Whispers Beneath the Backwaters - The Thing That Walked - Part 18

 The footsteps shook the entire house.

BOOM.

BOOM.

BOOM.

Water rushed through the corridors below, climbing the staircase like living darkness.

Nobody dared move.

Nobody dared breathe.

Then came the smell.

Rotten water.

Dead flowers.

And something ancient buried too long beneath the earth.

The creature was inside.

Meenu began crying uncontrollably.

“It’s hungry…”

The staircase groaned loudly.

Something massive was climbing upward.

Not quickly.

Slowly.

Confidently.

As though it had waited years for this moment.

Arjun grabbed a broken wooden rod instinctively, though he knew it was useless.

Devika held Meenu behind her protectively.

Madhavi and Ammini stood side by side now.

No longer enemies.

Only mothers.

The first shadow appeared on the corridor wall.

Huge.

Twisted.

Then another sound came.

Wet breathing.

Close.

Very close.

BOOM.

One giant hand slammed onto the staircase railing.

Not fully human.

Not fully animal.

Its skin looked made from black water and rotting flesh fused together.

Faces moved beneath its surface.

Crying.

Screaming.

The trapped souls.

The creature slowly pulled itself upward.

Its head emerged next.

Arjun nearly collapsed.

It had no fixed face.

Instead faces continuously formed and melted across it.

Children.

Women.

Old men.

All whispering together.

But one face stayed longer than the others.

Narayanan.

Smiling.

The creature spoke using hundreds of voices at once.

“Give… the child…”

The house lights burst violently.

Darkness flickered around the monster like smoke.

Meenu screamed and covered her ears.

“It’s too loud!”

The creature stepped onto the upper floor fully now.

Tall enough to touch the ceiling.

Water dripped endlessly from its body.

Every step rotted the wood beneath it.

Ammini moved forward first.

“You cannot have her.”

The creature laughed.

A horrible bubbling sound.

“You… promised…”

The backwaters outside exploded against the walls.

The house would not survive much longer.

Madhavi looked toward Arjun desperately.

“There is only one way.”

Arjun already knew he would hate the answer.

“What way?”

Madhavi stared at Meenu with tears in her dead eyes.

“One soul must willingly return to the water.”

Devika screamed immediately.

“No!”

The creature moved closer.

“Choose…”

The trapped faces across its body began crying louder.

Children begging.

Mothers screaming.

Narayanan laughing.

Arjun held Meenu tightly.

His daughter looked up at him with trembling lips.

“Achaa…”

Then she whispered something that broke him completely.

“Will you leave me too?”

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