust my bag.
It was digging into my shoulder and growing uncomfortable, but I refused to leave it behind.
I still harbored some hope that the contents would help us along the way.
My eyes were finally starting to adjust to the inky blackness of the house.
It must have been merely ajar, and not standing wide open.
I saw her go rigid.
She turned to me as I stepped closer, only a couple of paces behind.
When I reached the door she stepped aside so I could see what was the matter.
Above the landing, a pair of skylights allowed a meager illumination.
It must have been Eliza, I could tell that from her size and build.
She was only slightly more defined than a solid shadow from the distance from which I watched her.
She appeared to be nude, or nearly so.
Something seemed to be hanging from her back, like a ragged cloak.
The remains of her blouse, perhaps?
I could smell her, a wild animal reek of sweat, blood, and shit.
I could hear the sharp inhalations.
I ducked behind the door before those strange eyes could be trained on me.
I glanced over at Jill, still wide eyes and flared nostrils.
She pressed herself against the wall so hard I thought she was trying to slip through.
In this strange house, I guess it wasnt impossible.
Out in the landing, I could hear slow footsteps approaching and that awful bloodhound snuffling.
Run!I mouthed to Jill.
She just shook her head.
She didnt seem to be able to will her limbs into moving.
Neither could I, for that matter.
I reached into my bag, hoping something therein could be used as a weapon.
If only I could have gotten my dads gun!
My hand closed over something cold and metallic.
It would have to do.
Maybe I could buy enough time for Jill to make a run for it.
Her hand wrapped around the edge of the door.
Her grimy fingers were tipped in thick, sharp, grotesquely long nails like talons.
I held my breath.
She stomped away and down the stairs making some kind of glottal noise in her throat.
Simultaneously Jill and I released a ragged sigh of relief.
The relief was only temporary, of course.
Jill said it before I could, We have to follow her.
Lets go, I said, gripping the tire iron in my left hand.
What good would it be against four of those things?
Best not to think about it.
Abandoning caution, Jill and I dashed through the door before rational thought could freeze our legs in place.
If our friends were down there, they did not have much time.
The Eliza-thing was already out of sight, we the quarry forgotten.
At the bottom of the stairs I held Jill back and we stopped to listen.
The silence of the house was broken, perhaps for good.
The ground floor was darker than upstairs if such a thing was possible.
Jill and I knew the house well, but not well enough to chase those things blindly.
Here, hold this for a second, I told Jill, thrusting the crowbar into her hands.
She took the bar from me silently, breathing hard.
I reached into the bag and fished out the two flashlights.
At least I knew the batteries were good.
They came new from the pack in the junk drawer.
No horror movie cliche of the flickering flashlights for us.
Her eyeliner streaked down her face in runners of dried tears and her chin-length hair ran wild.
Her expression was one of fierce determination.
She looked nothing like a quiet middle school student and all the world like a Valkyrie of Nordic legend.
She held the crowbar in a white-knuckle grip like she was itching to use it on someone.
A thunderous crash reverberated through the house, sounding closer than ever.
I forgot all about trading the crowbar for my extra flashlight.
Lets go, Jill hissed through clenched teeth.
Still, we saw nothing, or nothing living at least.
Jeff and Khalil were running for their lives, and these things were making a sport of it.
My only comfort in this breathless chase was the glimmer of hope that my friends were still alive.
We found the kitchen.
Finally, I retched, vomiting hot bile from an empty stomach.
From just behind me I could hear Jill doing the same.
The least of the problem seemed to be the refrigerator.
It stood open, the motor long since burned out.
The food that remained within had putrefied and was busy with flies and maggots.
What could be seen had moldered beyond recognition.
Some blackish slime seeped onto the floor in a viscous puddle.
We would have to step through it to cross into the next room.
Carcasses, and pieces of carcasses.
Every pet in the neighborhood must have been present.
Most of them had been eaten, guts and all.
Bones, ragged pelts, and spilled blood were all that remained.
My Buck was one of these.
I saw him last, sprawled out by the microwave.
Those monsters tore his throat out, and his final terror was frozen in his face.
It was her mother, stripped naked, murdered, and tossed carelessly into the corner of the kitchen.
She had been bitten to death.
What remained of her face was contorted in a rictus of agony.
Her skin was torn at the wrists and ankles from her final struggles.
Coagulating blood seeped from the countless wounds.
I had no words, nothing to comfort my friend.
Her mother was one of the kindest, most loving people I had ever known.
She didnt deserve this.
They made me listen while they ate her alive!
I had to listen to her scream and I couldnt help her!
We cant let those things do this to Khalil and Jeff.
I-uh-I- I stammered, swallowing hard.
My mouth tasted sour, bitter.
Come on then, lets go get them and get the fuck out of here.
We spun on our heels and dashed back through the door, slamming it shut behind us.
We would not be leaving this way.
We were trapped in here.
Jill was already crossing into the living room and I dashed after her for fear of being left behind.
There we were presented with three options.
Two more halls and the staircase that doglegged off the hall to the left.
she answered, Listen.
I listened, but only for the briefest moment.
I shrieked and kicked at the thing until Jill illuminated the creature with her flashlight.
It was no creature at all, it was Khalil.
He was bruised, bloodied, terrified, and- still alive.
I cried, pulling him to his feet.
Thank Christ, youre alive!
Jill bear-hugged the hyperventilating Khalil and kissed him on the cheek.
Weve got to get out of here, guys!
He cried, his eyes darting every which way.
Jill demanded, Wheres Jeff?
He screamed and screamed and I…
I didnt help him.
Fuck, man, I just ran!
We cant just leave him!
Jill cried, He might still be alive.
We can still save him!
Savim, Barked an awful voice from behind us.
I whipped around and shone my flashlight on the source of that strange voice.
I shone my light on Sadie.
What once was Sadie.
Until that moment I had harbored a secret hope that Sadie and her family could be saved.
I realized at that moment that things didnt always turn out okay.
Sometimes things ended as badly as they possibly could.
Sometimes darkness won the day.
Those breasts the schoolboys coveted hung withered and wrinkled on her emaciated chest.
Swishing left and right behind her was a strange, fleshy tail.
From her back fluttered bizarre diaphanous wings like those of a wasp.
Her legs were streaked with blood and shit.
The worst of the changes were in her face.
Her ears grew long and pointed and her hair fell out in clumps.
Her eyes shone like Halloween lamps, green and eldritch.
Not a glimmer of humanity remained in those luminous orbs.
Her nose receded into gaping wet slits like the nose of a bat.
Her Teeth grew jagged, brown, and far too large for her jaws.
It looked like the mouth of those ghastly deep-sea fish with the glowing lure hanging from their foreheads.
Gore clung between those teeth and saliva ran freely from her shredded lips.
I gasped, Sadie, what have you become?
A voice from the other hall answered.
It was Mrs. Carmichael.
She held a butcher knife in a clawed hand.
The Eliza-thing stood by her side, grinning a needle-toothed grin.
A third voice, standing at the stairs.
It was Mr. Carmichael, or it was.
He held Jeff by the back of his turtleneck sweater.
Jeff appeared to be breathing but was unconscious.
He stepped closer to us.
Sadie, Eliza, and Mrs. Carmichael all did the same.
We were going to die.
The Mr. Carmichael-thing grunted.
The Eliza-thing tittered, Lik-cows.
The Mrs. Carmichael-thing growled.
She raised the meat cleaver, now only a few steps away.
I was frozen there, useless.
All of my childish plans for a daring rescue came to this single moment, and I choked.
We were going to die, and we would die in the most grisly way imaginable.
One by one they would rip us apart with their jagged maws to feed some bizarre metamorphosis.
I could do nothing.
Someone pushed me to the ground and split the air with a wild cry of fury.
Six sets of eyes locked upon that thirteen-year-old, a five-foot-two eighty-pound hellcat holding a crowbar aloft.
She swung the crowbar with all her might, hard enough that I could hear it cut the air.
With superhuman reflexes, the Mr. Carmichael-thing caught the cast-iron crowbar in mid-swing-
And he promptly burst into flames.
It released Jeff and flailed away, emitting an unearthly scream.
The other fiends stood dumbfounded around us, if only for a moment.
Jill, our savior, would not allow them the moment to recover.
They scattered, leaving behind them snaking trails of fire in the carpet and the drapes.
Khalil and I were frozen still in shock, Jeff only beginning to come to.
Jill was still vibrant and alive, more so than I ever saw her.
Energy seemed to radiate from her in waves, like a miniature sun.
She cried, waving us along as the flames began to spread and the smoke billowed.
Khalil and I followed, pulling Jeff to his feet and half-dragging him up the stairs after Jill.
Sadies window was still the best way out.
One by one we crawled through that portal, choking on smoke, one last time.
Ashley and Ashton had already fled, having followed my instructions to leave and call the cops.
By the time the police and the firemen arrived, the flames had engulfed the entire house.
Thank God, there were no survivors.
The final cause of the blaze was officially determined to be an electrical malfunction.
Unofficially, the investigators were baffled.
There did not seem to be any obvious source or rational explanation for the fire.
A couple of times I heard the phrase spontaneous human combustion bandied about.
I know they found evidence of cannibalism in the autopsy.
I know none of those things made it into a police report.
Mr. Watkins was a lawyer and the executor of the Carmichael estate.
Mrs. Valentine was a notary public.
The police station was renovated and the fire department got that new fire truck they were hankering for.
As far as the media knew, it was a tragic but essentially mundane house fire.
No one talked about what happened that awful night in the late summer.
Eventually, I stopped trying to bring it up.
The Carmichael lot stayed empty for at least as long as any of us lived there.
A few interested parties came to inquire about the lot, but they were firmly discouraged.
One by one, we all began to drift away.
Jill and her father were the first to go.
The Valentines were next, followed shortly thereafter by the Watkins family.
My parents sold our house two months after I went away to college.
I havent been back there since.
For ages, I searched for some kind of rational explanation for what happened that night.
Eventually, I found something.
That baby was perhaps the most beautiful baby ever born, and the couple loved her dearly.
They were, for a brief time, desperately happy.
The couple suspected nothing and raised the impostor as their own.
In time, however, the child grew strange, savage, and deformed.
It tormented the couple to their wits end, but they tried to love the child all the same.
For their pains, the pretender only bedeviled them further.
He pulled from his tool belt an iron sledge.
The child was cowed at once, but the blacksmith was not satisfied.
The next day the couples true daughter was returned to them and they all lived happily ever after.
Stories just like that could be found all over Europe in the olden days.
From what I read, the accepted explanation for this phenomenon was simple ignorance.
For most people, it would be easy to dismiss.
And thats for the best.
Twenty-six years have passed, and the nightmares have never left me.
Some nights I swear I can hear whispers in the walls, but it must be my imagination.
I havent opened my closet in weeks.
