World of Teraphobia

I had been staring at the ceiling of the bedroom for an hour when the creature floated in from the dining room, through the open door and into my room.

The apparition was partially translucent. I followed the straight edge of the right side, around the half circle of a head and down the straight left side. Along the bottom, it was torn and uneven. Pieces of bluish, transparent material hanging from its square-like body.

I expected something within the translucent skin holding it together. I only found a mess of thin tentacles whipping behind the thin translucence sheet.

The creature floated just below the ceiling and came toward my bed. It hovered over the left corner of our bed. My wife was asleep. The Omnipresent No’doer having blessed her with the ability to sleep under many conditions.

Sherrie slept, her feet exposed. The creature dropped its tentacles and whipped several around her left ankle and began to wrap itself around the right. It began to lift her feet toward its translucent insides.

Sherrie woke with a start.

“Redd!” Sherrie shouted and slapped me in the side of my skull with her hand. I fell against the bedroom wall. I stood, found a half bottle of soda and threw it at the creature.

I missed.

The creature started to drag her toward the room entrance. Sherrie screamed. She struggled to release her ankles. She grabbed a handful of blanket, the sheet and the side of the bed. She disappeared and fell to the floor.

“Redd, do something! My ankles are burning! My head is throbbing. I think I’m going to pass out.” She pleaded as I struggled to think clearly.

Thoughts poured into my head.

“Sacrifice yourself.”

“Tackle the creature, rip it from Sherrie’s ankles.”

“It seems to be poisonous. I can’t help her, if I’m unconscious.”

“There has to be another way.”

“Stop, breath, think… panic?”

I take a second. Sherrie screams again. I see the creature struggle to stay afloat. Todo… Attempts to grasp hold of a pistol she kept at the head of the bed. She is barely able to get her fingers around the trigger guard, pulls the pistol to her and tries to fire. Safety is on.

Sherrie clicks off the safety, fires.

The room fills with noise. My daughters stir from their bed, in the room above. My head rang but I can still see.

The bullet went through the creature and into the dining room window shattering it. I expected the creature to collapse but it didn’t. It barely moved. Re-adjusting itself slightly. It pulled Sherrie’s feet up. She screamed a second time then went quiet… limp.

I was furious. I barely had any room in my brain for any intelligent thought but managed to tear the curtain from the window. I threw the rod and tossed curtain up and over the gelatinous monster. I heard a hiss or release of air and the curtain fell over the bed. The creature had disappeared. I removed the curtain and there was no evidence of it being there. Paranoid, I waited thirty seconds.

It didn’t appear and I began to triage my wife. I contacted the Zoo. Checked to be sure Sherrie was still breathing. Found she had steady breath and upon her ankles she wore two swollen, red marks. The marks circled her ankles. Her skin was pale and I wasn’t sure what this creature did to her.

I’m sure she was poisoned in some way but I had no idea how to treat it.

I didn’t get a chance to do much else. I felt a prickly static in the air. I felt a chill and the creature reappeared in the same place it had disappeared.

I didn’t give it a chance this time and I pulled the curtain toward me and shook it. I whipped the curtain up and at the creature.

A blast of air pushed the creature away from me and the creature increased in size. It floated near the far wall. I whipped the curtain again. The end of the curtain smacked the creature and shoved it into the front door.

To my left was the chest containing the treated nets. I opened the chest to find a mess of nets attached to each other and impossible to untangle in time. I screamed, frustrated beyond measure. I pulled the mess out of the chest and found a single bundle neatly packed.

I smiled and looked back to my wife, who was awake and smiling.

I pointed at her and smiled back, acknowledging how much I needed her. How much she kept me straight. I took in a breath, happy she was ok.

I grabbed the bundle and turned. The creature rose slowly. I stepped around the bed and threw the net. It spread out, covered the creature and the monster fell to the ground.

Honestly, I swore multiple times. I was so hyped on fear and adrenaline. It took me a moment but I returned to check on my wife. Her ankle was swollen. She complained of a headache. My daughters appeared and screamed. They pushed me out of the way, unintentionally of course.

I stepped back. Took another breath and shouted into my walkie.

“Where are you? Your two doors down!”

“At the door of Bedlam house right now, Mr. Church,” was the reply.

“Got a container and a medic.”

Sherrie recovered in a week. Luckily, the creature has the same poison has a jellyfish, a tough jellyfish… but tough jellyfish meet bad-ass wife.