There was something in the dark, sitting on Claire's bed, staring at her with bright yellow eyes. It was vaguely humanoid, a head, two arms relaxed in its lap ending in hands that ended in fingers that were too long to be human. It seemed to have legs, or at least two appendages that protruded from what appeared to be a humanoid torso. It had a neck which terminated in a head, a head that was oddly shaped with hollow eyes and a wide, too wide, mouth filled with too many teeth.
Claire couldn't move, wasn't sure she should move, under that thing's gaze. It didn't blink, just sat on the end of her bed and watched her in the darkness, grinning. It didn't move for what seemed like forever, finally leaning forward and opening its mouth as if to speak. Claire feared that whatever the creature had to say would be the last thing she ever heard, and that when it was done telling her whatever secret it wanted to reveal to her that she would beg for the sweet mercy of a slow and painful death.
It didn't get the chance. I wasn't going to give it that chance. I burst from the closet, my good friend Ted behind me bellowing at the top of his lungs, and I swung the baseball bat I held in both clenched fists, an old-style solid wood Louiville Slugger, with all of the force my meager muscles could summon and cracked the monster on the side of the head just as it twisted its head in rage and alarm to face us.
There was a noise like a crash of thunder and my arms went numb from the force of the blow. When I looked up to see the creature it looked more annoyed than anything, and the solid chunk of broken wood that had once been a bat fell from my nerveless fingers. The noise that came out of my throat at that moment was something between a whimper and a gurgle as I fought back vomit.
I heard Ted curse behind me as he slammed into my back, his momentum making me stumble forward just in time for the monster to stand up. It reached out and wrapped a hand around my throat, choking off my cries as those over long fingers encircled my neck and cut off my air supply. It hissed and pushed both of us back with little effort, pinning me to Ted and Ted to the wall.
"You..." it hissed, dark slime dripping from its maw, "We've seen you, both of you."
It began to laugh as it squeezed and my eyes bulged. My left hand grasped at its wrist while the right dug into my pocket, trying desperately to grip onto the small object inside.
"Get it, man," Ted tried to whisper in my ear, "Stick him, c'mon!"
I rolled my eyes just in time for the creature to grab my other wrist with its free hand and pull my hand out of my pocket. It looked at what I held and laughed again, its gruesome chuckle full of derisive mirth.
"Dammit, Ted," I muttered, or would have. It actually came out as, "Gasp, wheeze,"
The monster held my wrist in an iron grip and locked its eyes on mine as it shook the pocket knife loose from my hand. The tiny blade hit the carpet with a dull thud.
"If the bat didn't do the trick, you thought a penknife would solve the problem?" it asked maliciously.
I gurgled a reply, Ted cursed and tried to push me off of him, and the creature just laughed again, "We are eternal," it began, a familiar, infuriating smugness creeping into the rasp of its voice, "We have been here since man first woke, and we will be here until the last of you dies. You are a fool, and more than that, you are a dead man."
I glared at it, rage filling my mind. I hated these things, these monsters, with their superiority complexes, playing games and thinking it's okay to use people as pawns. I'd rather have been at home, playing Xbox and getting baked with Ted, but I just couldn't stand to let these bastards keep winning.
Behind me, Ted was silent, in an uncharacteristic show of solidarity for my own forced muteness I assumed at the time. The thing holding me kept monologuing, and I kept staring at it with laser focused hate, so only Ted wasn't caught off-guard when Claire came up behind the monster and jammed the pointed end of the broken slugged into its spine.
It shrieked, not in pain but in rage, and backhanded the girl, launching her across the room and slamming her into the other wall, which caused a family photo to crack and fall off to the floor alongside her. The change in the creature's center of gravity gave Ted the wiggle room he needed, and he dived to the floor, grasping the penknife quickly and tossing it toward my free hand, already open.
I grinned as well as I could as it landed in my palm, and I brought it down on the monster's forearm just as it turned back to face me. This time, there was pain.
The wound, small as it was, sizzled and burned as I dug the two-inch knife into the meat of its arm, and it was forced to let go of me. I ripped the blade free and gasped for breath, while the monster cradled its wounded arm and looked at me with a combination of surprise and fear.
"What..." it hissed, "What sort of...what is that!?"
I brandished the knife and stepped forward, "Come find out," I said, taunting it.
Ted laughed, "Osmium, bitch!," he screamed, invalidating my badass moment, "400 dollars an ounce, but worth every fuckin' penny!"
Looking to Ted, then back to me, then down to the knife, the monster took a step back, "This isn't over," it said, fading into the shadows, "Not at all."
When it left, I dropped the knife, "Ted, check on Claire," I said, slumping back against the wall and slowly sliding to the floor, "Make sure she isn't dead. Fuck."
He did as I asked and I leaned my head against the wall. That was close, and we'd survived, but it hadn't been the plan. We'd have to be better prepared next time, though I wasn't sure how we could get more prepared than an osmium plated knife. Fuck, I hated this job, and I knew for sure it wasn't over. Creatures like that don't leave empty threats.
I closed my eyes, exhausted. The whole thing had happened over the course of maybe ten or fifteen seconds, but it felt like a year at least, "Ted," I said, my voice already thick, "Get her...get her to the hospital if she needs it. I'm just...I'm just gonna take a nap."
Ted said something back to me, but I didn't hear it. I was already starting to dream.
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