Chapter 16

  Brendon stumbled out into the fluorescent bright lights of the bowling alley, followed quickly by the sheriff and deputy Doug carrying Ernie between them, with Ginny racing out after them. Ginny shifted Williams in her arms enough to clumsily but forcefully kick the door shut behind her, the echoing slam cutting through the quiet murmuring occasionally interrupted by the sound of pins being scattered from the far lane.

  “RUN! Everyone, get out! Run, now!” The low murmur of voices from the people gathered around the bar, which had tapered off into silence as they burst into the room, roared back in a babble of shouted questions and responses.

  “Who’s that!?”

  “She’s covered in blood!”

  “Ernie!? What happened to-“

  “Sheriff, who is-“

  Brendon slammed one hand down on a table as he ran past, the cheap plastic breaking with a loud snap that stunned the agitated crowd back to silence for a second, that the sheriff quickly took advantage of, shifting Ernie’s slumped form over onto deputy Doug, who was staring at the front doors with wide and twitching eyes.

  “Everyone! A dangerous creature has entered the bowling alley through the back door. Please make your way out in a quick but orderly fashion.” The sheriff spoke loudly but calmly, his voice showing no sign of panic, only firm authority. The silence from the crowd stretched on, a few people moving uncertainly toward the door, while the majority milled about uncertainly.

  “A dangerous animal?” An older man in overalls asked in obvious confusion. “Like a possum?”

  Ginny, whose legs were already itching to resume running for the doors as fast as she could while carrying the deputy, fought off the urge long enough to stare incredulously at the man, glancing over the group that had exited the back room down a limb and with two people unable to walk on their own power. Before she could open her mouth to insert herself into the conversation they absolutely didn’t have time to be having to ask just what kind of possums lived in Hope Falls, she was cut off by a crash of cracking wood and shattering drywall.

  The door to the back room exploded out in pieces, along with a large chunk of the surrounding drywall. Survivor’s Will kicked into overdrive as the familiar bulging form of the Ravager stumbled and squeezed through the hole it had just torn in the wall. Drool poured out of its open and gaping mouth as its beady eyes locked onto the once again frozen and silent crowd of people.

  “Eat this… eat THESE.” The creature had apparently calmed down somewhat after devouring Ginny’s harpoon, or maybe it was just happy to have stumbled into an all you can eat buffet of humans. Either way, its tone was quieter, almost conversational, but the words echoed through the sudden stillness of the room. A middle-aged man with a long beard that brushed against the top of a prominent beer belly took a step back.

  “What the fu-“ The man never finished his words that were already making that same brush of irritated buzzing start up in the back of Ginny’s mind. As soon as he started speaking, the monster twisted in his direction, and its tongue exploded out of its gaping maw, cracking like a whip in the air as it shot across the room to slam into the man’s face. The force of it tore the flesh of one of his cheeks off entirely, leaving a nasty gaping hole in his face that he didn’t even get a chance to scream about, as his head was shoved to the side, his neck twisting around with a wet sounding crack. His body started to collapse limply, but before his knees even hit the ground, the tongue jerked back, curled around his shoulders, and then pulled the body back across the room into the creature’s waiting mouth. It bit down slowly, and then awkwardly caught the lower half of the body as its teeth severed the top half with that same unnerving lack of sound or resistance. Blood, viscera, and chunks of bone and organ both dribbled over the creature’s doughy hands as they squeezed the ruined remains of the stomach tightly.

  “Mmm. Hum-mmm.” The creature hummed happily to itself as it chewed, bits of flesh and drops of gore squirting out the edge of its clenched lips.

  As quickly as they had all fallen silent and still at the creature’s appearance, the townsfolk exploded into screaming motion, people shoving their way around tables and past each other to try and get to the door.

  The door that unfortunately required them to go around the creature that was now happily tearing into one of the legs of the man it had killed, after tearing it off like an overcooked drumstick on a turkey. Ginny’s stomach lurched at the sight, which is when she discovered that while Survivor’s Will was great for terror and existential dread, it did nothing for the bile inducing nausea that came from watching a human being go from talking and standing under their own power to looking like a picked over turkey carcass at Thanksgiving in the space of under ten seconds.

  The majority of the crowd rushed to try and run along the lanes of the bowling alley, trying to give the creature as wide a berth as possible while fleeing for the front doors. In a scene that would have been more at home in a slapstick comedy than the horror movie that was the reality of the situation, several people’s feet immediately slid out from under them, the polished wood of the lanes refusing to support the frenzied stampede of people, none of whom were wearing bowling shoes. The only ones who were wearing bowling shoes were, and Ginny did a double-take when she noticed this, were the four people who had actually been, and were still bowling on the far lane. Before she could process that particular absurdity, her attention was wrenched back to the creature who was finishing off its first course, popping the last piece of the man, a hiking boot covered foot, into its mouth and swallowing in what seemed like an exaggerated manner.

  One of the townspeople near the back of the group, a young man with a dirty-blonde mullet, seeing the pile-up that was occurring in front of him, tried to dodge to the side, ducking low into a sprint even as he was forced closer to the creature. The creature’s eyes flickered to him, and its cheeks shuddered and rolled, the massive tongue working busily inside its still closed mouth. The massive lips pursed, and a loud wet sound like someone spitting the nastiest and goriest chunk of phlegm accompanied something shooting out of the creature’s mouth like a bullet, punching clean through the side of the young man trying to run past’s head. He collapsed boneless to the ground as a spray of bone fragments and brain matter exploded out of the other side of his skull. The creature hummed happily again as it shuffled over, lifting the corpse from the ground by one leg.

  This led to a new wave of panic from the tangled mass of collapsed and tripping people trying to flee, and those who had thus far managed to keep their feet trampled the ones who had already fallen to the ground, using their bodies as stepping stones to keep from slipping. The cries of pain from the ones being trampled were short lived, as the creature’s mouth gaped back open, and its massive tongue cracked across the room, the thick strand of muscle crushing skulls into a gory paste dotted with chunks of shattered bone. As the portion of the group that had made it to the door began pouring out the doors still screaming, Ginny grit her teeth and then turned to the sheriff, quickly shoving the deputy in her arms into his. The man took her automatically, and before he could say anything, Ginny pulled Blood Drinker’s Bane out of her vest pocket, speaking quickly.

  “Take her. I’ll get its attention and pull it back away from the door so you and…” Ginny looked over his shoulder as she started to say ‘you and the deputy’, only to see Ernie’s barely breathing body leaning against the table, with no sign of deputy Doug. The sheriff followed her gaze, and his lips tightened.

  “You and Brendon,” She continued without missing a beat, the deputy’s sudden defection not surprising her at all, and actually easing her anxiety a tiny bit. “You and Brendon, can get Ernie and the deputy out the front door while its distracted.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Brendon immediately shook his head, stepping forward and then wincing, one hand going to his ribs. “You’re nuts. This guy will…” He trailed off and made a pinched and strained expression. “I was gonna say eat you alive, but that’s not even a metaphor right now. You know, with…” He gestured at the gory feast occurring behind them, his face taking on a shade of green as he did.

  Ginny shook her head. “I’ll be fine. I’m not too banged up from earlier, unlike the rest of you.” She called up the relevant portion of her character sheet and forced herself to smile confidently.

  Health: 34/220

  “Besides,” She continued quickly, not letting the alarm at her health being even lower from the brief exchange back in the shoe storage room than she’d thought show on her face. “I’ve got an ability that makes me better at running away from things.”

  Mana: 7/230

  Which I don’t have the mana to use right now. She added silently to herself. Brendon still looked unconvinced, and Ginny forced the confident smile on her face to expand into a cocky grin. “Besides, who’s got more experience getting away from monsters here than me?” Before he or the sheriff could argue any further, Ginny turned and sprinted away, vaulting over a rack of bowling balls, Blood Drinker’s Bane clutched in one fist. The creature glanced in her direction as she ran at it, and Ginny saw the tongue, thoroughly coated in the gore that remained of the pile of townspeople, jerk around and back towards her. Ginny dropped to her knees without stopping, cursing the standard camp counselor attire of short thigh-hugging shorts for the female counselors, as her bares knees skidded across the linoleum floor.

  The sting in her knees was more than worth it though, as the creature’s tongue cracked through the air just above her head, a couple drops of acidic saliva flicking fown to sizzle against her scalp.

  As she skidded by the creature’s thick but stubby legs, she slashed across one jiggling thigh with Blood Drinker’s Bane, hoping that whatever it was a Bane weapon did exactly, the Ravager would dislike it enough to focus all its attention on her. The little silver knife that had been with her since before she’d been more than a fictional character on a screen didn’t disappoint. The silver blade carved a deep split in the fat of the creature’s thigh, the skin splitting easily under its edge. Instead of blood pouring from the wound, the skin darkened and shriveled around the cut, the flesh taking on a dry, wrung-out look. The creature’s reaction was immediate, letting out a high-pitched squeal that she wouldn’t have thought its massive throat was capable of producing. Twisting towards her, it hurled the still dripping human leg it had been holding down at her. Expecting some kind of retaliation, Ginny managed to tuck her head down and pull her shoulder up to keep from taking the hurled limb fully into the side of her head, but the sheer force of it still sent her reeling back, her shoulder jamming painfully into its socket as she barely managed to keep from getting knocked onto her butt.

  Health: 16/220

  Time to run? Ginny shot a glance past the creature’s bulk as she scrambled backwards and to her feet as it rounded on her furiously. Back near the lanes, Brendon was supporting Ernie, the heavyset man’s one remaining arm slung over his shoulders, while sheriff Greg carried his deputy bridal style, making their way quickly around the creature’s back while it was focused on her. Time to run! Ginny wheeled around, retreating further into the bowling alley, and a blue screen popped up in front of her in agreement as she did.

  Running has leveled up! Now level 3!

  “What’s wrong!? Didn’t like the taste of that!? Found something you don’t wanna eat!?” Ginny shouted back at the monster while it charged after her, bulldozing through small racks of bowling balls and cheap plastic tables without even slowing down, beady eyes locked onto her.

  “No… hurts… eats me?” The monster let out a wet snort, accompanied by a spatter of drool and small chunks of gore out of its gaping mouth. “Can’t, won’t… but…” Its tongue flicked the air in her direction, sending another spatter of drool her way. “Can eat you. Going to eat you.”

  A flicker of unease ran through Ginny, the not quite fear making its way past the ever-present shield of Survivor’s Will. The monster sounded different. More words, some of them even strung together into something that could be described as a distant relation to an actual sentence. Between that and glancing back to retort with more taunting, Ginny nearly wiped out when she ran into a chair, catching the edge directly on her already bloodied shins. She stumbled forward, letting out a hiss of pain. As she did she heard a wet sounding crack as the monster’s tongue tore through the air where her head had just been. Ginny desperately pivoted to the side, vaulting over a rack of bowling balls, her abused knees and shin protesting loudly as she landed heavily. She launched herself into another sprint, then backpedaled wildly, losing her footing briefly before barely managing to catch herself by grabbing the rack she’d just jumped over. She’d been entirely focused on drawing the monster as far from the door as possible, that she’d forgotten entirely around the small group that hadn’t joined the general stampede for the exit, the four people who had been bowling in the far lane.

  And they were still bowling. Ginny let out a choked-out gasp that managed to contain notes of shock, panic, and frustration all at once. “Are you serious!? What are you doing, get out of here!” She screamed at the four, who didn’t even look at her.

  “Gotta finish the game.” The one currently approaching the lane, ball in hand, did call back to her without turning around. Ginny shot a glance back behind her, expecting to see the monster almost on top of her. Instead, it had also stopped, and appeared to have lost interest in her, in favor of continuing to slurp down everything behind the snack bar that its tongue had crashed into after missing Ginny.

  “You… there’s a monster! He’s going to EAT you if you don’t get out of here now!” Ginny looked behind her. The monster was making quick work of everything behind the snack bar, its tongue ripping an entire deep fryer still full of popping and sizzling oil, out from the counter and dragging it back to its gaping maw, where it greedily sucked the contents down.

  “Gotta finish the game.” A different member of the bowlers repeated, the sole woman in the group, who was currently waiting, ball in hand, behind the man who was watching his ball roll down the lane.

  Before Ginny could keep arguing with the clearly insane group, a crash of metal from behind her indicated that the monster had finished its snack break, as it tossed the mangled fryer to the side and turned back toward Ginny. Its beady eyes flicked from her to the group of unconcerned bowlers, and its tongue flicked the air like it was tasting the idea of bumping Ginny down its menu priority.

  “Hey!” Ginny grabbed a bowling ball from the rack and hurled it at the monster. She’d been aiming for its beady eyes, but she’d fumbled with the finger holes on the ball, and it ended up slamming into the monster’s stomach with a wet sounding thud, like… well, like hitting someone in the stomach with a bowling ball. The ball bounced off the rolls of blubber there without even leaving a mark, and the monster glanced down at the ball in surprise. The next ball off the rack caught it in the jiggling mass where its neck would have been, and this time it looked up at Ginny with renewed annoyance, starting to lumber after her again.

  Ginny grabbed another ball off the rack even as she broke away from it, running back towards the food court and arcade areas, away from the bowlers, who continued their game without another word. I’m glad that throwing that shelf and grabbing the deputy wasn’t just one of those adrenaline things, like a mom lifting a truck off her baby. She hefted the bowling ball, which felt like it weighed no more than a softball in one hand, making sure she had a firm grip, before twisting around and hurling it at the monster’s head. Or if it is, I’m glad it hasn’t worn off yet.

  This ball flew true to target and smacked right into one of the monster’s beady eyes. It let out a grunt, although it still sounded more annoyed than injured. A blue screen flashed up in front of her vision to congratulate her.

  You have developed the skill: Throwing! Sometimes, you just have to go back to the basics. Forget a universe of advanced weaponry and powerful magic, you’ve elected to solve your problems by hurling rocks. With your hand. Like the absolute primitive you are. I’m sure this is gonna work out well for you in the future.

  Throwing: This skill allows you to throw objects with more accuracy and more force.

  Throwing now level 1!

  Quickly banishing the blue screen from her vision, though not before noting that the system seemed to be in a bit of a mood with the description it had sent her, Ginny turned in a clumsy stumble as she reached the opposite wall from the actual lanes, running past a door with a familiar stick figure sign on the front. She felt another pang of regret for not going and getting cleaned up before checking out the Depths Door in the storage room. A strained smile broke out on her face as she ran past and wondered if the monster chasing her would be willing to let her call a time-out to get cleaned up before they resumed their life and death game of cat and mouse.

  The smile faded off her face as she heard the squeak of the bathroom door’s hinges as it was hesitantly pushed open. Ginny twisted around, only managing to keep from losing her footing entirely and going down in a heap by catching herself against the cinderblock wall next to her, tearing open her palms as she did. The sting didn’t even register as she looked back, her heart stopping and dropping into the pit of her stomach, the rush of terror she felt completely ignoring Survivor’s Will.

  “Norah!”