CHAPTER 11
Joseph ran through the living room. With the moonlight behind him he could just make out the devastation in Nova’s cottage. The treacle thick fog, which had made his approach to the house so difficult, was as dense inside as it was out. His boots crunched down on broken crockery.
As he entered the kitchen a foul odour invaded his senses. The rancid stench of decay stung his nose and made his eyes water. The revolting pong reminded him of an incident when, as a child, he found a dead badger in the woods.
A whimpering sound broke his recollection and his eyes searched the moonlit room for the source. His gaze fell on a heap of filthy rags. The shape lay against the wall. He moved a little closer and saw, through the wisps of mist, a foot poking out from beneath the soiled cloth.
The whimpering continued and the pile of rags shuddered. Joseph knelt down and laid a hand on the quaking cloth.
“Nova? Nova, it’s me, Joseph King,” he said, his voice sounding both soft and concerned.
“Little Joe?” Her voice was frail and distant.
“It’s ok, Nova. I’m here, everything will be ok now.”
He was doing his best to remain calm, at least on the outside. Inside he feared his stomach was going to abandon him.
“Is it still here?”
Her breathing was laboured and her hands clung to Joe's jacket sleeves as he helped her to sit up.
Joseph gasped as the moonlight touched her face. Several deep scratches marked her wrinkled cheek and she was bleeding from her mouth and nose.
“Is what here? Nova, what are you talking abo...”
He was cut off by a low, threatening growl from the darkest corner of the kitchen. Whatever had made the noise began to move toward him.
Joseph could hear a creature as it crushed the debris under its feet, inching closer through the shadows. It growled again and Joseph stood up. He turned to face the animal.
The beast moved slowly and deliberately, staying in the dark as much as possible. He could see that it walked on four legs and was the size of a very, very large dog. Despite the canine-features the creature possessed a pair of huge, bright-red eyes. The eyes shone in the dark as they watched him pick up a large baton of wood. Joe positioned himself between Nova and the monster.
“Joe...run. Just run you stupid boy,” Nova begged, her voice was weak and fading by the syllable.
Joe shook his head at her order and he braced himself. The stench grew stronger as the animal approached. Its growl was fierce now and it gave a last warning to the man.
He did not move. The creature launched at him, spreading its great mouth to expose row upon row of razor sharp teeth. The creature sunk its fangs into his arm and Joe let out a cry of pain.
Suddenly something hard and heavy smashed against the beast’s head. The animal released its hold on of Joe and turned in an instant to face a second attacker.
Martha stood in the doorway. She held a torch in one hand which she pointed at the monster again. It yelped and scurried backward as if the light inflicted pain. Desperately scrabbling to its feet the beast burst out of the kitchen windows and disappeared into the dark.
Joseph stared at Martha. She stood motionless in the doorway still pointing the torch at the window. “What was that?” she mumbled. Her voice squeaked as her question broke the silence.
“A wolf... I think?” Joe answered.
“Not a wolf,” Nova spluttered. “It was a Howler.”
Martha quickly moved to Nova's side. She thrust the torch into Joseph’s hand and instructed him to shine the light on Nova. Martha knelt down and began checking the wounds. With the skilful hands of a mother she did her best to stem the bleeding.
“Now you just hang in there, Nova,” she reassured as she cleaned the blood from the old woman’s face.
“I didn't have enough time,” Nova whispered.
“Hush dear. Try to save your energy.”
“No. It's too late.” Nova abruptly grabbed Martha's arm in a tight grip. “You, you must warn her. Keep her safe until she's ready.”
“Keep who safe?” Martha asked, staring into the old lady's terrified eyes.
“Tell her not to open...” Nova's voice was growing faint, life leaving her damaged body. “She mustn’t open the...”
Martha cried as the light slipped away from Nova's bright, grey eyes. Her last words entrusted to people who were overcome with grief and unlikely to grasp their true meaning.
Joseph crouched next to Martha. Her heaving sobs filling the roaring silence as she rocked Nova in her arms. His own gaze blurred with hot, salty tears.
He lifted one of her frail hands in his own. He had known her his whole life. Old-Nova had been like a grandmother to the entire village. Everyone only had good to say about her. How could something like this happen to someone so loving and kind?
“Oh my goodness,” Martha gasped. Her exclamation snapped Joe out of his sorrowful thoughts.
Joseph pointed the torch, still clasped in his hand, at Nova. What he saw both confused and astounded him. A brief glimmer of hope that she was still alive was instantly thwarted by the vision before him. Nova was crumbling... Her body was disintegrating. She was turning into dust!
Martha recoiled in abject horror as Nova disappeared leaving her arms holding the filthy rags she had worn. The dust vanished into the mist covered floor.
***
Rose's face was deathly white as the story came to a close. Joe's tale was, as he had warned, definitely strange and not very nice. It would have also been hard to believe if his arm didn't have the savage bite mark to prove his encounter with the creature had occurred.
“How can that be?” Rose questioned further. “How can she have crumbled like that? People don’t just dissolve into dust!”
“I don't know what happened,” he replied honestly. “I'm as confused as you, but it happened just like I said. We searched the woods for the dog or wolf…or whatever it was. But we found nothing, not even any tracks.”
Rose touched his hand and she smiled at him warmly through the tears in her eyes. She didn’t have an explanation for what happened. It was a bizarre story and needed further investigation. All the same she was grateful for what Joe had done. It was brave of him to race to Nova’s rescue. In her eyes he was a knight in shining armour.
“Thank you. From both of us,” she said, her words tinged with sadness and admiration.
“I’m sorry. What do you mean both of us? Who is us?” he asked.
“Oh. How silly of me. By us I meant Harmony and I. She’s my daughter, though most people think we’re sisters. Oh my god!” she suddenly exclaimed. Her eyes became wide. “Harmony's at the house alone and that dog is still on the loose!”