6
A bird.
That was my first thought. I had made furry, many-headed bird. Then I noticed it didn’t have wings. Then it hissed and moved farther forward on the branches.
Fear curdled my intestines as my mind floundered, failing to find a way to put the horror into reasonable terms.
“Rat king!” I screamed. “It’s a rat king!”
The thing startled at the noise and swiveled its nine heads toward me.
That’s right. Nine freakin’ heads!
I stumbled backward, landing hard on my butt. I scooted back across the frozen ground as the thing undulated down the tree. It was worse than I had ever imagined, even after hearing the urban legends that give nightmares to every New York kid with a healthy self-preservation instinct. Nine rats joined together by a tangle of tails crept down the tree toward us.
