28/08/2022 – A Horror in the Dark (16)

Zalkador had another odd feeling from touching the bust, some sort of strange feeling washing over him. He warns the others Gavigan knows they are here. Tiger says call the Police, but they others are reluctant to have to answer lots of awkward questions.

They discuss what to do next. Tiger suggests searching the whole house before leaving, just in case. Jeziah will look after Joe outside at the motor car while the others do this. He should blow the horn if he needs to warn them about anything.

Exploring the Whole House

They split up to search more of the house. In the kitchen, Alex finds only something to eat. He starts searching for secret doors, but does not find any. In the house’s normal basement, Zalkador finds bathrooms, laundry and boilers. He does find a clothing closet, full of cultist robes, with the stylised inverted ankh on the back.

On the first floor, Tiger finds weapons closet that the servant he chased was trying to get to. It has a number of shotguns inside. He takes them and puts them into a big leather bag. Most of the other rooms are uninteresting bedrooms. He does not spend too long in these rooms and he does not find anything of interest. He does however, find another flight of stairs heading up.

Cultist Bedroom

Tiger goes up these steps to the second floor, where there are two empty rooms and one grand bedroom. On the wall is large, disturbing oil painting of the Black Pharaoh, 6ft by 6ft taking up one wall. Tiger takes a dislike to the painting and defaces it with his knife. He then systematically rips it off the wall and destroys it.

This takes a while and makes some noise, prompting Alex and Zalkador to head up to the second floor to find out what he is doing.

They see an expensive gold and diamond head-dress on a dresser, which they decide to take. There is also a marine chronometer on the wall, very similar to the one in Ju-Ju house. Tiger decides to destroy it as well and sets about taking it apart.

Letters, Busts and Crooks

Inside the dresser they find a letter from Omar al-Shakti, telling the recipient that, as the work for the Great Endeavour for their lord and master is nearing completion, he should return the busts that his predecessor took from Egypt in less than honest circumstances. It is clear it is a letter from one member of the cult to another. They take this letter.

They head down stairs and discuss the pros and cons about taking some cultist robes from the normal basement, in order to infiltrate their numbers. They decide to take some.

Zalkador heads back into the secret basement and confirms that there are busts there. He also spots, on a velvet cushion, are a crook and an inverted ankh, like a Pharaoh would carry. They are golden and ivory and look very important. They may possibly have a mystical function. They decide to take these as well. They examine the head dress and the crook, to see if they are of common design, but they are not.

A Change in the Wind

Zalkador and Alex notice that the wind has changed outside and they feel like someone has walked over their grave. They decide it is time for them to depart, collecting up everything they have and start to take them to the front door.

Zalkador opens the front door to get Jeziah to bring the car closer. As he does, it finds has become very windy. Zalkador pushes his way through the wind towards the car. He hears Jeziah scream in fear and decides not to go any further. He then hears a gun shot and decides to call for Tiger to come out, but he cannot be heard over the wind.

The Hunting Horror

Then he sees Jeziah backing away from something large that is looming over him and the motorcar. It is a big, black worm-like creature with huge black wings. It has a face that has a large mouth with big pointed teeth. It screeches and flies towards them.

Zalkador immediately runs back to the house, shouting that a monster is coming. Jeziah follows him in and they blot the door closed. Alex is carrying a large bust towards the door and asks what the commotion is all about, but soon realises there is something seriously wrong. Jeziah says he had to leave Joe in the car, as he would not have made it otherwise.

Tiger has been methodically destroying the chronometer and has about finished doing so when he hears the noises down stairs. He decides to go to the cupboard where he put shotguns, ammunition and knives in a bag. He grabs it and heads down the stairs.

The Monster Breaks In

A loud, hideous shriek convinces Tiger and Alex there is a monster outside. They quickly discuss what to do next. Tiger suggests going to the basement, but Zalkador suggests they could get trapped down there. Tiger says the alternative is destroying the creature. He offers them each a shotgun from his bag.

Something large bashes itself against the windows in the dining room, where there are large windows. Tiger checks and sees the monster entering through the broken window. He stands in the doorway to the room and shoots it with his rifle several times. It wriggles a little in response, but continues to pull itself into the room. Its body is wider than the window frame, so it is slowly destroying the frame as it enters the dining room.

Mental Shock

Alex comes to the doorway and is mentally shocked when he sees the monster. He screams and runs to the kitchen, in order to eat as much as he can to stop the creature from swallowing

As the creature pulls itself in, Tiger begins to go into mental shock. He decides it is time to kill the creature and keeps shooting as much as he can without regard to his personal safety. Jeziah then reaches Tiger, grabs a shotgun from the bag and opens fire as well from the doorway. They score several hits on the monster and it flinches and shrieks, but its leathery hide seems to be able to take a lot of punishment.

Zalkador does not want to confront the monster and waits by the entrance door, unsure in his cowardice what to do. He decides to see what Alex is doing and sees him stuffing his face with a loaf of bread, almost choking on the amount he is eating. He tries to talk Alex out of it.

Both Barrels in the Mouth

The monster advances towards the doorway and Jeziah backs off but Tiger continues to fire. When Tiger runs out of rifle bullets, he grabs his shotgun, emptying both barrels into the monster’s open mouth. Black ichor leaks out of its mouth. It shudders and thrashes, knocking into Tiger without biting him, knocking him to the ground outside the dining room.

Tiger is injured, but he snaps out of his mental shock and backs off with Jeziah. In the kitchen, Alex has eaten too much and throws up, snapping him out of his mental shock as well.

They hear the creature shriek again as it begins to pull itself through the dining room doorway to get at Tiger, but it is too large and it has to start destroying the doorway with its body in order to go further.

Get the Motorcar

Alex and Zalkador arrive at the dining room, while Jeziah and Tiger withdraw before the monster. Tiger empties his pistol at the monster, but it does not seem to do much damage. Alex shouts that it is time to go and Jeziah calls for Tiger to come with them back to the motorcar, but Tiger tells them to go and begins to re-load all the shotguns. He also recovers his dropped rifle and reloads that.

Jeziah, Zalkador and Alex run out of the house to the car. Joe is still alive but unconscious. Jeziah drives the car to the main door of house and they open the entrance door, calling for Tiger.

Tiger Drives It Back

The monster bashes the doorway and walls with it body to break out of the dining room into the hall way. Tiger decides to wait until he can see the face, but once it does he opens fire again. He continues to fire the rifle and shotguns at it as fast as he can. The others call for him to come to the doorway, but even if he hears them over the wind, the gun fire and the monster shrieking, he ignores them.

Tiger fires continuously from one end of the hallway, while the monster struggles to pull itself through the narrow hallway and get to him. After several punishing hits from rifle and shotgun, the monster gives a loud shriek and retreats back into the dining room and then outside. He decides not to follow it outside and instead stay within the cover of the house.

Caught in the Headlights

Jeziah begins to honk the horn of the motorcar to try to attract Tiger’s attention, unaware the monster is now outside. It begins to worm its way around the house towards the car. Tiger follows it from inside the house, firing at it through windows to try to attract its attention, but he fails and it continues to head towards the motorcar.

Zalkador sees the monster approaching from the darkness towards the car. He warns Jeziah to drive away, who initially suggests using the torch to see where they are going, but Zalkador tells him to just use the headlights, as they are beyond stealth now.

When the headlights come on, they are pointed directed at the creature, lighting it up. It reacts violently, shrieking and backing away from the bright light. They take the opportunity to drive away from the house.

Crushing the Top of the House

Tiger sees this and sees some sort of black smoke coming from those parts of the creature that were caught in the headlights. He looks around but does not know where the electric torch is. Instead, he resolves to set fire to the house. He gathers his guns and backs away from windows, trying to find somewhere to start a fire.

In the kitchen, he finds an oil lamp, which he lights. He also pulls down some curtains and makes a pile of flammable stuff from curtains and furniture at the bottom of the stairs. As he does, he realises the creature is smashing its way into the top of the house. He heads up the stairs.

The monster has crushed the top part of the house. Debris begins to tumble down the top of the stairs. It then begins to descend the stairway, pushing the debris out of the way. He sees Tiger and lunges towards him. He responds with a shotgun to the face, but does not get a good hit with either barrel. The bulk of the monster is damaging the stairs.

Set Fire to the House

Tiger then runs down the stairs, reloads and fires more shotgun rounds at the monster as it comes further down the stairs, but his aim is again poor. His main plan though is to keep its attention on him. He then throws the lit oil lamp on his pile of flammable stuff, which quickly sets the whole pile on fire. The bright flare of the fire causes the monster to shriek and recoil back up the stairs.

Tiger then runs out of the back door, taking his bag of guns with him. He looks up at the top of the house, but he cannot see the monster, just a cloud of thick black smoke, that is blown away by the wind. He waits, but all he sees is the house slowly setting on fire.

Feeling Guilty

Jeziah drives away until they reach the gate house. The gates are open and are blowing around in the wind. He asks if they should wait here for Tiger. They begin to feel guilty for leaving him behind. They look back at the house and can see the first signs of fire. Jeziah resolves to head back to the house and see what has happened to Tiger

End of Episode Sixteen