Her fatigue caught up with her all at once. Amber’s consciousness began to slip away, eroded by the ripples.
Each tap pushed her closer and closer towards sleep.
“That’s what they want,” a voice said inside her head.
Amber realized that the voice was her own. She was split into two different people. One was sitting on the toilet in the real world. The other was speaking inside her own head. Somehow the tapping was creating a division between the part of her that could think and the part of her that could do something about it. With that division, she would be helpless.
“This is what hypnosis really feels like,” the voice said. “That other sensation—when we looked into its glowing eyes—that was nothing compared to this. That was merely paralysis. This is full mind control, and that’s what they want. While you’re in here…”
Amber’s elbow slipped and her head dropped before she snapped back up.
The voice was right. The tapping was a distraction.
Amber pulled up her pants and grabbed her flashlight and stake. Pins and needles ran down her legs—they were numb from sitting on the hard toilet seat. Amber ignored the pain. She pushed through the door, shaking her head hard from side to side to clear the muddled thoughts.
Her flashlight scanned across Liz and Alan. They were sitting on her bed, leaning against the headboard. Their half-lidded eyes were glazed.
“Wake up,” Amber hissed.
She kicked the bed as she moved by it. Her light caught something shifting in the corner. Amber froze and then slowly raised her stake to point at the spot. She drove her foot backwards into the frame of the bed and said again, “Wake up. They’re here.”
The curtain stirred and cold air rolled into the room. She slid to her right so the loose pile of seeds would be between her and the shadow.
When Liz spoke, Amber nearly screamed.
“What?” Liz asked. She sounded like she was still half asleep, but at least she started moving. Liz crawled towards the edge of the bed that was closest to Amber.
“Go that way,” Amber said, gesturing with a flick of her light. “Get an angle on that corner.”
“Okay. What’s happening?”
Alan repeated the question as he stirred.
The tapping from the wall continued. It was a constant assault on Amber’s ability to think. An idea would occur to her and then it would try to scatter.
“Where?” Liz asked.
“Near the TV. Look at that corner. Tell me what you see.”
Liz hesitated before stepping down from the bed to the floor. She moved like a little kid, afraid of what might spring out from under the bed to grab her ankle.
“Quickly,” Amber said.
Liz moved.
As soon as she had an angle on where Amber’s light was pointed, Liz shouted, “Amber, it’s coming right towards you. Don’t you see it?”
“Where, Liz? Tell me where?” Amber shouted.
“Uh, three feet ahead of you. It’s on the floor and creeping. Do something.”
As soon as Amber’s stake was in motion, everything changed. She saw the eyes for the first time and she saw the thing reaching towards her with its claw. It abandoned its camouflage as it tried to scramble away from her. Amber was too fast. She drove the stake down towards the head and hit the skull directly between the glowing eyes. Her stake deflected to the right and pierced the eye socket to stab deep into the skull. Amber grunted and tugged the stake back to get another stab. Her second effort merely struck an arm. The thing rolled over—completely visible now.
Amber’s third strike took out the other eye. The creature shook and spasmed, gnashing its teeth at her as it died.
“Here,” Amber said. She tossed the flashlight towards Liz, who caught it in both hands. With the light at that angle, Amber saw the next one slipping out from behind the curtain. It only took a moment for the thing to disguise itself. Even with the oblique angle of the light, Amber lost track of the thing’s shape. She was only guessing when she rammed her stake towards the wall.
She hit something, but it wasn’t a solid hit.
“Lower,” Alan said. He was halfway off the bed, holding something bright. Amber almost mistook the thing in his hand for more of the glowing eyes. Before she could spin and stab at Alan’s hand, Amber recognized the flickering, battery-powered candle.
Alan tossed it towards the corner. In the moving light, Amber got a sense of the outline of the creature.
She stabbed again, this time hitting flesh.
The eyes turned to her and she jabbed at them before they could entrance her.
Liz was already moving for the window.
“Careful,” Alan said, following his wife. He circled wide around the corpses on the floor.
Amber circled right, keeping her distance and trying to spot any more movement.
Liz pushed the window up—they had come in above the upper sash. Alan helped her drive it home and then they both fumbled at the lock. The tape was a sticky mess. When Alan tried to put it back in place, he pulled his hand back with disgust on his face. He knelt and wiped his hand on the carpet.
“They saturated it with something—it’s some kind of fluid. That’s how they got past the tape.”
“Shhh!” Amber hissed.
Liz swung the flashlight over to point at her.
The tapping had stopped. On the floor, the creatures were dissolving. They were liquifying and thick smoke was spreading in a rolling cloud that stuck close to the floor. Amber turned her head slowly, trying to hear the sound again. It had been a dry rattle.
When she pinpointed the noise, she gestured with the stake.
Liz aimed the flashlight. Amber angled her head, trying to see. There was movement there, but her eyes couldn’t quite make sense of it. Alan tossed another fake candle. The light traveled in a high arc and went out when the candle bounced on the carpet. It was enough though.
