Saturday Snippet - AFTERLIFE

[naomi_jay]

Here we are again, another Saturday, another thrilling snippet! This week: Ghouls in the bedroom.

 

I was so entrenched in my thoughts that I didn’t notice anything was wrong when I unlocked my front door. The smell didn’t hit me until I was inside the apartment.

            Rotting flesh. Bile and decay, the perfume of the grave. I stiffened, inhaling that thick, musty odour. I frowned, perturbed but not scared. Some ghosts left a scent, although I’d never come across a ghost that stank like this.

            Then I heard it moving. Slow, soft shuffling, as if the walker didn’t have total control over its legs, accompanied by laboured, wheezing breathing. It was in my bedroom, I realised, following that sound.

            Tension threaded down my spine. My first instinct was to mist out and roll through the apartment that way. I checked the instinct – misting expended energy and I hadn’t fed properly since the Revenant. I might need the strength to fight the creature. So I picked up the heavy iron poker from the fireplace and crept towards my bedroom. Holding my breath, I peered round the door into the shadows.

            It was a ghoul. I should have known from the smell. He dragged himself around my bed, grunting softly at the effort. He had been a young man in life, from what I could see of his decaying face. His skin was a nasty grey, his eyes gleamed red. His right ankle was broken, dragging along the carpet at a nasty angle. An old ghoul then, one who’d seen his fair share of fights with others of his kind.

            What the hell was he doing in my bedroom?

            I pushed the door open and his head snapped round to stare at me. I stared back. The quickest way to dispatch a ghoul was to take out its brain. I hefted the poker in my hand, hoping it was heavy enough to do the job.

            I took a tentative step forwards. The ghoul grunted and lunged towards me, his mangled foot making an awful scraping sound on the carpet. I froze, holding his blood-red gaze. I still wasn’t truly afraid. Ghouls were no more intelligent than dogs, barely capable of more than eating and fighting.

            Really I was more confused. How had he gotten in? Shoregrave was a strange city, but not strange enough that the walking dead passed without notice.

            The ghoul launched himself at me. He hit me square in the stomach, knocking me onto my back and driving the air from my lungs in a burning rush. I screamed as the ghoul sank his filthy teeth into my collarbone.