Fear the Darkness Read Online Free PDF Page B

fresh sacrificial blood. Inadvertently perhaps, it seemed the Coven Master had ended up as the victim in his own ritual. The sacrifice had been completed. A doorway had been opened, and, through it, something wicked was coming their way.
    "Merciful Grud." Whitby's voice was a choked whisper. "The Coven Master's body is moving."
    It began with the smell of brimstone. The body swelled, the sound of tearing cloth as nothing compared to the awful sound of the tearing of shifting flesh. Before their horrified eyes, it tried to stand, splaying its newly-clawed hands on the ground before it as it pushed itself upright.
    "Rapid Fire - Standard Execution," Anderson yelled, already pulling the trigger of her Lawgiver. "We have to try to destroy the body before it can fully manifest itself."
    "What about incendiaries? Hi-ex?" Whitby said. "Can't we blow the thing to pieces?"
    "No, Himmie's too close. The blast would kill him." Anderson replied, as the thing in the pentagram cast aside the shreds of the Coven Master's robes and began to croon softly to them.
    "Childrrennn," it said, as though tasting the words and deciding whether it liked them or not. "Childrrrennnn... Childrennnn... Childrennnn."
    Whatever the hell it was, it didn't look like Satan. More like his ugly big brother. Raising itself to its full height, the thing was two and a half metres tall, its body skinless to better reveal the writhing wet musculature of its flesh. It had three long fingers on each hand, reverse-jointed ankles and a mouth full of sharp smiling teeth that looked too wide for its face. A second mouth, even wider, set in the middle of its abdomen, did the talking.
    "Childrennnn," it rasped. "Trying to hurt meee... Stuuupid childrennnn." For a moment, the creature paused, extending a claw towards Himmie. Anderson's heart skipped a beat. "Hnnn... Innocennnnts... Goood fooooodd." Then, drooling in hunger, it turned to look at Anderson with both mouths smiling. "Hnnn... But psi... Always betterrrr."
    It sprang forward with a lumbering, uncertain gait, thick ropy strands of drool dribbling from its mouths. Firing his Lawgiver, Whitby rushed forward to meet it, only for the demon to knock him flying with a backhanded blow. Quickening its pace, it strode towards Anderson, the twin smiles growing ever wider.
    "Psi... Gooood psi... Commme to mmmy mmmmouths."
    Standing her ground until the creature was right on top of her, Anderson leapt away at the last instant. She landed to the side and behind it, rolling to her feet and making a dash for the altar, all the time hoping that something she had seen there when she entered the church had not been lost in all the chaos since. She heard the demon turn and follow her, then she saw it: a glint of silver lying by the side of the altar.
    The chalice.
    As desperate last-ditch plans went, she figured it was right up there with the best of them. Having failed to kill the creature with normal bullets, and figuring incendiaries and hi-ex would be next to useless, she had decided her best chance was to use the one thing that always seemed to give other-dimensional creatures a headache. Silver. She had seen it work before. As a Psi-Judge, she was even equipped with a special issue silver boot knife for just such emergencies. But she no more wanted to go hand-to-hand with that thing than she would want to dance a tango with Judge Death. Besides, there wasn't enough silver in her knife for what she had in mind. She needed something bigger.
    Reaching the altar, Anderson grabbed the chalice and threw it toward the advancing demon. With surprising speed, the demon caught it. It held the chalice up as though to tease her.
    "Silverrr," it said. The fact its hand was smouldering slightly at the touch of the chalice seemed in no way to dampen its amusement. "Cleverrr psi... But yourrr silverrr is mine now... Herrre in my hand."
    "Between you and me, ugly, that's just where I wanted it," Anderson said, aiming her Lawgiver at the chalice