Asylum - 13 Tales of Terror by Matt Drabble Read Free Book Online

powerful haunches shimmered with muscle in the dancing flame light and its snout was long with deep set yellow eyes. Julian could only stare as it approached. His mind struggling to comprehend what he was seeing; wanting him to just lie down and sleep.
    He broke the locked gaze and suddenly realised that he was holding a weapon. He lifted the gun with difficulty. A simple piece of machinery with a simple purpose; he aimed the gun and pulled the trigger as many times as it would fire. There were five bullets left in the gun and three of them thudded into the animal leaving small red holes in its body. The animal staggered drunkenly at the impact and toppled over onto the ground.
    The man who had been clawed was still moving and Julian could hear him trying to talk,. He circled gingerly around the animal and towards the man.
    As he reached him he could see that the wounds were grievous and fatal; long bloody gouges were torn deeply in the man’s chest. His breath hitched and struggled in the cold night air. Julian leant in closer as the man tried to speak.
    “Take this, take it,” the man panted, holding out his silver gun. “We hunt them; this will kill it, only this.”
    Julian took the gun, more to remove it from a potential threat than to shoot the already dead animal. A movement behind him startled him from that conclusion. He turned in disbelief to see the animal starting to move. He raised his own gun again and pulled the trigger only to have the hammer clack on empty chambers. He stared down at the weapon; his forehead crinkled in puzzled thought.
    He turned his attention back towards the monster; incredibly the creature was in mid-air as he turned. Drooling fangs shone from foaming jaws as death flew through the air for him. He raised the other gun and pulled the trigger. A flash of lightning spat from the silver gun and the animal jerked violently from the impact and fell to the ground. Julian could only stare in wonder as the monster began to change. Its body shrunk and shortened; the thick fur receded and the snout and jaws retracted. The torso became lithe and supple, soft and feminine until he was looking down at Gemma.
    The man behind him dredged up his last words, “We tracked her and her mate. We killed him but only wounded her; that’s why she couldn’t change until she was stronger.” He gasped for the energy to finish before he was. “We thought that you were one too. That’s why you picked her up and saved her. Never heard of them running in threes. Should’ve known, sorry,” he panted. “Sorry I shot you,” he whispered, and then he was gone.
    Julian stood on the muddy ground; his mind had now locked the doors and given up the ghost. He clumsily attempted to straighten his hair and his clothes as the sun drifted slowly over the horizon welcoming the day. He checked his watch. It had been shattered during the night but it did not matter; there was time, still time to get back on the plan. All he had to do was find the schedule again. He could still make Dartford and he could still make his appointment. His face was frozen with a distant glaze and a strange crooked smile. He began to whistle a merry tune as he stepped over the bodies that he no longer saw, and walked off blindly into the woods.

3.
    BLACKWATER HEIGHTS
     
    “You’re shitting me right?” Martin said when they emerged into the corridor again, “What the hell was that?”
    “Just one of many tales here,” Jimmy said, his elderly face twisted in delight.
    Martin looked back through the door slot into the room where they had just listened to an unbelievable tale. The small, balding, neat man sat on his comfortable bed; his hands crossed on his lap, his eyes staring at the ceiling. “How did he end up here?”
    “He was found wandering the woods some eight days after he disappeared; he was incoherent and babbling, so they say. The docs reckon that he was wound so tightly that whatever happened out there in the woods just plain