Chapter 2: The Thing In The Kitchen
Its cracked skin was a sickly gray color from head to toe, and it had more than one pair of arms and legs, with each of them being a different size, but all attached to a wide body overflowing with loose skin, creating a bizarre and strange image.
However, the worst part was not the body, but its head.
Having several parts of the skull caved in, the facial features of this being, rather than being features, appeared to be grotesque holes made by force in a terrible attempt to resemble a human face.
This sight immediately froze Noah, who instinctively, without even him knowing when, had covered his mouth with his two trembling hands.
The next moment, suppressing his tremors and nervousness with sheer force of will, Noah began to take steps backward, never taking his eyes off the creature in the kitchen.
Creeak!
Unfortunately, because his attention was focused on the creature, he failed to notice that he had stepped on a part of the stairs where the wood was about to give way.
Crack!
With the sound of crunching bones, the creature's head turned abruptly, its empty eye sockets staring directly in the direction from which the sound had come.
The next moment, the creature lunged at Noah.
Seeing the creature heading straight for him with its bizarre movements, fear flooded Noah, causing him to stand still for a moment.
Thanks to this, the creature managed to get quite close, being just a few steps away, one of its deformed arms reaching out to touch the young man.
The next moment, however, the young man suddenly recoiled and began to run down the stairs.
Chack!
"Ack!"
To his bad luck, due to the monster's proximity, Noah did not flee unharmed, but could feel how he had received damage to his right ankle, which forced him to let out a small sound.
Bam!
Meanwhile, a loud noise came from behind him, the product of the creature crashing into the stairs due to the force with which it had lunged to try and catch Noah.
Apparently annoyed by that, the creature then let out a shriek that penetrated deep into the young man's body.
"KREEEEEEE!!!"
For a moment, this shriek caused Noah to pause, but gritting his teeth tightly, he suppressed both the fear and the pain he felt and kept moving forward.
With the creature busy getting up, Noah had a head start of a few seconds to decide what to do, time h wasn't going to waste.
Already on the second floor, as his heart and body trembled in ways he didn't think possible, Noah's gaze quickly began to search for a place to hide.
In front of him were several doors leading to his room, his mother's room, the bathroom, and a tool closet. These options were diverse, but they all ended in an outcome that Noah was quick to imagine, with him being caught by the creature after it smashed the door.
Refusing to choose any of these, he turned quickly, fixating on another door, or rather, staircase.
Noah's eyes then lit up as he moved towards this one, quickly climbing the attic stairs and closing this door with all the strength he had.
For him, this option was better because of how high the attic was, with a distance that easily exceeded two meters separating it from the ground.
Tap tap tap tap!
Only a second later, the sound of multiple footsteps, some heavy and some light, but all frantic, reached Noah's ears.
"..."
Immediately, the latter stood still, being careful even to breathe as he listened to the creature pacing the second floor.
Now paying the closest attention to the attic door, Noah felt his heart beat faster than ever before, nervous as he didn't know if the creature had seen him or not.
Unconsciously, he began to scan his surroundings, finding the same object that had caused him to fall earlier, the small rusty hammer.
Creak!
Suddenly, a creak of wood was heard coming from the floor below, along with footsteps that gre weaker as a pair of seconds passed, it seemed that the creature had entered one of the rooms.
"...Haa..."
Letting out a big sigh, Noah was finally able to relax for a moment before carefully moving towards the object nearby, the small hammer.
While he really didn't know if this would be of any use, he couldn't deny that this hammer gave him a bit of reassurance in the situation he was in.
"What can I do now...?" Noah whispered, realizing that while he seemed to have temporarily escaped the creature, the truth was that he was trapped.
His current mental state was a mess, for without him even being able to finish taking in what happened to his arm and the voice in his head, a monster had appeared in his house.
He didn't know if they were related, but what he did know, was that the letters on his arm and the voice in his head had not been something that happened only in his head.
Lifting the sleeve of his arm again, Noah hoped to find other words that would shed some light on his dark situation, but it seemed that the "system" had nothing to tell him at the moment.
He asked questions in his head as well, but the voice didn't answer him, it seemed that at this moment, he was alone.
"...Shit."
He was at a loss, not knowing exactly what he could do to get out of this situation.
Moving his gaze around the attic, Noah was relieved that there were only two exits in the attic, something that while it kept him trapped, it also meant that nothing could easily get in,
As for what the exits were, there were only two, one being the stairs he had entered from, and the a small circular window at the far end of the attic.
It was small to the point where it made Noah doubt whether he could fit through there, but at least it gave room for doubt, which meant there might be a chance.
Approaching as carefully as possible, the young man made his way to the other side of the attic, hearing how on the floor below the creature had entered another room, something that had increased his urgency to escape.
After a couple of minutes that felt like forever, Noah made it towards the window, only to realize that unless he ripped off the frame and went back to being ten years old, he wouldn't be able to get out this way.
"-This."
Though of course, at this point, this had temporarily left his head as he looked outside.
His neighborhood was still the same, but similar to how he saw things, everything had been painted in different shades of gray. Another notable feature was the weather, with cloudy skies and a large amount of fog covering the street.
All together, it gave Noah a strange feeling that contradicted what he was seeing.
A feeling that told him that even though this was his neighborhood, that even though he was at home right now, he didn't belong in either of these two.
And that only made the fear he felt worse.
"?"
However, as he looked around his silent, dreary neighborhood, something caught his attention.
Outside, specifically, near the house in front of his, something seemed to be moving in the midst of the fog. Due to the thickness of it and the distance, Noah wasn't able to make out much more than the silhouette, but it alone was enough to raise his expectations that it was a person.
Normally, shouting would be a good sign when someone needed help, but in this situation, making noise was not an option.
Therefore, Noah had no other idea but to start waving his hands in front of the window. He had no idea if the person in the mist would be able to see this, but he would keep trying just in case.
"...!"
To his luck, shortly after he started, his efforts paid off, as the person had turned in his direction and was now walking towards the house.
"!"
But before he could rejoice, he again felt a pain in his left arm, something that told him that new words had appeared there.
Pulling up his sleeve, the young man could read what it said, and it chilled his blood.
__________________________
[Warning: "Non-Human" has detected the "Host." It is recommended to hide or flee.]
__________________________
Reading this warning, Noah returned his gaze to the "person" in the street, with each step it took, he could see its silhouette better, realizing in horror that the words on his arm had spoken the truth.
Now in his neighbor's front yard, amidst the fog, something that was clearly not human was staring at him.
The appearance of this one was different from the creature Noah had fled from, with this one having a normal pair of legs and arms but with a body that was far beyond malnourished, clearly showing bones.
And the part that most confirmed that this creature was not human, a head which had only a huge hole in the middle of its face, replete with an enormous amount of sharp teeth.
Although it did not seem possible for this creature to have any vision, apart from the confirmation of the words on his arm, Noah also felt instinctively that it had seen him.
"..."
At this, all color disappeared from Noah's face, after all, he had called another monster.
Tap tap tap tap!
Suddenly, the creature outside the house began running in his direction at a speed Noah only remembered seeing from the track team at his school.
Crash!
And with the sound of a window being smashed on the lower floor, it was clear that the new creature had entered the house, and not only that, but it was now running up the stairs.
BAM!!!
"!!"
Suddenly, after a few hurried steps, the attic door was pushed upward, the screws holding it in place struggling to resist the force behind the push.
With this, it was evident that the creature knew perfectly well that he was in the attic.
Still standing close to the window, Noah was surprised with how fast this had been, so he readied himself and moved towards the door, hammer in hand and ready for when the monster broke it.
"KREEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"
However, just as he stood in front of the door, the same bloodcurdling shriek that had frozen him earlier in the kitchen came from downstairs.
Creak!
The wood began to creak with heavy footsteps coming from one room, with the monster in the kitchen coming out of one of the rooms after having heard the other.
Noah panicked, not knowing what to do when the two monsters broke through the door, only holding the hammer in his shaking hands and fixing his gaze on the door.
BAM!
"GRAKH!"
However, the sound of something heavy crashing against a wall came from below, along with the shout of a raspy voice.
"...What?" He was confused, but to his luck, it seems that these two monsters were not companions. And although he had no vision of what was happening below him, it wasn't necessary for Noah to get an idea.
Chack!
This time what sounded was not a thump, but flesh being torn, something that further confirmed what Noah was thinking, that at this moment, the monsters were fighting against each other.
Seconds later, the shrieks increased, the sound of bones being broken multiplied, and flesh being cut became a common occurrence.
All this was happening under the intense attention of a young man who by this time, despite being an atheist, was praying to god that the fight below would end in mutual defeat.
Until finally, after an unknown amount of time had passed, a single noise that marked the end of the fight was heard.
PLASH!!!
Something had been smashed, something had been scattered to who knows how many places, something had lost... and something had won.
Unfortunately for Noah, it seemed that his prayers went unheard, as the multiple heavy footsteps were heard again. The difference now was that they didn't go into any room, but stopped just below the attic door.
Then, holding out hope that it was just a coincidence, Noah again held his breath.
BAM!!!
"AHH!!!"
A huge arm suddenly burst through the attic door, signifying that the time to hide was over.
With a swift movement, the arm came back down, leaving a wide gap in the door as the wood of the second floor screeched, indicating that the monster was about to do something.
BAM!!!!
Immediately after, the kitchen monster's head embedded itself in the hole in the door, moving erratically as it tried to get as close to Noah as it could.
As for what the latter was doing, it was simple, nothing.
Fear had frozen this young man, and a couple of tears were now decorating the corner of his eyes.
This, of course, was a natural reaction.
After all, Noah wasn't a warrior, a soldier, a hero, or anything like that, he was just a young man who had just gotten out of high school a couple of weeks ago.
Being trapped in a place whose only exit had now been occupied by a monster that seemed to come out of the depths of his nightmares, the young man didn't know what to do.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone