Page 123 of Eldritch

“No.” Letisha stepped forward. “I’m not leaving her.”

“Letisha!” Sybil turned to her friend. “Please. Take the other ladies. I’ll be fine. I’ll be out as soon as I can. Please.” Letisha shook her head, her mouth opening to protest again. Tears sprung to Sybil’s eyes. “Do as Clarice says. Please.”

Perhaps Letisha understood in that moment that to do anything else would prove to be suicide. Tears spilled down Letisha’s face, but she nodded and ran with Maria and Pauline.

Taggert also didn’t move, perhaps too dumbfounded to recognize what to do.

“Sybil, my dear,” Clarice said with the beatific smile. “You are to be my student. I didn’t have children, so you will replace me as the overseer of this mansion and the priestess of Heysooth. I’ve already changed my will and you will inherit this mansion and all the contents. I see now that it was unwise to think I could sell this house. Heysooth has consumed so many people who entered here over all the years. They were Heysooth’s nutrition. The life.”

Heysooth grew taller, its breathing became louder, the strange sounds rumbling from it far more disturbing than anything Sybil had heard in her life. Her trepidation expanded with it, and she discerned make or break time had come.

“The family that was renting from you last,” Sybil said. “Were they consumed by Heysooth?”

“Yes. But time is catching up with me, and I need some worthy person to take over this calling. As long as you feed Heysooth, all will be well for you and for Doug…if you choose Doug as your partner. If you reject him or he rejects you, I’m afraid the consequences could be severe. We can’t have him telling what he’s seen, even if I think he’s an honorable, amazing man. Heysooth, it is time to feed.”

Taggert lifted his arm to shoot. Time seemed to halt.

Instinct kicked in for Sybil as the creature swung toward Taggert, its body making sloshing, awful noises she couldn’t have defined if anyone had asked her to explain them. There were too many questions, too many things she wanted to understand. A decision had to be made.

No time. No time.

Earsplitting gunshots came from Taggert’s semi-automatic pistol as he screamed and attempted to escape Heysooth’s attack. The creature didn’t flinch. It reached out.

Before she could blink, Heysooth enveloped Taggert. Taggert’s screams ceased as Heysooth’s tentacles jammed the man into its body until only his legs dangled below the creature’s massive bulk and blood splattered across the floor.

Crunching sounds. Slurping. A human body being destroyed and consumed.

Doug grabbed Sybil and yanked her away, and they ran.

Sybil expected to suffer the heinous destruction of the beast’s arms taking her down and crushing her to bits.

Any minute now. Any minute now. Death, death, death.

She reached the top of the stairs with Doug barreling along behind her. The door at the top stood wide open, and in that second, it felt a million miles away. The door slammed in her face.

She would’ve fallen backwards, but Doug held her up.

Fury boiled inside her. The scream that came out of her ripped into her own ears, so loud. So damn loud. “Open!”

The door flew open, and they ran out and into the Great Hall.

They turned around in time to see Heysooth, blood still dripping from its underside, its breath sending a stinking wave of death toward them. Sybil gagged.

Clarice came from behind the creature and stood next to it. “Sybil, this is your last chance, my dear. Please.”

Clarity hit Sybil. More powerful and sure than anything she’d faced before.

The house did more than groan. The floor under them trembled, and then the walls cracked. The chandelier in the ceiling swayed, causing the metal to screech as it was tested.

“I’m not sorry Taggert is gone,” Sybil yelled. “I won’t mourn him. I wish that justice could consume every man who harmed a woman.”

Satisfaction filled Clarice’s expression. As if she’d won.

Sybil looked at Doug. “Leave now while you still can!”

He shook his head. “I’m not leaving you!”

Sybil turned back to Heysooth, and Clarice and something directed her. She didn’t know how or why. She put her hands out toward them, and a scream ripped from her throat. It was earsplitting.

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