The Fiend and the Forge by Henry H. Neff

Author:Henry H. Neff
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780375892950
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2010-11-23T08:00:00+00:00

~16~

HORRORS IN THE WELL

As Max watched the thing crawl from the well and spill onto the wet earth, he was grateful for the darkness. The sky seemed alive. Clouds roiled and raced across the moon, whose light fell upon the sickening shape, which began to creep down toward the yard.

The creature’s advance was so bizarre, so hideous, that Max stood rooted to the spot as its forelimbs dug into the soil, pulling its body forward. If it had legs, they were merely dragged behind the creature as though some accident had damaged them beyond repair. At times its progress was no faster than a crawling infant, but periodically it would shoot forward to cover ten or even twenty feet with a crocodile’s swiftness. The monster was roughly man-shaped, but its limbs and joints hinged in odd directions, to create a horrifying silhouette as it slid down the rain-soaked grass toward the animal pen.

Mina had gone perfectly rigid and clung to Max with every ounce of strength she could muster.

“We’re getting out of here,” Max whispered. “Don’t look at it.”

Backing away, Max reached the fence just as the monster had arrived at the enclosure’s opposite end. Scrambling over the fence, it fell heavily onto the earth, but promptly righted itself in a fitful race to reach the spot where Mina had been lying.

“Stay quiet,” Max whispered, swinging his legs over the top rail. “Shhh …”

Once out of the pen, Max backed slowly toward the farmhouse, his eyes fixed on the monster as it prowled about the center of the stockyard. It did not exhibit any interest in the animals, which were left to panic and bleat in the far corners. It focused solely on the spot where it had expected to find a human.

And then the monster screamed.

It was a terrible sound, one that mingled human chords with something altogether alien. It was so sudden and jarring that Max almost dropped the child to clamp his hands over his ears. The scream was too much for poor Mina. Whether compelled by some insidious lure in the monster’s call or driven by mere terror, Mina responded in kind.

Again and again the child screamed, a bloodcurdling cry that cut the monster’s wails short.

The nearest lambs bolted for the opposite end as a blur hurtled past them to crash against the uppermost rail. For a moment, Max caught the moonlight’s gleam on a single white eye that stared at him with an awful, unexpected intelligence.

Racing to the house, Max rained frantic blows upon the front door.

But no one answered.

Perhaps they were simply too frightened, but Max feared there was a sinister complicity at work. He guessed that Mina had been left in that pen as some sort of offering, a sacrifice to the dark shape that now slid over the rail and crawled toward the house.

They could run, of course. The monster was no match for Max’s speed, and he could whisk Mina far away from the danger at hand. But here was a

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