The Kalbrandt Institute Archives - Book II: Monsters by Chris Chelser

Author:Chris Chelser
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: horror, historical, psychic, wwi, chimera, black death, psychometry, nazi occult, creature story, lbtq character

She clasped her wrist, awash with relief to find her hand still attached.

‘Eva, can you hear me?’

The damp of the jungle retreated from Tan’s gentle tones, but her tongue failed to shape an answer.

‘Slow breaths,’ she heard Sanvy say. ‘You are safe. Whatever you saw, it cannot harm you.’

An instinctive and unequivocal truth. She had managed to disconnect before the crucial moment, as she had intended to, and her mind quickly regained clarity. Only her body protested, overcome with the kind of numbness that resulted from going deep. She swallowed hard, a small movement to trigger her body’s nerves into firing again.

‘I hate snakes.’ Her body began to feel like her own again, roiling anger in her belly included. ‘I freaking hate snakes.’

Tan chuckled through his nose. ‘I can imagine you came across some. The jungle is home to plenty of creepy crawlers.’

She glared at him. ‘I mean, a snake killed her. A humongous, massive, gargantuan snake.’

‘Sorry, a—a what?’

Still rubbing her left wrist, Eva described what she had seen through Chandra’s eyes. In painstaking detail. Astonishment punctuated her words while Tan’s pen scratched furiously on a notepad.

When Eva concluded, the doctor stared at his notes.

‘Snakes cannot do this kind of damage. Anacondas can suffocate an adult human, yes, but they cannot swallow such large prey. And no species of snake bites off limbs. Perhaps you went too deep and began dreaming?’ He flicked on a small examination light and shone it into her eyes.

‘I’m fine,’ she spat, turning to avoid his probing. ‘Why ask me to do this if you think I’m faking it?’

‘Not necessarily a matter of faking, but we cannot rule out that shock may have distorted the image. Especially in such darkness as you described.’

‘Chandra’s shock, not yours,’ Sanvy clarified. ‘We do believe you. However, her fear may have influenced your interpretation of what she saw.’ She exchanged a glance with Tan. ‘Either that, or the old stories of dragons and naga are less fantastic than we should like.’

‘Let’s assume a more logical explanation before resorting to—’

Eva slammed her flat hand on the examination table.

‘Don’t insult me! A snake, a dragon, or go ahead and call it shock if it makes you feel better. But I swear I did not imagine that eye or that tongue. Whatever attacked them, supernatural or not, it crushed Chandra, tore her apart and ate her. Right in front of Rand!’

Silence accompanied realisation setting in. Tan fidgeted with the examination lamp while Sanvy took an unwarranted interest in the stack of cardboard kidney basins on the shelf next to her, as if straightening them would help to set her thoughts straight to rights.

‘At least we now know how to implement the trauma protocol,’ said Sanvy eventually.

Eva snorted. ‘Will this be enough to help him?’

‘You improved his chances, certainly,’ said Tan. ‘Whether it will be sufficient for him to recover remains to be seen.’

‘So I didn’t tell you what you wanted? That makes two of us, because I didn’t particularly want to see this.

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