A Shadow Darkly Lit

"How kind of you to join me," she said, her voice taunting. "Now please kneel."

I remained standing.

"Mind telling me first what your evil plan is?"

Sabin just shrugged.

"Not really. There's no point in going into it since you'll soon be dead. Though since Gwelhb'hot would much rather kill you himself, you at least get to live a little longer, as long as you don't do something stupid. Now kneel, stay knelt, and I'll tie you up or something."

I crossed my arms.

"Make me."

She sighed wearily, and I heard the steps behind me all too late as a now conscious Rain Brutal clubbed me over the head with a fist. I fell in a heap to the ground.

"Can I kill her?" I heard him ask, as he knelt beside me and retrieved his fallen Uzi from the ground.

Sabin laughed. I was reminded again what a great voice she had, and really wished that I could do karaoke with her someday.

"Let her live," she replied, a certain smugness of tone in her voice. "Gwelhb'hot will be here soon enough to finish her."

I fought to stay awake, trying desperately to think of a plan. I heard a door open somewhere in the distance, followed by the very faint, slithering approach, of someone I dreaded all too well.

"He comes," Sabin Blackwood said in a hushed tone, as if speaking of some great god.

"He comes," Rain Brutal echoed in the same tone, though I felt like he was only doing it to fit in.

I rose up to a sitting position, my vision going black for a moment as my head swam, and I focused on the entryway.

"You don't have to do this," I tried. "Just let me go. The other guests are already safe, so whatever you're up to, you've failed."

Sabin just laughed again.

"The other guests can't leave the mansion, you stupid girl. Not while He is still here. Once he makes you one of his own, then it will be easy enough to find whoever is still alive."

The door opened and Mr. Slither entered, trailed by shadows and darkness. He approached slowly, stopping about ten feet from our little group.

"We have another offering for you, Sir," Rain said, the 'Sir' sounding quite out of place addressed to such a monster.

"His name is Mr. Slither," I corrected him. I then turned my head towards Mr. Slither. "I'm sorry, but you know how people are these days. No respect for paranormal monsters."

I couldn't see any kind of expression on the monster's face, as the lights and shadows that danced around him almost totally obscured it from me, but I did get the distinct feeling that I had just garnered his interest. He was going to wait to see what I had to say.

"You know," I said in my most casual voice, despite my imminent fear, "even if you kill me, you still have two loose ends to tie up. Rain and Sabin surely won't be your minions for the rest of time. They're only doing this until you let them go, am I right?"

"Shup up!" Rain growled, slapping me across the face.

A single vine unwound from Mr. Slither's back. It then started creeping across the floor towards us.

"I mean, I'm easy prey," I continued, hurrying things up a bit as the tentacle vine drew closer. "I'm down, I'm wounded, I can barely walk, and I'm just this pokey little girl anyways, so what possible obstacle can I prove to the great Mr. Slither?"

The approaching vine stopped. I pointed towards Rain and Sabin.

"Those two, however, are perfectly capable of running away and putting you through all the trouble it might take to track them down. Surely you weren't planning to let them live once you were done with us, so are you really going to let them get away now?"

The vines along the wall nearest to the door we'd come through, quickly moved to cover the exit. Then two more vines unwound from Mr. Slither's back, joining the one that was already aimed in our direction, and all three of them headed towards us. 'Us' being the keyword, as it seemed that Mr. Slither had seen some wisdom in what I had to say.

"So..." I said awkwardly, turning to face the stunned Sabin and Rain. "Want to team up or something?"

Sabin turned towards me, an expression of purest rage upon her face.

"Look what you've done!" she screamed. "Now we're all done for."

"Not if we work as a team!" I replied in my most chipper, My Little Pony voice.

Sabin pointed her gun at my head, her arm trembling with barely contained rage.

"You've ruined everything!"

"Errm," was all I managed to say before the room went completely dark. There was a flash as Sabin's gun went off, the bullet pinging against the floor beside me, and in that frail instant of visibility, I saw all three of Mr. Slither's vines grab Rain Brutal, winding around the man and squeezing so tight that any scream died on his lips.

Mr. Slither was a terrifying sight, a silhouette of darkness, a shadow darkly lit, a writhing being not meant to be viewed by sane eyes. I turned and ran, limping as quickly as I could, desperately hoping there was some other exit to this cellar.

Another gunshot rang out, then another, then a third in rapid succession, followed by a scream. Sabin too was likely done for, leaving just plain little me to fight the monster and save the day. Though it was dark, I ran as fast as my injured body would allow, praying I wouldn't trip or run into a wall. I ran into a shelf full of whiskey instead, thumping my head and sending bottle after bottle crashing to the floor around me.

Several broke, and I felt the sharp ping of flying glass as it cut me across the legs, though I had no idea in the darkness how badly. With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I understood that I was effectively paralyzed. For surely broken glass lay all around me, and there was no way that I might be able to see it without a light.

Having nothing left, I rummaged in both pockets for anything that might help. Maybe Sabin's gun had accidently fallen into my pocket. Or maybe I'd picked up a stick of dynamite while I was wandering the mansion. Even a rope so that I could hang myself would be acceptable. I deserved it for my continued stupidity. Instead my hand closed around the lighter. I'd really been getting an awful lot of use out of that...

I opened the lighter and flicked it. It didn't give me much vision, just enough to see a foot or so around me, but it was enough to actually see which was all I needed. Glass was scattered all around me, along with plenty of whiskey, which was slowly staining my shoes a muddy brown. There was also a fallen whiskey shelf beside me.

Ripping off a piece of shirt sleeve, which left me pretty much sleeveless at this point, I jammed it into a half-broken bottle of whiskey that still had some alcohol left in the bottom, lit the rag with my lighter, and threw it in the direction that I'd last seen Mr. Slither coming from. I nearly screamed when it hit him full in the chest, a mere four feet away from me.

Thankfully he screamed too as the flames crawled up him, an inhuman sound of rage and pain as he reeled backwards, beating at the fire. Cackling like a tiny witch, I picked up another bottle, smashed it open, applied the lighter to the exposed alcohol without any benefit of a rag, and threw it at him. It crashed to the floor beside him, creating a burning patch of flame which erupted with a whoosh, spreading as it ate the liquid fuel that had splashed all across the floor.

Between the random flames and his own burning visage, I finally had enough light to see. I used it to scramble up the fallen shelf beside me, snatching up another bottle of whiskey as I went just in case. I reached the top of the shelf, leapt before I even had a chance to think about my injured foot, and rolled as I hit the ground, coming to rest in a crouch as I turned to face my enemy.

Mr. Slither's vines were flailing all around him now, a flurry of hurt and pain as he continued to scream. His screams wavered between the inhuman roar of a denizen of Hell, to the more familiar voice of Silas Took. Which made it all the creepier.

Dropping the lighter, I snatched up a second bottle from the ground, broke the bottoms off both of the bottles that I held, smiling as the wickedly sharp edges caught the firelight, and then charged. It was time to end my tormentor once and for all.

He raised both his arms as I approached, but too late as I hit him in the chest with my full weight, bearing him to the ground and driving both my weapons deep into his monstrous flesh. No blood oozed around them, but a thick blackness, like living ink, that flew upwards and stained my arms, my hands, my face.

I felt his vines starting to wind around me, but already the strength was leaving them as they died, seeping away like the dark that bled from his corpse. The strange shadow lights around Mr. Slither paled, and for just a moment I saw the face of Silas Took.

"...thank...you..." he whispered, and then tried to say something else, taking my hand in one of his. But he was already fading, his whole body starting to disperse like fog in the morning light. Another few seconds passed and he was gone, leaving me kneeling there on the ink-stained ground, in the middle of all that remained of Mr. Slither.

Smiling to myself, I headed for the cellar entry. I stopped after a few steps and went back to retrieve the lighter. It held a little sentimental value for me now, having saved my life more times than I felt like counting. I also snatched up a small bottle of one of the classier whiskies. I rarely drank alcohol, but I felt like it might help after all that I'd been through. Then I headed for the door and home.

The vines that had covered the entry were brown and brittle, dying things that no longer posed a threat to anyone. Brushing them away, my smile widening, I went up the stairs to go find my friends. Naturally, I walked right into an inferno.

My smile dissolving into a frown, I remembered about the little fire that I'd started in the trophy room, along with the rather large one that Alec had caused upstairs. Heck, for that matter they were both large. And one of the things that fire did best was spread like crazy.

Mainly it was all above me, burning downwards from the attic and slowly spreading tendrils of flame from the ceiling, to the walls, to a few spots on the floor. Though everything to my right was just a solid wall of fire in the direction that the trophy room was located. I shuddered and turned away from it, heading through the hall as quickly as I could manage and running head-on into Seabass.

He caught me as I started to fall, staring at me in surprise.

"I was just coming to find you!"

I made myself go all cross-eyed at him, just to see how he'd react. Then I realized there were more important things to worry about, such as the remaining guests.

"So... what happened to Londra, Ariel, Tara, and Vincent?"

He gave me a confused look, temporarily caught off guard. Then the confusion cleared and he gave me a smile.

"Everyone is okay. After we went through the window, we headed straight for the front door to go get help. It was blocked by vines, but we camped out there anyways, hoping that something would happen and figuring we were stronger in a group."

"And all the vines are dead now I'm guessing?"

He nodded, still holding me. I let him, since it wasn't like my poor little body was up to doing much else, let alone stand.

"Everyone is waiting outside for us. When we remembered that you were still inside, Tara said you were probably headed for the basement, since Sabin had said that's where they were headed. So I came to find you!"

"Great," I replied cheerfully. "Now if you would be so kind as to help me get as far away from this place as I can, I would dearly appreciate it."

Adventure over, looking forward to a very long night's sleep, we both headed towards the front door, Seabass pretty much carrying me as I slumped against him. We entered the foyer, a grand and impressive room with a huge ceiling, but all I could focus on was the door to freedom, which practically seemed to glow. It was on a slightly raised landing, requiring one to actually walk up two little steps to reach it, forming something almost like a stage. A stage that Vincent Fitzroy was standing in the middle of, blocking the front door.

I had just opened my mouth to say something snarky, when I noticed the innocent little vine that was trailing out of one of his ears. My words died on my lips.

"Mr... Slither?" I gasped in shock, stopping in my tracks.

Vincent broke into a wide grin.

"I'm harder to kill than that, Nillium Neems." he spoke in Vincent's voice, though his speech was slightly broken, as if he couldn't quite figure out how to work the vocal chords.

I felt my snarkiness flowing back into me, like some great power from another world.

"So... if you want to join the road trip with the rest of us, you have to sit in the backseat. Okay?"

"Is that so?" he replied, grinning.

"Look, what exactly are you?" I said in annoyance, taking a step forwards and away from Seabass, so that I might be the focus of Mr. Slither's attention. "Are you a bunch of little plant monsters that can all sort of... fuse or something?... or are you just one that comes in several pieces?"

"Just one," he said, his grin widening. "And though I doubt I can escape this mansion unharmed by the flames you have so carelessly set, I will make sure that you do not escape this place at all."

I felt a little bit of fear at his ominous words. Fear that soon waned, as nothing happened. He didn't move. Didn't charge us. Didn't shoot out vine tentacles to strangle us both. I waited perhaps a minute longer, then started to feel let down. The floor beneath us buckled, as if from an earthquake.

Slither Vincent stood there grinning.

"Errm," I said, before I was thrown sideways as the floor erupted beneath me. I smashed into a wall, hitting it harder than I would have liked and then slid down it to land on my head. From my upside-down perspective, I saw IT emerge. The REAL Mr. Slither.

A single, solid mass of tentacled fury, it was like some colossal worm, with vines winding up its throat like blood veins, ending in a head that resembled that of a Venus Flytrap. The body itself was thick and warty, like the trunk of some diseased plant, and small patches of fungus grew here and there in clumps. It turned its head towards me and roared, a strange, alien sound, like the chirrup of some insect that had been amplified a thousand times.

I waved at him.

"Howdy, errm, you know that you can't possibly escape the mansion right? You're too big. You're going to die. Why don't you make peace with the world before you go and do something good with your life, like, um, letting us go?"

The Flytrap head opened, swiveled to face Vincent, then struck quicker than I would have thought possible, snapping open and then shut, almost in the same movement. The head then rose slowly till it was just a few feet short of the ceiling and turned to face me. Opening almost lazily this time, obviously wanting me to get the full effect, I saw neither teeth, nor fangs, but an oversized Vincent Fitzroy head embedded in the inside of the Flytrap. Even before it grinned at me, I knew that I would be having nightmares for many years to come. Assuming I lived that long.

"Nillium Neems," it said in about the creepiest voice I could imagine, which was basically Vincent's voice filtered through several layers of slime.

My mind began analyzing the situation at lightning speed. I kind of had to, or both me and Seabass would be dead. So I laid things out like this. Mr. Slither was probably going to burn to death. Already I could see bits of ember from the ceiling starting to fizzle and spark at his sides. Furthermore, he was far too big to escape the building, unless he managed to smash his way out, but even then he would probably be crushed by rubble.

Which left me and Seabass with the rather obvious solution of simply having to escape. If we managed that, then we would be okay. The only snag was, that Mr. Slither was between me and the door. Seabass was somewhere on the other side of him, but I suspected escaping would be just as difficult for him all the same. Mr. Slither didn't seem too intent on letting anyone make it through the day alive.

"Hey, Get Well Hot Pocket!" I shouted, choosing to do the only thing that I could while stilling remaining Nillium Neems. "You want to eat me? Come on, I dare you!"

I got to my feet, swaying a little, and started walking towards him.

"Come on, Hot Pocket! Neem Snacks, right here! Get em while they're... errm, Neem-Shaped!" I made a quick mental note to work on my one-liners.

His head tracked my movements, snapping open and shut rhythmically.

"What's the matter, Slither Man, are you scared!?"

Making that weird insectile sound once more, the Flytrap head shot down towards me, opening wide. I just stood there and let it take me, being too weak to do much in the way of running. Besides, I had a Plan.

Tucking my legs in as the mouth started to close around me, thankful that it had bristly plant barbs lining the edges of its maw as opposed to teeth, I jumped as best I could just to make sure I would be fully inside of the beast.

Jaws snapping shut, I felt the head lift upwards as the edges began to ooze some sort of acidic paste, sealing any possible escape. I knew already, having once read up on Venus Flytraps, that the acid it was secreting would soon begin to dribble downwards, neatly filling up the entire chamber and working the same as a human stomach might to dissolve food. In this case, me.

Reluctantly pulling the bottle of classy whiskey from my pocket, which I had hoped to save for the end of my adventure, I twisted off the cap and poured it in one corner of Mr. Slither's Mouth.

"Time to start one last fire," I muttered to myself. There was almost no way I was going to get away with this entirely unharmed, but I at least gave it a valiant effort.

Backing up as far away as I could from the patch of extremely flammable alcohol, I reached into a pocket for my lighter, flicked it open, then threw it and ducked almost in the same movement, covering my head with my hands like I'd seen someone do once in a war movie.

Flames erupted everywhere and Mr. Slither's mouth tore open as he screamed, a wail of pure agony that nearly deafened me. Running right through the flames, not really caring much since I'd already caught fire, I leapt, falling through the air and tumbling as soon as I hit the ground.

I felt Seabass beating at me as he tried to put out the flames, then the next thing I knew I was in his arms, being dragged towards the front door. The front door, and freedom. As everything began to fade around me, on the verge of passing out, I took one last look at Mr. Slither.

He was still screaming, but less now as the flames tore into him, wilting his skin like a dead leaf. Then he stopped, his head dropping right off his body and rolling across the ground, mouth still open in a silent shriek. Mr. Slither was dead. It was Over...