(27th of May, 1999)

1:15 AM

Frank and Detective Drew bust into Kimberly’s house weapons at the ready. Her cat Toto jumping out from behind the couch and breezing past them and out the front door. Frank trying yet failing to stop him.

“Oh, Kimberly’s not going to like that.” Frank said.

“Yeah well hopefully she’s still around to feel any type of way about it…” Drew responded.

The two searched through the house and found no sign of Kimberly. Toto’s presence as well as all the lights having been on were a good sign at least. Meaning if there were a struggle… it didn’t take place here. But something peculiar caught Drew’s eye. Something bizarre that had been tossed in the trash. It seemed to be a deflated eye sack… disgusted Drew picked it out of the trash, pinching it between two fingers as he cringed at the sight of it.

“What the hell is this?” Drew observed it further. “An eye?”

“An eye!” Frank came over to see as well. “What’s a deflated eye doing in Kimberly’s trash? You don’t think…”

“Either she’s the killer or… it’s hers.”

“It’s not the right color to be hers though.”

The two stood there. Further confusion wafting over them when suddenly the phone started ringing. The two watched the phone letting it ring until it the answering machine picked it up. On the other end was Dani Gomez.

“Kimmy! Please pick up…” Dani starting to break into tears on the other end of the phone. “I’ve been ringing you for hours, the police won’t pick up! No matter who I call-”

Frank rushed over and answered the phone. “Hello! Dani it’s Frank! What’s wrong?” Frank screams in concern.

“Whose that?” Drew asked as Frank dismissed him.

“Of Frank! Thank god… What are you doing at Kimmy’s house?”

“Checking on her. But she isn’t here…” Frank said as he leaned up against the countertop next to the phone with a sigh of defeat. “What’s wrong Dani?”

“It’s my husband Emanuel… He went back to work yesterday and didn’t come home. I called the Mill and they didn’t pick up. And the whole neighborhood outside has been going crazy and screaming! And I don’t know what to do…” Dani pleaded as she broke down into a sobbing mess on the phone yet again.

“…I’m on my way.” Frank assures her.

(A Little While Later)

Dani peaked through her window blinds to see a Small Pines Police Department squad card parking outside. Frank and Drew were immediately caught off guard. They’d heard screaming all through the streets and they neighborhood, which Dani had proclaimed on the phone. They knew she wasn’t lying because they heard it as well. But now… as they stepped from the squad car… it was quiet…

“Come in quick!” Dani said as they took her up on that. Rushing into the house. “Hurry, hurry!” She said.

Dani then filled the two in on what was going on. About how she couldn’t reach the police or even Kimberly. How there’d been blood curdling screams filling the neighborhood and silhouettes she couldn’t conceivably understands the form of being seen through her blinds due to shadows cast from the streetlights. How she and her two kids have been hiding in their house quietly… and terrified.

Frank then had to make a decision; would he go to the Mill to search for Emanuel. Or would they cut their losses and skip town? Was it worth sticking around to fight and die when the whole town was going to shit? That was the question. But then he looked at Dani clutching her frightened children and thought of his own. Then it was decided.

“Alright Dani… this nice detective and I will head to the Mill and search for Manny. You guys get out of town while you still can!” He said as he prepared to leave before Dani stopped him.

“Wait! We’re coming with you! We can’t do this alone… not without mi amor Emanuel…” She said with a faint trembling in her voice. Frank disagreeing completely, but Dani didn’t let up. “Please don’t leave us alone…”

Frank relented.

2:00 AM

Police Chief Bill was fumbling for his keys while standing right outside City Hall. Covered in a slight spattering of blood and accompanied by only one singular officer. Of which there was two he’d left with. The other officer held his firearm tightly watching out for—anything. For, to put it simply… monsters.

“Come on Chief, Get that fucking door open!”

“I am—okay I am!” Bill yelled.

After finally getting the doors to City Hall open the two of them exploded through the entrance as the younger officer slammed the door shut and locked it behind them. The two of them slid against the door down to the ground heaving. Out of breath from running. But they were safe now…

“Do you think the Mayor is here?” The officer asked.

“Well he wasn’t home. We learned that the hard way…” Bill said as the two stood there in silence for a moment. “Well, let’s take a look around.”

The two tried getting the power back on but to no avail. Thinking that if they could have, they’d be able to call for outside help. As they continued moving through City Hall they decided to start making their way upstairs towards the Mayor’s office. As they were in the stairwell…

*crying—gentle sobbing*

“Hello?” Bill asked.

The Chief accompanied by the other officer opened the door to find the source of the crying. But when they did… a brief moment of silence. Then moaning. A moan that low in pitch and gargling. It almost seemed to be inhuman. As the two stepped through the hall the only sounds were this gargled moan and their footsteps. And as the neared closer to the Mayor’s office worry came over them.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Mayor Sikes!?” The officer yelled.

Then silence yet again.

“Let’s move! He might need our help.”

The two of them sprung into action. Busting into the office before being stopped dead in their tracks. The air was thin the moment they entered. An odor that smelled of rot and decay hit them. And standing, though I’d neglect to call it as such. What seemed to be the Mayor was before them. But it wasn’t anymore. A large gluttoness form took up the space of his office. His bottle of fine bourbon shattered on the ground.

“…”

As the two stood speechless, they watched as a pair of soft, supple legs were slurped into the jowls of large deformed, manlike beast. The sounds of this act were horrifying. And as its fat, puss filled face creaked to meet their gaze the two were frozen for a moment. Police Chief Bill finally taking action pulled his 9mm handgun and began firing indiscriminately. Each round bouncing off of its massive body as its lumbering arm came and scooped Bill from the ground. Crushing his ribs as it squeezed him like a giant infant with a toy.

“Ahhhhh!!!” The Chief screamed in pain, his ribs snapping from the force of this thing’s monstrous grip. He was soon stuffed headfirst into the mouth of this creature and his screams were muffled. “Mmmmm! MMMMM!!!” And then he was gone. Swallowed as the other officer could do little more than watch as its massive throat expanded into the shape of a man that was descending downward.

The creature burped up the Chief’s Badge. As it appeared slightly dissolved in a manner of seconds. “Chief…” The officer said as he stepped back into a shot glass that must’ve rolled its over upon this nightmarish transformation. It shattered beneath his feet.

The massive shapely creature took notice of his final victim upon hearing the shattering glass. It started to shake, gag, and convulse. Sounding as if it were gagging on its dinner. Thinking he could outrun this grotesque ball of mass, the officer decided turn tail and run. But he wouldn’t get far as the mass spit up and sprayed him with its inner acids. Immediately burning through his uniform and dissolving his part of his face while steam rose from the searing pain.

“OH GOD! OH MY FUCKING Gooo--…” He screamed before devolving into gurgles.

His skin began melting from the bone as red, sinewy bits of muscle plopped to the ground with a splat. His shrieking intensifying all the more and more until his larynx fell forth, ceasing his ability to voice any sound at all. Though the feeling of agony was not lost and could still be felt. Organs turning to a gelatinous goop leaving his skeleton behind. His body shaking and writhing until the very last second. Until all that was left was skeleton and cartilage. The last of him falling to bits as the cartilage too disintegrated.

Back at the derelict barn on the outskirts of town. Kimberly couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “What’s wrong with them!?” Kimberly asked. Standing over a pile of bizarre and monstrous corpses. Each with a face and shape grossly distorted beyond their usual form. One seeming to have the legs of a grasshopper, another jaw elongated and widened with jagged teeth. “What does this have to do with these… Seeker things you mentioned?”

“The Seeker…” Nathan started. “It chooses the victims in which to procreate with. The others are turned into what you see here… left purposeless.”

“I see. So the victims uncovered who were missing their eyes. That strange sack filled with goo that I’d stepped on was a seeker… the only thing I don’t understand. Is what’s your angle in all this?”

Nathan stood there reluctant for a moment. He felt as though he already said too much. He didn’t feel Kimberly would make the ally he wanted. But he has already involved Kimberly, so the point was moot. He continued. “For generations my family has hunted the Seeker. We don’t know its goal or its purpose, but we know wherever it goes chaos and death follows… I never believed the legends my grandfather told me, but as you can see. It was all too real.”

“Generations? Who the hell are you? How did you know this creature was here in Small Pines?” Kimberly asked. Having so many more questions, but knew time was of the essence.

“My full name is Nathaniel Nigel Hellsing. My ancestors have hunted the Seeker for millennia. Chasing it all across Europe until it came here during the development of the new world. The Salem Witch Trials were one of the results of its influence. Though I’ve trained my entire life for this… I never believed the stories to be true. Until the headaches and visions came over me.”

“Visions? Is that how you knew to come here?”

“Yes. I don’t know how or why, but my families been blessed with the curse of being intrinsically linked to this creature… These headaches have been how I tracked these monsters throughout your town. My visions was how I knew when it would wake up…” Kimberly could hear the stress in Nathan’s voice as he spoke. She wanted to tell him that he could stop, but her curiosity was too great. “As for you, I saw you before you entered the church. It was actually because of you and that detective that I didn’t get a chance go back in…”

“Back in?”

“Yes.” Nathan stuttered and stammered for a moment. His hand shaking in regret. “I was… the one who discovered those boys. I called in the anonymous tip…” He said as his voice cracked slightly. “And I’ve been doing my best to protect the people here but… I’m all by myself!” Nathan said as he fell to his knees. His hand and scarf falling to the ground as he did. Fighting back his tears.

Though she didn’t know him. She looked down at the creatures before her. She thought back on the creature found on her bathroom floor. The one she’d stepped on. Nathan’s been battling these demons from the shadows on his own. I get why he couldn’t go to the SPD. They’d just dismiss his claims. He’s been protecting Small Pines to the best of his ability. This man isn’t a killer… he’s all alone… she thought. She knelt down next to him to comfort him. Though despite feeling bad. She still had to press the issue.

“So why me? You never tried to state your case with anyone until me. So why?”

“I saw you come over with a headache spontaneously before entering the church. I don’t know why but… I thought you were like me. Especially when you managed to leave the church alive…”

“A—Alive...?” She said. What does he mean by “Alive” huh? “Should I not be alive?”

“Before you entered I came down with a sever headache. You had one too before entering am I correct?”

Kimberly remembered having the headache. She remembered losing her shit in front of Detective Drew. Could I be like him? I thought… Her train of thought interrupted before she remembered that shadow of that… that man. It was then she knew she wasn’t the same as he.

“I did but…” Nathan interrupts.

“No I know that now. I saw you did the same before we entered the woods. I just didn’t understand why? I didn’t feel anything so…”

“…” Kimberly wasn’t ready to speak on that. Instead pivoting the conversation back. “I’m sorry. So you knew that one of those things were in the church. Why didn’t you didn’t stop us!?” She said, kind of irritated by that detail.

“And make myself a suspect? Fat chance…”

Kimberly thought on it before saying “Yeah that’s fair.”

“I really am sorry for involving you in this. You’re free to go… and if it’s any consolation. I appreciate finally being able to get all this shit off my chest.”

“Yeah… and its definitely a steamer.” Kimberly joked.

Nathan laughed. “It sure is.”

Kimberly sat there and thought about it for a moment. It all made sense all of a sudden. The raccoon with the missing eyes. The missing father… those poor boys… She finally started piecing it together. Madness making more sense amidst the manifest of contextual clues to put it all together. She stood up and closed her eyes for a minute. After taking a deep breath she found it. Her resolve.

“Alright…” She swung around to face Nathan. Determined she said “We’ve got some sort of fucked up, cosmic evil that needs put back into the ground!”

“Yo- you’re still going to help me?”

Kimberly put out her hand to pull Nathan to his feet. “Small Pines is my home. And besides… after all that shit. You didn’t think I was going to let you do this all by yourself did you?”

Nathan swept with surprise and confusion turned his dumbfounded expression into a smile. Reaching out and grabbing her hand. A warmth coming over him that he hasn’t felt in a long time. Standing to his feet with more determination than ever. “That would be bitch move wouldn’t it? Let’s go kick some ass!”

The two smiling at each other as they made this pact. Ready to face anything. Come what may…