I Am Chosen

Disappearing Act

The thing stepped past the threshold, lowering the hood with its right hand. It was Declan, but he was no longer hiding his aberrant left limb- it had ripped the sleeve of the pea coat to tatters, and had grown long enough that the squirming tentacle-digits nearly touched the floor. Declan's left leg had grown in circumference, straining against the jeans, and what looked like two large but short claws had punched through the filthy left boot. The face was still Declan's face, but the eyes were almost entirely red, with tiny black pupils.

Kacey pocketed her cell phone and withdrew a Taser. Hollis still had ahold of the journal as Kacey moved away from the table, gripping his sleeve and guiding him toward the staircase nearest to them, leading to the library's second floor. "Get up the stairs," she said. For a second Hollis was frozen, staring. The Declan-thing took two more steps inside, its thick left leg thumping solidly on the wooden floor. "Go!" Kacey said. "I'm right behind you."

From just under fifteen feet away, Kacey fired the Taser's probes, which latched onto the lapel of the Declan-thing's coat. Fifty thousand volts shot through the conductive wires and into its body. Whereas any human being would have immediately gone rigid and dropped, this attacker simply took another step forward. The tentacles of its left limb whipped around and snagged the wires, yanking the Taser from Kacey's grip.

The digits worked the wires inch by inch, reeling in the weapon. Kacey ran to the stairs as the Declan-thing's segmented digit and the claw-thumb crushed the Taser and ground it to fragments.

Hollis was halfway up the stairs, journal in his left hand, backup gun in his right, aimed at the intruder. Kacey backed up to the stairs, one hand on the rail. The thing moved with sudden purpose, closing the distance. Hollis fired over Kacey's shoulder, a perfectly-aimed shot. The attacker's head jerked backward from the bullet that struck its forehead dead center.

The Declan-thing smiled, and continued to the stairs.

"Go, go, go!" Kacey commanded. Hollis reached the second floor walkway, followed closely by Kacey. The two hurried as the intruder leaped to the top of the stairs. As Kacey and Hollis ran to the far end of the walkway and started down to the bottom floor, the Declan-thing hurtled itself forward.

Hollis and Kacey hit the first floor and ran for the doorway. On the other side, Kacey nearly ran headlong into Valerie. "You have an intruder," Kacey blurted as Hollis shut the door. "Call the police. Now! Go!"

Hollis then followed Kacey around, past the glass door and back to the hallway with the orange cone. At the end of the hall they heard the wooden door being destroyed-the attacker hadn't even bothered to open it. "Hey!" Kacey shouted, kicking the cone aside and stepping into the hall. "Here! You want us?"

The Declan-thing appeared at the end of the hall and hesitated for only a second before charging. When its thick, deformed leg struck the weakened section of floor there was a loud groan and a splintering of wood as the attacker disappeared, its writhing tentacles flailing briefly before whipping out of sight.

The floor beneath Kacey and Hollis shook with the thing's impact. "Come on," Kacey said, heading toward a nearby set of stairs.

The stairs let out into a large hall. To their left was a closed door. Opposite the stairs was a wine cellar and to their right, a doorway. Between them and the doorway was a ragged, gaping hole in the ceiling and debris on the floor. "What the hell are we gonna do if we find him?" Hollis asked. Kacey shrugged. "Try to lead him out of here, I suppose."

"Check the door," Kacey said, indicating the closed door as she walked across to the wine cellar. She stepped in. There were rows and rows of bottles here, but the room was only a few hundred square feet-small enough for her to make a quick search, turning up nothing. "The door was locked," Hollis said from the entrance.

That left the doorway at the end of the hall. Hollis led the way, journal tucked under his left arm, backup gun held out before him even though it would clearly do them no good.

They proceeded past the threshold into a room that was easily twice the size of Kacey's apartment. Inside were three pool tables, a foosball table, some arcade standups, skee ball, air hockey, a dart board... this place put the man cave in Rhonda White's house to shame. Kacey and Hollis performed a quick search but there weren't really any places to hide. The only thing minutely out of place was a dart laying on the floor near the board.

"We gotta go before the police get here," Hollis said. His mouth quirked and he shook his head adding "There's something I never thought I'd say."

He was right, they had to go. As Kacey followed him back out into the hall she couldn't stop wondering just how in the hell Declan Crowe had seemingly vanished into thin air.

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Hope you all had a great week! It's been a rollercoaster for me, but such is life. Ups and downs, and sometimes you just have to roll with the punches. How long can Hollis and Kacey roll with the punches? Keep checking in to find out!