Chapter 13: Chapter 12 - Do What Thou Wilt

Diary Something 15th of Julioaugust

The worm didn’t talk to me again yesterday. I’m shitting bricks thinking about it. What on earth is the worm. I called Thadlyn and asked her to come round but she says she’s busy. What, busy for a 10ft long giant snake monster, a giant gorilla made of rocks, a blue fucking alien and an unhealothy union between a bee and a telephone pole.

I can’t stop thinking about the bombs over Limbus, I can’t believe they stopped. All the people that died while I’m sat here with ma shooting buckrats and eating sandfruits. I couldn’t sleep again. I dreamed of those Juj meemaw told me stories about as a kid. I feel like I should be happy the bombs stopped but how many times has it just started again. Maybe I really am a pessimist. I think half the reason I can’t sleep is that I’m so unbelievably horny. I hate living with my paernts.

--

Noisemaker thrust an accusatory finger at Leader, who took a step to the side, minding over a bulging egg. The nest, now crowded with larvae that crept along the floor on fully-formed legs, stinking with the acrid scent of fury. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you could understand them?!’

‘What difference does it make?’

‘What difference. You hid it, you knew what they were saying but you didn’t mention it. Just what are you plotting, Leader.’

‘You three are too busy doing nothing useful, parading yourself in full view of our foes. What good is it going to bring when your guts become fertilizer for the soil that you were kind to these animals?’

‘We can talk with them. We can work something out. Ally-’

‘Don’t use command pheromones on me.’ Leader glowed blue, through the translucent skin of their bulbous head, bright white nervous system tendrils reached out and touched their prison. ‘Noisemaker. We are running out of time. We must kill them.’ Noisemaker tapped and crawled away, exuding orange clouds of hateful pheromones. ‘It’s going to be Winter soon, Noisemaker. What are we going to eat if we don’t take out the humans. What are the larvae going to eat. Forage? How many deer does this patch of trees contain, I reckon we might have exhausted all of them.’

‘The humans, they can feed us.’

‘With what, they have more mouths to feed. The larvae are grown, now, they can fight, what happens when the humans get scared. What happens when things stop being nice. They’ve known you for days. What happens when they find out your Directive.’

‘I don’t know.’ Noisemaker paused with a hand on the nesthole.

‘Exactly.’ The contents of the nursery swarmed at Leader’s feat, mewling, some as large and fat worms, some as hairy critters with butterfly-wings, some as… well… bricks, walking little bricks of bone. Only Leader refrained from laying eggs.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

Noisemaker slithered upwards a wall when Wings and Arms came forth, holding a limp boar and her piglets between themselves. Arms’ shell had began darkening, from white to a deep bluish. Wings’ wings stretched even further now, two metres of skin. “This is all we could find.” Noisemaker stunk of grief, annoyance, the attempts put together a train of logic when every turn in the tracks was met with a wall. Wings clicked, “we need to start expanding our territory.” They stepped their long legs into the nest, every footfall tentative with larvae struggling to get underneath the forager’s talons, except for Arms’ brick-like children, which remained motionless, much like a certain object. The flesh-creep also had grown more enormously, bulging trunks of glistening red meat spreading, strut-like, against the walls of the nest. An expansion was certainly needed.

Noisemaker scuttled the familiar route through the trees, up and along the thickest branches. Did they creek like that two days ago? Down the creepers, and up towards the now-repaired stone wall, grey-skinned folks lounging on chairs in the sun. The people of the village looked happy to have their friends and family returned, concerned about the colour of their skin, silhouetted against the hill opposing their hill, it all looked quite scenic. The grey-skinned ones were extremely bothered by Noisemaker, and got up and walked away, twenty legs crawled up and over the wall. Noisemaker just wanted to see it all again. They crept past two larger houses by the golden fields, inside was a green, a patch of grass where a few lounged around turning to look at the worm walking amongst them. The village elder and the girl with the pencil and notepad were already there, offering “hello” and “ho there!” to the creature. All eyes on Noisemaker, they felt so paralysed, wondering what they were all thinking, it was all so frightening. That they were all so… alien.

“Hello.”

“You’ve been gone for a day, divine one, is anything the matter?”

“We’re running out of food. And.” Would they really just tell these humans all their worries?

“We have to be leaving soon. I just came to give my goodbye.”

“Where will you go?”

“I must ensure it is unknown.” Their stalk-eyes fixed to the notepad. “As much as possible.” The girl slowed her writing.

“If it offends the divines, I will gladly remove all trace of your existence.” Noisemaker doubted it. A roaring sound came distantly. “There’s a car coming.” The girl said to her elder.

“What?” Noisemaker asked.

“Ah. People are coming by, by car, err, if you wish not to be seen by strangers then I suppose that makes this our goodbye.”

“Yes. Goodbye.” Noisemaker turned away, serpent-like, disappointed. But, at the tree-line they watched the ‘car’ as it came by, enormously noisy and spewing smoke and dust, it produced a woman in a suit, and another, they had a briefcase, and they walked calmly to the village elder. “We’re here with Home Defence investigating a disappearance of the entire population of a village neighbouring here, Waddow Hall.” The older woman gasped. “It’s serious. We just want to ask some questions.” The elder made herself clear she was eager to provide answers. The woman in the black suit and sunglasses asked, “Have you seen anything unusual in the past few days, especially with regards to creatures and unusual animals? We’re investigating reports of, well, let’s just say the disappearances in the area may be related to unusual organisms recently discovered.”

The village elder looked to the trees, shakily, “I… what do you mean by disappearances.”

“Ma’am, we are on your side, now, we just need to ask you some questions, there have been disappearances in the town of Waddow Hall, in the sense that nobody we can find has any contact with any person that was in Waddow Hall for the past three days.”

“And what do you mean by.. creatures.”

“Are you familiar with the legends of the Juj? Now it’s nothing so serious, but, we believe the things which may have caused the recent disappearances may look something like that.”

After a while of talking about monsters, Noisemaker heard the car starting again and driving away but by that point it was too late. They had run away in fear and shame and grief and disgust.