The inky creature, a dozen tendrils waving outwards from its base, sent a shock of terror through Kala. It towered over her, and suspended from its top was the body of one of the middle-aged women who had returned with Stanos. The body hung limply, arms and legs swinging like a ragdoll’s as the creature moved. Only her head seemed alive; it was held upright and was twitching from side to side, following the action of the room.

The creatures need our eyes to see, Kala realised. That’s why the monster inside Stanos wasn’t able to follow me out of the lab—he’d destroyed Stanos’s human body and couldn’t see.

The corpse’s head rotated to look at them, the blank eyes wide and unblinking as the lips curled into a sneer.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Vivian swore as one of the tendrils shot towards them. It was fast, but Vivian’s reflexes were faster. She’d already raised the nozzle of her flamethrower and pulled the trigger. Fire spurted from its tip, shooting fifteen feet forward before licking upwards in a plume of black smoke. The tendril hit the flame, and a noxious odour and an ear-splitting shriek filled the room.

The limp body’s mouth had opened wide to emit the wail. The partly human scream also held something very, very unnatural—deep, harsh, and gutturally horrible.

Kala felt her trance break. She dove towards the three people behind the table and pressed her remaining flamethrower into the closet one’s hands. “Guns won’t hurt it,” she gasped, pulling grenades out of her pockets and passing them to the other two people. “Fire will.”

Vivian was slowly advancing on the creature, swivelling her flame to hit any tendrils that tried to reach her. The scream was increasing in volume and pitch as more and more of the arms were burnt, and while the rest of the woman’s body hung limp on its black master, the face was twisted into a snarl of pure fury. Kala couldn’t understand why Vivian was trying to get closer to the beast until she saw the small white box attached to the wall behind it.

“Ah,” she said, feeling dread and horror build in her as she stared at the communication unit. “Crap.”

“What?” the woman beside her asked.

Kala thought her face was slightly familiar. Had they eaten breakfast together one morning? Wasn’t her name Julie or Julia or something similar?

“I need to get to the comm box.”

The woman glanced at where Kala indicated and nodded. She was pale, but she slung the flamethrower’s backpack over her shoulders. “Right. Let’s go.”

She leapt out from the shelter of the table and moved to stand beside Vivian. Kala followed, feeling incredibly vulnerable with empty hands, and hung just behind the two women as they advanced on the creature.

Its arms moved with terrific speed, smashing chairs across the room and smacking indents into the walls. Kala ducked as the leg of a flying chair grazed her back. The two women in front of her kept moving forward, getting closer to the monster’s body.