The Hours of Creeping Night - a Collection of Dark Speculative Short Fiction Read Online Free PDF

chewing, crunching. The metallic odour of blood and the hot acidic stench of rotting flesh stung the air.
    Ren’s blood pooled across the floor, a black lake in the darkness. One by one, the creatures caught the scent. One by one, they slammed against the metal bars.
    All these years, people had called him an animal.
    At least I’ll die a man , Denton thought. He tore strips of linen from his bed, slowly wrapping the cloth around his knuckles as the creatures’ manic screams escalated with desperate excitement. Let’s see how many of these motherfuckers I can take with me to hell.
    The bars gave way.

 
    Bump in the Night
     
    C ynthia poured the imaginary tea from the plastic teapot. First for Mister Spears, then for Grobble, then Lucy-Loo. Baby Bub was too little to drink tea. Mister Spears sat stiff-backed, waiting for Cynthia to add the milk for him.
    ‘Not too much, girl!’ he snapped. The thin line of his mouth did not move as he spoke. He polished his monocle on his white cotton handkerchief before picking up the teacup and sipping, sticking out his little finger.
    Grobble didn’t drink. He just sat there, like he did most of the time. Limp and covered in bandages. He didn’t move much when the others were around. But unlike the others, he stayed through the night. When Cynthia was on her own, he lay under her bed, scratching his long nails across the floorboards. Otherwise, he crouched in the cupboard, and Cynthia could see the pin-pricks of light reflecting from his eyes through the crack in the door. Grobble liked to watch.
    Lucy-Loo was busying herself dipping Baby Bub’s chubby plastic fingers into the scalding tea, cooing at him as he cried. Cynthia couldn’t stand to look at Baby Bub. He had big pools of black ink for eyes, and his head was swollen and blue.
    ‘Cynthia!’ Mister Spears boomed. The girl jumped, nearly spilling her tea. ‘Let me see those hands of yours!’
    Cynthia set down her teacup, trying hard not to clatter it with her shaking hands. She stretched her arms out across the table. Mister Spears grabbed her hands. His bony fingers dug into her flesh. ‘You disgusting child. Your fingertips are filthy. How dare you serve me tea with hands as disgusting as these!’ He took the ring finger of Cynthia’s left hand and snapped it backwards.
    She cried out and recoiled into her chair.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered.
    Baby Bub started to cry even louder. Lucy-Loo slapped Cynthia across the face. ‘Look what you’ve done to the baby!’
    ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry...’
    ‘Go and wash your hands,’ said Mister Spears.
    Cynthia got up, and as she reached the door, dipped her good hand into the pocket of her dress. She pulled out a small box of matches. Before the others even noticed what she was doing, Cynthia had thrown a lit match into her waste paper basket, which began to smoke. Then she threw two more onto her bed and another at the net curtains. The flames began to spread.
    ‘What are you doing ? You stupid girl!’
    Cynthia stepped into the hall and slammed her bedroom door shut. She slid the bolt across.
     
    ~*~
     
    From the back garden, Cynthia watched with her parents and baby brother as their house burned down. Her mother, wrapped up in her pink dressing gown, cradled the baby in her arms. They were both weeping.
    Her father stared stoically at the burning building, his back straight, his mouth a thin line. He pulled his white cotton handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the sweat from his face.
     
    ~*~
     
    They stayed in old Mrs McKenzie’s spare room, Cynthia on a camp-bed, her parents in the double bed and the baby in the open bottom drawer of the dresser. The shadows were just as dark as those in her bedroom at home. Cynthia lay awake, listening to the rumbling snoring of her father. It had taken the baby ages to stop crying. Her mother and father had ignored it, and Cynthia thought about Lucy-Loo hitting Baby Bub.
    The wardrobe here was made of cheap