"Stalked and Stalker" Pt. 9 (Patreon)

I won a Dean Spencer story contest for one of his pieces of art. I'm now completing it with (theoretically) weekly entries. Of course I've only managed one new entry in the 6 months. My PLAN is to go back to regular entries... let's see if I can pull it off!

This is Part Eight of the story. Part One can be found here, Part Two here, Part Three here, Part Four here, Part Five here, Part Six here., and Part Seven here. Part 8 here.

Paying Patrons can instead go here, for a compiled, slightly more edited version of the story-to-date, along with my thoughts and author's notes about each section. If you are new to being a paying Patron in the past 6 months, that's your best bet!

(Low res image. High res will be used for the final product. Art by Dean Spencer, used under license.)

9.

Alec kept his shotgun pointed up at roughly the same angle as the stairs themselves, and managed to keep it's illuminating beam steady rather than bobbing with his steps. MacKenzie's own belt light did bounce around as he moved up the stairs behind Alec, but that wasn't where his eyes were focused. From long practice, MacKenzie could keep track of the rise and run of the uneven stairs from memory after seeing them just briefly illuminated in Alec's light. Rther than focus on any of the lit areas, MacKenzie kept his own gaze focused up the stairs, beyond the well-lit path immediately ahead of them. He looked for anything in the dim gloom beyond--the glint of a secret panel sliding back, a shimmer not visible when seen head-on, the shine of a curved blade held in wait. MacKenzie did not expect any of those old threats to be present here, but they had taught him the value of seeking clues in the darkness, and leaving others to watch the light.

The group roughly halfway up the stairs when Alec's light DID catch something in the gloom, a brief flash of something shiny.

"Hold," MacKenzie called, and to their credit all three of his companion took not one more step. MacKenzie DID appreciate working with veteran professionals.

Mackenzie grabbed his Orilux out of its belt pouch, and played its tightly-focused beam over the glint he had seen. It was on the wall by the top of the stairway, where it leveled out onto a platform or tunnel, and was clearly part of the rootlike structure Blaze had spotted earlier. While there had been a sense of movement in the glint he'd spotted, the wall-root was absolutely still now. Still a few meters down the stairs, MacKenzie could not tell if it was an actual bit of plant matter, a relief carving in the tunnel wall, or something else entirely.

"Yeah, it's all like that up there," Blaze said, clearly following the focus of MacKenzie's light. "Even the floor. It gave me the jeebies, but I didn't have a lot of time to examine it."

MacKenzie's eyes were again focused on the area beyond his light, and he was also getting the 'jeebies.' While the the spot his orilux was now lighting up was totally still, there were tiny glints in the area beyond that. Changing glints. Definitely signs of movement. Pretty sure he knew what would happen, MacKenzie swung his focused illumination to spotlight one of the larger flashes of shifting light he'd caught. There was a big rootlike structure, thought the root was segmented and its joints did look too much like bone-ends for him to be happy--and it was absolutely still.

Alec snorted. "I think they're shy."

Blaze's tone was sardonic. "I think they are carnivorous Boche vampire vines that are waiting for us to get close enough to suck out our eyeball juice."

Soloman sounded confused. "You think they're German?"

MacKenzie turned to Blaze and Soloman, and Blaze closed her mouth, whatever reply she had for the professor left unspoken.

Mackenzie struggled to keep his voice from revealing his annoyance.

"Blaze, we are stuck here until the blizzard passes. Give me your gut opinion. Are we better off huddling at the bottom of the stairwell and hoping whatever's up here leaves us alone, or moving forward and trying to figure out what we're dealing with?"

Blaze paused, squinting to look up ahead, and then swinging her electric lantern down, to look at the base of the stairwell, where small flurries of snow were still coming in through the makeshift barricade of the boats. She looked back at MacKenzie.

"I don't like being stuck in here, But since we are stuck in here, I want to know what's in here with us. But, Mac? Maximum caution, okay?"

Makenzie gave Alec an even look.

"You up to max caution, Alec, or do I need you to bring up the rear?"

Alec had the temerity to look offended.

"Mon bel esprit! I shall be the prince of caution."

"I'd rather you be the peasant of caution, Alec. Nobles tend towards unconscious boldness. Remember we aren't all... you."

Alec gave Mackenzie a wide grin, but also ducked his head to acknowledge the point. Mackenzie considered for a moment later, then slapped Alec's shoulder one, indicating for the tall, lean man to continue with the lead. Alec nodded, and began moving up the stairs again, the rest of the group trailing along. It was just a few meters to the top and when he reached it Alec... stopped. Cautiously, MacKenzie moved up to be just one step behind Alec, and looked out over the tunnel that stretched out from the top of the stairs.

It was definitely organic. The tunnel had a roughly circular cross-section, and for some reason mackenzie's brain decided it was more a shaft than a tunnel. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all lines with masses of the rootlike material. It almost looked like thin, petrified bamboo, except it was not as straight as bamboo, with bends and gnarls and splitting branches. It reminded Mackenzie far too much of the bone-lined ossuaries under Paris.

What he could see was bad enough, but what it was impossible to catch by looking directly at it was worse. There was a constant sense of motion in the walls, but never at any point Mackenzie was looking at. Only at the peripheries of his vision was it obvious the rootlike structures were moving. Sliding past one another. Writhing. Pulsing. But never, ever while he was directly looking at any given root. The hairs on the back of Mackenzie's neck tingled, and he felt the primitive ape part of his brain screeching in warning. Danger. Predator.

"Mac."

Mackenzie glanced at Alec, whose face held none of the cheerfulness of a minute before. Alec had his shotgun seated firmly against his shoulder, and jerked his chin to indicate something at the end of his flashlight's beam, farther down the shaft. Mackenzie focused his attention on it, a lump, or perhaps tumor, sitting on the shaft's floor some twenty meters down. Alec's flashlight didn't illuminate the mass well enough to make it out, and it was well out of range of Mackenzie's Orilux.

"Blaze, gimme your Buddy."

Without comment, Blaze passed her electric lantern forward and pulled out one of her Everyreadys once Mackenzie took the Buddy. The hefy lantern was by far the most powerful light any of them had, and in its harsh glare the object ahead became most distinct.

Distinctly a body. At least, most of a body.

The rootlike structure of the floor had grown up and through the body's ribcage and skull, with one looping through the mouth and burying itself in the left eye socket. These roots were not sky about moving even when clearly illuminated. They pulsed, and Mackenzie had a sense of them feeding, the pulsing apparently moving from the tips of the roots down their length, into the floor. There was still a fair amount of meat on the body, and it minded Mac of a carass a few days after a big animal kill. There wasn't any flesh left in or around the eye, but the root jammed into the socket was feeding on something. Probable the poor bugger's brain, the logical part of Mackenzie's mind offered up.

"Well," Mac said, his voice dry. "I don't know if they're German, but score one for eye-fluid drinking vampire vines."

(New entries as I finish them! Shooting for bi-weekly.)