Page 62 of Sweet Nightmare

I race forward, praying the whole time that the fucking monster will remain preoccupied with Izzy long enough for me to grab—

I duck down as I slide to a stop and grab the knife Izzy dropped. Then I come up swinging, a blade in each hand as I slice through whatever tentacles I can reach. Part of me thinks stabbing might be more effective right now, but I’m terrified of stabbing Izzy, too.

So I swing again, slicing deeper this time. The beast bellows in pained outrage as several tentacles fall to the floor and start flopping around near my feet.

They may be severed, but they’re still razor sharp, and I jump over two of them to avoid getting cut. As I do, I take another swing at the thing, but this time it’s ready for me.

It unfurls its tentacles in a rush, throwing Izzy at me so hard that I stumble backward, and we both hit the ground. Seconds later, it drops down on top of us, and I scream. I can’t help it. Being surrounded—and sucked into—its tentacles just might be the most terrifying thing that’s happened to me, which is saying a lot.

Desperate to get both Izzy and myself out of this mess, I grip the knives as tightly as I can and punch out with my right hand. The monster screams as it recoils, and I manage to wiggle a few inches of my body out from under it.

But then it’s back, its giant mouth gaping wide open and its razor-sharp teeth on full display as it dives for my head.

Oh, hell no. I’m not about to get bitten by one more thing today. And I’m definitely not getting bitten by teeth that look like that.

I kick out, hard, as I grab onto Izzy and try to roll. But she’s too busy shoving her fist—complete with gigantic knife—straight into its mouth.

The blade connects with the squid thing’s soft palate and sinks deep.

It doesn’t kill it—its head is too big for the knife to actually reach its brain—but it does send it spinning away from us, roaring in pain and outrage.

It’s the opening we’ve been looking for, and we bound to our feet, racing for the door. To hell with feeding the thing. At this point, it’s on its own.

Izzy makes it to the door first, and she throws it open. But before I can dive through, a bunch of tentacles grab me from behind and yank me back toward the center of the room.

I fly through the air, feeling a little like Spider-Man to this thing’s Doc Ock. On the plus side, its tentacles aren’t made of titanium, and I’ve still got one of the knives.

I reach down and try to saw my way through a couple of the tentacles holding me, but the beast is done playing. It wrenches me back and forth, up and down, jarring me to the very core of my being while also making sure I never get the chance to actually do any damage.

That doesn’t stop me from trying, though, and I bring the knife down again—this time in a stabbing motion. I know I may hit myself, but right now that seems like the lesser of two evils. Anything does that doesn’t involve being eaten alive by an enraged squid monster.

It jerks me away again before the blade can connect, and this time, I’m so off balance that I actually drop the knife. Damn it.

Desperate now, but determined not to die hours before finally getting off this island, I do the only thing I can think of. I duck my head and bite the tentacles holding on to me as hard as I can.

The horror that follows is indescribable.

The tentacle splits in half, and my mouth is suddenly filled with the creature’s blood and I don’t know what else. I gag on the noxious taste but force myself to keep biting down as it screams and thrashes around me.

I swear, if I ever get out of this nightmare, I’m sterilizing my entire mouth. And every other part of my body as well.

Eventually the tentacle gives way under my teeth, and I spit it out as the fucker continues to knock around the room. I grab onto another tentacle but can’t bring myself to bite this one, too, so I try to pry it away from my body.

The monster is in so much pain that it barely seems to notice what I’m doing. At first, I think it’s because of the bite, but then I glance down and realize Izzy’s sliced off one of its little paw-tipped arms and is currently trying to jam a knife straight through its eye.

The monster ducks and she misses, but she just swings again. And misses again. It reaches down with its non-severed arm and smacks her so hard that she goes flying across the room. She hits the wall hard but bounces right back and starts going for him again.

Before she can reach him, though, Jude races through the open door and straight for the three of us.

“Stay back!” I scream, but he zips straight past Izzy and grabs a handful of tentacles.

It screeches the second Jude touches it. Its tentacles release, and just like that, I’m falling. I brace myself for impact with the stone floor—try to tuck myself up so I hit my shoulder and not my head—but Jude gets there first.

He plucks me out of thin air and grabs onto me, pulling me against his chest as he backs toward the door, his eyes still fastened on the nasty squid thing. But it’s not chasing him—or me. Instead, it’s tucked itself into the far corner of the room, its tentacles wrapped around itself as it lets out a low moan that is eerily similar to the one I heard coming from the spider creatures’ pen.

“Let’s get out of here,” Jude grinds out as he sweeps Izzy along in front of us.

But she’s already fading—moving in the fast way only vampires can—out the door, leaving Jude to follow along behind her.

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