The Nameless Dark Story #4

My house is a bit unique. I live in a highly mountainous area of the country, and most of our houses are built into hills, as it's easier to do that than to have them supported. My house, though, is almost entirely built into the earth. I designed it that way. It's a tiny house, only 400 square feet, and the impact on the environment was minimal. Being mostly encased in earth, it stays cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Local wildlife feels comfortable approaching the yard, so I see a lot of amazing animals. It's a really great situation for the most part, with only one major exception.

Something has been eating into my house.

I figured it was mice when I noticed that a small hole had been eaten through the west wall of the den area. I patched it up and set out traps, as I've had mice living in here before. But over the next few days, the hole just kept getting bigger. I also noticed that there weren't any droppings in the house, and there isn't exactly a lot of space for anything to hide in. I checked all the corners of the house, went from ceiling to floor looking for any holes, but I couldn't figure out how anything was getting in. Or getting out.

Then one night, right after I'd turned the lights out, I heard an odd grinding noise coming from the kitchen.

I climbed out of the loft and checked it out. As soon as I moved, the noise stopped, and in the kitchen I couldn't find any signs of damage. Nothing had been moved except the clock, which was slightly askew. I fixed it and went back to bed. I put out more traps and figured a mole must have tried to burrow into the wall. It came back again the next night, and I wondered if I'd need to do something to prevent the mole from hurting itself, or actually managing to break through. It didn't stop this time when I got up, and I put my ear to the wall to listen.

What immediately came to mind was the sound of someone crushing hard candy in their teeth. That kind of glassy sound that makes you wince. It would stop from time to time, and something would shuffle before the sound started again. And it was loud. Almost loud enough to force me to pull my ear away. I didn't know how big moles could get but this one sounded big. Too big. The way the wall shuddered, I gave the animal on the other side a few days before it broke through. And suddenly more than anything I did not want that to happen. Absolutely could not let it happen.

But the problem, of course, was the mountain. I had no access to the other side. There was no way for me to find the thing on the other side by any means other than...

Opening the wall before it had a chance to.

The thing was nocturnal, I was almost sure. So I waited until the sun had been up for about an hour before taking a hammer and clearing everything in the area away from the wall. Even now, just a day later, I could see that the mole was making progress. The paneling was slightly bowed, and there were cracks where there hadn't been any before. It only took a few taps to break apart what little of the wall was left. The hole was big.

Way too big. And deep.

It led straight into the mountain far past where I could see. It was easily two feet in diameter, and uneven in places where the dirt had partially caved in. From the tunnel came a strange smell. Not entirely unpleasant, but strange. Musky apple cider vinegar. I bent a bit closer to try and make out anything in the dark and I heard a sound.

Something in the darkness moved.

I saw the shadows swell and shift and whatever was back there made a strange, keening whine. There was the unexpected and implacable impression of the tunnel growing shorter and something caught the light and sparked briefly in the dark.

Something large and yellow and cracked.

A huge gray thing, covered in slime and dead patches, slithered out of the darkness and moved over a pile of dirt. It rolled around, covering itself, and shrank back into the dark. Something smacked and the tunnel shortened again as whatever it was moved closer, making that kitten keening sound.

The grey thing darted out again, felt blindly along the ground, picked up rocks and brought them back into the dark, which consumed them with that glass candy splintering. By now I had backed up but the thing kept coming closer, and the keening grew louder. It was only a few feet away when I backed up, my mouth opening and closing.

The grey thing slithered back into the cavity it had come from. The tombstone teeth came together and there were no lips, only cracked edges that oozed a blood redder than any I'd ever seen before. It dripped down the surfaces of the teeth, pooling in the cracks. One tooth had broken in half and as the mouth opened and closed around the rocks the dangling nerve was crushed over and over, prompting the keening. The tongue flopped out, slithered out of the tunnel and crept along the surrounding wall, and I shrieked. I grabbed a knife from the block and sliced at the tongue, and whatever it was connected to let out a rusty scream. The tongue retreated, bleeding profusely, and deep in the mountain I could hear something moving. Something huge. Something that I didn't care to learn any more about. I packed a suitcase and drove into town with no intention of coming back to find out what that mouth was attached to.