Chasing Cthulhu (Urf Oomons #2)

It looks like we’re in time out again. But this time is a lot worse because I can hear all the other women yelling and shrieking about that giant spider getting loose. And there is a tapping sound that might be clawed spider feet hurrying from the far side of this giant room closer to my side. I’m creeped out, but not terrified. Not screaming like all these other captives. I mean, sure, the spider is scary, but it’s a prisoner like us. And it hadn’t done anything to that unconscious woman in its cage. So, it’s probably not going to bother any of us. And that gray alien it killed, well, they had it coming, didn’t they? The kidnapping bastards.

Lu has wrapped his tentacles around me again, but this time I don’t get on his case about it. It’s helping me feel secure and grounded, not so vulnerable, and naked. I don’t know what I’ve done to earn it, but this giant tentacled alien seems to feel protective of me. So, he’s holding me and I’m holding Peach then I hear something strange.

Whistling. Like a bird mimicking a song, but even prettier and more melodious. And, in my head, I know what the whistles mean. It says, “Lu, I am glad to find you.”

Lu hiccups loudly, but I understand that too.

“Baht?” And I know it’s a name.

“Yes, we must escape,” the whistling continues, but I can’t focus on the music of it because I’m hearing it immediately translated. “Leave that human and her animal for now and I can get you out of there.”

“No.”

This is so weird. I’m listening to a conversation in two different alien languages.

“You are honorable to worry for these humans, but we will come back and free them. We must free ourselves first.”

It’s a sound argument. Weirdly.

“I said the same to Ken when I escaped. I haven’t seen him or those he was imprisoned with since,” Lu argues back.

Oh, poor guy. I guess he had already escaped from here once and now he’s been recaptured.

There is a high whistle that I interpret as frustration.

“Fine. Bring your human with—come now.”

I’m yanked through the cage wall, but it’s not solid anymore. It’s tingly gelatin that I’m pulled firmly into then out of.

When we’re out of the cage, there is no fog. I can see all the other women, but I can tell that they can’t see me. I guess that fog only works inside the cages? I can’t see it, but it must still be there.

I hold Peach tightly as I’m carried out of the cavernous room and down a hallway. We encounter more of the gray aliens and the spider guy immediately murders them, stabbing them in their heads with a pointy forelimb. It’s pretty jarring how violent these aliens can be, not hesitating to murder people left and right.

And another thing. Baht, the alien spider, is carrying the unconscious woman from his cage in one of his long spidery arms. He didn’t leave her behind. But he told Lu to leave me? What a hypocrite!

As I’m thinking these uncharitable thoughts, we are leaving a trail of dead aliens in our wake. We keep encountering them, and Baht keeps killing them without slowing down.

Stab! A dead gray alien falls to the floor. Stab! Another dead alien. Stab!

Lu even gets in on the murderous action when a group of four grays round a corner. He shifts me behind him, but I look around him to watch as he snatches up two grays in his tentacles and bangs them together with such force that their heads kind of—explode?

Alien blood and brains rain down over all of us.

It’s a bit much.

“Twist their necks next time,” our spidery accomplice whistles. “This mess is unnecessary.”

“I am not practiced at violence.” Lu sounds indignant.

He seems practiced at killing. He didn’t hesitate at all. And he told me about murdering those guys back at the beach house in the same way.

“Practice now.”

The spider grabs another gray but doesn’t stab the side of his head. He braces the alien’s shoulder with one limb and twists its head with another. There’s a muffled snap and then the dead thing falls to the floor.

“Like so.”

Lu takes this lesson to heart and starts dispatching our gray enemies with violent precision as we go, taking turns with Baht until we arrive…at a wall.

Lu touches it with a tentacle tip and an electrical shock zings through his body, mine, and Peach’s. My poor little dog lets out a yelp.

“Apologies.” Lu has regret in his voice and he pets my head gently. What a weirdo.

“Stand back,” Baht whistles.

“Wait,” Lu says, “Allow me to hold that human.”

“Not necessary.”

“I will keep her safe while you go through first.”

Baht eyes us and with this pause, I get a good look at him.

He has long, hard skinny legs, exactly like a spider. But his torso and head are kind of human-ish. It’s hard to tell because his coloring is a deep, flat black and his eyes are a glowing red. The glow obscures his features. But what I can make out of those features looks human. Sort of.

“Agreed.” Baht hands the woman over to Lu, who cradles her gently in two tentacles.

She looks sick, with lank oily hair, dry cracked lips, and sunken eyes. And it’s a bad sign that she hasn’t woke up this whole time.

In my peripheral vision, I see Baht rush the wall, and then all the lights go out and the alien’s glowing red eyes are the only thing I can see as he moves through the place where the wall used to be and into the room beyond.

It’s really hard to see in there.

“Come.” Baht orders us and Lu complies, moving through without a problem now.

There is a really big animal or something in this room. I can hear its gasping breaths and feel warm humidity radiating off its body.

“Baht,” Lu says quietly.

“Silence.”

“But the ship is shut down. It is falling from orbit and the environment—”

“Silence you, weak-bodied fool. Shut your stupid mouth.”

Well. Rude.

As we quietly inch across this room, I can hear the gasping breaths of whatever is in here with us. I feel the wet air moving against my face.

Baht must have closed his glowing eyes because everything goes truly dark.

And then the screeching starts, so loud and grating that it hurts. Hurts a lot. I cover my ears only to feel a warm fluid start to leak out of them. My eardrums must have burst from that terrible noise.

Now it’s quiet. Really, really quiet.

Oh, fuck have I lost my hearing? Like entirely?

I am freaking out. My ears and my whole head hurt and I’m crying.

The lights snap on and…I just can’t even describe the sight. The far wall of the room, I don’t even know how big it is, but it seems to be alive. Or was alive. It’s all bumpy, made out of skin the same color as those gray bastards.

What is it even? My mind just refuses to make sense of what I’m looking at. Whatever the fuck it is, Baht is killing it. And, um, eating it? There is like, a fleshy vent that seems to be where this thing breathes. Baht is tearing at it, drinking and chewing, and obviously ingesting whatever the hell this thing is.

Oh, my God. I just can’t. I look away.

Thankfully, Lu turns and leaves the room, carrying me and the other woman away from the horrific scene.

What just happened? Obviously attacking that thing turned the lights back on. Hopefully, that means we aren’t going to crash.

We arrive in a room that has a table and a large tank. Everything in the room is white, but kind of shiny except for the tank which is blue. Or maybe the liquid in the tank is blue and the tank itself is clear. Lu looks at me and then the other woman and then back at me. He seems to be trying to make some kind of decision. His mouth moves, but I can’t hear him at all. He breathes out a sigh. Then he sets me down to sit on the table and hauls the other woman up to the tank. He pulls something down from the ceiling and fastens it to her face then plops her into the tank. It’s not liquid, I can see that now. It’s more like blue gelatin. She is hanging suspended in it.

My brain isn’t working at all right now. I’m seeing everything that’s happening, but I can’t interpret it. My body feels kind of floaty and disconnected. Lu starts wrapping his tentacles around me again, picks me up, and holds me against his chest. His body seems to vibrate in a soothing way that makes my muscles relax.

Before I know it, I’m closing my eyes and falling asleep.