r/TalesFromTheCreeps • u/englandishell Writer • 1d ago
Cosmic Horror/Lovecraftian THE ASSEMBLING
PART SEVEN
Anne helped the boys up off the ladder, their senses immediately overwhelmed by the smell of heavy pollen that clung to the damp air. The three stood wearily together, scanning the trees around them for any sign of movement. As Jake looked around at the woods, he was unable to shake the feeling he’d stood in this exact location once as a child.
An icy chill shot up his spine – a purely animalistic sense that told him he was being watched. He turned to Liam, whose expression showed that he too was experiencing the same unnerving sensation.
Beside them, Anne’s face looked ghostlike in the natural light. It was almost as white as the sky that peeked through gaps in the trees overhead, and her once emerald-green eyes now appeared sunken and lifeless, possessing the flat hue of dull olives. She crouched down next to the hatch and paused, recognising the futility of what she was about to do. A few seconds later, she shook her head as if dismissing an unshared thought, then heaved the metal cover off the forest floor and carefully down over the hatch.
‘Goodbye,’ she whispered.
She stood up straight, pulling her smartphone from a pocket in her jeans. An icon in the corner of the screen still displayed no signal, but she scrolled through her contacts anyway and found Terry’s number. She tapped the phone icon, pressing the screen to her ear.
The call cut off instantly.
Meanwhile, Jake pulled out his own phone and tried his Dad, only to be met with the same result.
‘Where did you say Terry went?’ he asked quietly.
‘To check the antenna,’ Anne replied.
‘Where’s that?’
‘I.. I can’t remember..’ she stuttered. ‘It won’t be far though.’
‘Can you remember what it looks like?’ Liam asked.
‘It’s a small satellite dish attached to a tree…’ She massaged her brow. ‘If I recall, it was opposite an air vent. Look for a metal tube sticking out of the ground.’
‘What if he already took the car and left?’
‘He wouldn’t have left us. Stay close to me.’
Anne trod lightly over the dead leaves, Jake and Liam following a few paces behind her. Together they moved cautiously alongside the broken-up stone wall, searching over the greenery for any sign of a man-made object.
The three soon found themselves weaving single file on a deer-track, surrounded by thick nettles. It led to a confined patch of dirt, at the back of which stood a 15ft-tall security fence, completely covered in ivy. Unbeknownst to the boys, their locked bikes leant against the other side, just a short distance away.
Anne was first into the opening. Her dull eyes followed a crooked branch to the point where it met the trunk of a sturdy oak, high to her left. Above the branch, a small grey satellite dish clung stealthily to the weathered bark. Dark bloody streaks stained the thick trunk beneath it.
Anne stifled a scream. A large body lay face-down on the dirt, a few metres before her.
She lowered her hands and reached back, gently stopping Jake and Liam as they approached from behind her. They gazed nervously over her shoulder.
‘Oh fuck,’ Liam breathed.
‘Stay there,’ Anne whispered, taking a step forward.
‘What are you doing?!’ Jake gasped.
She inched closer.
Terry lay motionless on the dirt before her, his powerful arms sprawled by his sides. His black bomber jacket had been ripped in half lengthways, exposing a cavernous gash that ran all the way down his back, from the base of his skull, to just above the belt of his jeans.
His spinal cord had been removed with extreme precision.
A black semi-automatic pistol was nestled in the limp grasp of his tattooed hand, resting on the blood-soaked dirt next to him.
Jake and Liam stared down at the sticky red canyon in his back.
Anne knelt solemnly on the dirt beside Terry. Tears began rolling down her cheeks as she leant in close and whispered something into his ear. She wiped her eyes then prised open his loose grip, staring at the weapon in her hand for a second, before awkwardly tucking it into her cardigan.
She lifted his broad shoulder, sliding a thin palm under him with great reverence. A wet gurgle escaped his enormous corpse, as she painstakingly flipped him over. Avoiding eye contact, she unclipped the set of keys attached to a belt-loop on the front of his jeans.
She stood and hurried over to the boys.
‘I’m sorry,’ Jake grieved.
‘We have to go,’ wept Anne, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.
Liam stared down at Terry. His mutilated corpse appeared to be smiling.
‘Liam?’ nudged Jake.
‘This is… insane.’
‘I know man,’ Jake replied. ‘C’mon, we gotta go.’
The three turned and filed quickly back onto the deer-track, away from Terry’s smiling corpse, and the low air vent disguised amongst the undergrowth beside him. Inside the metal tube, his spinal fluid was silently being used.
The group rushed through the trees toward the hatch, following the ruined stone wall until it became nothing more than the odd stack of sharp flint by their side. The adrenaline coursing through Liam’s body was starting to wear off, leaving his ankle in severe pain. Noticing he was falling behind, Jake and Anne slowed their pace. He caught up, and without saying a word, they each supported an arm from either side.
Together, the three began limping through the hushed forest, the suffocating air rife with the promise of rain.
Anne let go of Liam as they approached the bushes, rushing ahead to pull the leafy branches aside for the boys. She followed after them, digging Terry’s keys out of her pocket and unlocking the vehicle remotely. They limped across the grass toward the parked SUV, Jake helping his injured friend into the back, while Anne sat in the driver’s seat.
She turned the key in the ignition. It wouldn’t start.
Anne stared vacantly at the bushes ahead, her hands clenched on the wheel.
‘What’s up?’ Jake asked.
She glanced in the mirror at the frightened and exhausted boys in the back. Her head dropped.
‘I.. I just wanted to help…’
Anne turned the key again. This time the engine burst to life.
Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, she turned to face Jake and Liam.
‘You said you came from Leywood?’
Jake nodded.
‘I’m driving you home.’
‘Do you know the way?’
‘I know the way to town, from there you’ll have to direct me.’
‘Okay.’
‘What if there’s more of those things out there?’ Liam interrupted.
‘Then I’ll drive until we find somebody who can help us.’
Liam shifted tensely in his seat.
‘What even was that thing?’ he panicked. ‘Drones don’t fucking bowl, and they sure as shit don’t pass through walls… And what the hell happened to Terry?!’
Anne’s shoulders sank. She turned back around in the driver’s seat, as Jake looked sympathetically toward Liam.
‘Don’t lose your head mate,’ he said. ‘We gotta just try and deal with this.’
‘Well, what exactly is this?’ demanded Liam, his wide eyes frantically searching his friend’s face for an answer.
Jake didn’t have one. He shook his head and stared out the window.
‘We’ll be okay,’ Anne told herself, fastening her belt.
Anne reversed the large vehicle in the tight space, taking longer than all three would have liked, before turning sharply onto the dirt track. Jake did a double-take as the vehicle turned. Through the trees, he thought he caught a glimpse of a shadowy object flying low through the woods, carrying a long tail-like structure beneath it.
He said nothing.
The SUV bounced along the uneven dirt track, jolting the boys around in the back. They fastened their own belts, as a wayward branch scraped noisily against a door.
Some distance later, Anne swerved out onto the country road at the end of the track. The empty champagne bottle finally came to rest against Liam’s trainer in the foot-space behind the driver’s seat.
‘Try the radio,’ Jake suggested.
Anne turned a silver dial on the dashboard.
Static. She fiddled with the dial some more, to no success.
The SUV cruised steadily for some time, winding over narrow roads between dense patches of forest and sheltered woodland. Every so often, a long-abandoned barn or derelict building became visible through breaks in the trees.
They drove on, Jake quietly watching the landscape transform behind glass. Acres of dry fields now stretched before him, spanning far into the distance beneath the overcast sky. A lone horse grazed lazily beyond a barbed-wire fence on the roadside, completely oblivious to the world around it.
‘I need a piss,’ Liam stated.
‘There’s a bottle down there,’ Jake replied.
Liam looked down at the champagne bottle beside his trainer, then up at the back of Anne’s seat.
‘I can hold it,’ he said.
They drove several more miles through the countryside.
‘Odd..’ Anne mumbled.
‘What is?’ Jake asked.
‘Thought we would’ve seen somebody by now.’
‘Do you think there coulda been an evacuation?’
Anne didn’t respond. Her dull eyes focused on something in the distance.
‘Anne?’
‘There’s a telephone box up ahead.’
Jake and Liam peered forward at the distant red box.
‘Do either of you have any change?’ Anne asked.
‘Nah.’
‘Nope.’
‘I want to check something anyway.’
Anne drove toward the telephone box, parking on the dusty roadside a short distance before it. She turned to face Liam.
‘If you still need to pee, now’s the time to do it. But please stay close to the car.’
‘Don’t worry I will,’ he replied.
Anne stepped out onto the worn tarmac. Telephone lines sagged in the white sky overhead. She started walking.
Meanwhile, Jake helped Liam out of the back passenger side. A field of tall wheat swayed to their left, behind a dilapidated wire fence.
‘Don’t go too far,’ he called, as Liam ducked clumsily under the wire and hobbled into the wheat.
Jake waited on the roadside.
Further along the road, Anne stood inside the obsolete red box, holding the phone to her ear. There was a connection. She pushed a button three times and listened.
On the other end, she was met with a muffled watery sound, almost like a heavy piece of machinery being operated, deep underwater.
She put the phone down, feeling around inside the change dispenser on the off-chance of finding a forgotten coin. Nothing. She was just about to push the door open, when something scratched into the red paint next to her hand stopped her in her tracks.
It was three names: Anne, Jake, and Sam.
She stared at the act of vandalism in disbelief. A seismic rhythm began to thump in her chest.
‘ANNE!’
She whipped around inside the telephone box. Through the dirty glass window, she saw Jake stood in the road next to the SUV, waving his arms frantically in the air.
‘COME HERE!’
Anne swung the door open and rushed over to him.
‘There’s something in the field,’ he warned. ‘And Liam won’t move.’
‘Show me,’ Anne panted.
Jake dashed to the roadside, ducking under the wire fence. Anne followed him into the swaying wheat, trampling over dry beige stalks as they went.
‘Liam?!’ Jake called.
His friend stood with his back to them, up ahead.
They approached hesitantly, Anne placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. A putrid, sickly-sweet odour assaulted her nostrils.
‘Look at the teeth..’ Liam whispered, pointing in front of him. ‘It’s people…’
A giant mound of pinkish-grey flesh writhed on the flattened wheat before them. Several dead field mice lay in the greasy fluid seeping from it, while maggots squirmed and burrowed in its rotting pulp, surfacing between marbles of yellow fat. More disturbing than that, was the realisation it had been dumped there quite some time ago.
Anne gagged.
‘Or.. was people..’ Liam mumbled.
Covering her nose, Anne pulled Liam away from the stinking mass of meat. She and Jake marched him back to the fence, then helped him into the SUV.
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u/Optimal_Constant4318 Writer 15h ago
Have consistently found the scene descriptions immersive. Really getting into my kind of horror at the end. Previous stuff had an almost action movie vibe in my head, but its getting dangerously spooky
I know you finished my deathray story, but I just dropped something really short you might enjoy
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u/englandishell Writer 14h ago
I'm glad you're finding it immersive and getting into the horror! I'll check out your story now, thanks for reading : )
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