What Lurks Between - A SciFi Horror Novella - Part Nine

in #story7 years ago

In the last part, stuff got real. Really real.

The bunny monster, whatever it is, is more than just a singular threat, and now Barry has an even bigger problem to deal with.

Back to the tale…

Artwork copyright Revensis and Mikhail Matsonashvili, licensed through Dreamstine

What Lurks Between - Part Nine

How do you kill something that has complete, or near enough that it makes no difference, control over you? Something that you know from experience can kill you with little effort, and will if given the slightest cause to do so? Something that seems to know what you are thinking before you do?

That was the question that ate at my soul. Assuming I still had a soul, after what I had seen it do. What I had allowed it to do.

But I knew, sure as I was sitting there when the full meaning of the bunny monster’s projected thought became clear to me, that this was what I had to do.

Under no circumstances could I allow that…thing…to give birth.

I could tell it sensed my revulsion as realization came over me. It’s little lips turned upwards into a feral grin and it made a short, mocking, purring sound. Then it turned away and hopped over to its favorite side of my couch, where it nuzzled into the corner and went still.

The thing slept. It was a living creature, so of course it slept. Problem was, it usually slept when I did. On those few times when it had fallen asleep before me, it had been tempting to try something: to leave, to bash its brains in, something. Except that the very first time it slept in front of me, I did try something. Something so ridiculously minor it almost did not bear noticing.

Its rear paw was resting on one of my comic books. I tried to pull the comic out so I could read it. The bunny monster almost killed me.

Since then, I feared doing anything more than sitting or lying still. Even going to the bathroom in the middle of the night was a terror. I was tempted just to wet my bed and clean up later, except that I had no idea when later would be, since when the bunny monster was awake it allowed me to do nothing except bring it out for food or feed myself.

The apartment was beginning to stink bad enough without adding that sort of mess to it.

That afternoon, after the bunny monster’s revelation, was the first time it had fallen asleep so early. Was it possible that I could find an opening somewhere?

I thought back over my life, back to when my mom was pregnant with my baby brother. I was ten, and I had no idea where my father was, but lo and behold here was a little brother, due for the world in a few months. When she told me, my feelings were mixed, but as time moved on I became more and more excited to have a brother, even one so much younger than I. That eagerness faded a bit when Mom grew - how do they put it? - “great with child”. She was uncomfortable - hell, miserable - all the time. And she had only a fraction of the energy she normally did. I remember her sleeping a lot, and being damn hard to wake up.

It was that memory that convinced me I had a chance, even just a small one, to stop this thing before it got out of hand. And for some reason I was certain once that thing gave birth, that was exactly how things would become. Officially.

That just left figuring out how, exactly, to do it.

Seriously, how does one kill a vampire? I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that was what the bunny monster was. Hell, I had seen it drink more blood than I ever thought possible.

I racked my brain, trying to recall all the little clues from vampire lore, but found nothing helpful.

More often than not, I cooked spaghetti for myself. It was quick and easy, and fit with the bunny monster’s demanding schedule. I tried putting more than the usual amount of garlic in the sauce, hoping that the cloves would induce the bunny monster to leave. If anything, the smell of the garlic seemed to make it lick its lips with appetite.

Holy water? I did not have any, and I had no means to get any. But one night we walked past a church and I veered inside, just to see what would happen. The bunny monster’s claws dug into me painfully, as expected, but no more or less than any other time I did not do exactly what it said. In fact, aside from its chagrin at my disobedience, it seemed perfectly comfortable within hallowed ground.

From that I deduced that holy blessings or other spiritual things mattered little to the bunny monster. And besides, in every story I could remember you had to believe - really believe - in that stuff to make it work. That was not me.

So much for trying to ward it off with a crucifix.

What to do? Staring at it, its chest rising slowly with each inhalation as it slept, I just wanted to grab a butcher knife from the block in my kitchenette and stab it to death.

But what if that didn’t work? I shuddered to think of what it would do to me if I tried and failed. If it sucked me dry, like it did with those homeless men and women, would I live to feel the last drop leaving? Would part of me be trapped within it and its offspring, living - if you could call it that - in terror forever?

That was asinine, but I could not get the thought out of my head.

So I sat there, impotent in my fear, and drifted off to sleep while I had the chance.

*****

Previous Posts:

  1. Part One
  2. Part Two
  3. Part Three
  4. Part Four
  5. Part Five
  6. Part Six
  7. Part Seven
  8. Part Eight

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