It took a long time for Nikki to wear herself out, to mercifully shut down. He guided her to a chair, the chair Ryker had slept in the night before, rapidly decaying from the fatal damage to his face.

“I’m going to check on Kate; then I’m going to help get you cleaned up.”

Her eyes flicked over his shoulder and went wide.

He turned back.

The creature stood on the other side of the glass door, glowering at them. More of its fur had fallen out, revealing rotting flesh. He couldn’t see the top of its head, and its width took up the entire doorway.

Buttons sat, staring at the monster. His tail wagged a few times. Then he turned away to join Kate on the bed.

Andrew spied the curtains in a mangled heap on the floor.

He couldn’t function with that thing looking at them. That way lay ruination.

“Just look away,” he said to Nikki. She shut her eyes, covering her face with her crimson hands for good measure.

Andrew grabbed the box spring and pushed it across the floor toward the door. The creature watched him, its jaundiced eyes and broken face unreadable. As he covered one of the doors, he saw the rifle on the ground outside. He’d completely forgotten it.

Ryker’s head is somewhere near there too.

He covered his mouth with his fist as an acidic burp promised more bile to come.

“Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck.” Nikki rocked in her seat, hands covering everything but her mouth.

He used a blanket to cover the other glass door, blocking their view of the creature and vice versa.

It doesn’t need to see us to know exactly what’s going on, he thought, staring at Kate. Its eyes and ears have always been with us.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Kate awoke gasping for air.

Something was in her throat. Something large and wet and matted with hair and tasting as foul as old sewage in the hot sun. She didn’t dare swallow. If she did, it would slide further within her.

But she needed to breathe. Each attempt to snatch a lungful of air pushed the grisly lump deeper and deeper down.

Oh God, kill me!

As she floundered on the mattress, her violent actions startled Buttons, who jumped up, barking. She got tangled in the sheet, wondering if and when she was going to get her next breath.

A pair of rough hands latched on to her arm.

“Just calm down and breathe. That’s right, honey, let yourself breathe.”