The scream didn’t stop. The Crawling Skin kept finding more air to push out of Seth’s mouth, squeezing it from his lungs like it was wringing water from a rag.
My instincts screamed at me to grab Nell and run. I reached out to her and then froze as I saw Kay’s legs give out in fear. Jason could barely stand too, weakened from bloodloss and malevolent Shapings. Stupid. I was wasting precious time, stuck in trying to figure out who I should save first.
Chase’s words felt like they were etched into my skull. You won’t be able to save them all.
Blood dribbled out of Seth’s mouth as the scream began to taper off. His eyes slid away from each other across his disassembling face. One eye, dilated to an inhuman extreme, settled on Kay.
The Crawling Skin pitched forward, limbs splayed out, like a baby wanting something out of reach. Kay screamed and scrambled backward.
“GO!” Nell yelled.
She flung herself onto my back and wrapped her arms around my neck. The surge of emotions through our connection broke through my looping thoughts and drove me into action. I dashed for Kay and lifted her up, Nell pushing strength into my muscles.
The Crawling Skin lurched forward again and I jumped out of reach before scooping up Jason in my other arm. I ran for the exit, passing the motionless pink body of the Worm. Extra weight I couldn’t afford.
I could hear the thing behind me, breathing irregularly, grunting and making strange sounds. Its limbs slapped against the floor, learning how to move. The hallway seemed much longer than before.
Nell’s power pushed out and I heard one of the metal slabs hanging from the ceiling slam down behind me, sealing it off.
“The ceiling-” I panted.
“Blocked it.”
Two more slabs closed behind me as I reached where the broken hallway ended and only open air remained.
The closest tree branches split open as new growths erupted from them, raising other parts of the manor up to reach us. I jumped to a room that was little more than a floating floor, the walls and ceiling had fallen away.
Landing with the extra weight made me stagger, teetering and spinning in a half-circle before I caught myself just in time to see Nell smash another piece of the manor into the one that housed the Crawling Skin. The air shook from the impact. Rubble and dust flew skywards and Nell began to wrap it all up in thorny brambles and vines.
Then Nell stopped what she was doing, the branches freezing in their growth.
“What?”
“It’s getting through the barriers,” she said, horrified.
How? There was no way even Seth’s Aberrant arms could tear through solid steel.
My answer came as a squelching sound sputtered out. Pink flesh oozed out from small compromises in the cocoon Nell had made, from gaps in the rubble no bigger than a hair.
The flesh became a flat mass and from it rose the twisted Shape that matched no human proportions. Like a doll that had been randomly reassembled by a child, the head emerged upside-down, the neck serving as a useless limb on its own, fingers had been sporadically assigned, curling like worms to inch the main mass of the Skin forward as limbs adorned with eyes like the eyestalks of a snail locked in on us. Seth’s wing had been plucked of its feathers, becoming just another tool to crawl with. Black smoke belched from a mouth whose teeth pointed inwards, intended to ensnare rather than eat.
It had stolen the Worm’s body and now was using their Shape.
“You have to jump again!” Nell yelled over the wind and thunder. More branches rose with their contributions, Nell trying to recreate the building that once kept this horror sealed. The tree’s stability was being compromised by all these fresh changes. I felt it swaying in the strong winds in a way it hadn’t before.
Reasserting my grip on Kay and Jason, I stepped out into the open air and dropped through an open window.
I slid on tilted floors, unable to stop myself while holding three people. Swinging doors were held open by gravity and my heels bounced off kitchen tiles. I could hear the limbs of the Skin beating a staccato rhythm into the ceiling, moving through the floor above us.
Wood protested and gave way, the Skin shaking the floor as it landed in front of me.
I kept sliding closer and its mouth widened, splitting the skin at each corner.
I scrambled for anything to stop myself. Kay’s nails clawed vainly on the floor and then she snagged onto a nearby table cloth.
The thing that was folded within it came tumbling out, revealing the lifeless body of Conrad.
Fuck. FUCK.
I leaped, unable to form Locust Legs in time. Half the clutching limbs followed me while the others went for Conrad. Kay threw the white table cloth out and it draped over the reaching limbs.
I landed on its body, eliciting a slick, wet sound. In the middle of jumping again, the cloth was ripped out from under me.
Manor walls whirled around, the still hanging paintings telling lies about which way gravity pointed. I careened through an open doorway and landed on my back. Rather, I landed on top of Nell. She wheezed out and lost her grip, tumbling down towards the corridor’s end where a fatal drop to the ground below awaited.
I let go of Jason and Kay, throwing myself down the corridor to catch up with Nell. She sensed me and stretched her arm out. My fingers closed around her wrist and I slammed my other arm, spikes of bone extended, into the carpet. Bits of a broken stairway smacked into me as they tumbled over the edge. Nell’s pulse beat frantically against my fingers as we came to a halt.
Jason had drawn a knife and plunged it into the thick carpet, slowing himself. Kay had landed on top of a grandfather clock that had gotten wedged between a light fixture and the wall.
My blood ran cold. The Crawling Skin was behind them. It had swollen in size, now encompassing the entire hallway, its flesh pressing against the walls. It had found more bodies to absorb and now flaunted more limbs, more teeth, more eyes. It barreled down the hallway, ripping up the walls as it caught on paneling and doorframes.
“Hurry!” I cried out.
Jason glanced behind and then released the knife. Kay rolled off of the clock and they both slid towards us.
I looked back for a second, trying to find a safe spot. There was another piece of the manor but the branch holding it was raising it too slowly, still several stories below.
No time.
The Crawling Skin let out another guttural scream as it gained ground on Kay and Jason. Soon the limbs would make the slightest bit of contact, brushing against skin and it would be all over.
Jason and Kay reached the end and I caught them and leapt backwards.
The Skin’s limbs flailed out into open space, trying to reach us.
We fell. Wind whistled in my ears. I could just barely see the approaching surface over my shoulder, through Nell’s hair.
I did my best to weather the landing. I really tried.
My back and head hit the floor. Stars exploded in my vision.
When they cleared, the world was doubled, swaying and wavering. Everyone lay sprawled out along the floor of the room, amidst ornately framed paintings. Or maybe the wall was the floor, came a dazed thought. There didn’t seem to be an angle I could hold my head at where the world made sense.
A huge mass shook the room as it landed. The frames of the paintings rattled as if they were afraid. A smell permeated my dull mind, like someone had turned the human body inside out. It was so horrible that my vision cleared a little.
The Crawling Skin dwarfed us. Its shape never settled, like it was constantly sifting through the spoils of its unholy theft. An eye swam across its bulk, half-lidded. Conrad’s. A terrible thought burbled to the surface, that Conrad could somehow still be present, living an endless nightmare.
It started to head towards Nell, sluggish but persistent as it groped around to find handholds to pull itself forward.
A terrible creaking sound grew louder each time the Skin shifted, the wood of the house and the supporting tree protesting in unison. Cracks began to form, before the floor began to separate into pieces, sending pictures falling into the abyss below.
I tried to stand and fell onto my side.
The Crawling Skin reached Nell first. Its limbs stretched over her head as she struggled to rise, ready to fall and devour her.
“HEY!” Kay shouted.
The Crawling Skin shuddered, skin rippling, features sliding across the surface as it reorganized to view her. Kay stood with trembling legs, waving her hands.
It was coaxed by her movements and approached slowly, huffing and groaning. Kay matched it, backing away slowly, her arms shaking. There was a healthy distance between them, even with the Skin’s reach.
But then it lunged and as it did its limbs unfurled, revealing that it had added length and joints. They slammed into the walls on either side, cutting off her escape.
Kay backed into the corner as the arms dragged along the walls, closing the trap. There was no way out.
Her eyes locked with mine.
“I don’t-” she said before the Crawling Skin touched her neck.
Kay’s body exploded into a thousand ebony butterflies, each as dark as the cloudy night, the sound of their wings like leaves rustling in a summer breeze. They flew away in every direction as if each had a separate purpose. A noise escaped my mouth as my hands grasped for even a single one of the fluttering fragments.
“Don’t leave…” I said.
My hands closed around a single one and it stung me fiercely. I held onto it just as fierce.
The branch and building reached a breaking point, the weight of the Crawling Skin proving too much, and it came to pieces.
I reached for Nell but we were all already falling.
I tumbled into the dark abyss.
Having failed to save anyone.