Page 198 of Anathema

Seizing the opportunity, I darted for the door, leaping over him.

A tight yank of my throat thew me backward, as the scorpion necklace bit hard into my flesh. I dropped to the floor, smacking my tailbone against the concrete. A jagged flash of light spiraled up the back of my neck, and stars exploded in my eyes for a second time, the pain rippling through my spine. On a groan, I turned in time to see him scramble over top of me.

A scream ripped past the dryness of my throat, and I kicked back. Bony hands clawed at my legs, and with a tight grip, he pried them open, pushing the skirt of my dress aside. His manhood dangled perilously close to me, and in a panic, I glanced around for something to use as a weapon. Suspended above me was the embalming needle, set beside the edge of the casket. In my struggle, I reached up for it, knocking it away, as he wrenched my body closer to him, wedging himself between my knees. A burning tension surged through me, and I reached again, the tip of the needle dancing around my jerking fingers.

The sound of tearing fabric hurtled me into hysterics, as he ripped away my undergarments. “Please!” I choked back a sob. At last, I took hold of the needle and, with a quick strike, jabbed it into his ear, lodging it deep and yanking its curved tip downward.

He let out another roar that shattered my courage, but as he pushed up from me, I gripped the handheld pump and squeezed the fluids. He screeched again, tugging at the needle ordinarily meant to pierce the carotid artery. I kicked myself away, watching him tear it from his ear on the sound of squelching meat.

He swiped out for me, just missing my leg, and fell forward.

Urgency pounded through my muscles, and I pushed to my feet and dashed out of the room, down the long, dark corridor. I could hear him chasing after me, the heavy thud of his footfalls closing in.

To my horror, he crawled over the walls beside me with the ease of an enormous spider, the legs protruding from his spine a vision of absolute terror, and I came to a skidding halt as he leaped in front of me, once again blocking my exit.

Tears formed in my eyes, exhaustion weighing heavy on my muscles.

His lips stretched to a smile, his ear oozing a black liquid that dripped down his face. He hobbled toward me again, but there was no exit at the opposite end of the corridor.

I was trapped.

For the second time tonight.

Let me help you, the familiar voice inside my head chimed, and I closed my eyes to the blackness. In that space, I heard the heavy clunk of his footfalls advancing toward me.

When I lifted my lids, through the haze of white that clouded my vision, the spinal glyph burned in my mind. I threw out my hand, and a long, bony whip lashed out on a wicked snap, just missing his skull.

In absolute bewilderment, I stared down at the stretch of bones that must’ve reached five meters in length, the end of it captured in my trembling palm. I drew back my arm, and the bones scraped over the concrete floor, retracting back into my hand.

Uncle Felix paused only a second before hobbling for me again.

Again, I threw out my hand, and the bones unfurled toward him at lightning speed, snapping against his chest.

He froze in place, trembling. Not a breath later, a loud splintering sound crackled down the corridor, and his body slumped into a pile of loose skin, his head landing on top of it. The haze over my eyes lifted, and I yanked at the bone whip, drawing it back. It retracted into my hand on an aching throb, the spinal glyph glowing impossibly bright in the dim surroundings. A frigid tendril of disbelief crawled over the back of my neck, and I lifted my gaze to where Uncle Felix lay snarling, nothing but a pile of broken bones and flesh.

Tears slipped down my cheeks, the cold spreading across my chest in frosty tingles as I stumbled toward him. Only his eye and mouth moved, absent of teeth that lay scattered around him.

Breathing hard through my nose, I made my way to the staircase, but halfway there, a hard pounding caught my attention, bringing me to a halt once again.

I desperately wanted to ignore it and escape the house, but all I could imagine was Aleysia, trapped inside another ice box, begging for escape. I followed the sound to the main morgue, where Uncle Felix used to store the embalmed bodies in the small compartments that lined the walls. Those ready to be buried.

Still trembling, I padded carefully toward them. “Aleysia?”

“Maeve?” she answered, and with a blossom of hope stirring in my chest, I yanked open the doors of the narrow-bodied cabinets in search of her.

One of the doors beside me flew open on its own, and I backed myself away, frowning. A body crawled out, its pale white skin stretched over sharp, spiny bones. Silvery gray hair lay straggled over its shoulders as it climbed down the wall of compartments. Clutched in its arm was the decaying remains of what appeared to be a severed head. Only the few features that remained intact–the teeth, nose and small patches of fur—told me it belonged to a cat.

I backed away to the door, as the body crawled toward me, and when it finally lifted its head, I held my breath.

Agatha.

A spine-tingling yowl rattled past her lips that were carved with long black cracks.

She scuttled toward me on all fours, and I threw out my palm toward her. The bone whip wrapped around her neck, and before she could reach out for it, I retracted, tearing her head from her body in a spray of viscous, black fluid. At the same time I pulled back the whip, her head rolled across the floor toward me, the rest of her body collapsing.

My muscles locked up as I stared down at her mangled face, and something black crawled over her milky white eyeballs. With long, black legs, it stepped out onto the bridge of her nose, revealing itself to be a black spider.

As I backed myself toward the door, it slowly crawled over her nose to the floor. More black spiders erupted from her nose, her eyes, her mouth. They poured out of the neck of her headless torso.

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