What Lives Inside (a short story)
She approached the unfamiliar door and nervously took the key from her pocket. She took a deep breath, unlocked the door, paused then opened it. To her horror she saw her husband, lying on the floor.
For a moment she freaked out, thinking him dead, but the lack of blood and his chest slowly heaving up and down removed that thought from her brain. She rushed to his side, placing her hand on his chest, it felt so cold, this was confusing, she placed her fingers on his neck to find a pulse but nothing was happening.
Was he dead?
Why is he breathing?
Slowly, she laid her ear over his chest to, hopefully, find a heartbeat. But all she could hear is scratching as if something from the inside of him was trying to claw it’s way out...
...that’s exactly what it did.
Before she could even think, a slimy, blood-soaked claw blasted from her husband's chest and grabbed the side of her face, pulling her into his cold body, down deeper than she imagined it should go. Blood and bone surrounded her as the creature continued to pull her down. Breathing was near impossible here, in the darkness, surrounded by her husband's organs and entrails, the constant pull of momentum as the creature continued pulling her into this abyss.
“This is how I’m going to die,” she thought, and she was right.
She closed her eyes and began to cry as the breath slowly left her body, and she fell into a deep sleep.
