Arrival

  The room seemed to grow darker, and the candles sputtered out. The sudden pain in my head was nearly unbearable, and I dropped to my knees. I could hear something that sounded like wet, ragged breathing, and it was there standing in front of us. It was barely human, something out of a nightmare. Hunched and crooked, it had massive, bloodstained claws that dragged along the ground as it moved toward us, like an ape dragging its knuckles.

  But it was the eyes that were the worst. Empty pits in its head, though a malicious light could be seen in them as it studied us, like it was waiting for us to make the first move. The rest of the group just sort of stood there, paralyzed, wondering what to do next. Pete, of course, was the first to speak.

  "We...we called you here," he sputtered, trying to sound as brave as he could manage in the face of this unimaginable horror, "The ritual worked, that means you're bound. You have to do as we command."

  I stared at him, my jaw agape, and the silence dragged on. I thought this was a trap to destroy the creature, not try to enslave it. I didn't get a chance to voice my objections, however, because that is the moment the creature did it for me. It laughed.

  The sound it made was wet, almost a gargling sound like a man drowning on his own blood, and it made my skin crawl. What happened next was a blur, but some things remain carved into my memory and will never, ever be forgotten.

  It loped forward, almost leaping towards us, and Gary was the first to break his paralysis. He slammed himself into it, trying to tackle the beast while he yelled for the rest of us to run. Pete bolted, taking Sam and Eli with him, but I couldn't move. I tried, but I just couldn't move. I watched what it did to Gary, I saw everything, I heard everything and I couldn't stop it.

  And the others just left me there to die.