Featured Creature: The Squatting Man

There it was again, a dull thump.

 

Eric followed the noise towards the back of the Ellison family Mausoleum.  

He rounded the corner of the atrium into the main columbarium, aiming his flashlight across the space.  Nothing moved but the specks of dust kicked up by his entrance.  He could see the cloud of his breath before him as he walked.  The sun had set hours ago and the air had gotten chilly since.

 

This was one of the older units, early twentieth century.  There was dirt and debris on some parts of the floor.  If there was a living relative for the dead here, they'd stopped caring long ago.  Eric's shoes made a soft scraping noise as he moved down the forgotten corridor.  How many of the same family were here together?  He began counting the columns of name plates of crypts as he passed.  He reached 23 when the noise came again.  

 

Thump Thump.

 

He approached another corner and was now at the chambers at the very back of the mausoleum.  One of the crypts had been defaced and was broken open.  The casket was open and lay on its side on the floor.  Splintered wood and broken marble lay scattered around it.  Eric fully rounded the corner to look into the chamber, shining his flashlight toward the noise

Thump Thump.

 

There was a man squatting in the far corner.  He was rocking sporadically and shaking, as though he were struggling to keep his balance. The man was a making a low moaning noise as though he were hurt.  Eric thought again, he wasn't quite rocking.  He seemed to be writhing.  There was something in the man's movement that reminded Eric of a dog in heat, humping the air.  He swallowed hard.  Eric's throat was suddenly dry. 

"Excuse me Sir." He coughed.

 

The squatting man in the corner rose up directly as if some invisible string attached to his neck had suddenly been pulled taut.  The movement was so smooth it seemed to Eric as though the man were performing a dance.  Something in the man's grasp fell to the floor with an unpleasant thud.

"Excuse me sir, but you aren't allowed to be in here after hours."  Eric's stomach sank as he noticed the drag marks in the debris on the floor and a body prone at the feet of the squatting man.  A smear of red glistened on the wall beyond them.  The squatting man turned slowly toward Eric.

 

Eric backed away from the squatting man and moved to run but couldn't seem to find purchase on the marble floor.  Something hit him hard in the shoulder creating a starburst of pain there.  The flashlight flew from his grasp and bounced across the floor.  Shadows and light convulsed, strobing like the beams of car headlights passing.

 

He felt ice cold fingers grab his arm and pull him backward.  An intense pain exploded at the base of his neck and he fell flat on his stomach.  The pain in his neck faded quickly into sharp stinging cold.  He struggled but the squatting man held him hard against he floor, that horrible guttural moaning in his ear. 

The flashlight had stopped bouncing.  It rolled in a wide arc around the corner, leaving Eric in darkness.

 

Recommended Listening:

Kammarheit

Bleeding at the Elysian Fields

from The Downfall and the Arising

{8x5.33,  created in Adobe Photoshop}