Chapter 10
Shelly Too
Scotty lurched around the cabin, Shelly still clinging to him, apparently determined to remove his face from his head. Ash scanned the room, panicked to find something he could use to help his friend. His eyes rested on the wrecked shelf, the primeval dagger, even the axe Scotty had been using to chop wood just hours before. Scotty had bigger problems however. He finally loosened Shelly's grip on his neck and viciously head butted her in the face. She fell backwards and Scotty used this leverage to shove her off of him. Shelly tumbled, right into the burning fire. She screamed and writhed in pain on the hearthstones as the smell of burning flesh and hair filled the room. "He-Help me!" She screeched in Shelly's voice. "Help me!"
Scotty gasped as he reached out and grabbed Shelly's feet, pulling her out of the fire.
"Thank you" the thing-that-really-wasn't-Shelly whispered mockingly to Scotty in a warped, evil voice "I don't know what I would have done, if I had remained on those hot coals, what would happen to my pretty flesh" Scotty knelt down beside her. Most of the hair and skin on the upper left side of her face was gone, burnt away. "My pretty skin" She reached out to grab Scotty. "Let me have some of yours!" She started to strangle him. All this time, Cheryl was pounding on the cellar door, as if trying to rip it off of its hinges. This just added to the pandemonium.
Scotty gasped for breath as Ash ran across the room to pry Shelly off of him. Shelly backhanded him powerfully and didn't even glance in his direction as, for the second time in as many hours, he smashed into a shelf, causing it to collapse on top of him. "Join us!" Shelly screamed, pushing Scotty towards the fire "Join usss!" Ash struggled to free himself, pushing the wooden shelf off. Scotty screamed as Shelly, one hand still gripping Scotty's throat, drew the Candarian dagger. The spinal sheath fell away, revealing a long, sharp blade, still gleaming despite centuries of neglect. She raised the weapon over her head, thrusting it towards his chest. Scotty caught the blade, prolonging his life for the moment, but his strength was ebbing away against Shelly's supernatural strength. In an act of desperation, he reached into his pocket, pulling out his penknife. He brought it high and stabbed it into the wrist of Shelly's dagger-hand. Shelly screeched as the knife drew blood, thick, viscous black blood. Ash had finally managed to get up and was holding the axe. He rushed towards the gruesome pair, ready to do the unthinkable. He stopped as his grip on the axe weakened. Shelly had stopped writhing in pain and was holding her injured hand, which now apparently had no feeling in it, up to her mouth. She bit down chewing at her own flesh. Ash couldn't take this, he cried out in disgust and horror, but was unable to look away. Shelly continued to gnaw away at her ravaged limb, blood and pus rolling from her mouth. Scotty backed away from her, pushing himself along the ground, away from the disgusting spectacle. The last of Shelly's wrist bone broke, letting her tear the rest off, blood squirting from the ragged stump. Ash stood rooted to the spot, hugging the axe like a teddy bear, feeling like he was going to puke. As the amputated hand, still clutching the dagger, fell to the ground, Scotty grabbed it, prying the cold, dead fingers off. He swing around and stabbed it through her back, the blade going straight through her and poking out the other side. Shelly moaned and screamed, fumbling with the knife in her back. She keeled over, spasming. Ash still just stood there, shifting his weight from foot to foot. Shelly was lying on the floor, still howling. Scotty stood up as white pus spewed from her mouth and stump. The two guys both could do little but stare. Finally, she stopped writhing and was still.
Silence crept back into the cabin. Scotty looked up from his mangled girlfriend at Ash as he shot him a "Feel-free-to-step-in-any-time" look. Ash disregarded it, still staring at the mutilated corpse, gripping the axe with white knuckles. Scotty slowly walked around her body, feeling guilt, disgust, sadness and then fear as Shelly sat up and grabbed him by the neck again. Apparently, she wasn't dead. Cheryl burst into laughter. Scotty tore free from her grip, moving backwards towards Ash. "Hit her!" he yelled at his friend, the one holding the axe. "Hit it!" he screamed. Ash was backed up against the wall, unable to move. Scotty grabbed the axe from Ashley's hands, charging forward, swinging it high over his head and bringing it down on his possessed girlfriend. The force of the blow sent Shelly to her knees, blood oozing down her shirt from the axe imbedded in her shoulder. Scotty wrenched it free, swinging it again. Again. Again. The pounding of axe, through flesh, on wood echoed through the cabin. Blood sprayed from her like the worlds most unpleasant sprinkler. Garbled screams came from Shelly until her head was shorn from her body. Ash stared in horror at his friend, a look of terror overshadowed by a look of grim determination as he pounded away at her like a block of wood. The swinging continued long after the last of Shelly's dismembered body parts stopped writhing. "Stop…" Ash muttered as Scotty still continued to swing, a blank look on his face. "STOP!" he screamed at Scotty. Scotty stopped. "Stop…" Ash said, collapsing to his knees. "Stop."
Scotty dropped the axe, shocked at what he had just done, what he had just been doing. "Scott" Ash said weakly, trying to find the will to speak. "Yeah?" Scotty replied, sounding distant, trying to be calm. "W-what is- What're we gonna do?" Ash trembled. Scotty turned to his shaken friend. "We're gonna bury her." He said firmly. She deserved at least that, a proper burial. "We, we can't bury Shelly. She's-She's a friend of ours-" "Ash she's dead!" Scotty shouted, breathing heavily. He stared at the grisly heap of body parts. "Shelly's dead." Ash couldn't look at either of them. "We gotta bury her now."
Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead! Good times at the cabin in the woods. This just may be the most graphic thing I've ever written. Ash's a bit of a wimp here, but I'm sure that'll change. Review, explore, be happy.