Helen arrived at the front door and felt surrounded by menace. The very air tingled with an odd sensation that sent chills down her spine, raising the fine hairs on her neck. The door seemed to vibrate as though it were made from some insubstantial material. She raised the brass knocker and let it fall.
It made a dull plop sound. She did it again but still it made the same insignificant sound like a stone falling into wet clay.
Plop.
She hammered her fist against the wooden panels and was relieved to hear the sound of feet running toward her.
The door opened soundlessly to reveal a small boy child who was patently scared witless and for very good reasons. The boy had to be Dima and behind him stood a creature from nightmare. A female with what appeared to be a huge erection and a face that seemed to be made of fluid for it changed as she glared at the child and Helen. It was hard to distinguish the features for the shape changed so swiftly but Helen felt as if she knew the face.
The creature smiled.
A rictus grin.
A carnal stain on a human face.
An impossible voice croaked a pebble stone welcome.
'Ahhhhh, more flesh to play with. Pink, sweet, succulent, fresh. Come in my dear and let me open you.'
Dima stood stock still. Petrified. Helen stepped forward and swept him up into her arms.
'Keep away. Leave him be.'
'Ohhhhhh, such bravery runs in your veins. I hope that you cunt runs as sweetly.'
Shadows fled the walls and swept onto the floor in a hush of shade. Moving with a killer stealth.
Helen felt her heart beat faster, her pulse raced. Every fibre of her being told her to run but she knew that even as she turned to flee the creature and the shadows would be upon her like locust onto a field of rice. They would be taken before they could get to the garden gate. Instead, with the heel of her boot, she pulled the door shut behind her trusting to god and to her partners tatics.
'Why don't you try and see for yourself monster. I am not going anywhere.'
The unbelivable and unexpected threw the creature for a second. It's face softened momentarily and Helen could see the vestige of what remained of Lubov. Then the face changed again. A male face. A sordid face. She knew that face but it melted again into an unrecognisable horror before she could recall who it belonged to.
'Brave but foolhardy. You cannot stop me child. Nothing can that faces me. I am not of your world. Your rules do not apply to me.'
'Oh, I do not intend to face you, I just wanted to distract you.'
As Lillian and Helen had approached the house Lillian had told Helen to go on alone and enter through the front door whilst she gained acces via the back door. Lillian had found the backdoor open and had quickly moved from the kitchen area passed the lounge where the dead father and Elena lay mutilated and dead. Their bodies were hideous to behold. Gutted like fish. Cod eyed and bloody. Lillian moved on. In front of her Dante came to life. Shadows peeled from the ceiling and the walls and what had once been Lubov stood in front of her but with its back to her. The girls body seemed to have a life of its own as it shimmered and shifted. From small female child to full grown man and back. A constant moving thing of liquid flesh.
Lillian watched as Helen entered the hallway.
She heard the dry rasp of the creatures voice.
She switched the garden spade from her left hand to her right.
She watched as Helen took the boy into her arms and she watched as the creature, momentarily stopped moving, halting with its head crooked to one side. Then it advanced again. Its hand held out like the fingers of inevitable horror.
Helen, whose nerve had stood until now broke. Not with a scream but a shout of defiant fear.
'Nooooooo!'
Lillian swung the spade against the creatures head. The neck twisted to a ludicrous angle but the creature was far from dead. It turned around, shocked but undeafeted to face whatever it was that had struck it. Lillian attacked again. Slamming the spade down upon the things head. It made a sound like a mellon. Soft. Moist.
The creature fell to the floor. Lillian placed the spade at her feet and used it as a support whilst she regained her strength and composure. Helen made to move toward Lillian with Dima still in her arms. The boy was beyond sobbing and just lay stock still. Beyond fear. Grief to follow.
The thing moved. Its hand claw like made to drag its broken body toward Lillian. The shadows regrouped and now as one dark and horrendous mass moved toward Lillian who stood, head bowed over the spade.
'LILLIAN!'
Helen's cry roused Lillian who lifted the spade and drove the blade clean through the neck of the creature. The head rolled a few feet. Blood spurting across the hall floor coating Lillian's dress and shoes.
The shadows fled as though day had broken. A hissing breath of departure.
The decapitated head and lifeless body was again that of Luba. Poor Lubov. Used and dead.
From the lounge door came the familar sound and smell of burning. An orange glow now filled the entrance. Lillian seemed lost. As though the ordeal had taken more out of her than either she or Helen had expected.
'Lillian dear, we must get out. The house is a flame. We must get this boy to a doctor. Lillian?'
'Yes? Sorry. More effort than I thought. Of course, of course. Let us go.'
Together they hastily left as the flames greedily took hold of the building. They moved as far aways as seemed safe before collapsing into a heap on the Parisian kerb side. In the distance they could hear the sound of bells as the French firebrigade rattled over the streets of Paris.
'It all seemed to happen so fast. I never imagined for a moment what I could or might be like. We destroyed it though didn't we Lillian?'
'Yes, I think we did. We certainly removed it from here.'
'Strange, but I thought I recognised the face. I just cannot remember where or who. It was so difficult to see.'
'Nevermind dear, let us get this poor child away from here.'
By the cab that Helen had seen earlier now stood the driver with the door held open. Monsignor Cholmondeley approached and stepped into the cab.
'Everything go as expected Monsignor?'
'Not entirely no but a lesson learnt. Take me home Giles.'
The fire from the house cast a sombre glow across the face of Monsignor Cholmondeley. A strange shade. A dark and ominous look.
THE END
