Posted 4 Dec 2011 Her hand fumbled at the lock, one moment too long. It wouldn't have helped anyway. I yanked on her arm hard just as the monster crashed his shoulder full into the door, ripping it off its top hinge. He stood, a massive rippling silhouette against the white snow, and our eyes met. I turned and flew down the stairs two by two, dragging her with me. He stepped on a loose nail with his bare foot and screamed out a curse, allowing us to get a second ahead. But he only skipped a beat in his pursuit and got back up to his pace. We reached the bottom and ran the only way we could, straight down the canal. He followed. Our footsteps echoed through the dark tunnel, mine and hers and his, a cacophony of different drums pounding in my ears and all against my heartbeat. I couldn't look back. We couldn't stop. We couldn't think. Five minutes or an hour later, there was light ahead. Those loudest footsteps kept up with ours. He was a machine. The light inched closer. The wind joined the drums in a slow crescendo, until it was coming into the tunnel and against my face. That was it, that would slow us a second and close the gap, we were dead, we had to be dead. Or the lake wouldn't be frozen and we'd break through and drown. We weren't dead. We kept running. We ran out onto the lake, the wind whipping around us. The heavy beats were hollow now, a timpani booming under our feet. The lake was the drum now. I could feel the shake in my bones. I didn't look back. We were going to die. Regan slipped first, her hand dropping from my numb fingers. A blessing – I heard his next step keep in beat with the last. He had barreled past her. He wanted me. My lungs were screaming. The cold wind buffeted my face and kept me nearly without air. I didn't know how long I had been running. The other side of the lake wasn't any closer, but his footsteps were. He would catch me. I was going to slip and he would kill me, or I would fall through the ice and die. I was squided and I was going to die, I was going to die. I stumbled and fell. He did too, tangling his legs on my body from only a step behind me. He howled against the wind, or maybe it was the wind, and then he hit the ice hard. The drum shattered, and tangled with him we both slipped right in and under. I didn't have air in my lungs. I was going to die. I couldn't feel anything. But I could see. I could see the bright hole below me. I turned. I saw that the monster was above me, saw his hand reaching out of the black towards me. I saw his bloodied face staring out of the deep, half-murderous and half-terrified. And I saw the long shard of ice floating to my right. I stabbed him. And again, and again, anywhere I could reach, twisting and tearing. In the stomach, in the chest, in the neck. The first caught him by surprise, and by then he couldn't fight back. Air shot from his mouth in a stream of bubbles at every thrust. In vain I tried to breathe it in, inhaling the water even as the bubbles became red. My hand kept moving on its own, stabbing him. I was drowning in blood and water, and I was going to die, but he was going to die too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 4 Dec 2011 I thought it would be interesting not to provide any background, because it's supposed to read like a horror scene. The background is also a bit convoluted. Some characters are undergoing a murder mystery situation at a manor in the Canadian cottage country; this is the second half of the climax. They're running from the killer, a huge dude who they've seen do some scary shit, hence the monstrous description. He's chasing the protag out of rage with a spot of crazy; he got found out and he's got a lot to lose, so his life got ruined and he's like a raging bull here. Also the protag killed the guy's wife. But he cares less about that and more about the wealth and status that he'll lose. Also also the dude's barefoot because he just came out of the shower, which is where he was while they killed his wife. So he's naked and chasing them through the snow and ice. Which sounds silly, except they just saw him shoot a room full of other people. The tunnel they run down is an old wartime escape route canal leading from the manor to a lake. Protag was shown this tunnel earlier in the story. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites