The monster

Elias stared a bit longer at George's corpse, listening keenly for a heartbeat that should've stopped when his bones pierced his heart, but all he heard was Katherine's racing heartbeat and Amaira's gentle, moderate one.

With one final glance George's way, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Elias tightly clenched his fists as blood flowed from his closed eyelids, running slowly down his pale skin and dripping onto Amaira's carpet.

'Come on, I just need a little more power,' he thought when he felt his body rejecting his call for more strength. His breathing became labored and all his veins rose to the surface of his skin as he thought, 'I'll accept the consequences.'

Elias was at his limit, but he needed Amaira to stay out of his world just a little bit longer, at least until he had enough strength to protect her.

His sporadic breathing calmed and he slowly loosened his fists as he opened his eyes which were now green in color. In a flash of a second, the room returned to its original state, free from the gore that soiled it.

Elias' skin got even paler and his handsome face deteriorated in terms of beauty as his eyes sunk further in his face, his lips paled and his jaws thinned. His feet could no longer support his weight and gave way as he collapsed to the ground.

Katherine looked around the room that has reverted back to its original condition with wide eyes. Her human mind couldn't comprehend what she had just witnessed, it all happened so fast!

Curiosity battled her fear as she looked at the man who was crawling to her daughter's side. 'W-What is he?'

Katherine slowly got up from the ground when she noticed that Elias was now weak and looked to have passed out.

'This is my chance,' she thought and got up to rush to the door, but her body froze when she saw, from the corner of her eye, her husband whom she witnessed being torn apart from the inside. He was standing, though she saw his limbs being twisted and broken.

Her heart echoed loudly from her chest and cold sweat washed her visibly trembling body as renewed fear took her.

"I-It might be...it must be my imagination," she quietly tried to convince herself as she kept her eyes on the door and her hand hovering over the knob.

Katherine didn't dare look out of fear of what she saw not being her imagination, but a low growl to her left forced her to turn her gaze where she really didn't want to look.

It was a horrific sight, so terrifying that even the bravest person in the world would wet themselves from the fright.

Its eyes, nose, ears, and mouth were randomly thrown across a face made from lumpy flesh. Its neck looked to be twisted many times going down into a body that lacked proportionality and sense. The limbs were facing the opposite direction of the body and its nakedness was clothed in raw blood.

Katherine was scared to even breathe in front of the deformed creature before her, but even with his face twisted beyond recognition, it was still her George. The frightened woman stepped a bit closer to the monster her husband became and with trembling lips she stuttered out, "G-George?"

The creature's eyes were rolled over, so she couldn't tell where it was looking and stupidly thought that since it hasn't made a move even after surely noticing her presence, somewhere deep inside, her husband was calling out for her to save him.

"It's okay honey, I'm here," she reassured him with a pained smile as she continued to slowly approach the hideous thing. "I'll get you out of there."

Katherine rose her hand to touch the creature and if not for the creature's feet facing the wrong direction, it would have certainly taken off her entire arm.

The monster that was once her husband, fell on its back and was struggling to get back up since it was mostly just a huge lump of skin with bones randomly thrown about.

Katherine fell to the ground from the fright and sat there in shock as she watched what was once her husband struggle to get back up. The creature's overturned eyes fell on her and its body moved about faster as if it was trying even harder to get back up now that its sight was on her.

It was hard for Katherine to accept, but she had no choice but to realize that her husband was now a mindless monster. 'I'm such an idiot, how could I think my husband could be in this...this thing?!' she reprimanded herself.

She quickly rose to her feet when she saw that the creature was starting to twist its limbs in the right direction and reordering its bones.

Katherine didn't have many options, so she considered running, hoping that the creature would be distracted by Amaira and the unconscious man by her side, but she considered that the creature could be the type of predator that goes after one prey before moving on to another.

There was a very big chance that it would come after her anyway and kill her. Katherine had a slight panic attack as she wondered, 'What did I do to deserve to be in such an awful situation?'

She quickly snapped herself out of her state of panic and reassured herself that she'd be okay. Katherine looked at Elias, a plan already brewing in her head as she said, "I must do whatever it takes to survive, even if I have to ask for help from the devil himself."

She stooped by his side and turned him onto his back before saying to herself, "He's the only one strong enough to kill that thing."

Katherine started shaking the unconscious man urging him to wake up, but he wasn't even breathing and she didn't hear a heartbeat after pressing her ear to his chest, so she feared he was dead.

Another state of panic took her as she pulled on her hair while frequently glancing at the creature that had almost perfected its spine that was creepily on the outside of its skin.

"No no no!" Katherine yelled as she slammed her hands down on Elias' naked chest. Her eyes caught Amaira's sleeping figure and she immediately knew what she would have to do to get him to wake up. It was a huge risk, but she had no other choice but to take it.

Katherine pulled Amaira's unconscious body off the bed and hugged her tightly from behind by the waist as she leaned against a wall.

The monster was coming, it managed to get itself off the ground and move forward. Katherine squeezed Amaira tighter and tighter as the monster edged closer to them.

She glanced at Elias, but to her dismay, though the monster was close and Amaira was in danger, he was still lying there like a corpse.

'Come on, come on,' she internally chanted, but a few seconds later, a scream left her lips and she clenched her eyes shut as the monster's mouth opened wide to gobble them up.