The Squid Slayer Read online

  ‘Mum!’ she rasped.

  No reply.

  She crept into her mother’s bedroom, treading carefully for fear of angering the things beneath.

  There was her mother, curled up like a slater bug. Sarah noticed for the first time that she slept on one side of the bed with her arm outstretched, as though hugging an invisible man.

  Sarah grabbed her shoulder and shook it. ‘Mum! Wake up!’

  ‘Hmphnuh.’

  ‘Mum.’

  ‘Whuh?’ Mum sat up and rubbed her eyes. ‘What is it?’

  ‘There are monsters under the house. We have to get out.’

  Mum lay back down again. ‘Just a bad dream, sweetie,’ she muttered. ‘Go back to sleep.’

  Sarah wanted to scream. Instead she jumped into bed next to Mum and hugged her.

  Mum’s eyes popped open. ‘You’re freezing! And wet!’

  ‘I know! It’s not a dream, Mum—there are monsters in the water!’

  ‘Why are you wet?’

  Sarah opened her mouth to repeat herself, but then a noise stopped her. A creaking sound.

  Mum stared at the bathroom door. ‘Is someone else in the house?’

  ‘They’re under the house. We have to get out.’

  Mum clambered out of bed and shuffled to the bathroom. ‘Hello?’ she called.

  Another creak. Louder this time. Sarah thought she heard a sound like the cracking of a china plate.

  Sarah grabbed Mum’s hand. ‘Come on, let’s go!’ she hissed.

  Mum ignored her. She picked up a hard plastic bottle from the nightstand—not much of a weapon, Sarah thought, especially not against these things—and pushed open the bathroom door.

  The bathroom was empty. The clean tiles gleamed, the shower curtain was neatly tucked away, the folded towels rested on the shelf.

  Mum exhaled. ‘That’s funny,’ she said. ‘I could have sworn—’

  She got no further, because the toilet exploded.

  OUT OF THE WATER

  Sarah ducked, but the porcelain shards didn’t fly very far. Pieces slid across the tiles like miniature figure skaters as a fountain of water bubbled up out of the hole in the floor.

  ‘What the—’ Mum didn’t get the chance to finish the sentence. A bony, crab-like leg emerged from the hole. In seconds the claw was scrabbling at the tiles, cracking them and dragging chunks back down into the water.

  The hole was getting wider, the water pouring through faster. The house was already tilting, as though trying to tip Sarah and her mother into the monster’s waiting mouth.

  ‘What is that?’ Mum shrieked.

  Sarah kicked the bathroom door shut and pulled Mum away from it. ‘Come on!’

  Mum followed her out of the bedroom. Behind them there was a bang. Sarah looked back in time to see the bathroom door shudder. With a crash, a claw punched through the flimsy wood and flailed from side to side like a caught snake. The monster must have widened the hole under the toilet, made it big enough to fit through. It was in the house with them.

  Sarah slammed the bedroom door. It wouldn’t stop the monster or the rising water but it might buy them some time.

  She ran along the tilting floor towards the front door. Things were sliding off the table and the kitchen bench. A coffee mug smashed. Coins rang out against the floorboards and the walls moaned like a dying giant.

  Mum was rummaging in a drawer.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Sarah demanded from the front door. ‘Run!’

  ‘I’m right behind you! Go, go!’ Mum kept searching until she’d found what she was looking for, then she ran towards Sarah.

  Too late. The monster exploded out of the bedroom behind her, riding a wave of sea water. The tentacles on its face unfurled and twitched, as though smelling the two humans. The glowing tail crackled and fizzed like a broken fluorescent light. It crashed into the walls as it charged at them, smashing the plaster and knocking down shelves.

  ‘Run!’ Sarah screamed. She jumped out of the door onto the deck of the boat, making way for Mum.

  Mum sprinted up the crooked floor and dived through the front door. Sarah pulled it shut behind them and then ran down the gangplank to the jetty.

  Behind them the houseboat lurched backwards. The water around it bubbled and slurped. It was as if the ocean was trying to swallow the house, and had choked on it. Something ripped the front door off its hinges. Now only the gangplank stood between them and the monster.

  Sarah fumbled with the safety latch and kicked the gangplank away from the jetty. It tumbled down into the water just as the beast was tearing the door to shreds.

  Sarah backed away across the jetty, in case the creature was planning to jump the gap. But it didn’t. It just stared at them like a guard dog behind a fence as the house—their home for as long as she could remember—sank into the water and disappeared.

  Sarah took a deep, shaky breath.

  ‘What …’ Mum clenched and unclenched her free hand. ‘How . .?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Sarah said. She wrapped her arm around Mum’s shoulders. ‘I’m so sorry.’

  Mum stared down at the objects in her hand. Sarah followed her gaze. From the drawer Mum had grabbed her phone, her car keys and a photo album. Not bad for a woman who was half asleep and being chased by a monster.

  Sarah’s father smiled at her from the cover of the album, a thin moustache on his upper lip, crooked teeth shining in the dark.

  ‘Good work, Mum,’ Sarah said.

  Mum shrugged.

  They watched the water in silence for a moment. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, Sarah was suddenly much more aware of the cold.

  ‘Where can we go?’ she asked.

  Mum just kept staring at the place where their house used to be. Sarah wondered if this was what shock looked like.

  ‘Mum,’ Sarah said.

  ‘Hmm?’

  ‘Where can we go? I’m freezing.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Mum said. ‘The car, I guess. I got the heating fixed.’

  It would be a long walk up the jetty to the car, but Sarah supposed they didn’t have a choice. Most of the other boats had left their moorings, and the ones which remained looked dark and empty. ‘Where will we go in the car?’

  ‘The … police station?’

  She didn’t sound sure. Sarah knew how she felt. When monsters destroyed your house, that wasn’t exactly a crime. But it needed to be reported to somebody.

  ‘Let’s go to Uncle Claude’s house,’ she suggested.

  Mum said nothing.

  ‘Come on,’ Sarah said. ‘We can stay at his place. And he’ll know who we should report … this to.’

  Mum was still silent. Her jaw had fallen open, and her eyes were wide with horror.

  She was looking back at the far end of the jetty.

  Sarah turned to follow her mother’s gaze.

  Her mouth dried up. Up every ladder and every pylon, out from under every boat, their shells glistening in the light from their tails …

  The creatures were coming.

  THE HORDE OF NIGHTMARE THINGS

  ‘Run!’ Sarah bellowed. Mum’s paralysis broke and they sprinted up the long jetty towards the shore. The air filled with the clatter of claws on wood and the chittering of alien mouths.

  Mum was sobbing with fear. Sarah wished she wouldn’t. It was hard to be brave when Mum looked so terrified.

  Not that bravery would do much good. There were hundreds of the creatures, and the sounds of pursuit were building to a crescendo. Sarah and Mum weren’t even halfway up the jetty and the sputtering light from their tail stingers was getting brighter every second.

  Closer.

  There was no way they could outrun the creatures. Soon Sarah and her mother would be eaten alive.

  But if one of them fell behind …

  The other might survive.

  This was Sarah’s fault. She had visited the sunken wreck, drawing the attention of one of the creatures. She had dived into t
he water tonight and stirred up the hive.

  Mum didn’t deserve to die for Sarah’s mistakes. This was Sarah’s chance to save her.

  She stopped running.

  But Mum had already had the same idea. When Sarah turned, she saw Mum a few metres behind her, standing still in the middle of the jetty, waiting for the creatures.

  ‘No!’ Sarah cried.

  ‘Go!’ Mum hissed. ‘Keep running.’ Tears streamed down her cheeks.

  ‘Mum! Come on!’

  Mum shook her head resolutely.

  The horde of nightmare creatures drew closer, tentacles weaving, talons rattling. Sarah had already lost her father. Now she was going to lose her mother too.

  Sarah knew she should run. If she was eaten, then Mum had sacrificed herself for nothing.

  But her feet were shackled to the ground. She couldn’t just leave her mother to die.

  ‘Go!’ Mum screamed.

  The monster at the front of the pack reached out for Mum with a serrated claw …

  Then it burst into flames.

  Sarah was so startled that she actually fell over backwards. She landed on the jetty and stared in amazement as the beast which had been about to eat her mother exploded into a blinding fireball. Sizzling limbs thrashed in the air. The monster let out an unearthly shriek. The smoke smelled like a fish and chip shop.

  ‘Take that, you bottom-feeding stinkbags!’

  Sarah turned to see Kooky Karla throw another flaming bottle of petrol. It exploded into a storm of glass and flames, frying another of the monsters.

  ‘Remember me?’ Karla screamed, waving her hook in the air. ‘It’s payback time, you scum-sucking slimeballs!’

  With two patches of fire on the jetty there wasn’t much room for the monsters to get past. They crawled in single file now, and for every two scrambling steps they took forward, they took one step back in fear of the flames.

  Mum dragged Sarah to her feet. They dashed to the shore where Karla was lighting another bottle. The sand was cold under Sarah’s bare toes.

  ‘Sorry I freaked out on you before,’ Karla growled. ‘Had a lot of bad dreams about these things over the years. But from now on, they’ll be having bad dreams about me.’

  She threw the bottle. It smashed right under one of the creatures, leaving it tap dancing on the flames. Its legs blackened and its shell blistered. Flesh spat and popped. Thick smoke rolled up into the night sky.

  Sarah looked into the pink bucket dangling from Karla’s hook. Four more bottles rattled inside, the tops plugged with oily rags.

  ‘That won’t hold them off for long,’ she said. ‘What’s the plan?’

  ‘This was the plan, kiddo,’ Karla said, lighting another bottle. ‘I didn’t know there would be so many.’

  Some of the creatures had already figured out a way around the fire on the jetty. They were jumping into the water and swimming towards the shore, an unstoppable force.

  Mum was mashing buttons on her phone. ‘I’m calling the police,’ she said. ‘If they reach town …’

  She didn’t need to finish the sentence. These monsters could use their claws to walk on land, they were strong enough to tear apart the hull of a houseboat and they were hungry. Their only weakness seemed to be fire. How could anyone fight them without burning down the town?

  The sleeping population of Axe Falls was facing total annihilation.

  ‘Tell them to send everything they have,’ Karla told Mum. ‘But I don’t see how they could possibly get here in time.’

  The first of the creatures scrambled out of the water and ran across the beach towards them. Karla threw a bottle. It didn’t break when it hit the sand. The beast skirted around it and kept coming.

  ‘Maybe they’ll go up the hill into the forest instead?’ Karla said, lighting another bottle. Only two left after this.

  ‘Why would they do that?’ Sarah asked. ‘There’s nothing up there except—’

  And then it hit her. The only way to save the town.

  ‘Mum,’ she said. ‘I need you to trust me, OK?’

  She didn’t wait for a response before she snatched the burning bottle out of Karla’s hand. The heat from the rag singed her fingers. Then she ran down the beach towards the approaching herd of monsters.

  ‘Hey!’ she screamed. ‘Come get me!’

  They accelerated on their scuttling legs. Their tails glowed brighter, as if to better illuminate their next meal.

  Sarah heard Mum yelling something. She didn’t turn around.

  ‘Come on!’ she shouted at the beasts. Then she pelted up the beach to the path which led to the forest, a storm of ghouls hot on her heels.

  SLITHERING, SLAVERING SOUNDS

  She had worried that perhaps the creatures didn’t have ears, or that they wouldn’t respond to her taunts for some other reason. But when she looked back, the monsters were right behind her, milky eyes staring, glowing stingers swaying. Their serrated claws clacked and rattled.

  They were too close. At any moment a tentacle could snag her foot. She waved the flaming bottle at the beasts and they backed off. Then she kept running up the hill.

  She seemed to have drawn the attention of the entire horde. Mum, Karla and the burning jetty were already far behind her. It looked like the monsters had forgotten all about them.

  But not for long. If Sarah didn’t find some way to get rid of them, the creatures would come back for Mum and Karla and the rest of Axe Falls. She had to finish them all off. For good.

  Branches whipped at Sarah’s face. Stones stung her bare feet. This was the same path that she and Yvette had come down yesterday morning, when Dale texted her about the squid.

  Was that only yesterday?

  It felt like a thousand years ago. The sun would be rising soon, although she may not live to see it.

  A tentacle snaked around her ankle. Sarah stumbled forward, landing on her hands and knees on the dirt. She lost her grip on the burning bottle. It bounced but didn’t break.

  Something cold and wet swallowed her foot. The monster was eating her.

  She grabbed the bottle and whirled around. The beast’s claw was about to clamp down on her knee.

  Sarah brandished the bottle at it. It snarled and spat out her foot as the flames charred its face.

  Sarah scrambled to her feet, dodged another whipping claw and kept running. Her foot was slimy but luckily didn’t seem to be hurt.

  For some reason this added to her already overwhelming terror. She ran even faster, feet pounding the dirt.

  And then she could see it.

  Her salvation—or possibly her doom.

  The caves where she and Yvette had gone ghost hunting. It felt like years ago.

  No time for second thoughts. No time to wonder if this had been a stupid idea. The monsters were right behind her. She ran forward into the darkness.

  The flickering flame did little to penetrate the shadows. She thought it had been dark yesterday, but that was nothing compared to this.

  As soon as she was deep enough to be beyond the moonlight’s reach, it was all she could do not to fall over.

  The slithering, slavering sounds of the monsters echoed around the tunnel walls. It sounded like ten thousand creatures were in there with her.

  Sarah held the burning bottle behind her back, partly so the flames didn’t blind her, partly so the creatures would keep their distance. The fire was hot on her spine. She smelled something burning and realised the fire had singed her hair.

  She scrambled into the mine, deeper and deeper. Every few steps there was an abrupt twist, giving Sarah only a fraction of a second to change course and avoid slamming into the stone wall. There had already been three forks in the tunnel. She had turned right each time. She hoped she wouldn’t get lost on her way out of there.

  Who was she kidding? She was never getting out of there.

  The box of explosives came up so suddenly that she almost tripped over it. At least it was still there. She had been worried that it wo
uld already have been moved or detonated.

  But she couldn’t set it off while she was standing right next to it. Not unless she wanted to end up as splotchy wallpaper. So she kept running.

  Three metres. Four metres.

  Five. Six.

  And then there it was. The hole, where the man in the hi-vis vest had crawled out of the ground.

  Sarah stopped. Turned. Waved the flaming bottle at the creatures. They shrank back, hissing.

  Would this work? There was no way to know. Maybe she would die. Or worse, maybe the creatures wouldn’t.

  ‘Ready!’ she shouted.

  The creatures stared warily at her.

  ‘Aim!’ She drew her arm back. Drips of flames sputtered and splashed to the floor of the cave.

  ‘Fire!’

  She hurled the bottle. The creatures snarled as it flew over their heads towards the box of explosives.

  The one nearest to Sarah was the fastest to recover. It lashed out at her with a jagged claw—

  Sarah stepped backwards and fell, plummeting into the hole in the floor—

  And then, somewhere above her head, the world exploded.

  THE FALL

  Sarah wrapped her arms around her head as she tumbled through the sudden brightness. The explosion drowned out the screams of the monsters, the howling of the wind, her own desperate breaths—everything. It was a noise that left no room for thought.

  Even this far from the epicentre of the explosion, the heat was unbearable. It scorched her arms and face and chest. Sarah felt like she was trapped inside a bolt of lightning as it rocketed to the ground.

  Her leg struck the wall. She yelped, and kept falling. The fire sucked all the air out of her lungs. Her arm hit something. She fought to protect her head.

  Booming, crunching sounds tore the air up above.

  More explosions? No—the mine was collapsing. The blast must have knocked out all the supports. The creatures in the mine would be crushed—but Sarah would be trapped.

  Not that it mattered. She’d had no idea the hole would be so deep. She would be pulverised when she hit the bottom—

  Splash!

  The cold was so sudden it almost stopped her heart. Sarah gasped, choking on a lungful of icy water. She puked it back up, coughed, and breathed the air. It took a moment to realise what had happened.