Chapter 6

The remnants of the child's body jerked roughly as the creature pulled out a chunk of meat from its small throat with a pair of carnivorous jaws, a thick ripping sound followed by the crunch of neck bones breaking echoing through the sewers. Barely chewing the flesh, the creature swallowed down the chunk of meat quickly, licking its lips to lap up some of the shredded skin that hung loosely from its mouth, not bothering with the mixture of saliva and blood that had dribbled down its lips and chin in the process.

The child had been dead for close to an hour now, but the creature could still taste the fear that had rolled off his small, defenseless form with each delicious bite.

Thomas walked down the town sidewalk, tossing his football up with a spin at face-level before easily catching it and repeating the motion. He had been out most of the afternoon with his friends in the park and was looking forward to going home and having a good meal before it got too dark; he was never one to stay out late.

There was a light rustling as the wind passed through the trees lining the road, a bright orange-pink coating the buildings as the sun descended further towards the horizon. Most of the streets were emptying out as the town's residents began to head home from their jobs for the evening, a stray figure here and there serving to keep the area from appearing completely deserted.

Only a couple more blocks and Thomas would reach his neighborhood.

"Psst." The sound cut through the gentle breeze as he rounded a corner, causing the boy to stop in his tracks. He stopped tossing his ball and glanced around him, trying to discern if he had actually heard the sound or just imagined it. It could have been the wind.

"Psst. Thomas," a voice whispered his name and Thomas frowned, his gaze coming to rest on a figure peering around a building a little ways ahead of him. Almost instantly, the figure ducked behind the brick wall and out of sight, much like a child wishing to remain hidden in a game.

Squinting and jutting his head forward ever so slightly, Thomas took a couple steps forward. "Mom?" he called out.

As if on cue his mother poked her head around the corner, a smile like that of a mischievous child etched on her face. "Thomas, over here," she beckoned with a small wave of her hand.

Thomas returned her smile in slight confusion. "Mom, what is it? What are you doing out here?"

Just as he reached her she ducked behind the corner and into the alleyway between the buildings. A couple more steps and Thomas stood where she had been moments before. He took in the darkened alley she had disappeared down, but saw nothing. "Mom?" his voice sounded a little weaker as he stayed on the spot and looked around with uncertainty, the whole situation seeming quite odd.

A side door on the building on the left opened and he saw his mother peek out again. "Come on, slowpoke, in here. I've got something to show you," she gestured for him to come after her and disappeared inside, leaving the door slightly ajar for him to follow.

Now cradling his ball in his arms, Thomas jogged a few steps forward, pausing once he reached the old door. Taking hold of the doorknob, he pulled the door open a little farther and paused, looking into the dim space beyond. There didn't appear to be any lights inside, and he couldn't see anything beyond a foot or so.

At his apparent hesitation, his mother's voice beckoned to him from somewhere inside. "It's okay, honey. I'm here. Can you see me?"

Thomas squinted a little, trying to see without stepping into the room. "I don't –" His voice turned to a scream as two hands reached out and suddenly pulled him into the awaiting darkness. On reflex Thomas jerked his arms around himself defensively, his ball falling somewhere to the floor and the door slammed shut with a loud bang behind him.

As soon as the hands had grabbed him they were gone, and Thomas was alone in the blackness, his breath coming out short and fast. "Mom!" his panicked voice cried out into the unknown space, willing his mother's presence to remedy his growing fear of the current situation. But his call was met with silence.

Trying to ease his pounding heart, Thomas raised his arms out before him for balance and slowly moved in a circle in place. There was no light anywhere, not even from the door he had passed – or rather been forced – through. "Mom! Where are you?" he called out again, desperation creeping into his voice. Again, he received no reply.

His eyes starting to prickle with tears, Thomas felt as though his heart would burst from his chest as he attempted to take a few small steps forward, hoping to run into a wall or something he could use to get out of the space and somewhere illuminated. After a moment of blind groping, his hand came into contact with a smooth wall. Or at least what Thomas thought was a wall until it moved out from under his fingertips with a low rumbling like that of a thunderstorm.

Startled, Thomas flung himself away, tripping over his feet and wincing as his back hit the ground roughly. Despite his natural urge to rub the pained areas, he held himself perfectly still, too scared to move and straining his ears for any sound of movement. The rumbling had stopped, but it had been replaced by the faint sound of solid steps, one slowly thudding after another.

"H-hello?" Thomas' voice came out weakly and he sniffed, wiping his nose. "Is s-someone there?" There was no response, but the footsteps seemed to be getting louder with each passing second, until they were perhaps just beyond the room. They stopped, and there was a sort of light scratching-fumbling sound that echoed in the room around him.

"Hello?" the words passed the boy's lips as nothing more than a whisper, and suddenly the sounds intensified, the scratching becoming violent much like a cat attempting to get at a mouse within a box.

Letting out a strangled cry, Thomas pushed himself up on his arms and scrambled backwards, trying to get away from the terrible noises. "Go away!" he cried, tears spilling down his cheeks as his back pressed up against what he knew this time to be a wall. "Go away! Go away! Go away!"

A couple more seconds and the scratching suddenly stopped. A moment of silence passed and then there was a click like the sound of a latch, followed by a steady creaking from somewhere opposite Thomas.

Thomas lifted a shaking hand to his mouth in an effort to hide his crying, his breathing unsteady and wet from the snot dripping down his throat.

The creaking ceased. Thomas' breath caught in his throat. The footsteps came thudding like iron this time, approaching Thomas with quick subsequent steps faster than humanly possible.

"Mom!" Thomas wailed, and from all around a multitude of fingers crawled and curled over his skin as hands latched onto him, slimy extremities tugging at his clothes and ripping at his hair and skin, hungry for contact.

Thomas managed to let out another shriek, and the hands fully engulfed him within the endless darkness.

The creature smiled and shivered with pleasure, recalling the sweet screams of the child. It didn't need his physical body for sustenance, but sometimes, depending on its cravings, eating the flesh and insides that were still seasoned by fear and distress provided a feeling of satisfaction. Swallowing down another bite, this time from the child's chest, a deep purr-like sound rumbled from the creature's throat.

So long… It had been so long since its last meal, and it was eager to have more.


"Because Thomas is afraid of the dark," Greta informed Vera. She lowered her voice and leaned forward in her seat.

"I've never talked with anyone about it before since it was never really my business to do so – it just doesn't feel appropriate. He had a bad experience when he was little, when he and his parents were out of town on vacation. They were at some family fair out on a farm, and at one point he got separated from them – in a cornfield maze of all places. By the time his parents had alerted someone to what had happened, and they got several groups to help find him, it was dark. His mom told me it took two hours to find him, but other than being scared and a little disheveled, he seemed pretty okay. He was fine the next day, but she said when it got dark that night, he got really anxious and panicked, wanting to keep all the lights on when they went to bed and even becoming distressed when they had to drive in the dark."

She shook her head sadly. "He got a little better over time, but he still experienced a lot of anxiety when the sun went down. That was probably the hardest thing I had to deal with when I would babysit him late into the night. Of course it didn't help that his mom was super freaked out after losing him that night, and she's been really anxious about stuff like that even since. If she couldn't find him for a couple hours, she's probably at her wits end if it's been half a day."

"I guess being alone in the dark for an extended time caused some sort of trauma for him and her both," Vera observed, feeling bad that both parent and child had been affected.

"Makes sense," James agreed. "I found a snake in my shoe once – almost bit me if I hadn't seen it at the last moment when I tilted my shoe to put it on. I was afraid of empty spaces for fear there might be a snake in them for the next year at least," he mentioned to Vera.

"Still are, too," Greta teased, still somewhat serious and eliciting a light blush from James.

"I'd like to see you not be," he mumbled back and finally ate the fry he had been fiddling with.

"I'm sure he'll turn up alright," Vera tried to assure Greta, or at least change the atmosphere. She was already worried about enough as it was. Thinking about someone disappearing – and a child at that – was more than she wanted to deal with when she hadn't even been in town more than a week. Stop making everything about you, Vera, a voice in her head chided. A kid is missing and might be hurt, and you're here worrying about yourself. Vera clenched her jaw subconsciously, frustrated with herself.

"We can watch out for him," Thomas added on for good measure and Vera nodded.

"He'll be okay." She only wished she could say that with absolute certainty.