Monster Child

Chapter 5

The Final Reckoning

The experiment drove into me again and again. The throb and pulse of him buried in my body was purest carnal elation. I felt his engorged member lunge harder against me, the tip of that huge phallus penetrating so deep that it seemed to enter my very womb, and I felt that entire length convulse, felt my loins flooded with his seed.

Had the wooden framework not been holding me in place, I would have fallen down limp. My every nerve shook, my senses reeled. I rested my brow against a wooden brace, and closed my eyes, and saw my heartbeat flaring in bright lights behind the dark lids.

The seed had overflowed, coursing in slow, sticky trails down my thighs. The formidable member slipped out of me as he withdrew and thudded heavily to the floor with a squelching thump. I could not open my eyes. They felt leaden, my limbs slack, my entire being wrung with welcome exhaustion. Of course I knew of my mission and its urgency and the dire peril, but my sated body just wanted to rest and I could not keep my eyes open. I admit that I succumbed and slept.

I woke moments later as Tess created a flash of intense green light. I saw that the device had served me well but almost fallen apart under the repeated battering of the creature's hearty thrusts. The creature lay nearby, its glistening green bulk quivering on the smooth tiles. It was no longer an unnerving site now that we were so intimately acquainted. Tess was hovering overhead with a large jar of clear water. I blinked up at her.

"You must make haste, Karla. We must find your friend first and then confront whatever fresh horrors Carcescu throws at us. But do not delay. I am certain your friend is still alive."

These words jolted me into alertness. "Well quick, take me to him! Where are my clothes and weapons? How do we get out of here?"

"A wash first?" Tess shook the water jar.

"Just slosh it over me and I'll make do."

Tess did just that. The water was cold and smelled vaguely perfumed. Well being doused with cold water helped wake me fully as well as washing off the secretion. I hastily pulled on my clothes, not caring that I was still damp and my hair still sodden.

Tess dropped an obsidian blade onto the tiles beside my scimitar. "The blade of Disciple Fear. Such a weapon has an unusual deadliness. The blade can cleave through any flesh. You defeated him. The weapon is yours by rights."

"What would I want with such an accursed blade?"

"It can slay Carcescu, if any weapon can. I doubt your scimitar would do."

I nodded and gathered up both the weapons. Now I noticed a doorway leading into darkness.

Tess floated towards it. "The way out."

I turned to the glistening bulk lying nearby. To think we were lovers. I felt a giddy, unreal feeling.

"See if the seed has been sown. If it has, he will follow you," urged Tess.

"Come, please?" I beckoned to the creature and to my relief, the quivering mound began to shift and slide along the tiles, leaving a trail of bright green slime. I strode into the blackness and my new friends followed. I thought of what an interesting trio we made. We would rescue Addie from the terrible castle and everything would be alright again.

I emerged onto a wide marble floor, Tess hanging in the air beside me. There was a massive flop and squelch and the creature landed on the marble flagstones as well. There were slow burning torches set into braziers around the walls of the bare hall we stood in. Various archways led into total darkness. I gripped my scimitar as an all too familiar growling and gurgling broke the silence. Skeletons came lurching through the archways to the left, flailing as they hurled themselves towards us. There was a flash of light and Tess cast bolts of green lightning at the skeletons in quick succession, breaking open their skulls. They keeled over, one after the other, but another crowd of skeletons emerged though the archways to the right, coming straight towards me. I raised my scimitar, but the creature slithered past me and spat gobs of yellow-green slime at the boney zombies. When struck, each skeleton keeled over. Then the creature spewed a jet of the slime into the undead hordes that came lurching in from both directions and they all fell, gurgling and snarling and then lay still. So my new friends were more than a match for any number of skeletons. Would we have the edge against Carcescu?

Tess streaked ahead towards one of the archways. "A living human approaches. Announce yourself."

My heart leapt and I rushed forward after Tess yelling as I went: "Addie! Addie! I've come back to you and I've brought friends. Everything is going to be alright. We're with friends. Please answer. ANSWER!" My voice rose as I began to feel frantic. What if it wasn't him? But then I caught sight of him far down the passage that was now lit up by the iridescence of Tess' glowing form. It was Addie, but his face was stark white. My stomach clenched. What was going on?

I dashed forward, my damp hair streaming behind me and flung my arms around him. He was warm and his muscular form felt firm. I held him very tight aware of tears rolling down my cheeks.

"Alright Karla, I'm glad to see you too. That hurts, can you stop it now?" I had been hugging him a little too fiercely. I gazed at him. His face was coated in thick white powder. Some of it had rubbed off onto my hair and cheek.

"Before you ask, I found some old cosmetics and disguised myself as a zombie to fool Carcescu's brainless minions. Laugh if you will."

"I wouldn't laugh. That was very clever of you." Addie's fine features and strong jaw had always pleased me and intrigued me to see his handsome face covered in snowy white, like a second skin. I wanted to run my finger along his fine straight nose. I found his face more arresting than ever... "Don't you know how beautiful you are in a lady's makeup?" At the time I didn't realise how that sounded or how it could be interpreted.

"Enough of your jibes," he snapped, pulling away from me.

"It wasn't a jibe!" I protested, but he had gasped, his attention arrested by Tess who now hovered beside us, unblinking golden eyes staring.

"She is my friend and there is another coming down the passage. They are going to help us take Carcescu down." I gestured down the passageway and there was a squelching sound as the creature shifted his bulk towards us.

Addie's blue eyes widened in shock. "What in the name of – is that truly a creature?"

"Truly he is and he is our best chance at extinguishing Carcescu's infernal flame," said Tess. "Now we must make haste. The evil one has yet more foul contrivances to throw at us. We must not delay and we must not bicker. This is our one chance to strike."

I slipped my hand into Addie's. I would not let him go off unsupervised into danger again. Soon the dark stone passageway opened out into a wide stone arena with a sandy floor. The roof of the arena was open. It was night outside, clear and cloudless with tiny stars.

And then there was a terrible shriek. How do describe it? Like a nail scraping glass? A paralysing sense of dread filled me. The air seemed to grow bitterly cold. A powerful stench of putrefying flesh filled the air. There was a terrible hissing and wailing…

"Carcescu has summoned a third Dark Disciple from their world," said Tess, darting back and forth, her tone agitated. "She is here. A dark witch!"

Shadows gathered above the arena. And then they were cast aside as the horror within threw off her wrappings. We saw the ghostly outline of a shocking vision – a semi-decayed hag-like humanoid cloaked in darkness, desiccated skin stretched tight over a skull framed by a mass of filthy hair, no eyes, just empty sockets that burned with a hellish light, lips still preserved were now drawn back to reveal rotted fangs…

This apparition glared down at us, the fire of her eye sockets flaring. A blood curdling hiss sliced through our minds: "Greetingsss. I am pleassssed you have all ssurvived the horrorss already thrown at you tonight. Now I get the pleasssure of killing you all mysself. For there are sso many interessting waysss to die. I am Phobia and I am a dark witch and death cultisssst. You cannot begin to guessss how ssick I am, but I intend to ssshow you."

It was terrible, feeling that dreadful voice reverberating around my skull. And the foul stench... it was suffusing my very skin and making it crawl. With a great effort, I threw off the sense of suffocating terror and flung a morning star at the spectre, but it passed right through her. The creature had arrived behind us and he squirted a jet of slime at Phobia, but that had no effect on the ethereal fiend either. I glanced at Addie. He was completely paralysed by the spell of fear. He stood with his eyes wide and glassy and his mouth slightly open.

Phobia shrieked with demented laughter and then lunged at me, her festering fingers extending to a grotesque length, her filthy nails like claws…

But Tess formed a glowing green shield between us. Phobia gave a hiss of frustration and swiped at her with filthy nails. Tess gave a cry as the spectral claws seemed to tear into her, making rents in her luminescent form.

"Enough! We will take this into the spirit realm! Dear Karla, this is where we must part," cried Tess, her green radiance glowing intensely bright. Phobia shrieked and attempted to tear into her again, but the emerald light burned bright, burning away at the spiteful shadows and lighting up the whole arena. And then all lights were gone out. Phobia was gone, but so was Tess.

The air was warm again. The rotting stench had disappeared.

"Tess!" I called. No answer. "TESS!" I screamed, feeling hysteria rising within me. I was breathing hard, my heart thudding. Where was Tess? She couldn't be dead, could she? No, I would not accept it.

I turned to Addie who blinked, looking dazed. "I feel like I'm waking up from a nightmare," he managed. "So your friend took care of another Dark Disciple. You were right to trust the inhuman living creatures we've dealt with tonight. They've proven to be most helpful even though it cost them their lives."

At that moment a hissing roar sounded in the distance and then we heard the beating of great wings. A hellish light appeared above us and we saw Carcescu in demon form for the first time, a figure of bloody, malicious flames with fiery wings.

That terrible voice boomed forth once again: "I have not been exxiled from my world to be inssssulted by defianccce from ssssuch contemptible wormsss as yourselvesss. Now you are nothing but asshess and dussst."

At that the experiment surged forward and suddenly stood up as if engorged, a huge, fleshy pillar of glistening green.

The Carcescu-Demon lunged down, blasting forth blood-red fire. My stomach clenched and I pounced on Addie, pulling him onto the sand and out of the way of the gouts of flame. I could feel their heat as they blasted the sand nearby, turning it to glass.

And then there was a terrific, squelching explosion and Carcescu roared and gurgled. There was a terrible hissing sound, this time like the sound of extinguishing flames… "The filthy thing hassss dousssed my cleanssssing fire!"

I looked up and saw Carcescu standing in a pool of viscous yellow-green slime. The poor experiment had been killed and nothing else was left, but the pool of sludge. However, Tess had been right about his power. Carcescu was severely weakened. The demonic fires of the Dark Disciple were gone as were his wings of flame and he was revealed as a large, skeletal man with scaly skin that appeared burned a dark raw red, his eyes still smouldering from within like burning coals. He had terrible claws like a reptilian beast. His blackened lips drew back revealing rows of carnivore's teeth.

My heart still thudding I felt a steely resolve. The experiment's sacrifice would not be in vain. "It's up to us, dear. We must finish this."

Addie and I rose to our feet, weapons drawn.

"I unleashed the experiment. I made shocking love to him in an orgiastic celebration of life." Carcescu deserved to be provoked even more than Disciple Mortis. "There is no limit to how I would celebrate life. Can't you sense what's growing in me? Not exactly human, eh?"

"Filthy depraved monssstrosssssssity. I'll rend you limb from limb!" Carcescu roared in fury and lunged forward. I brandished the obsidian blade that had once belonged to Disciple Fear.

"Argh!" Carcescu stumbled. Addie had flung a morning star and it had found its mark and pierced the sinews behind Carcescu's mighty knee. My boy had succeeded in his target training! I felt a swell of pride, elated that I would not outshine him at marksmanship anymore. The horror turned his skull towards my sweet boy, but I was having none of it. Protecting him was what I wanted most. I lunged forward in the moment that Carcescu was distracted and drove the obsidian blade into the fiend's evil heart. As Carcescu expired he let out a gurgling growl that chilled my bone marrow, but it trailed off into nothingness as he fell to the sandy floor of the arena.

"You did it! Karla you genius, your bluff got the i***t worked up worse than Disciple Mortis!" Addie was elated. His white face paint was badly smudged, but he had never looked more beautiful than he did in this moment of triumph.

A rumble of thunder sounded overhead. A chill wind swept around us. How the wind howled. Like the howling of disembodied voices. Evil magic was at work. I recalled Rebecca's warning. There was only one way to truly kill Carcescu.

"It's not over, we've got to get back to the Earth Fires… somehow."

"I've found a route. But we must lose no time."

I retrieved the obsidian blade and we heaved and hoisted our fallen foe. He was a considerable weight. We staggered out of the arena and back into the dark passage, the lantern at my belt giving off its glimmering green glow that cast a pool of light at our feet. We turned off the main passage to a passage leading westwards which emerged into a grand room with a mosaic floor. Several other passageways led away from this room. It was just as well Addie knew where he was going. He turned to one of the passageways.

Then there came the sound of gurgling and shrieking in the distance.

"Zombies and skeletons. I don't think there is any way of fooling them this time," said Addie. I sensed forced calm in his voice. Encumbered with Carcescu we could not move swiftly.

"We'll get there." I hoped I sounded more confident than I felt.

This new passageway wound on and on. The sound of gurgling and growling in the distance grew louder. The undead hordes were advancing towards us. A forest green light glimmered at the end of the passage. We made towards it, as swiftly as such amateur pall bearers could, encumbered with a demonic carcass.

We emerged into a rough stone chamber. There was another teleportation pool. Bless Addie for finding out that it was the right one.

But then there was a horrible grunting and groaning and a huge zombie swathed in filthy bandages came lurching into the chamber.

I seized my lantern with one hand and flung it at the zombie. The wrappings immediately caught fire and it staggered around flailing and blundering into the walls.

"Now!" Addie cried and clutching hold of Carcescu, we jumped into the pool and felt ourselves whisked away by the green light once more…

Then we were deposited on a rocky plateau by the deep pit of the Earth fire, spanned by a stone bridge. A fiery glow emanated from the depths. We crept to the edge.

"Careful now," I urged.

And then with an icy surge of terror I felt Carcescu clutch at my arms hampering my movements. Those terrible eyes snapped open and glowed from within with a hellish light. We had taken too long. The evil one had regenerated!

Addie took the obsidian blade from my belt and hacked at the fiend's forearms. Carcescu hissed and relinquished my arms, falling with a thud to the rocky floor right by the edge. He was attempting to rise, but his movements were still sluggish. We both sprung forward pushing with all our might and then leapt backwards as Carcescu grabbed at us. The force of our shove had taken him to the very brink where he teetered and then fell.

A bloodcurdling roar issued from the depths below and the fires burned with a terrible heat. We staggered over the bridge and up through the winding tunnel, back into the ruins of the WaterBrain's cavern where Disciple Mortis lay buried and then we reeled out of the castle doors. Out in the open air again I collapsed into Addie's arms, my strength spent, sobbing as he held me close – at long last.