The Money Clip Part 2

"Shit, move..move now." Brandon whispered as he dragged her away from the door and into the nearby spare bedroom. They crept around to hide behind the door, not wanting to close it as that would alert a change to the area and the thing may notice. The door opened, they could hear the soft creak of the hinges, and then the soft thump, thump of something coming out of the room to stand just beyond the threshold. A soft whimper escaped Tina as the visions came harder and Brandon clamped his hand over her mouth. God, they had to be quiet.

It stood there, nose to the air, sniffing the unfamiliar scent and then the familiar one. They came to play, the twisted mind exclaimed inwardly, and then it turned to go play hide and seek in the attic. They would come; he would make them come play.

Brandon heard the thing move back into the room and the door closed. He and Tina did not move for several minutes, as he did not trust whatever was in there. It could be a trick. His mind whirled at the words he heard Tina whispering as her hand lay on the doorknob. Who had been ruined and why? Something bad was here and he knew the thing knew they were here. No running away now. They had to go gather the others and enter that room together. Maybe get some knives from the kitchen as weapons.

"Tina, we need to get the others. We have to all be together to see what it is." he said in her ear.

She could not speak but only nod. She knew there was no leaving this place until they faced the thing up there. It knew they were there and it wanted to play. She did not think they would survive its sort of game. Quietly Brandon and Tina made their way back downstairs to find the others. They had to make a plan, and fast.

Brandon and Tina crept down the stairs, each one glancing behind them now and again to see if they were being followed, but nothing was there but the darkness.
Once they reached the living room they headed quickly but quietly into the kitchen.

"Where are they?" Tina whispered as she held her green glow stick out before her.

"I don't know...I can't hear them...wait..there is a light.." Brandon whispered back then stopped as a greenish glow was cast on the wall in the hallway that led out of the kitchen.

Tina close behind Brandon they moved forward towards the light. Brandon peered around the corner of the doorway and saw Felix standing with Jessica.

"Hey." Brandon called softly.

Felix immediately turned around and motioned him to come down the hall.
As they moved down the hallway Tina saw her brother Michael standing at the top of a set of stairs that led down into the basement. His glow light was held out before him as the other hand held the door.

"What is going on?" she asked as she came to stand beside Jessica and Felix.

"We heard something down there so Michael took two glow sticks, lit them, and threw them down into the basement so we would have light before we went down the stairs. But once they hit the dirt down there we heard some shuffling around and then the smell came." Felix said with his eyes wide. His skin looked sallow and sickly in the green glow of the stick he held.

Brandon thought immediately of what he and Tina heard upstairs then the smell assailed his senses as well.

Tina pressed against him, her hand across her mouth and nose as she gagged.
"My God, what is that!" she said louder than she should have.

All of the tribe shushed her quickly but it was too late as a soft mewl of a sound was heard coming from the basement. Tina kept her hand clamped over her mouth as she stared at the door then without thought she walked over to where her brother stood in the open doorway. His hand rested on the doorknob and he leaned further into the doorway to peer down the stairs. Tina placed a hand on his shoulder and the images slammed into her mind.

Huge stains of blood soaked the hard packed dirt floor. Paw prints were everywhere in the dirt and blood. There were tufts of hair stuck to the nails that stuck out of the shelving that held tools. A glint of steel. The faint sounds of a struggle that had taken place in the past. The dark thing that crouched under the stairs, just out of the reach of the green glow lights waiting for someone to come down so it could grab their ankles. It was a fun game. Watch them fall. Watch them roll down the stairs. The look of terror on their faces when he came for them. The taste of the blood flowing down his throat like liquid fire.

Michael stared now at his sister, open mouthed in a silent scream.
Brandon moved quickly, as he knew that Tina was having another vision and somehow Michael was caught up in it. When he reached the pair he ripped Tina backwards into his body, his arms wrapping around her, and said sharply.
"Michael, shut the door. Shut the door."

Brandon saw the glow lights disappear one at a time and the basement went into darkness once again. Something was coming up those stairs, not fast, but quick enough to reveal power and restraint.

"SHUT THE DOOR!" He yelled. He hated to do it but he had to as Tina struggled in his arms alternating between whimpering and sobbing.

Michael blinked once, then twice, and then looked down the dark stairway. Even in the darkness he could see a massive shape now running up the stairs.

"Shit." he said and then slammed the door shut and then threw the large bolt latch at the top of the door and then the bottom. Just as the bottom latch slid home something hit the door hard. The floor beneath them and the door itself shuddered with the impact. A howl of what was definitely frustration was heard coming from the other side of the door and then there was silence.

The tribe had all huddled together at this point staring at the door with horror.

"No one wants to play?" a soft, velvety feminine voice said from behind the door.

No one in the tribe said a word as they continued to stare at the door.

"Chicken shits." The voice came again, guttural and mean. Then the pounding on the door began.

As one the friends ran into the kitchen. Jessica and Tina were clinging to one another as they tried not to become too hysterical. Felix just kept looking over his shoulder at the hallway they had just exited where the pounding continued. Michael leaned heavily against the counter near the sink while Brandon paced back and forth.

"Damn. Something is in the attic as well. That is why Tina and I came back down. What the fuck is going on?" he slammed a fist down on the kitchen table and an empty, forgotten coffee mug jumped.

The coffee cup spun around once from the force of Brandon's hitting the table with his fist and then it settled down. He spun to face the group, which was now huddled near the back door.

"I think we need to leave and get the police." Jessica said in a trembling voice. "This is nuts and I am not going to die for nothing."

"I agree Brandon, we are in over our heads." Michael said as he wrapped an arm around Jessica.

Brandon frowned, as he knew they were right but something nagged at him. There was something missing and then his gaze snapped to Tina who was on Michael's other side.

"You know don't you." Brandon said quietly.

Tina shook her head slowly, her eyes wide with fear.

"Yes, I think you do. Please, Tina tell us what you know. That thing....it spoke to you. You repeated what it said. Tell us." Brandon pleaded because he knew if they did not do something now they would not be allowed to leave the house alive or make it through the night, police or no police.

Tina swallowed as a shudder of revulsion came over her as the feeling of the thing in the attic probing into her mind, melding with it, and telling her all its secrets. But how did Brandon know this? Her eyes bored into his for a moment in the dim light of the glow sticks they all still held. The banging on the door had stopped and now the house was quiet.

"The thing in the attic is Galvin's grandson and the one in the basement is Galvin's supposed dead wife. The one in the attic told me this, his name used to be Nathan, but he calls himself Axe now. He and his grandmother were used by Galvin in his basement genetic experiments. They got their revenge." Tina's eyes closed as she began speaking in the low, guttural voice of Axe.

"The bastard old man drugged us. Took us down in that basement to take our blood and inject us with his poisons. The lab is behind the canning wall, just pull the light string above your head where a bulb would be and the door opens inward. You will see what we did. Yeah. I took him down in that alley then brought him here so the love of his life could take a few swipes at him. You see, we are different in how we evolved but we are both the same in one way. We are alive and he is not. And soon none of you will be either."

The friends inched away from Tina as she spoke. The pounding began on the door that led into the basement once again and then there was noise above them. Something was running down the hallway.

Michael looked from his sister to tell Brandon they had to leave but Brandon was gone.

"We need to leave now people...let's go!" He yelled but as he turned to grab the doorknob a shadow flew before him to snatch Jessica up.

Jessica screamed as the hairy, red-eyed monster scooped her up, and tucked her under a strong arm. The odor from him was like rotten meat and she screamed again. A pain in her side silenced her and she went limp.

"Jessica!" Michael screamed and started to go after the beast but the splintering of wood in the hallway stopped him. The other one was loose.

"Felix.... run..run to the police now." He shoved his friend to the door, pulling it open.

Felix sobbed with hysterical tears, babbling he did not want to leave them there. Michael screamed at him he must and then shoved him out of the kitchen and into the mudroom. Felix turned to look through the glass of the kitchen door and saw Michael and Tina running through the kitchen to the living room. A dark shape moving on all fours went after them with blinding speed. It did not even glance his way and Felix knew he had to run fast if he was to save his friends. Out the mudroom door to the outside he fled, he fell down the short flight of stairs, and then regained his footing to run through the yard.

Tina and Michael ran into the living room but they knew they would soon be caught. There was no way to out distance themselves from the thing that followed them. The stench of rotten meat filled the living room as they huddled together behind the couch.

"Let's play." the creature said as it crept closer to them. A swift leap brought the thing on the couch, its razor claws clenching and unclenching on the back of the couch.

Tina and Michael just clung to one another as they stared at the thing. There was faint traces of humanity there as the streetlight from outside illuminated the misshapen face through the open window. Wispy blonde hair stuck out from all angles on the head that was now too large for human. The neck, shoulders, and arms were thickly muscled and had a fine layer of blonde hair on the dark skin.
The thing leaned closer, a frown on its hideous face, and then it snarled revealing a mouth full of sharp shark like teeth.

"You are a seer, both of you seers. You are no fun to play with." the thing hissed at them then sat back on its haunches.

A scream was heard from upstairs and the thing spun around.

"Ah, play play play..." It said with glee as it bounded off the couch and up the stairs.

"Oh dear God. God..that was Jessica." Tina whispered.

"And where is Brandon...oh hell..we are in trouble. I hope Felix got to the police ok." Michael said, as they remained clinging to one another behind the couch.

Felix ran down Aspen Avenue and headed towards the police station. He knew if he reached them in time they may be able to save his friends. Something in the dark street tripped him up and he fell heavily to the ground, his green glow stick rolling away into the gutter just to disappear down a grate. He sat up and did not breathe for a moment. He expected a fanged monster to appear out of the darkness any moment and eat him right there on the spot. No sounds at all came to him except for his labored breathing. Adjusting his glasses on his head he slowly stood, glancing back over his shoulder in the direction of the house he just came from, and he shuddered from head to toe. Then he saw what had tripped him up, a shoe. A lone tennis shoe just laying in the dark street. That sight sent more fear into him than even the monsters and he began to run fast up the street once again.

Brandon had crept down the hallway as Tina went into her trance like state. He needed to see what was in that lab behind the canning shelves. The door to the basement was closed and he almost came out of his skin as the pounding began, but this time it was a frantic sort of pounding, and he knew what ever was in there would be out in a moment. Brandon squeezed into a small broom closet in the hall and waited. He winced as the door to the basement shattered and something heavy, smelling like rotted meat, ran past his hiding place. He prayed that Tina and Michael had sense enough to hide. Maybe when he got down in that basement he could find out a way to stop these things. If Galvin made them, then there was a way to destroy them. Quietly he crept out of the small closet, gingerly stepped over the shards of the basement door, and made his way carefully into the darkened basement. Fumbling in his pocket he found another glow stick, snapped it, shook it, and soon the green glow was illuminating what had to have been a bloodbath. Blood was everywhere and he knew it was blood because the coppery stench seemed to hang in the air. He came upon the cannery shelves and held the glow stick upward. There was the pull string like the monster Axe said and Brandon pulled it without hesitation.

A whisper of sound, the sucking of air, and the whole wall swung inward. He stepped into what should have been a sterile environment. There were shiny stainless steel tables in the center of the room, long white lab tables that once held beakers and other science like equipment but now the tables held only shards of glass and twisted metal. Blood was everywhere in this room as well and when Brandon turned to look in the corner where it seemed a large refrigerator stood he saw Galvin. Twisted, torn to shreds, hanging from a butcher’s hook that was attached to the ceiling.

"My God." he whispered as he approached the bloody corpse. It was like he was being drawn to the carnage, like when you stop to poke at a dead cat on the side of the road to see its entrails sticking out of its body. A morbid curiosity of sorts.
Brandon lifted his glow stick close to Galvin's face and yelped aloud as the man's eyes snapped open.

"Get the serum. In the icebox. Kill them." the old man's voice was raspy, weak from his loss of blood.

"God, let me help you down." Brandon said and started to try and lift the man upwards.

A gurgling sound came from Galvin's throat and blood dripped from his open mouth.
"No help for me. Help the others. The serum. Blue bottle. Needles." Galvin gasped softly, his eyes bulging from a cadaver like face.

"Sneak up on them. Rub their shit on you. They will not smell you. Stab them in the back near the heart. One whole dose each. They will die. Die."
The old man sagged on the hook, the blood dripped from the corner of his mouth, and foamed as he still breathed.

"Shit..shit..." Brandon said and went to the icebox. Inside there were precious few bottles left untouched but there was one lone blue bottle in the door. The label read "iodine". Was this it? He thought as he lifted it out and began to look for needles. In a drawer he found two syringes and needles. His gaze was drawn back to the man hanging there dying a slow death. But then perhaps he deserved what he got since he did play God with his nephew and wife to create what was not meant to be created. He lifted the small blue bottle and then realized why it said Iodine. It was like when he changed things that he wanted to hide from his parents, like his pot stash, and that is what Galvin did. He knew someday these things would get him and he knew they would smash the serum, but if they thought this was not serum then maybe it would be left alone.

Brandon turned to face the opened door that led back into the basement. A sharp scream from somewhere in the house got him moving. As he stepped into the basement he pulled the light string to shut the wall so as not to attract suspicion and the he paused. The old man said to rub shit on him. Shit? Then Brandon remembered that some hunters would do that with deer scent to hide their human scent. So he searched the basement for what he needed and found piles of the beasts refuse.

Gagging he scooped up the mess and smeared it on his arms, legs, body, and in his hair. He knew he must not smell too powerful, just enough to keep them off guard.
It was time to go hunting.

The lights of the police station loomed large like a spot light to Felix's eyes and he ran harder. His lungs felt like they were going burst, tears streamed down his dust-covered face, and he felt that his hands were stinging. Maybe from the fall, he thought absently as he struggled up the steps of the police station and burst through the doors.

"Help! My friends are being killed by monsters at the Boden house!" He screamed and then blackness consumed him.


Tina and Michael remained huddled behind the couch and watched the monster race up the stairs. Another scream was heard from upstairs, but it was weaker.

"No way...no way...we have to help her." Michael said firmly and then raced around the couch to the kitchen.

Tina remained where she was for a moment as the images kept flooding her mind from Axe. It was like he was enjoying tormenting her with the visions. Jessica was curled on the floor as both he and what used to be his grandmother circled the fallen girl. Every so often a razor like claw would lash out at Jessica causing blood to flow and making the two beasts lust for the kill even more. Tina had to move, had to move, but it was like she was frozen there behind that couch watching the most terrible horror movie of her life.

Brandon almost ran Michael over in the kitchen as he ran from the hall.
"Where in the hell did you go? Damn..you stink!" Michael yelled as began dragging drawers’ open to find some knives.

"Never mind the knives, take this." Brandon said handing Michael one of the syringes that was already full of a slightly blue liquid.

"What is this?" Michael asked.

Another weak scream came from above and Michael grabbed Brandon's arm.
"They have Jessica and they are killing her. We have got to help her."

"Michael, this is what will kill them. I can't give you all the details now but in the basement lab Galvin is alive, sort of, and told me about this serum. It will kill them. So go down in the basement, spread some of their shit on you to hide your scent, and meet me in the living room. Go now, don't ask questions. Just go!"

Michael ran out of the kitchen while Brandon crept into the living room. He saw Tina standing like a statue behind the couch with her face contorted into pure terror. Brandon knew that Axe was messing with her mind again, damn. He will kill the bastard for this. He made his way through the dimly lit living room and grabbed Tina's shoulders to shake her hard. She would not come out of it. He lifted his free hand and slapped her hard across the right cheek.

"What the hell are you..." Michael cried as he came upon the scene but his words stopped when Tina shook her head and looked at the two of them with clear eyes.

"My God..we need to help her now." Tina whispered.

"We are. So stay down here and watch for the police. We are going to take care of these things once and for all." Brandon said as Michael came to stand beside him.

"Ready man?" Brandon asked as he stared at the dark stairway that led upstairs.

"Ready. Let's get em'." Michael growled.

As a team they crept as silently as possible up the stairs. The needle and syringes hidden in a back pocket for easy access. They could hear talking ahead, in the sewing room, and they paused beside the open door.

"Why do you always get to have the first taste?" Mrs. Boden asked, her muscles bunching with tension as the blood flowing from the unconscious girl before them was almost too much to bear.

"Because I am the one who lured them here to play with you stupid old hag. But I will leave you some of the choice organs you like so much." Axe said softly as he stared as well at the bleeding girl. They must eat her while alive, it was so much more fun that way, and they had better hurry as she was slipping away.

Brandon and Michael stood outside the door, listening, and trying not to gag at the stench they put off. But it seemed to be working. The pair of monsters did not notice them as they slunk into the room. Michael being the smaller of the two boys went for Mrs. Boden while Brandon went for Axe.

The syringes were in their hands. Only a few more steps to go. Then a frail scream came from Jessica.
"Michael!"

The beasts turned simultaneously and they paused a moment. The scent of the two were just like them and that slight hesitation was the downfall of Mrs. Boden.

"Take this bitch!"

Michael screamed as he flung himself onto the monster stabbing the needle deep to where the heart would be. The plunger pressed and the serum flowed into the beast. Powerful arms wrapped around Michael and he screamed as well as he felt he was about to be crushed but instead he was flung against the wall with brutal force. The syringe hung from the woman thing's chest and she scratched at it howling all the while.

"Burns...burns.." the thing that used to be Mrs. Boden howled.

Brandon had to react, as he knew Axe was smarter and faster. Before he could leap on Axe the monster had one of his arms and he heard the sickening crack as his left arm broke.

"Thought you could fool me boy. I don't think so." Axe growled as he leaned forward, his mouth opening to reveal those shark like teeth, and the drool dripped from them like venom.

"I will kill you slowly. Eat you piece by piece while you watch. Then I will save your heart for last for I want you to see me gut your miserable body and feast as a God." Axe said as he hauled Brandon closer.

Brandon was frantically thinking through the pain in his arm. It throbbed unmercifully but he had to get the needle into the monster. Had to. A trick came to him suddenly, something he saw in a movie and he decided to try it.
Brandon went limp in the monster's arms. Axe howled with frustration.

"No, no...you need to be awake you sissy. Don't you faint on me." He dropped Brandon to the ground and went to kick him. Brandon anticipated the move and rolled to one side. Axe stumbled a bit but then was tripped up as Jessica, coming to for a moment, grabbed the monster's ankle. Axe fell to the floor heavily with a growling grunt escaping him. He rolled to his back just in time to see Brandon leaping towards him.

"Die you bastard." Brandon howled, sounding like the monster himself and stabbed the needle down into the heart of the beast.

"NOOOOO!!!" Axe wailed with pain and anger as the serum spread into his body. He hit at Brandon with his claws, tearing his skin in places, but soon he was too weak to move.

Silence came over the room and Brandon crawled to Jessica.
"Jessica?" He touched her bruised face gently and she sighed.

Thank the Gods she was alive. A movement in the corner of his eye made him jump but it was Michael crawling to lie beside Jessica.

"We did it man. Better than Batman and Robin eh?" Brandon smiled as he tried not to faint from the pain.

"Yeah...much better." Michael said as he cradled Jessica's head in his lap.
Tina burst into the room and police officers followed.

Michael and Brandon sighed with relief, and then Brandon passed out on the floor beside Jessica.

The sun was bright but the teens that occupied the bench in the park beside the police station sat in the shade.

"Damn, this itches!" Brandon exclaimed as he stuck a twig down inside the cast on his arm to go at another itchy spot.

Tina sat beside Brandon on the bench and just shook her head at him and sighed. She had never had a cast so she had no idea how bad the itchiness was but it had to be bad since Brandon was going nuts. She had to smile at the look on his face as he jabbed the twig inside the cast.

Michael stared out at the playground then looked at Felix who sat beside him as he heard Felix's stomach growl.

"Man, I even heard that!" Brandon said with a small smile on his lips.

"Well, I did not eat breakfast. It's hard to eat in the mornings sometimes....after the dreams..." Felix said but his voice trailed off, as he did not want to go to that subject.

Michael turned his attention to the playground again to watch the kids playing in the sun with not a care in the world. He had gotten to the assembly of the tribe under the tree in the park late today since he had stopped at the hospital to visit Jessica. She was doing much better since the last time he had seen her. At least she no longer cried and that was an improvement. He would sit with her in the common room and play the game trouble with her. She seemed to like how the dice were inside the bubble and they jumped when the bubble was pressed. A month had passed since the night at the Boden house. There was quite the uproar within the community and since everyone that had a connection to the house was dead, the city tore it down. A couple from another city was building another house. They wanted to get away from the city violence, his mother told him the other night as she had met the couple that was having the house built. The woman was pregnant and they looked forward to a quiet life. Michael had to smile at that. Quiet, you would think it would be quiet in little old Waterford nowhere, but then evil will put roots down where it will.

"Hey let's go eat something. Felix and his growling stomach is making me hungry now!" Brandon said as he tossed the itching twig away. He had nightmares sometimes himself but as the claw wounds on his chest and back healed so did his mind. He would not let those beasts take him out, no way. They were dead and that was that. He felt sorry for Jessica who suffered the most mentally and physically, but they all went to see her weekly. Michael went more often, she seemed to need him there, and the doctors liked him there as it made her smile a little.

"God." Tina whispered.

Everyone looked at her when she whispered that word and all of them flinched a little when they saw what she held in her hand.
The money clip caught a beam of sunlight that came through the tree and the money still remained within its gold grasp. It seemed the police were more interested in the bowler hat and what was in the house. Then, they were all more interested in getting out, and to the hospital.

"I forgot I had it and it must have stayed in my jacket pocket." Tina stared at the clip that bore the initials of the madman who created monsters of his own family. A frown creased her pretty face and then she said firmly.

"Well, finders keepers eh?" She tugged the clip off the wad of hundreds and then tossed the clip over her shoulder into the bushes that ringed the park.

"Let's go eat and we will divide this money up. Give some to Jessica too. I think we earned it." Tina's voice was as cold as steel. Images of Axe still haunted her at times, as if he were cursing her from beyond the grave.

"You know what girl...you are one tough cookie." Brandon said then stood taking her hand.

Tina handed out the money, giving Michael Jessica's part, and they headed off out of the park. They wanted to eat, forget, and just go on with life. High school would be starting soon and they needed to get some normalcy back. If that was possible.
The money clip landed in the bushes without a sound but it was found instantly.
"Ooooh...play...play." came the raspy voice and the money clip disappeared.

The end….we hope.