CHAPTER 27 #2
“Good. Stay here. Be ready.” She let go and stood, already scanning the wreckage of the hallway like she could shape it into a battlefield.
The blood now on my hands was already drying into my skin, crusting in the creases of my knuckles, under my nails.
I could hear Danny’s guttural snarls from just down the hall.
The door to the bathroom rattled again, his voice breaking through like a rusted saw.
She stepped out like a phantom, calm but deliberate, and for a split second, the chaos stilled. I couldn’t see her face clearly from where I was crouched, but I knew her tone. Whatever she was about to do, it was going to be fast and reckless.
Danny saw her and barked out a confused, furious demand, “Who the fuck are you?!” I could hear the twist in his voice. He wasn’t just angry anymore; he was derailed. That was her opportunity. The exact opening she needed.
There was a flicker of movement, a sharp motion from her hand, and then the flash of steel.
My heart jolted just as the knife left her fingers.
It was a clean throw, brutal and efficient.
The wet thunk of it hitting his flesh was sickening and intimate in the tight corridor, and Danny’s reaction was instant.
A monstrous, pained howl tore out of him, vibrating through the floor beneath me.
I had to move. Now.
As he roared and staggered backwards, clutching the knife in his shoulder like it was some ancient betrayal, I pressed my hand against the wall to steady myself and moved.
The bathroom door was just ahead. Danny was entirely focused on Misfit now; all his madness honed into something even more dangerous.
He yanked the blade from his arm with a sound I’ll never forget.
Wet and ripping. He stared down at it like he didn’t feel the blood, didn’t notice the pain, just rage, raw and boiling.
He took one pounding step toward her. Then another.
She turned and, in one swift motion, sprinted down the stairs.
Her boots pounded like thunder, but all I cared about was the sound of Danny going after her, crashing behind like a monster unchained.
Knocking past me, unfazed by my presence, he had a new target. That’s how far gone he was.
The moment he vanished down the stairs, I slipped forward.
My hand found the bathroom handle. Banging against the door, my voice low and breaking, “Squeeks …. Squeeks, it’s me open up!
” The door creaked, and there she was, tears tracking down her cheeks, her breath coming in terrified hiccups.
She instantly wrapped her arms around me, gripping on for dear life.
“Come on,” I whispered, rubbing her upper arms, heart thundering. “When I open the door, I want you to keep your eyes shut,” I said, gently cupping the side of her face. “Nice and tight. No matter what you hear. No matter what you smell. Just hold onto me and don’t let go, alright?”
She blinked, something catching in her throat, and then she nodded again. Trusting me like she always had. “Promise me! Don’t open them until I tell you to, ok. My car's outside, I’ll take you there.”
She nodded, her voice croaking low as the question I was dreading came from her, “Is Mum ok?” My own composure was breaking, my eyes beginning to fill as I looked at my bloodied hands.
I paused, letting out a deep breath. I couldn’t tell her, how could I tell my baby sister our mum was dead?
It would instantly break her, making our escape even more painful.
I shook my head as I placed my forehead against hers, her sobs becoming more erratic.
I mustered everything I had to hold myself together, gripping her hand in mine and opening the door.
“Eyes shut now, Squeeks,” She squeezed them tight and grabbed hold of my jacket, knuckles white.
I guided her with one hand firm on her back, the other curled protectively around her, trying to shield her from it all.
From the ruin. From the blood. From him.
Every step past Mum’s body sent needles through my chest, like I was being split in half.
But I couldn’t break. Not yet. Not in front of her.
I could still hear the crashing from downstairs, Danny’s voice like a wild animal, Misfit’s footsteps weaving through it, never stopping.
She was keeping him busy, giving us this chance.
We reached the door. I threw it open with my shoulder and burst out into the street, cold air slicing across my face.
I yanked the passenger door open and helped Squeeks in, checking her seatbelt like some part of me still believed in normality.
In stupid, mundane safety. Her petite frame curled up, silent tears carving fresh lines down her cheeks.
I shut the door abruptly, keeping her inside that bubble.
My stomach churned, bile rising. I’d never seen a body like that before.
I’d never heard Squeeks sound like that before.
I pressed my forehead to the cold glass of the car window, stealing one more moment to gather myself, one more second before my life would change forever.
If this was my chance to end him, I was going to fucking take it.
Turning from the car, I rested my hands on my knees, taking deep breaths and trying to get my feet to move. My eyes snapped towards the house when I heard it. A high-pitched, ear-piercing scream. My legs instantly set out into a sprint towards the door. “Misfit!”
Bolting through the house, until I reached the kitchen.
I froze.
The moment I stumbled through the doorway, every fibre in my body locked in place. It wasn’t fear; it was something colder, deeper. Like my soul recognised what I was seeing before my brain caught up. My breath caught in my throat as my eyes fixed on the scene.
Misfit's face had contorted into a dangerous grin as she pulled herself up from in front of Danny, her chest rising and falling in quick, uneven bursts. And between her and Danny was... it.
I didn’t know what the fuck I was looking at.
It loomed in the low kitchen light, a shadowy silhouette drawn from every childhood nightmare I never dared to speak aloud.
Its body rippled like living smoke, impossibly dark, barely held together.
The only solid thing was those eyes. Gleaming white and unblinking, fixed on Danny like a predator already tasting the kill.
Danny was crumpled on the floor, his face twisted, tight with fear, his mouth moving without sound.
I’d never seen him like that. Not furious or violent. Terrified.
“I guess the Demon is out of the bag,” she shrugged her shoulders like this was all fucking normal. “He’s hurt you. And I can’t let that slide.”
My gaze flicked between them, void of all words.
She honed back onto Danny as the demon at her side taunted Danny with its burrowing stare.
“What—what the fuck is that?” His fear-drenched words were hurled towards her.
Misfit gave a short laugh, “That, is the last thing you’ll ever see.” Stepping away from him.
I took in this stranger wearing Misfits face. She was enjoying this, revelling in his terror.
“You shouldn’t have touched me. You shouldn’t have hurt him.” A predatory growl accompanied her words.
“Please—”
“Oh no,” she cut him off, chuckling to herself. “No begging. Not from you. You don’t get mercy. You get me.”
That’s when the weight of it started to settle, the command in her high-pitched whistle, that… thing responding like a fucking hound. My heart hammered in my chest so hard I thought I’d pass out; its smoke-like form slithered its way toward Danny.
I flinched at the violence in its subtle movements. Not wild or chaotic, but precise.
Controlled.
As if it were answering a call, it had waited a long time to hear.
Danny’s scream pierced the house like a blade to the skull. I staggered backwards a step. The sound wasn’t just pain; it was terror—total, soul-crushing terror. It didn’t merely enter him; it invaded, sinking beneath the surface, swallowing him from the inside out. And then came the noises.
God.
The snapping. The cracking of bones like dry sticks underfoot.
Muscles tearing. Danny’s body convulsed like a puppet with its strings cut and rewired.
Every part of it looked wrong. Twisting, bending, melting.
Like his insides were being rebuilt by a hand that didn’t understand how humans were supposed to look.
I didn’t look at Misfit. I didn’t want to see the pure evil in her face. Didn’t want to find out if this was something she’d done before, if she meant for me to see it now. Because something in me broke, watching that.
Danny had been a monster, but this was different. This was a kind of horror I couldn’t even find a word for.
The worst part?
It wasn’t in a rush.
It wanted Danny to suffer. I should’ve turned and run, should’ve gotten in that car with Squeeks and disappeared. But I didn’t. I just stood there, the smell of blood and burning air filling my lungs and realised something I couldn’t shake, I didn’t know who Misfit was anymore.
Blood poured from Danny’s face, his nose, his eyes, his ears. It carved its way down his cheeks in thick, dark lines. And still, that thing kept going.
Still, it pushed.
I watched in mute horror as Danny’s skin began to stretch and bulge unnaturally, his whole body swelling like a balloon about to burst. Bones shifted beneath his flesh with grinding, stomach-turning snaps.
Then it happened.
A sound like a cannon.
A sickening pressure wave.
Everything exploded.
I barely managed to lift my arms to cover my face, shielding myself from the heat and wetness which washed over me.
I stayed like that, frozen in a half-crouch, until the silence settled.
Not peace, silence. Thick and horrible. When I finally lowered my arms, the room was red.
The walls, the ceiling, the floor… it looked like someone had detonated a human being in the middle of a war zone.
I couldn’t look at what was left of Danny because there was no Danny anymore.
Just bits.
Shreds.
Unidentifiable scraps of what once held so much fury and hate.
He was… gone.
Obliterated.
It stood there like a beast that had just killed its prey and liked it. Shoulders squared, smoke still curling from the edges of its form. White eyes scanning the room like it was daring anything else to challenge it. And then they landed on me.
I felt seen.
It looked straight through me and found every fear I’d ever tried to bury. The creature was vaguely canine, but larger, leaner, somehow more ethereal than any wolf. Its lipless mouth was lined with rows of interlocking large fangs and two points of white light, glowing with an unnatural intensity.
And just behind it, Misfit. Her lips parted, eyes wide, not with pride or power, but with pain. Something in her voice cracked when she said my name—just a whisper.
“Screech…”
I couldn’t answer.
Everything split inside me. This wasn’t just some petty lie. She’d hidden something evil within her and brought it into my world. I didn’t know what that made her anymore.
It moved, just a step—a slow, deliberate shift.
My breath caught in my throat. My body betrayed me as my foot slipped on a blood-slick tile.
I went down hard, palms slapping into the sticky mess of gore that coated the floor—a hot splash of Danny's remnants against my hand, flicking up against my neck and jaw.
My mind trying to force air into lungs that were locked tight by fear.
“Omen,” she called out as it turned to her, its footsteps halting in place as she gave a subtle shake of her head.
That was Omen, that fucking thing which had shattered everything I knew to be real. My entire body was shaking; every instinct I had screamed for me to run.
So, I did.
I scrambled to my feet, nearly slipping again as I surged for the door. I didn’t look back. Couldn’t. I burst through it like a hunted animal covered in blood. I felt it drying on my skin, clotting under my fingernails, soaking into the fabric of my jeans.
Squeeks sat huddled in the passenger seat, her arms wrapped around herself, still trembling from whatever Danny had done or said before we got to her.
When I yanked the car door open and threw myself into the driver’s seat, she turned, eyes wide with fresh panic, and gasped when she saw me.
“Screech—what the fuck!” Her voice faltered, her eyes darting over the blood, her mouth hanging open. “Is that?—”
“Don’t!”
I didn’t even look at her. Just shoved the keys into the ignition with shaking hands and started the engine. My foot slammed the accelerator to the floor.
The tyres screeched as we tore down the road, blood smeared on the steering wheel from my hands, the car thick with the reek of metal and smoke and whatever-the-hell had happened back there.
My pulse was thundering in my ears. My eyes flicked to the rear-view mirror, the house shrinking behind us as Misfit rushed into the street.
Looking at me like she was sorry for saving us, that burned behind my eyes, unblinking.
I gripped the wheel tighter, not even sure where I was driving.
Just away from whatever beast had been unleashed into my world.