THE UNSPEAKABLE HORROR!

a Trapped By Monsters story

with art by David Melling

(for Episode 1, click here)

Episode 2, by Andy Briggs

The grater made a SCUNCH sound across the hard cheese that set my teeth on edge, like nails drawn across slate.  That was why I didn’t hear the voice the first time.

‘Guys?  I’m out!’  It was Sam’s voice drifting from the tunnel.  A tunnel I knew he shouldn’t… couldn’t be in.  That tunnel snaked upwards to freedom.

MMMUURRRP?  Grumbled Alan, the twelve-armed monstrosity, as he shifted position. His three ears suddenly pricked up.  Had he heard Sam?  I felt a rush of nervous excitement.  If Sam was out… could he free me?  I earnestly began grating to mask any further sounds.  Alan relaxed back as I shaved the layers of crusty cheese from his armpits.  I had been doing this for the past week.  It was the first time I’d discovered the cheese sandwiches they’d been feeding us had never been near a cow.

I kept one nervous eye on the door.  It was unlocked.  The monsters seldom bolted the doors if they were in the room with a captive author.  They knew we wouldn’t dare run.

Until now.

During our occasional surface visits, for events and signings, we had all built up a mental map of the caves.  The problem was, we all knew slightly different parts of the map.  If we were going to escape from the caves it was all… or none.

A shadow crossed the ill-fitting gap between the door and frame as Sam’s voice whispered: ‘Anything, um, anybody in there?’

I dug the grater in extra-hard to mask the noise.  Too hard.  Alan squealed like a pig in a helium factory as the rusty blades dug into his slimy flesh and drew blood.  Well, I assumed it was blood; it could well have been puss.  Either way, Alan was furious and in great pain.  The skin around Alan’s arm gave a rubbery snap and the entire limb plashed to the floor where it flopped like a fish, before dissolving into a puddle of gunk.

Alan flailed his remaining eleven appendages and shrieked an octave higher.  In a desperate bid for freedom I raked the grater across the beast’s cheese encrusted stomach just as Sam opened the door.

‘I’m here to rescue –!’

Alan exploded in a mass of grey gunge that tasted vaguely fishy.  The shockwave flung me into Sam – and we both collapsed in the corridor, covered head-to-toe in slime.  But that didn’t stop us from dancing a mad jig on the spot as we giggled manically – we’d done it!  Freedom lay ahead if we could only free our fellow authors!  A dozen metres up the sloping tunnel lay another cell door and that’s where we headed as fast as we could.

Then we heard a noise like a cat being sawn in half with an elastic band – it was an alarm.  The monsters knew we were out…

Click here for Episode 3, by Ali Sparkes

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