The Game Closet

Ava stared at the fuel pump through the passenger window as the sun slowly set over Madison, Wisconsin. They had been on the road for a couple of hours and still had another couple to drive before they could call it a night. If she had it her way, they would keep on going instead of stopping in the Dells but the children weren’t built for that kind of all-day roadtrip.

Ava frowned, looked across the lot to see if Kyle or the children were anywhere near the counter for check out, but some asshole with a massive fume-farting Cadillac blocked her view.

When she met Kyle, he was already a producer and had weathered his glory years without letting them dominate his present. He had a nice house, two kids who didn’t seem particularly fucked up despite the tragedy of losing their mother at such a young age. That was a year ago. The excitement had dwindled since. She found him attractive and liked his personality well enough, but things were boring now, quiet, the only drama rising from the fact that the kids didn’t care for her. She didn’t mind too much, more of an issue for Kyle really, but even that sort of theater had become passé. At least this new business with the uncle was somewhat interesting.

Maybe you’re just an adrenaline junkie, said the thought drifting into her head. You’re 34; this could be an opportunity for you to grow up. As Kyle and his two children stepped out from beside the Cadillac and into view, she decided she would meditate on the matter later.

The car pulled out of the Chevron station and soon they were coasting down I-90.

*****

“Daddy, do they have an arcade at the Dells?” asked the little girl from the backseat, Celia, age 7. “Michelle says her family went to one and they had fun but Michelle is also a liar so I don’t want to get excited if she’s lying.” The girl talked fast, one thought leading to the next like a train.

“I think there is an arcade baby,” Kyle said reassuringly, smiling at her reflection in the rearview. He gauged the vibes in the backseat. Ben, the oldest, was scrolling through social media on his phone. Meanwhile Celia was smiling right back at him, and her twin Will was marking up a coloring book with pillars of crayola. Will had always seemed remarkably old-fashioned. Not interested in gizmos or Fortnite or anything like that. He’d probably end up a bookworm like his mother.

My world, he thought, eyes returning to the road. 

“They’ve got bumper cars at least,” said Ava. “And laser tag.”

“Bumper cars are lame,” Celia said flatly.

Kyle noted Ava’s lip twitch. The kids still hadn’t warmed up to her a year into this whole thing. Doctor Choi said that it would likely take many years for the kids to accept him with a new partner and that he – and whoever the lucky lady was – should be patient above all else.

He didn’t know if this thing was going to last. He hadn’t been looking for a wife, and had just sorta fallen into this thing with Ava. Still, she was funny and tried her best with the kids. He liked having her around. It was nice not to be lonely.

“Bumper cars are not lame,” Kyle said. “Ezra and I spent a lot of time as kids on those.”

“Back in the Stone Age,” Ben said without looking up, continuing to swipe.

“Do you think uncle Ezra will have any pictures of you when you were kids?” Celia asked. “I wanna see.”

“I’d love to see that too,” Ava said. “I bet both of you had cursed little bowl cuts.”

“He might have something like that at the condo. I dunno. We hadn’t talked for a bit before he uh…” He cleared his throat and looked in the rearview again. “Whatcha doodling back there, Will?”

“Worms.”

“What kind of worm?”

“A bobbit worm.”

“What the fuck’s a bobbit worm,” Ben said.

“Language, Ben. But to your brother’s point, Will, what the fuck is a bobbit worm?” 

Ava chuckled and slapped his shoulder.

Will read aloud from the definition in his coloring book. “The bobbit worm is a predator that burrows itself in soft spots on the ocean floor and ambushes its prey with strong mandibles.”

They came to a light. Ava looked into the backseat. “Can I see your bobbit worm?”

Will slowly passed the coloring book up to Ava, who presented it with a game show host-like “ta da!” to Kyle. The worm didn’t look much like a worm except for a long, singular body. The mouth was vicious, with mandibles that stretched like arms with ill intent in both directions. One of nature’s nightmare children.

“It’s quite colorful,” Kyle said, taking note of the rainbow palette his son had used.

“That’s how they are in real life. They glimmer.”

Kyle smiled as Ava handed the book back to the boy. Glimmer. What a word for a little boy to know. 

“That’s weird,” Celia said. “You’re a weirdo.”

Will didn’t argue. He picked up a yellow crayon and got back to work.

The lights changed. The car lurched forward in the direction of Wisconsin.

*****

They checked into the Holiday Inn by 7:00 PM. The kids had their own room, with Ben wrangling and watching the two youngsters, while Kyle and Ava had a room far down the hall in case they were feeling frisky later.
The odds weren’t great. 

While they were unloading the car, she had asked Kyle if he had heard anything back from the label. He smiled in his fake Midwest bullshit way, meaning he was annoyed and told her he was still waiting to hear back. Worse, he followed that up by asking her if she had listened to the playlist he had sent her, the implication being if your music sounded like this, it’d be easier to get a deal.

The list, of course, was composed of jangly tunes from celebrated pop-rock stars or rising Tiktok sensations – all of whom had a different sound from her husky gargling-whiskey-in-the-gutter acoustic bit. Some part of her knew that the list was Kyle trying to help, in his stupid way, but that didn’t stop it from feeling like a slap in the face.

When they checked in, she grabbed her yoga mat from the luggage and found a small community center on the second floor with a porch that looked out to the green of the pine cradled against the horizon. She closed her eyes and took a breath. She needed to reset, purge herself of this toxic resentment. Otherwise, this whole trip was going to be one long nightmare.

*****

Ben sat against the headboard of the bed, scrolling through YouTube shorts on his phone, eyes drifting up occasionally to watch his siblings. Will was on the floor still drawing in his worm book; Celia on the other double bed stuffing her face with a slice of pepperoni pizza, her blue tablet packed with educational games sitting next to her elbow.

“Hey C,” Ben said. “Don’t forget to wash your hands before you touch the iPad again.”

She frowned. “I’m not a baby.”

“I’m just saying. It’s both our asses if you get that thing covered in grease smudges.”

Will snickered at the word “ass.”

Celia pouted. “I don’t understand why daddy left us here.”

“He and Ava wanted some date time. Don’t complain. It’s the reason we get your favorite for dinner: nasty-ass Pizza Hut.”

“It’s not my fault you like bad Domino’s.”

Ben locked eyes with her but couldn’t suppress a smile. “Don’t talk shit about Domino’s. That buffalo chicken pizza is dope.”

“I just wish he’d dump her,” Celia said, maw packed with cheese and crust.

You and me both, Ben thought. “Dad’s lonely, okay? She’s a dumb gold digger but she’ll be gone in a year tops.”

Will looked up from his coloring book. “What’s a gold digger?”

Celia wiped a smudge off her iPad with her shirt sleeve. “She’s just with Daddy because she thinks he can make her famous.”

“What your sister said. But don’t use that word around Ava or dad, got it? It’s my ass if you do.”

Will snickered again.

*****

When Kyle returned from the shower, Ava was asleep, the covers pulled up to the bottom of her bare shoulder. He frowned. So much for making the most of time away from the kids. It was his fault. He could tell she was getting blazed by the second Mojito but didn’t stop her. It was the first time in a long time he’d seen her having fun.

He slid on some underpants and took a seat at the small desk in the room. He watched her for a bit, keenly aware of the guilt in the pit of his stomach. He had launched a healthy career as a freelance producer off the back of some hits he had in a small Minnesota band back in the early 2000s, The Jigawattz, one of the many poppy-punk blips that appeared in the Top 40 a few times before disappearing into obscurity. 

Back then, Kyle thought he and his mates were hot shit, but now – in his 40s and with a beer gut – he knew the score: The Jigawattz had simply ridden the coattails of Green Day and The Killers rather than any of them possessing wunderkind talent. But that understanding of his own mediocrity led to other understandings, such as the separation of great from good and good from not so good.

And Ava…maybe one day she could be good but she would never be a star. She had that tragic combination of husky pipes and ironclad artistic determination to perform only what she desired to – singer-songwriter anthems and manifestos. To her, the crowd should only exist as a wavelength to inject her with validation and not as a group of people to court.

Was he leading her on, refusing to tell her straight on that she’d never be a sensation? That you’d never hear her song in the credits of a movie or even see her face on a Spotify banner?

Kyle sighed. He knew she’d go when he told her that there was nothing he could do for her career. He didn’t – and wouldn’t – hold it against her. It’s just how she was built.

Still, this year-long respite from being alone had been pleasant. What was the harm in letting it go on for a little longer?

*****

They spent much of the next day at the Dells bumping cars and rollercoasting at Knuckleheads. They put rubber to the road just as the sun started to set. Kyle had considered staying another night – the budget could take the hit – but the kids said they were good to move on, so away they went, towards the Twin Cities.

They rolled into Ezra’s condo complex just a few minutes shy of 8:30. The children had elected to forgo fast food for dinner in favor of pizza – once again – so Kyle put in an order from Pizza Luce for a banquet of food: three extra large pizzas, a henhouse worth of chicken wings, and a massive protein-packed salad for the tragically lactose-intolerant Ava.

The condo was spiffy: a second floor two-bedroom with a living room and kitchen, all decorated Scandinavian-style. He toured the place while the rest of the family and Ava opened up the feast in the kitchen. He wandered into his brother’s room and found, like the rest of the condo, it was spotless.

Ezra, where the hell did you go?

“Daddy!” cried Celia’s voice from down they all. “You’re missing dinner! Ben is gonna steal all the barbecue chicken slices!”

Kyle grinned and stepped back out of the room. “Ben, if I get back to that table and there’s no chicken, you’re sleeping in the parking lot.”

He made his way down the hall, passing a closet with a sliding door. Within the closet, something stirred.

Something hungry.

*****

“So the condo is yours?”

“It’s still Ezra’s. I just happen to have spare keys.”

He and Ava were lying in the guest bedroom. Kyle had let the kids take the master room as the prospect of sleeping in his brother’s bed unnerved him. She was cuddled next to him, chin on his arm.

“But it will be yours one day, yeah?”

He shrugged. “Takes four years in Minnesota for someone who’s missing to be declared dead. Ezra made enough money to pay off the mortgage so either me or mom will probably inherit it once it’s official.”

“Do you think he’s really gone?”

His eyes went slowly across the ceiling, as though the answer might be up there somewhere, maybe nestled against the blinking fire alarm. “I do,” he said.

“That was insensitive. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. Not like I haven’t thought it over thousands of times.”

“Were you close?”

“Sort of. Not when we were kids but then he went to college while I was playing shows. He dropped out to make board games. I thought that was really brave of him. I gave him some money to help prototype Death at Dusk.”

“Is that the one that made oodles of money?” Ava asked.

He shook his head. “No, that’s the one that made him popular with the reviewers and game sites. Places like Shut Up & Sit Down, Polygon. I think the The New York Times wrote about it once. Didn’t sell much though. A cult classic sort of thing. College kids mostly.”

“What was the big one?”

“Era of Devastation,” Kyle answered. “Kind of like Risk but with badass mini-figs and set in its own sci-fi kind of world.”

“Nerd shit.”

“Oh yeah, top-tier nerd shit but it made him well off. Well off enough to buy this place at least and not worry about bills.”

“What was he like?”

“Quiet. Ezra was always quiet unless he was talking about making a game or ideas that could end up being good games. He was super driven. We were both that way, I guess. I just burned out faster.”

She slapped his arm. “You didn’t burn out. You’re still a great producer. You worked on three chart-toppers last year!”

“I do OK,” he admitted. “I’ve got an ear…but I’m no artist. My brother though. I didn’t really understand any of his craft but I know enough about how people talk about him to know he was some kind of genius. I just wish he had spent less time being brilliant and more time with me and the kids, but I guess that’s as much on me as it is on him.”

“It’s hard being here then?”

“A little.”

“I’m sorry, baby.”

“It’s fine. We’ll get the shit packed up, put it in storage, and then we’ll be out of here. Maybe stop back at the Dells on the way back.”

“That could be fun. I wouldn’t mind beating your ass in mini-golf again.”

He hit her with the pillow and she cackled. They exchanged kisses and fell asleep.

*****

At 3:00 AM, the urge to go hit Will square in the bladder. Once he peed, he stepped out into the hallway and saw it, and what he saw first about it was the teeth: large, hanging like stalactites in a cave of red meat. He blinked and the thing was gone.

I dreamed it, he thought. It’s not real.

He stared at the other end of the hallway for a few seconds longer, just to be sure, and then went back into the guest bedroom.

Down the hall, the closet door quietly slid closed.

*****

The next day, they packed the study and the living room. The study itself took an obscene amount of time because of all the notebooks. Ezra never adapted to the digital age for journaling and had scores of notebooks filled with ideas for games and settings – all the way back from when he was in junior high – stuffed in his closet.

‘How are we gonna move all this?” Ava asked, gently stuffing a massive hardcover book down into one of the many cardboard moving boxes on the floor.

“We’re just packing it,” he told her. “I’ll call a moving company to handle the transportation. I just didn’t want to get stuck with the packing costs.”

Down the hall, Ben threw open the sliding closet and was greeted with seven shelves filled to the brim with board games. There were the greatest hits: Monopoly, Clue, Settlers of Catan, Pandemic. But on the bottom shelf, he spied his uncle’s games. He stooped down and ran his fingers across the boxes. Era of Devastation. Death at Dusk. Murder at Ridgeworth. Airship Pandemonium. Underbrush. His finger stopped, went back and touched the rim of the last box once more.

“Underbrush?” he muttered. He’d never heard of that one. Ben pulled out the box and realized immediately that the game was a prototype, for the box itself was cardboard white with a poorly drawn illustration of six dwarves stepping off from a paved path into a dark forest.

He set the box down in the hallway and took off the lid. Inside there was a folded board, a single die, five plastic dwarven figurines, a deck of flashcards, and several pages of paper that appeared to have been ripped out of a notebook.

“Dad!” Ben yelled. “I found something.”

*****

They were all in the kitchen, sitting at the island, pondering the guts of Underbrush. The board, still folded, and all its accompaniments had been laid out. Kyle was reading through his brother’s hastily scribbled notes while Ava re-heated the pizza with the microwave. The sun was starting to go down and they were starving.

Ben stared at the board. “I guess this is what he was working on before he…”

“Yeah,” Kyle finished so Ben didn’t have to. “I guess so.” He cleared his throat and read from the pages. “Abandon hope, ye adventurers! You seek treasure within an enchanted wood but your greed has gotten the better of you and now you wander a bleak, endless labyrinth. Use your wits and speed to find salvation, lest your sturdy bodies be rendered into succulent meat for the mouths in the darkness.”

“Spooky,” Ava said, putting two plates of leftover pizza down on the island.

Kyle stared at the notes for a few seconds in quiet contemplation, wondering if this was the last thing his brother had written. 

“We should play it!” Celia said.

“That’s not a bad idea,” Ben said. “Send unc’ off in style.”

They all looked to Kyle, who peered down at the board and, after a few seconds, nodded. “Why not?” he said. He counted the plastic figurines. “Seems there’s just enough pieces for all of us.”

“It’s like uncle Ezra knew,” Will said before biting into his slice of pizza.

Kyle unfolded the board, revealing a cardboard slab featuring what looked like an ancient temple covered in overgrown vines. Ben, the group’s most keen observer, noted there was something else (tendrils?) mingling with the vines and some stones had splotches of blood. 

Nestled within this dark jungle imagery were six paved paths (two on both the north and south, and one east and one west) spiraling toward a white circle in the middle. Every path was comprised of yellow spaces and black spaces, with the majority of each path being black.

“Six paths, five pieces,” Ben noted.

“Maybe Ezra misplaced one of them,” Ava said.

Doubtful if you know our uncle, Ben thought but let the matter drop.

“We can just play with five,” Kyle said, skimming the rules. “The only objective is to survive. Any player who reaches the exit wins the game not just for themselves but for everyone.” He looked at everyone. “Seems simple enough.”

He looked back down at the rules. “Each path contains yellow and black spaces. If you land on a yellow space, no action is needed. Black spaces require you to draw a card from the challenge deck and complete it before moving on. Failure to complete the challenge will result in…” Kyle narrowed his eyes as he read the instructions, “your untimely death and ejection from the game.” 

“That seems harsh,” Ava said.

“It’s a light game,” Ben explained.  “20-30 minute sessions so you can play several games or move on to one that takes a lot of time, like Risk.”

“Yeah,” Kyle said, moving his finger across the paths. “There are only 18 spaces. Hypothetically someone could end the game in three turns if they’re lucky. I guess the challenge decks are these flashcards over here.” He took one off the top and read it. “Do a handstand!” He chuckled before shuffling it back into the deck.  “I would definitely be dead if I drew that one.”

Celia slapped the table. “Let’s play alreadyyyyy.”

“Alright, Nervous Nelly.” He gave her the die. “You roll first.”

*****

The die flew from Celia’s hand and clattered against Ben’s glass of soda before coming to a rest on the board, a single black dot looking up toward them all.

“Oh, bad luck baby,” Kyle said. “But at least you landed on a yellow place.”

Celia, frowning, went to move her piece.

And then it happened. The rumbling. The shaking did not last long nor was it particularly violent but each of them felt it. When it passed, they all looked around the table at one another.

“An earthquake!” Ava said.

Kyle raised an eyebrow. “In Minneapolis?”

Before anyone else could speak, the lights in the kitchen began flashing and the flashing spread to the hallway, the living room, the rest of the apartment.

Celia yelled. “What’s happening!?”

Kyle opened his mouth to answer as all the lights suddenly went out. “Probably just an electrical line or something,” he said, trying to reassure himself as much as anyone else. “Ben, look up Xcel Energy, see if you can get a number. They’re the power company around here.”

“I don’t have any reception.”

“Me either,” Ava said.

Kyle checked his own phone. Nada. “It’s just a power outage. Probably affecting the cell towers too.” I hope that’s how it works anyway.

Ava spoke up. “Why don’t we go get some candles? I think I saw some in the closet near the bathroom.”

Ben and Kyle went with their phone flashlights on, illuminating the dark hallway, while Ava stayed with the kids. When they got to the closet, Kyle dug around and fetched a handful of candles.

As they turned to go back,  Ben thought he saw something out in the dark, something moving. He blinked and turned away. You’re just imagining shit. Relax.

They made their way back to the kitchen and placed candles around the room, using a gas lighter to illuminate them. 

As his father lit the last one, Ben glanced up and noticed something unsettling. He took one of the candles and raised it up as far as he could. His heart pounded. The light isn’t reaching the ceiling.

Ava screamed. Everyone whirled around to find her staring out the window above the kitchen sink. Kyle rushed to see.

“There’s nothing out there!”

“It’s just too dark to see, baby. The street lamps went away with the power, that’s all.”

“I’m not stupid, Kyle. Look. It’s pitch black. You can see nothing because there’s nothing there.”

And then came the voice, the horrible voice, from down the hall. “She’s right, you know. It’s simply…a void out there.”

Kyle wheeled around, fist raised, as the rest of his family gathered behind him, their backs against the counter top. “Who’s there!?”

“A friend,” said the voice as its owner stepped into the candlelight. “Or maybe a foe. Who’s to say?”

Whatever adrenaline that birthed that moment of courage in Kyle left him. It was as though someone had dropped a slab of ice inside his stomach. His balls shrank. He felt nausea and terror in equal measure.

The thing before them was massive, seven feet at least. It had a large bulbous head on a wiry thin body and when it talked, all they could see was sharp stalactite-like teeth.

“Who…what are you?” Ava cried.

The creature smiled. “I am but a humble host.” It took a step towards them. “I didn’t expect Ezra to leave any more doors open but this is a nice surprise. Well, maybe more for us than for you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Welcome to the Underbrush, my friends. I take it your visit was not intended.”

Ben swallowed his spit. “This is crazy…we were just playing the game.”

“Oh, you’re still playing the game.”

 “I don’t want to play anymore,” Will said.

“I’m sorry little one. Games are serious matters. You cannot stop this one simply because you’ve lost your nerve. It must be seen to the end.”

Kyle found his courage again and grabbed a steak knife from the holder on the counter-top, brandishing it with a shaking hand. 

“My good sir, you’ll have to play to leave. Once the game concludes, you’ll be allowed to go. Well, whoever is left of you anyway.”

Celia screamed in terror, hiding her face in Ava’s stomach, while Kyle raised the knife. “Let us the fuck out of here or I’ll cut holes into you.”

“Oh I wouldn’t go that route, sir. There are many of us here.” Behind the creature, in the darkness of the hallways, came a cacophony of chittering and scratching. “And we’re all quite hungry.”

Something stepped out from all that dark noise. It had hands, human hands, where a mouth should have been and countless eyes, all bleeding, as those hands clapped together in sickening enthusiasm.

All of them screamed. Kyle felt the knife leave his hands. It clattered to the floor.

The Host smiled. “I’m trying to do you a favor by giving you a fighting chance. You can trust me. I am, above all else, a gentleman.”

*****

“This has to be a dream,” Ava sobbed. “Either my own dream or some fucked up dream we’re all having together. That can happen right?”

“Daddy, what’s going on?” Celia said. “Is this real?”

“If it’s a dream,” Ben started, “then we just play by the rules of the dream…then we wake up.”

Will was the only one who said nothing. He stared at his shoes.

From behind them, the voice of the Host purred. “Time is ticking, my friends. I cannot hold them back forever.”

Kyle nodded slowly, lowered his voice. “For now, we play. I’ll think of something. Just…follow my lead.” He turned to the Host.

“You promise, you’ll let us go back as soon as one of us reaches the end?”

The thing bowed. “I swear on my reputation as a gentleman that whomever is left standing by the end will be returned home safely.”

Kyle swallowed his saliva. “I’ll go next.”

They returned to the island and the board on it. Kyle picked up and tossed the die: 4. He slid his dwarf across the path to a black spot. Ben winced.

“I believe this is where I come in,” the Host said. They all watched as he reached into his coat and fetched one of the flashcards that had previously been part of a deck on the board. The creature’s tiny but extremely long arms brought the card up to the monstrous head.

“Trivia,” it read aloud. “In 1959, there was a plane crash in Iowa that robbed the world of several famous musicians. That event has since become known as The Day The Music Died. Who were all the musicians who perished in that crash?”

“Shit,” Kyle said. He closed his eyes and concentrated.

“I don’t believe I can allow more than 10 seconds, Kyle. One…”

The monster continued its countdown as the family waited with baited breath. Kyle continued to say nothing.

“Six…”

Ben bit into his lip. “Come on, dad…”

On the count of eight, Kyle’s eyelids shot open. “Buddy Holly, J.P. Richardson…and Ritchie Valens.”

A moment passed and the Host’s blank expression curled into a smile. “Excellent job, Kyle.”

Kyle wiped sweat from his forehead. He turned to Ava, pale with terror and shaking, and offered her the die. “Your turn, baby.”

The woman nearly collapsed back into the counter but Ben held her up. “It’s okay,” he told her. “We’re here.” It was the kindest he had ever been to her.

She nodded and slowly took the die from Kyle. She shook the little square and smiled at him. “Just like in Vegas that one time?”

He grinned back. “Yeah, two thousand at Craps. Nearly paid for the whole trip.”

She nodded and threw the die. It bounced once, twice, before landing. A six.

Celia clapped.
Ava picked up her dwarf and slid him down the path until it came to a black space. She let out a small gasp.

“It’s okay baby, you got this,” Kyle said once more. “Whatever he’s got in his coat, it can’t beat you.”

The Host pulled another flashcard from his coat and brought it up to his eyes. His oval amber eyes darted at the trembling Ava.

“Are you a fan of yoga, Miss Ava?”
She nodded, sweat dripping onto her eyebrow.

“Excellent. For your challenge, you’ll need to assume the Taraksvasana pose, also known as the Handstand Scorpion.”

Ava swallowed the spit in her throat.

“...for 10 minutes.”

“I don’t…I don’t have the core for that,” Ava whimpered. “I can’t do it. ” She rushed into Kyle’s arms.

He grabbed her shoulders. “There’s no choice. You have to do this – and you can.”

“Time’s ticking.” The Host licked its lips. A scream fled from Ava’s mouth. She could feel the shape of death overtaking her. Kyle shook her. “Don’t think, just do it.”

He pushed her and her body took over in primitive fear, snot and spit falling from her face as she fell forward, back hunched, hands touching the floor.

The family watched from behind the island, Ben fighting back the nervous urge to vomit. The woman slowly, and with surprising acumen, lifted her back legs into the air, gracefully entering a handstand. The family watched her legs bend forward ever so slightly as sweat dripped down her face.

The legs stopped just short of her lower back and began to tremble. “I can’t do it!” she cried, her whole body shaking like a building assaulted by an earthquake.

“Yes, you can!” Kyle said. The rest of the family joined in cheering her on. “You’ve got this!”

She wept more as the trembling worsened. Her face grew red.

“Your feet have to touch your head before the countdown can begin,” said The Host. “I hate to be a stickler for the rules but, well…”

Ava’s feet progressed again, inching closer and closer to the back of her head, matching the rhythm of her growing tremors. And then, at long last she let out a cry, the barely-assembled grace of her form dissipating, crumbling into a pile of limbs and shattered hope.

“Wait, let me do it again,” she sobbed, slowly rising. “I can do it.”

“I’m afraid there are no redos, my dear.”

The colossal Host approached, teeth bared in a cruel smile. “I believe I’ll take you for myself.”

“Leave her alone!” Kyle screamed, running toward her, only to slam into a force unseen that propelled him backwards and onto the floor. The children ran to help him up, blood trickling down his nose.

“I ask the remaining players to share the same amount of respect for the rules that I do.”

Ava let out an ear-piercing scream as she ran toward the others only to find herself blocked by that same invisible barrier. Her face pressed further into the unseen wall as though desperation and perseverance would be enough to help her break through, even as the creature came to a halt inches from her.

“For fuck’s sake, help me. Oh god!”

The Host leaned down, next to her ear, and softly spoke like an adult comforting a scared child. “Don’t worry dear. No god. No heaven or hell. Just digestion.”

Before Ava could let loose one final scream, the creature took her – its massive mouth snatching her up with vicious speed, the top row of teeth falling like a stage curtain on her body.  

Wet, warm red sprayed the kitchen’s tile floor. Ava’s legs kicked desperately as the creature’s head vigorously whipped from side to side. Those white curtains, now stained red, raised and closed once more, and what was left of Ava disappeared from sight. The Host tilted its head back and a deep, gushing sound emerged from the creature’s throat as it swallowed.

Kyle screamed and his eldest son lost his dinner all over the floor. Celia stood wide-eyed blinking in horror as Will tried to turn her gaze away from the nightmare before them. “Don’t look,” he whispered. “Don’t look.”

From within the darkness behind The Host, the chittering and screeching came again. The beast turned, wiping the blood from its mouth with a handkerchief taken from somewhere in the fathomless depths of his inner coat. The Host raised a single hand.

“Calm yourselves, brothers! It is my right as the adjudicator of the realm to receive the first morsel of food. The remainder of this feast shall be divvied out to the rest of you in due time.” The sounds from the darkness stopped.

“You fucking monster,” Kyle said, half-screaming, half-sobbing.

The Host turned his gaze back to the family. “It would appear our players need a small amount of time to regroup from their loss. The game shall recommence in an hour. Players, the barrier restricting you to this environs has been removed. You’re allowed to explore The Underbrush to your content until your allotted time is up. I would advise you not wander far, as the game is only going to get more difficult. Save your strength.”

They watched as the beast shuffled toward the hallway and stood on the periphery of the territory where no eye could perceive. The Host turned to give them one last look. “It’s been a while since we’ve had a good show. I hope you won’t disappoint us.”

And then the creature was gone. They were alone.

*****

The hallways were different now. They stretched on for much further, with new corridors every few steps, and everything was blanketed in darkness. Kyle chiseled into the black ahead with his cellphone’s light, the children gathered behind him like geese. Ben was at the very back as a lookout, the light on his own phone shining up the darkness behind them.

Ben noticed Will squinting out at something as they explored.

“You see something buddy?”

Will nodded. “Yes.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t know, but there’s something here with us.”

“I’ll keep an eye out. Don’t worry about it,” his brother said, eyes turning back up to monitor the space behind them, his heart thumping in his chest.

They passed a bathroom at one point. Kyle thought about running in to puke in the bowl but decided against it. He couldn’t let the children see him so weak. He had to remain strong, a voice of authority and comfort all at once. Assuming they survived, he would have all the time in the world to torture himself over Ava later.

Suddenly Celia gasped. Kyle looked to see his daughter’s finger rising to point out a wall mirror. There was no reflection of the family, just the hall.

Ben swallowed his spit. “What is this fucking place?”

“Are we in hell?” Celia said, tears forming. “You go to hell if you’re bad. Maybe we’ve been bad.”

“No sweetie.” Kyle got down and hugged her. “We’re good, OK? We’re gonna get home.”

He stood up to lead them, but in the midst of rising, there came the sound of a bell ringing through the halls. By the time he was standing straight, they were all gathered in the kitchen once more around the island and the board. The Host was before them, grinning down at the group.

“Welcome back,” it said, smiling. “I believe it’s little Celia’s turn.”

“How do you know our names?”

The grim grin grew. “The Underbrush knows everything about its visitors.”

Ben gently handed Celia the die. She looked from him to Kyle. “Daddy, I don’t want to play anymore.”

“It’s OK baby. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“But you said the same thing about Ava and she…”

Kyle looked away for a second, refusing to allow the tears to well up in his eyes. He squeezed his daughter’s hand when he looked back at her. “I swear I won’t let anything happen to you guys.”

Out in the darkness, something chittered, something screeched.

“Don’t mind them,” The Host said. “That’s the Legion. They’re particularly fond of little girls.”

Ben stooped down to get on Celia’s level. “We’ll protect you, little C. They’ll have to go through me.”

At long last, she rolled. The die tumbled until three dots were facing the dark ceiling. Kyle sighed in relief and moved her piece to a white spot for her.

Will was next. Kyle turned to encourage him but the boy was already sitting in a chair, die in hand. He rolled. A four. Black space.

They all watched as one of the Host’s pole-length arms reached inside his cursed coat to bring out a card. The monster read it aloud.

“Rub your tummy while patting your head for 10 minutes.”

Will hopped off the chair before anyone could encourage him and came to stand in front of the Host and all the monsters in the black beyond. He proceeded to do the task and accomplished it with great finesse, never once breaking his stride or composure. When he was done, he returned to his family.

Even the Host seemed impressed. “A hearty congratulations to a challenge well-accomplished, young man.” His eyes flickered to Ben. “Benjamin, I believe it is your turn.”

Ben took the die and tossed it. Five. He moved to a black space and looked up to see the card already leaving the coat. The Host gave his biggest smile yet.

“Benjamin,” he said. “Your challenge is to kill your father.”

All three children, even Will, screamed in terror. Kyle took a breath, gathered his courage, and grabbed the previously discarded knife. He firmly placed the handle in Ben’s hands. “Look at me. It’s okay, son. We have to play the game.”

Tears were streaming down his face. “Dad I can’t. Don’t fucking make me do this.”

“It’s the only way for you all to get out of here,” The beast said.

“Dad.”

“Just do it, Ben. Please. Right here. Just right here,” Kyle said, thumping the left side of his chest. “Will, Celia, cover your eyes.”

“Daddy…” Celia cried.

“Do it!” he said. “I love you all.”

Kyle closed his eyes. “Please Ben,” he said. “Just do it.

Ben, hand trembling, raised the knife high in the air. “I love you all,” he said. Kyle’s eyes shot open as he realized his son’s intent. He watched frozen in abject fear as the knife, turned inward, came down toward Ben’s chest ... and then bounced off harmlessly as though it had collided with a wall.

“The barrier,” Will whispered.

The knife lay on the tile floor. They all stared at Ben and he stared back. No one knew what to do.

The Host’s awful laughter reached their ears. “How noble! Unfortunately, down here in the Underbrush, such ideas are rather antiquated.”

Kyle and the two youngest children watched helplessly as Ben was lifted off his feet by some unknown force and thrown over the island into the slice of hallway before them. He hit the floor hard and slid to a halt at the Host’s feet.

The Host turned his massive head and said, “Legion, I believe this one is yours.”

There came a sound from the darkness. Not screeching or chittering, but clapping, resonant and filled with sick enthusiasm.

“Please,” Ben cried, crawling on the floor in the direction of the kitchen. “You don’t need to do this! Oh god! Dad!” He tried to move faster but something was wrong with his leg. He couldn’t feel it anymore.

Ben watched as his father and siblings scratched their nails against the barrier, screaming their heads off.

And then the arms descended. There must have been at least 30 of them. Red and calloused with long, chipped fingernails. They looked like the devil’s hands.

Celia saw them first and screeched in terror. Ben looked up just as the arms reached him and closed over his limbs, yanking him upward into the infinite dark with tremendous speed.

His scream as he flew was loud, so loud it might have echoed through eternity, but then it got quieter as the seconds ticked by. 

And then the rain started.

Countless red drops smelling of iron fell, splattering the hallway, the kitchen, and what was left of Kyle’s family.

“He seemed like a particularly brave lad,” said the Host. “You have my condolences. I’ll give you an extra hour of rest out of respect but, well, I can’t hold them back any longer, you understand?

They watched the Host disappear into the folds of blackness once more. Kyle slid down to the floor. They were all covered in blood and even if he closed his eyes he could still smell it. There was no escaping the fact that his oldest son was dead.

His head was in his hands. “My boy. Ava. I got them killed.” At long last he sobbed, wet tears falling into his palms. There was a tap on his shoulder. He looked up to see Will.

“Daddy, we have to go,” he said. “There’s someone out there in the dark. I saw them earlier.”

Kyle sniffed, rubbed his eyes. “What do you mean?”

“Someone like us. I can feel them. They’re hiding.”

“Can you take us to them?”

“I can try.”

*****

They were in the halls again, Kyle leading with phone light, arms trembling.

“Maybe it’s all just a bad dream we’re having, like Ava thought,” Celia said. “We’ll all wake up and be fine.”

“Yes, sweetie,” Kyle said, not looking back. “That’s exactly it. Just a bad dream.”

They wandered for some time until Will spoke. “Over here.”

Kyle turned his light to where the boy was pointing, but it was just an unremarkable section of the hallway wall.

“What are we doing, bud?”

“They’re in here.”

“There’s no room here.”

Will shook his head. “This wall is fake.”

“How do you know?”

“He’s right,” Celia said. “I can see it now.”

Kyle watched as his daughter reached her hand out to the wall. He thought about stopping her but then her fingers ran over the wall and it rippled like water. “We can go through.”

He gently pushed her away and handed her the phone. “Let me go first,”  he said. “If you hear me screaming, run away.”

Slowly, Kyle pushed through the illusory wall. There was a chill that ran over him as he passed through. He gasped when he saw what was on the other side.

The children heard and wasted no time in going to their father’s aid. Soon all three of them were standing in a small room filled with blackboards on every wall, all scribbled with charts, diagrams, and maps. There were boxes of pizza and ramen strewn across the floor. A dirty toilet in the corner.

But perhaps most interesting of all was a living being, a man, standing in the middle of the room. He was unshaven and dirty, wild looking, but somehow completely familiar. He regarded the three of them with confusion and then warmth.

Celia gasped. “Uncle Ezra?” 

“Hello little C,” the man said in a small, fragile voice. He looked to Kyle. “Brother,” he said. He approached, raising his arms to embrace the man he hadn’t seen in over a year, but only received a fist to the face.

The two of them fell to the floor, Kyle on top, pummeling his younger brother. “I’ll fucking kill you, Ezra. I don’t know how but I know this is your fault!”

The children screamed as Ezra waved frantically. “Stop! STOP! THEY WILL HEAR US.”

They all fell silent and listened for sounds beyond the wall. Only silence.

“Get off me and let’s talk this through.” 

Kyle stood up but didn’t bother to help Ezra off the floor. “ My girlfriend and Ben are dead. Killed by those things out there.”

Ezra’s expression fell, his bleeding lip drooping. “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t care about you being sorry. Get us the fuck out of here.”

Ezra motioned to the blackboards. “What do you think these are for?”

Will sniffled. “Is this where you’ve been the last year, uncle?”

The man locked eyes with the boy. “It’s only been a year?”

“What do you mean ‘only’?” Kyle said.

“Time must pass differently here,” Ezra said, seemingly to no one but himself.

Kyle snapped his fingers. “Hey Ezra, dipshit. What the fuck do we do? What the hell is this place?”

Ezra looked at his brother and sighed. “It’s a long story but I’ll try to be as quick as possible.”

*****

“Do you remember that night we had some friends over at my house, back when I lived in that shack in Tangletown?” Ezra asked.

“Yeah, you got the Ouija board out,” Kyle said. “It was boring as shit. Nothing talked to us.”

“Something did. Just later. To me.”

Will looked up at his uncle. “It was The Host, wasn’t it?”

Ezra nodded slowly, eyes not meeting the boy’s. “I awoke in the middle of the night to find a great shadow looming over me. And then his face, like a whale. We...” The haggard man took a breath. “We made a deal.”

Bile was bubbling in Kyle’s throat. “Please tell me this is not going where I think it’s fucking going.”

“They were just homeless people from downtown. I’d lure them back to the apartment, promising them food and a place to sleep. They were usually too blitzed out of their mind to suspect ill intention…that thing, he taught me how to create a portal to this place.” 

He paused for a second, nearly breaking under the disgust in his brother’s eyes and then continued. “I affixed it to my game closet. I’d use chloroform. When they were asleep, I’d bring them through. In exchange, he fed me dreams while I slept. Dreams that I turned into notebook pages, notebook pages that became my work.”

Kyle pushed his children behind him, putting distance between them and their uncle. “You’re a murderer.”

“Yeah, I am, but those people were just drunks doomed to die in the winter cold. And I’m nothing compared to what’s out there in the dark.”

Celia spoke up. “How did you end up here, uncle Ezra?”

“The thing about making a deal with the devil, Little C, is the devil can’t be trusted. Your stupid as shit uncle forgot that part. A few years went by and those beasts started calling the food diseased. They wanted…” Ezra gulped. “They wanted children. I refused. So, they decided they’d settle for me. They closed the portal on me.”

Kyle glared. “I suppose I should be thankful you have an iota of conscience but you still got Ava and Ben killed, you piece of shit.”

Kyle took a step toward him and Ezra raised his hand. “Look: If we get out of here, you can have my head. But our chances of escape are disappearing by the second. I only have a bag of hypotheses but now that there are more of us…there might be a way out.”

“I’m listening.”

“Wherever we are, this world responds to the imagination. All the things you see in this room? I thought them into existence. The pizza, the blackboard, the room itself. It’s how I’ve been able to survive.”

“Did you try an exit?” Will asked.

“Yes,” Ezra said patiently. “It was one of the first things I tried but…nothing. I’m thinking that maybe my imagination isn’t strong enough by itself. I mean, again, this is all a hypothesis. The more I’ve navigated this place, the more I’ve realized it defies logic. There are multiple floors, looping hallways. The Underbrush is not a place that can’t be conquered by conventional thinking.”

“So you’re useless is what you’re telling me.”

“I’m trying my best here, Kyle. I know I fucked up. Just let me figure out how to get you out of thi–”

Ezra’s voice disappeared into his chest, his eyes widening in horror.

The family turned to find The Host had joined the proceedings, looming over them with his massive grin. “Oh Ezra. Already taking on new debts when you’re still obligated to us. Unwise.” He turned his head to take in the small hideaway. “A neat trick. I always thought you were just another stupid glory monger, but there is some sideways thinking here I can appreciate.”

“You’re just a middle-manager,” Ezra sneered. “There are things bigger than you out there, waiting to devour you the moment you’ve got nothing beyond your own skin.”

The Host chuckled. “Lucky for me, there’s always a wretch like you then.”

“Just do what you’re gonna do, man. Leave them out of it.”

“Oh a little too late to play the noble hero, my friend. But you’ll find I’m not a devil without his graces.” The Host leaned down until his globe of a face was mere inches away from Ezra’s. “I could have you killed on the spot but – in the spirit of sportsmanship –  I’ll let you play the game alongside your family. A fighting chance. And moreover, you all will enjoy another hour of peace before the game resumes.”

The creature stood back up and addressed them all. “In that time, you’re free to explore The Underbrush as much as you’d like. If you happen to find an exit in your wanderings, I will do nothing to stop you from taking it. But you best hurry. Time’s ticking away.” And with that, he fell back into the darkest corner of the small room and disappeared entirely.

Ezra ushered them all into the hallway. “No time to waste, let’s go.”

“What do we do?” Celia asked.

“Just keep uh…thinking of exits. Tunnels. Fire escapes. Holes. That sort of thing. And we wander.”

“Great plan,” Kyle said.

“At least I’m doing something besides bitching.”

“How do we even know this imagination-creation shit is legit? You could just be talking out of your ass.”

Ezra sighed, closed his eyes and held out his hand. A second later, a folded piece of notebook paper appeared out of thin air. “Go on, take it,” Ezra said, eyes still closed.

Kyle slowly picked up the note and unfolded it. EAT SHIT KYLE, it said. “Very funny,” Kyle said.

“If you’re done questioning my honesty, let’s get to work. We probably only have 50 minutes or so.”

They explored the halls, each of them imagining exits in their minds. Will ran his fingers across the wall in search of more fake doors but everything was solid beneath his touch.

“Have you tried imagining a gun, uncle Ezra?” Celia asked.

“I don’t think they can be killed by conventional means, baby girl.”

They wandered on in silence for a bit, time ticking away, and then at last Will began to cry. Kyle turned back and looked over his son.

“What’s wrong? Did something hurt you?”

“It doesn’t work,” Will said. “I tried imagining Ava and Ben back…and they’re not here.”

“Life and imagination are different,” Ezra said sadly. “They both need one another but they’re not the same thing.” 

Onward they trudged without success. And then they turned a corner of the dark labyrinth and found themselves back in the kitchen. The Host was waiting.

“Time is–”

“Up,” Kyle interrupted. “We know.”

The Host briefly frowned. “Unfortunate to see a lack of manners runs in the family.”

They all came back to the island and took their seats, with Ezra sitting where Ben once sat. A new dwarf was back on the board, about halfway to the center.

Ezra examined it. “My piece, I presume?”

“I could have made you start at the very beginning, you know? I managed to talk the others into letting you begin alongside your family.”

“You’ll never be anything other than what you are,’ Ezra says. “A stupid beast pretending he’s above it all.”

“Well I suppose we are not entirely dissimilar in that regard. In any case, your move, sir. Do give us a good show before you die, hmm?”

Ezra rolled the die. A two. A black space. He looked up to watch The Host read the card in his massive hand.

 “Remove your hand,” the creature said.

Ezra, unfazed, looked the creature straight in his eyes. “Left or right?”

“Oh whatever you wish, dear boy.”

Ezra opened up a drawer in the island and pulled out a massive meat cleaver.

“Look away, kids,” Kyle said, without a hint of emotion in his voice.

“No,” Ezra said. “Let them watch. It’s important.”

Without hesitation, Ezra reached his arm out across the left side of the island and brought the cleaver down hard. Everyone screamed, even Ezra, as blood erupted from the collision. It took three swings to cut through the meat and the bone, and when he was done, he pushed the dismembered arm off the island.

Blood continued to spew from the stump as Ezra closed his eyes and waved his remaining arm over it, like a magic trick.

A sticky, sickening sound filled the air. Both children ceased screaming as a brand new arm grew from the stump. It was a little too neat and hairless and, yes, a little blue – but still an arm.

Ezra opened his eyes and smiled at The Host. The creature did not seem amused. “Parlor tricks will not save you.”

On the game went, the players drawing ever closer to the center. The Host assaulted them with impossible challenges easily undone by creativity. With a thought, Kyle turned water into wine. Celia transformed a guillotine blade into jelly a split second before it hit her neck. Before a volley of bullets could rip his tiny body to shreds, Will transfigured them into Milk Duds.  

The Host stewed in silence, his commentary nowhere to be heard as the creatures in the darkness behind him grew impatient.

And then the turn came back around to Ezra once more. They were all close to the end now, every player a few spaces away from the finish. Kyle did the math. Only one of them had to roll a 3 or above and the game was over.

Ezra rolled. Two dots came up and he landed on a black space. The Host drew a card and Kyle felt his stomach drop out as the creature’s blank expression grew once more into that sinister smile.

“I’ll give you the honors of reading this one, dear boy,” said the creature, extending his pole-length arm to Ezra, who took the card and read it aloud, the courage in his voice dissipating like a drop of water in the desert.  “Lose your turn.”

Will screamed at The Host. “That’s not fair! That’s cheating!”

The beast shrugged. “It’s the game maker’s fault for not setting clear rules about what could and could not be in the challenge cards.”

Ezra looked at his brother, fear filling his eyes. “Fuck,” was all he said before the invisible force took him, lifting him over the island, and slamming him on the floor. Out in the darkness, a deep sound. Ezra realized he was hearing stomping.

“Everyone is quite cross with you, Ezra. Especially those at the tippy-top, so I’ve been saving you for the Warden.”

The creature that stepped into view was gargantuan. Its humanoid body was nude and muscular but on top of the neck sat the head of some kind of bug, with large mandibles and great glowing red orbs for eyes.

The so-called Warden lumbered over to Ezra, who screamed at his family. “Keep playing! You have to finish!”

The creature picked him up gingerly and brought Ezra’s face to its own, the mandibles clicking together. “Keep playing!” Ezra yelled one last time before his face was shoved into the plethora of pincers and teeth before him, his cries becoming a wet gurgle as rivers of red splashed the floor.

The bug man yanked back, his mandibles taking Ezra’s head clean off. Then he flung the body onto the floor. 

The corpse had not laid there a second before all kinds of forms dashed from the darkness – claws and teeth pulling shreds of the meal before them back into the shadows. When they were finished, not even a spot of blood remained.

The Host turned to Kyle, who had been covering his children’s eyes but could not stop himself from shaking.  

“I believe you’re next, my friend.”

*****

Kyle, legs ready to give out, stood steady by holding onto the island. “We get an hour,” he said, more loudly than intended. “To grieve.”

The Host’s smile flickered ever so slightly. “I’m afraid that those previous breaks were courtesies. Besides, we're in the endgame now. No sense in pausing here, no?”

Kyle’s legs trembled even more. “Get behind me, kids.”

The twins quietly moved toward their father and stood behind his legs, peeking out at the avatar of cruelty as he beamed at them, the creature unable to suppress a lick across his monstrous lips.

Kyle picked up the die and closed his eyes. He shook his fist and kissed the knuckles on them, thinking of Ava, of Ben, of sunlight, even Ezra, but most of all, he thought about his twins, hiding behind their daddy like he was the trunk of an oak tree.

His hand flung open. The die shot out, slamming onto the table, bouncing like a cannonball across the battlefields of old until it came to a stop. The die’s face peered upward into the ceiling with three dots for eyes.

A laugh escaped him. He pushed the piece to the center of the board. “We won,” he said, a little cry escaping him and then he said it again, tears falling, as he looked to his children. “We won.”

The Host did not seem amused, his smile transformed into a single thin line. “What are the odds?”

Kyle swallowed the spit at the back of his throat and turned to the beast. “Now let us out, you son of a bitch.” 

The creature looked down at them and once again, that inescapable masquerade of a warm grin appeared. “No, I think not.”

This time it was Will who spoke, his voice rising near a shout. “You said you would let us out!”

“I did, didn't I? But that’s not part of the game. That’s just a promise I made to you. There’s no obligation for me to fulfill that.”

“You cheat!” Celia screamed. “You lied to us!”

“I suppose I did. Such is the way of the world. Ah, well. Time for dinner.” One of the creature’s long hands raised into the air and snapped its fingers.

A distant chime in the darkness once more. Kyle turned to his children, swallowing the sobs trying to rise. “Don’t worry. We’ll get out of this. I’ve got you.” Somehow he held his voice firm. He couldn’t let them be scared. He needed to get them out of here. He needed time. He needed–

Celia screamed. She was looking at something behind her father. He turned just in time to see the tendrils emerging from the wall in the kitchen. Faster than a flash of lightning, four of them wrapped around his limbs and pulled him into the wall, which was no longer a wall, but some kind of shimmering thing that fluctuated like ocean waves as it slowly began to pull him into the surface.

He did not know exactly what was happening to him but he felt his flesh and the muscles and even bone beneath burning away as he sank into the beast pretending to be a wall.

“I’ll be okay!” he screamed as his shoulder went through. “I promise! Just rely on each other!” His ear now. “I love you,” he screamed, wanting the last thing his children heard from him not to be a lie. I love yo–”

And then there was silence. He was gone.

*****

The Host peered down at the two delicious morsels before him. His bulbous eyes bulged and when he smiled this time, it was though his teeth had grown more twisted and longer, saliva dripping down them. “And then there were only two very headstrong children remaining. I have to let you know I’m so happy that you made it to the end. Children are a great favorite around here.”

“You lied!” The boy screamed. “You lied, you lied, you lied! I’ll kill you!”

The Host’s laughter rang through the darkness of the Underbrush. “And just how are you going to do that, little boy?”

“I’ll kill you!” Will continued to scream, spit and snot flying from his face as he closed his eyes in concentration. “I’ll kill all of you!”

He felt Celia’s hand take his but he remained focused on the darkness in his mind. And in that darkness, he conjured things of light. Bright things that writhed and bit and chewed and devoured.

A rumbling shook across the entirety of the Underbrush. The Host looked out into the distance of dark and was perturbed by what he saw. “What are you doing?” he growled.

“I’ll kill you!” Will continued. Celia joined in the chant to support him.

“Stop this,” said the Host, his savage mirth having left him, waving one of his hands. He blinked. Nothing happened. The things in the darkness cried in fury and then…pain as a crack of blinding light tore its way through the black all around them, making the infinite dark decidedly finite.

The creatures scattered as more rips appeared but there was nowhere to run. Every second, more light…

CEASE THIS AT ONCE! screeched the Host. 

But it was too late. They had begun to come through. Massive and wriggling, their mouths filled with thousands upon thousands of small jagged teeth.

The Host watched in silent terror as one of these worms zoomed towards the Warden and effortlessly ripped away the top half of his body in an explosion of red gore. The others fell one by one just as gruesomely, reduced to red mulch by jagged teeth.

And then there was only one morsel left. One by one, the worms turned to the remaining creature as he fell to his knees and begged the children, his deep bass reduced to a whimper.

“Children, please. I only did what I did because of the others. I wanted to let you go even before the game began! Please!”

Will opened one eye. “Open a portal.”

“And you’ll spare me?”

Celia opened both her eyes and stared at the groveling thing. “We swear.”

One of the smaller worms lunged and bit hard into The Host’s left shoulder. He cried in pain. “I’ll do it,” he whimpered, red pouring down his body as more worms approached.

His long hand turned in a circle and suddenly, right in the middle of the kitchen, was an ordinary looking door.

Celia opened it. Through it, they could see the same kitchen but this one was bathed in the glow of dawn. 

Another worm bit into the Host’s other shoulder. Celia stepped across the void first. She looked around the new kitchen and turned to Will, waving him through. “It’s safe!” she said.

“You promised!” The Host cried. Will, standing on the threshold, looked at his family’s tormentor with pure, red-hot hate in his eyes. “Such is the way of the world,” he answered, before stepping through and slamming the door behind him.

The Host had just enough time to release one last scream before a worm took away the top half of his skull with a forceful, messy bite. The others helped themselves to the rest and soon there was only light in the Underbrush –  cruel and righteous light.

*****

Jesse Bennings of 564 Lakewood Drive would never forget April 4, 2022. He was taking his ancient terrier Wilbo on his morning walk when out of that hideous condo complex across the street came these two children – a young boy and girl holding hands – walking slowly toward the row of houses, including his.

He called to them. “Kids, are you okay?”

It was then he noticed they were covered in sweat and blood. Both of them seemed to be in a state of shellshock. Wordlessly he brought them inside his house and called for his wife Maria. She was just as distraught when she saw them and took to wiping them down with towels. While Jesse called the police, she fixed pancakes for them.

Turned out those poor kids belonged to the brother of that guy who went missing, the guy who made games or something. The brother, his girlfriend, and these very children had gone missing too a couple of months back. The guy going missing hadn’t really surprised anyone. He was a genuine weirdo, but the rest? That gave everyone in the neighborhood the willies. Some people even moved away, which Jesse felt was an overreaction. This was Minnesota, after all, about as safe as it could get.

The cops came, thanked the Bennings for generosity, and took the children away to god knows where, hopefully someplace they could get some help. Jesse, being retired and overly interested in this phenomenon that had just wandered into his life, couldn’t help but call the following week to check in on them. One of his old students from his time at Hennepin Tech was the captain now at the station and finally gave him the top-line after being prodded a few times.

“They were all quiet the first couple of days but they’re fine – well as fine as you could expect – once we got some food and water into them,” the captain told him. “They’re both up at the hospital now, and have doctors looking over them. You just wouldn’t believe the story they had to tell.”

Artist: Trevor Henderson

Trevor Henderson is a horror illustrator, writer and creature concept artist who is best known for creating the character Siren Head, which became a viral sensation online.

Trevor designed numerous monsters for the film Tarot, and is always looking for new creature concept design work in film or games. He wrote and illustrated the middle grade horror chapter book "Scarewaves" for Scholastic, and has a sequel due to be released this coming August.

Trevor lives in Toronto with his partner Jenn and their bossy cat, who is named Boo.

You can find Trevor’s portfolio here.