The bed launched across the room, which left both Klod and Nate's backs' exposed. And allowed him to see the horrific monster in full.
The back of its body was the appearance of a snake. If that snake had been upped a couple of sizes too many in the character creator. While the upper half was more man-like and had a bulky build, but still covered in scales. Its forearms resembled a T-Rex's, and it had the head of a cobra.
The beast screeched and lunged for him.
Klod rolled out the way, only partly successful.
The monster’s jagged claws tore into his face, ripping his ear off.
He screamed and caressed his fresh wound.
Blood gushed like a waterfall, and his vision grew blurry from fresh tears.
The creature's tongue snaked out and licked the blood from its claws. Afterward, it refocused its attention on Klod and started to approach.
Klod tried to get up and run, but the sudden blood loss made him too slow. He closed his eyes and braced himself for the worst.
A cry not his own broke out. He opened his eyes to see Nate had sunk his fangs into the monster’s tail, which caused it to howl in pain. It frantically tried to shake him off to no avail.
Not wanting Nate’s ambush to go to waste, Klod got back on his feet, thankful the blood loss had started to lessen.
Klod grabbed the sword on the wall and ignored the pain on the right side of his face to charge the monster but stopped short because of a warning look from Nate that told him to run.
Klod wasn’t one to abandon anybody. He knew all too well what that felt like. However, the look from his friend told him that it was no use to attack.
Unless he wanted to end up dead.
Taking heed to Nate's warning, Klod ran for the door.
Before he left, he looked behind him to see if Nate was alright.
The monster was making progress in freeing itself from Nate’s jaws by slamming its tail into the walls. Then finally, with a mighty swing of its tail, flung him loose.
Klod’s companion was sent flying into him. Both fell backward onto the brittle railing that collapsed underneath their combined weight.
He yelped in pain. Not from the fall but rather from the glass shard that had found a new home inside his gut.
He could not catch a break.
Klod checked to see if Nate was alright. It seemed he was, as he had landed on top of Klod. Having his fall cushioned. At least nothing happened to him.
A screech above snapped him back to the situation at hand. Before the creature could spot them, Klod threw himself on his feet, grabbed Nate by the waist, opened his apartment door, and closed it behind them.
A crash came from outside.
They both went silent. Klod covered his and Nate's mouth to quiet their breathing.
After a few more seconds, Klod checked through the peephole to see where the monster was at. He spotted it on the opposite side of the complex, lurking near the doorways. Looking for where they had gone. To which Klod didn’t understand why it hadn't simply broken into the rooms. Klod couldn't complain though, since it looked like they were safe as long both of them remained silent.
Klod withdrew from the spyglass, looked at the shard in his side, and thought now was a better time than any to remove it.
Nate seemed to notice this and nodded his head in agreement. He walked to his bed and sat.
Wrapping his hand around his shirt, Klod mentally prepared himself for the oncoming pain.
A minute passed.
Then three.
Which eventually turned into five.
He was hesitating.
How could he not?
Klod hadn't pulled glass out of his body before, and most certainly was never stabbed. He looked to Nate, who sat on hindlegs by the base of the bed, only watching him. Not a word of encouragement nor a word of advice. Merely a look of concern on his friend's face. His eyes expressed more emotion than Klod had ever seen from him. It looked as if Nate was more fearful for him than Klod was for himself.
He decided to speak to lighten the mood.
“You know, maybe I should leave it in. I heard from somewhere that it's worse to pull it out.” (Wow, fantastic job at lighting the mood me.)
Nate shook his head. “No, it's best to remove it. It'd hinder you if we needed to run," he paused, "which we probably will.”
Klod sighed, somewhat disappointed. “I know, it's just-.”
“Cheer up, and look on the bright side,” Nate said while he walked over to the nightstand. He pulled out one of Klod’s shirts. Specifically his limited edition Friday the 13th one.
He raised an eyebrow. “Which would be?”
Nate started to tear the shirt apart.
“Hey! I liked that one.”
“Trust me, this is getting more use now than it would being worn by you.”
“Ok, ouch.” Klod thought he looked in that shirt too.
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“But the bright side is- one, your ear isn’t bleeding anymore, and two- you still have another ear. Nate gave him two pieces of his torn shirt. “One is for your no longer present ear, and the other for when you pull that glass out.”
“Great pep talk bud. Was that supposed to motivate me?” Klod said, with a hint of annoyance in his voice.
Nate shrugged.
Wow, super motivating, he thought. Although Nate wasn't wrong.
Klod still had his left ear, and the bleeding had stopped. Plus, it didn’t hurt anymore. He did find it strange, however, how both faded so quickly. Since not even an hour had passed.
He could only hope the same would transpire after he freed the glass from his side.
After he took a deep breath, Klod grabbed the piece of glass and readied himself once more. He then proceeded to slowly remove the foreign object.
He bit down hard on the inside of his cheeks, so as to not yell. Glass rubbed at the inside of his gut.
This hurt more than when it entered.
His mouth started to bleed, and his body shook violently. In the hope to end the hell, Klod decided to give it a hard yank, which finished the removal of it.
He grabbed the pieces of the shirt and tied one around his waist before any blood could spill. Afterward, using the other to bandage his ear.
“Wasn't nearly as soothing as I thought it would be.”
Nate rolled his eyes. “Well, you’re fine enough to make jokes, so it looks like you’ll live thankfully.”
“So,” Klod said, “what do we do now?”
“We wait. Until… something. Or till I can make a plan.”
“Perfect.”
They moved back to the front door. Klod looked through the peephole again and saw the creature had gone down a couple doors since the last time. He shook his head at Nate and went to sit.
They waited for what seemed like hours, although he wasn’t sure without having a working clock. If only he had his phone… wait. Where was his phone? In all the commotion of discovering Nate speaking, outside being in ruins, and a monster trying to kill them. Klod hadn't thought to look at his phone once.
He checked the pockets on his jeans, but only found a dime and a wadded-up receipt from Taco Bell inside. Klod looked by the bedpost to see if it was charging. Oddly enough, he found his phone but no charger.
Klod attempted to turn it on, but the screen stayed dark.
“Amazing,” he mumbled. “Dead phone and no charger.”
He went back to sitting at the front door along with Nate. After a while looked through the spyhole again and saw the monster had only moved two doors down.
It sure was taking its sweet time, Klod thought. He didn’t mind. The longer it took, the longer Klod’s head stayed on his body. This reminded him of his newly departed ear and touched the wound.
It didn’t hurt much; maybe stung a little. Since the bleeding stopped he wasn't dizzy as earlier. Rather, Klod felt almost- better, believe it or not. The area around his ear felt warm and relaxed. A sensation that somewhat cleared his mind. Klod wondered if this was how it always felt to lose a body part but suspected not. He pushed the strangeness of his ear aside as Klod wasn’t too keen on dwelling about his missing appendage. Because while it might’ve not hurt, he was still in dismay from losing his freaking ear.
Hours passed, and the sun started to set. Throughout the time they waited, Klod checked outside periodically, to keep them updated on the creature’s location. Until, finally, it had curled up and slept.
“It’s asleep!” Klod had nearly jumped from excitement.
Nate instantly hushed him, telling Klod to keep it down. He then signaled Klod to come closer and spoke in a whisper.
“Ok, listen up here’s the plan. I’ve thought of most of the possibilities and outcomes and reached the conclusion that our best bet is to trap it.”
Klod was confused. This seemed like the least viable opinion there was.
“You want to trap it. Instead of running away while it’s asleep?”
Nate nodded.
“Y’know I pegged you for a much smarter dog, especially with all your past lives and all.”
“Ignoring that last comment, running away would be one of the least plausible plans to pull off. Think about it, we've already seen that thing’s speed, it’d outrun us any day of the week. And on top of that, that creature’s hearing is just as good as mine. So if we didn’t wake it up by opening the door, I’m sure it’d be able to hear us run away. Easily tracking us down and killing us.”
Klod thought it over and saw his point, but still didn’t understand how they were supposed to trap the thing.
“So, what’s the plan then?”
“To push it into the sinkhole.”
“And… you plan to achieve that, how?”
“Well, we’re gonna use you as bait.”
Klod pointed at himself. “Bait.”
“Yes, bait”
“As in me.”
“As in you.”
“Klod Russell.”
“‘Yes, Klod Russ- wait, that's your last name? I always pegged you for Thomson.”
“Hey, what’s wrong with- actually, no, we’re getting sidetracked. You want me to be bait!”
“Yes, we’ve been over this multiple times. Look, hear me out. It's not as bad as you think.”
Klod crossed his arms and scowled. “Ok, I’m hearing.”
“I need you to draw the monster’s attention for a bit, so I can get around it without being noticed. I'll then get it to chase me and lead it toward the sinkhole. Afterward, you’re to surprise it from behind and blind it with a bottle of all the chemicals we have under the bathroom sink. Giving me a chance to throw myself at it and hopefully knock it into the hole.”
Klod waited a few seconds before he spoke to let Nate’s plan sink in. Maybe he missed something important that he hadn’t come to realize yet. Or perhaps Klod misheard him at some point. Because what Nate just described to him seemed like the worst plan in history.
“Nate?”
“Yea?”
“This is a terrible plan.”
“I know, but can you think of anything better?”
Klod rubbed his neck. “Well, since running away isn’t an option, no. But still, do you even think you can move that thing?”
“Better hope I can, for mine and your sake. If not then a missing ear and a stab wound are gonna be the least of your worries.”
Klod started to pace. “I don’t understand why we can’t wait it out.”
Nate sighed. “You know why we can’t. Eventually, it’s going to check this door, and even if we try to stay as silent as possible, it’ll hear us. And I don't think we can escape it a second time.
Klod was confused. This had been on his mind earlier but decided not to say anything. However, now he needed to know. How did his friend know this monster so well?
It was one thing to make assumptions based on their earlier encounter, but Nate talked as if what he was saying were facts.
“Quick question. You wanna explain how you're so confident about what this creature’s strengths and feats are? We only dealt with it for a couple of minutes, tops.”
Nate brought his hind leg up and scratched behind his ear.
“Don't know, I just do. A quick glimpse at the thing already gave me some insight about it, and actually fighting it told me even more.”
Klod was skeptical, but compared to Nate talking, this was far less weird, so he decided to take his word for it.
“Neat. Based on what you know, from a scale of one to ten, what are the chances we pull this off then?”
He sat and thought for a moment.
“Probably a four, but with your luck, our chances go down to a two.”
“Great, glad I’m already helping the team out.”
Klod checked outside again. The creature was still asleep, curled in on itself. He took a deep breath and told Nate.
“Let’s do this.”