It sniffed its bloody finger and grunted. Then it looked at the knife again.

With lightning reflexes, it grabbed hold of Nikki’s head, lifting it from the floor, and bashed it so hard, it exploded. Nikki’s skull cracked open, brains and blood gushing from the jagged cavity, squirting across the floor like spilled stew.

Andrew gagged when he saw a glob of gray matter on his chest.

Still holding the remains of her skull, the creature flung her body across the room. She hit the dining room wall and tumbled out of Andrew’s sight.

Turning its back to him, the monster walked through the debris that had once been a charming cottage, stepping out of the gaping hole it had created when it came charging in. Kate’s body swayed from side to side with each massive step. Buttons looked to Andrew with his dark, sad eyes and chose to follow the beast, to stay beside Kate.

Andrew shook the black spots from his vision and followed. His feet went out from under him when he stepped in Nikki’s gore. Sliding in blood and gray matter, he hurried to his feet, leaving bloody footprints leading to the chasm that was the front of the house.

By the time he made it outside, his decimated car still there, a portent of what was to come, the monster, Kate, and Buttons were gone.

But he could hear it stalking away. With each footfall, there came a deep, labored wheeze.

Andrew entered the dark canopy of trees, following his ears and nose – for it smelled more vile than ever – guiding him to Kate and, most likely, his own death.

* * *

Kate had never fully understood the phrase making your skin crawl until now.

The thing reeked of suppurating disease.

Is this what I’m like inside? she thought. Is this the smell of the diseases that have ruined my life?

Her face brushed against a purple boil on its back. If the boil popped, she knew she would lose her mind for good. This close to its body, she could hear the churning of its lungs and all of the mucus and sludge roiling around its bellows.