The date is February nd 2005. The following is the transcript of the testimony of Luke Moore, the witness surrounding the disappearances of Angela Williams and Ruby Pearson:
Q: You don’t have to tell me everything in one go. You can take a break when it’s too much for you.
A: No. I want to get this over and done with as soon as possible.
Q: I don’t believe you were responsible for what happened. We just need you to tell us what you saw and then you can go.
A: Yes, I know. I’ve been told this three times already.
Q: I see. You can start when you’re ready, I’ve got all day.
A: Alright.
<It is silent for five seconds>
A: I’m ready. Let’s just get this over with.
Q: Why don’t you start at the beginning?
A: Yeah, because telling you the end and working my way backwards wouldn’t confuse you.
Q: You don’t have to be a smart arse.
A: We’d just finished high school, and it was Angela’s idea to go on the road trip. It took us months to decide on where we’d go and what we’d do. I was able to get Jason, my boyfriend, to come along, while Ruby talked Angela into letting her come along. Ruby and I didn’t like each other. Jason wasn’t fond of her either, but Angela said that we just didn’t get her. They’d been friends since kindergarten.
Our plan was drive to Brisbane, make our way to Darwin, and then go back. It started out just fine. We camped, stayed with a few relatives, and went sightseeing. I did get into quite a few fights with Ruby, but other than that, it was fun.
Q: I see. So when did everything go wrong?
A: Well, we’d just left Darwin when Angela noticed this sign leading to a place where people can hire boats and take them out fishing. Jason didn’t really like boats and he got seasick pretty easily so he decided that he wasn’t going to go. I’m so glad he didn’t.
When we arrived at the docks, Jason noticed that it was unusually quiet. The owner pointed out that recently, there’d been a decline in wildlife. Angela insisted that we still went. She loved fishing; as a kid, she went out almost every weekend with her dad until he died. After that, she and her mom went fishing on the anniversary of his death. Our parents were friends at university and we grew up together. I just hope no one goes through what she – they – went through.
While we were getting ready to leave, Jason told me that he saw a homeless man with grey hair, eyes, and scars along his face and arms, sitting on one of the tree root, watching us. He’d asked the man where the best fishing places were. The man told him that if he ever wanted to get married to me, we’d go home before we got caught up in things. Jason asked what he meant by that, and the man replied that he’s hoping we don’t find out.
Q: And you found out, didn’t you?
A: Oh God, yes. Jason thought the guy was on something and went back to tell us what had happened. The owner didn’t say anything when we asked if we knew him. I bet the old bastard did, didn’t he? You interviewed him, right?
Q: As a matter of fact, Mr McKenzie told the police that the old man appeared around the time there was a noticeable decline in wildlife and he’d warn anyone who appeared to stay out of the water. He chose not to tell anyone because he wanted to protect his business.
<The sound of banging can be heard>
A: This is all that old fucker’s fault! He knew there was something out there and he let us go out anyway! I’ll fucking kill him!
Q: Mr McKenzie didn’t know what was causing the decline.
A: Bullshit.
Q: He was telling the truth, Mr Luke Moore. Now please, let’s continue.
A: Fine. So the girls and I got in the boat. We told Jason to come pick us up at six. That bastard went back into his office and we went out. Angela was the driver while Ruby and I kept an eye out for crocs. We didn’t even see any birds. It was way too quiet. Eventually, we stopped amongst some mangroves. The water wasn’t too deep, so we weren’t expecting to catch anything too big when we cast our lines. Angela told us that she saw a few bubbles by the back of the boat and warned us to be careful. It was after this that Ruby said that something was biting her rod. It was pretty strong too and it put up one hell of a fight. I offered to help, but she told me to fuck off. Angela could help her and after a few minutes of struggling, the thing she caught lifted its head.
Q: And what was it?
A: It was a crocodile head – fused together with decomposing organs and bones. I saw bits of jellyfish, kangaroo, possum and several birds. Angela started screaming when she saw it. Ruby looked as though she was going to be sick. I just stared at it, too horrified to react. The moment Angela stared screaming, every single eye on that creature turned to us. Before we had time to react, something underneath us rammed the bottom of the boat, flipping it over.
I think I was underwater for a few seconds, but it felt longer. I was right under the boat. All I could hear was my heavy breathing. Suddenly, I felt something wrap around my leg. I was wearing shorts, and I could feel it touching me! It dragged me backwards. I struggled, grabbing onto the boat’s sides and I tried to drag myself back, but it was too strong for me and I banged my head against the side of the boat, knocking me out.
Some time had passed before I woke up. I was being carried on someone’s back. She was much smaller than me and my knuckles and legs trailed behind us. She was limping and had one arm wrapped around Ruby to keep her head above the water.
Once we were finally out, she fell to their knees and then turned on her side letting me fall off. I turned onto my stomach and I started throwing up water and god knows what else I’d swallowed. When I finished, I turned to the little girl who’d saved me. She…
Q: Boy?
A: No, a girl.
Q: And how did she look?
A: I think she was at least eleven or twelve, with one eye and scars. She had really long grey hair and wore glasses and was dressed up in the skin of, I think a wolf, but it was probably from a large dog. She was an ugly little thing.
Q: I think she’s cute. What did you call her?
A: Ruby called her Huber because of the name tag on the white lab coat she wore over her clothes. When she saw me throwing up, she started rubbing my back. As soon as I stopped, I gradually came to the realisation that there was this weight to my leg.
Q: What was on your leg?
A: Merged animal paws. The end of it looked like it’d been chewed on. I tried to remove it, but it was stuck my skin. Pulling on it felt like I was pinching myself. Huber crawled over to my leg. She unwound the growth as though it wasn’t stuck to me and placed it in her pocket. For some strange reason, she had to uncurl her fingers with her free hands.
I turned to Huber and I started asking her question. I felt like I was talking to a mute who didn’t understand English. She just stared at me and made this weird raspy sound. I gave up and I started looking around. We were surrounded by mangroves and the tide had gone out. I couldn’t recognise anything. Ruby was slowly starting to wake up. I made my way over to her and I tried to help her up. She pushed me away and demanded to know where we were. I told her I didn’t know.
Ruby looked around until she saw Huber, who was hiding behind some roots with this nervous look on her face. When Ruby saw her, smiled and made her way towards the girl. Huber frantically climbed up the tree and clung to the branches. If the circumstances were different, I would have been laughing.
When she did that, I looked up and I realised that we weren’t alone; above us was thirty kids, all clinging to the tree branches. Huber was probably their big sister because they looked a lot like her, except they had long wild dark brown hair and all wore big white shirts with a rose sewn on the right sleeve.
Ruby tried to get the children to come down, but they wouldn’t budge. Every attempt she made at being nice to them backfired by them screaming, running away, attacking, or hiding.
Q: Glass for stabbing and blood loss, wood for taking eyes, and doorhandles for cracking bones and curved scars. Mother’s son can’t be pregnant.
A: What does that mean?
Q: It was something I remember watching. Don’t worry. So what did you do when you saw those children?
A: …well, Ruby wanted me to help her get the kids down. She thought they could help us. I don’t really like kids. I don’t have the patience for them. I didn’t want those kids coming near us. I mean, what were they doing there? Who and what were they? Yeah, she saved us, but for all I knew, she was planning on eating us later. I was going to point those things out to Ruby when I realised that neither of us had seen Angela since that thing attacked us. Ruby freaked out and we started looking around for her. We didn’t see any signs of her and tried asking those kids, but they were just like Huber. Ruby started calling out for Angela as she started running along the banks. I think she’d forgotten about that creature so I ran after her, warning her to stay out of the water and to keep her voice down. When I said that, she started screaming at me, blaming me for Angela’s disappearance. I got really pissed and we started bickering. Not long after, Ruby punched me and we started fighting.
Q: Not the best thing to do in that type of situation.
A: Yeah, I know. That was our first physical fight. I think the only reason it didn’t happen sooner was because we’d never been left alone long enough to get that angry. Our fight didn’t end until they intervened. They’d climbed down and surrounded us in a circle before hurling mud at us. They didn’t stop until we apologise. Ruby started crying by that point, I wanted to do the same, but I managed to hold them down.
Huber must have felt sorry for us and approached us with a collared shirt and a pair of pants. Ruby took the shirt while I took the pants. We cautiously took turns to wash ourselves off before putting on those clothes. For some reason, they stayed dry even when we put them on. I didn’t question this because the last thing I wanted to see was Ruby’s body. Those children started playing in the water. Once they started doing that, we went back into the mangroves. Huber was just watching them with this grin on her face. Her mouth was too big and wide. It was creepy.
It was then that we heard this man’s voice say, “I warned your boyfriend not to come out here.” We turned to see the homeless man Jason must have seen sitting against the tree, smoking from a long pipe. His eyes reminded me of a cat’s. I asked if he knew about the thing that had attacked us. He had the nerve to say that it was our fault for ignoring the warnings. He then told us it was highly unlikely that we’d make it out alive and we should confess our sins as soon as possible.
Q: I get the feeling you both got angry again.
A: Yeah, except that time, we didn’t yell or hit him or anything like that. Instead, we asked him if he knew what had attacked us, and he explained that it was The Merger. I’m glad he…
Q: You mean The Necromerger.
A: How do you know?
Q: I found the concept of demons to be fascinating when I was younger.
A: …Okay. Well, he warned us that it was going to get dark soon and it was best that we stayed close to Huber. The man was way too nonchalant about our situation. We found out later that he was kind of annoyed at us and how they were going to leave when Huber heard Angela screaming.
It got really cold that night. We wanted to make a fire, but we didn’t want to risk the creature being drawn to it. Huber didn’t seem to care because she suddenly set a tree on fire by plunging a metal rod into the trunk. I backed away from her when she did that. She smiled at us before she went over to the children and took off their shirts. I did my best not to look at them. Ruby tried to talk Huber into putting their clothes back on, but they ran away. The homeless man informed her that there wasn’t any other clothes for them to wear and they just had to deal with it until their shirts dried.
We stayed away from them and sat near the man. He warned us not to come anywhere near him. He had his eyes fixed on Ruby when he said that. We eventually smelt something being cooked. Ruby kept her distance when she went to see what was going on. She called me over to show me what was going on. Somehow, Huber had got her hands on this slab of meat and tore off chunks to cook over the fire before feeding them to the other kids. Thankfully, the children had their clothes back on. She couldn’t grab onto the meat and used her teeth to do it. When she saw us, Huber offered us some. Surprisingly, she got close to us and even tried to feed us.
There was something wrong with that meat. Ruby and I couldn’t identify what animal it came from. I went back to the homeless man and I asked him what it was. I started gagging when he told me it was the piece of The Necromerger that was once attached to my leg. I warned Ruby not to eat it, and she threw up when I told her what it was.
Somehow the fire burned for the rest of the night. Those kids slept together while the homeless man sat nearby and kept an eye on the water. Ruby and I reluctantly decided to sleep next to one another to stay warm. Ruby asked the man to alert us if the creature came back. He told us that it had returned and was waiting for us in the water.
Q: Why didn’t it attack?
A: I don’t know. Maybe those people had some form of influence on the creature and it couldn’t get to us, but your guess is as good as mine. We found it difficult to sleep that night. We started hearing this sound. It wasn’t a boat, or the splashing of the water, but it was…
Q: Mr Luke Moore?
A: It was Angela. Her moaning and groaning sounded like pigs being slaughtered and she was calling out, telling us to come out. I could also faintly make out the Angela wailing, and begging, and crying. Ruby and I covered our ears. She had her eyes clenched shut as she cried. I could make out the silhouette of the man. He appeared to be having a panic attack. Eventually he got up and made his way over to the kids. He sat next to them and pulled Huber close to his chest. I could see he was holding something very tightly in his trembling hand. A scalpel or stick or something. He was muttering something to her. I couldn’t make out everything he said, but I did hear this; “she’s never coming back, boy. She can’t come back if she’s dead. You tore her apart.” Huber never woke up.
The sounds eventually stopped, but Ruby and I barely got any sleep that night. When I did though, I had this really weird dream.
Q: And what happened in the dream?
A: A little girl was staring into a mirror before her reflection grew into a much older woman. This look of fright appeared on the girl’s face before her reflection stepped back into the mirror. I didn’t see what happened next, but I did hear the homeless man saying in a very angry voice, “I’ve always hated you, you cunt, but now I hate you even more for what you did to your son, and my daughter.” I watched the girl raise her hands to shield her face when the angry screams of a woman came from the mirror. Next, I heard this baby crying before it suddenly cut short. Blood appeared at her feet. There were several lumps of flesh on the floor.
When it fell silent, the girl turned to me. Her hands were covered in blood. Her left eye was torn from its socket, curved scars and old wounds appeared along her body, I heard several bones cracking, and her hair turned grey. The scars along her body opened up and she started to bleed. She mouthed the word “God is merciful”.
It was midmorning when I woke up. I noticed the man had returned to staring out at the water. I approached him to ask him about the dream. Before I could, he held out two pills. I asked what they were, and he told me that taking them will allow us to feel like we had a good night’s sleep. It was a nightmare to swallow, but it worked. I then tried to ask him about the dream. His expression changed for a fraction of a second, but he then gave me this look that meant I wasn’t getting any answers from him.
Huber provided us with unusually sweet lemons to eat. I think they’re called lemonades. When we finished, I went back to the man and asked him if he could take us home. He said he didn’t know where we lived. Ruby told him that we wanted to get to the closest town or phone. He told us that we were thirty kilometres from civilisation and our little island was surrounded by deep water. I told them that I knew they weren’t human, and Huber wanted to help us. His response was “and?” Ruby said that he should get her to help us and he informed us that he was more interested in seeing the outcome of the situation than helping us. He would only really get involved in our problem if those kids were in trouble. Since they weren’t, he wasn’t going to do anything for us.
Q: I see. So what did you do after J…the man said that?
A: We pleaded with him to help us. It took a long time for us to do it, but he eventually decided to help us if we did one favour for us – after he helped, we were to never go near him or speak to him again. When we agreed, he told us that we had to make ourselves a small raft and then convince Huber to make it bigger. We were strongly against that idea, so he told us that if we didn’t want to do that, then we had to make ourselves a plane. We decided to give what he said a go.
Q: And how did that turn out?
A: We knew we had to keep the girl with us, so we had to make sure the raft was big enough for all of us. It took a long time for us to find the materials and to make sure it would stay afloat. It took us even longer to convince Huber to make it bigger. She jumped on it, and it instantly expanded in size.
We pushed our raft towards the water. It stayed afloat even when we climbed on top of it. I picked up Huber and placed her on top of the raft while Ruby gestured for the kids to follow. They didn’t. Huber didn’t make them come along as they were going to follow us anyway.
The water was flowing downstream and we tried to use long sticks to move around. Eventually we had to stop because the water got too deep. We were constantly on the lookout for any signs of the creature. We didn’t see anything, and in a strange way, the children playing stopped us from going insane from the silence.
Q: How did the other children follow you three?
A: It turns out that they could run on water when they realised Huber was leaving them. They looked like they were having a good time. Huber was enjoying herself too; she’d limp across the raft, rocking, and would kick up water so it’d splash us.
We didn’t like having water hitting us. It annoyed Ruby more than me. We kept on turning to her and telling her to stop. She continued what she was doing. At one point, she jumped into the water and swam under the raft. She scared the living shit out of us when she suddenly popped up in front of us. I dragged her back onto the boat and told her to stay still and knock it off. She was giggling and tried to get us to go swimming with her. And that was the final straw for us.
Q: Mr Luke Moore, do you need to take a break?
A: Ruby screamed at her to knock it off. The moment she raised her voice, Huber’s smile disappeared and this look of pure terror appeared on her face. She started screaming at the top of her lungs and threw a violent fit. She looked like she was trying to shield herself from being beaten.
Her spasms caused the raft to dangerously rock. It would have tipped if we didn’t restrain her. We tried to hold her down but – the moment Ruby touched her, everything got so much worse. The wind picked up, the water split apart, and nearby trees exploded. She flipped the boat over with little effort and all three of us fell in. She was still throwing a fit. I tried to carry her back to dry land, but it was too difficult to get a good hold on her and the water was too deep for me to stay afloat. I couldn’t help her and I had to leave her to get out of the water.
Ruby was already ahead of me and she helped me onto the river bank. She asked where Huber was and I told her she was being too violent for me to help her. We couldn’t go back into the water, so we had to wait until there was a sign that she was alright.
Q: What about the children?
A: They vanished when Huber threw her fit. Our raft was long gone. I couldn’t tell if I was shivering from being wet or the silence. Ruby whispered to me that we should get away from the bank. We were in this big grassy plain with these massive gumtrees scattered around the area. It looked like the type of place a crocodile or snake would be lurking. Of course, finding that wouldn’t have been so bad.
As soon as we started making our way back, we heard rustling coming from the long grass. Suddenly, those kids leapt out. They were like wild animals. They tackled us, shrieking and screaming, and pinned us down. The homeless man appeared when we were restrained. He was clearly pissed. He approached me and stamped down on my stomach, winding me. He did the same to Ruby.
He pulled out this scalpel. He stated in this calm voice that he was going to cut us open and swap our organs. For the first time, he was smiling. Ruby was struggling to tell him to stop. The man explained that he was being merciful to us compared to The Necromerger.
Just as he placed the scalpel at the base of my neck, I heard the sound of splashing water and a shriek. The children instantly got off us and ran towards the river bank. I looked back to see Huber emerging from the water. She was covered in mud. The other children threw their arms around the girl and held her close. Huber was shivering and embraced the kids. The man let go of me and made his way towards the girl. I watched him fall to his knees and embraced her.
After a few moments, the man let go of the girl and turned back to us. He took something out of his bag and threw it over to us. He told us that if we wanted it to work, we just had to say “burn”. After that, he picked up Huber and they walked away. We were still winded and it took us a while to get up. By that time, they were gone.
I couldn’t believe they’d abandoned us. Ruby went to inspect what they’d left for us and it turned out to be the metal rod. I carried it with us as we made our way through the plain. Ruby tried to break the silence and we tried talking about things to take our minds off our situation. Of course, we did end up arguing from time to time, but it was more like our attempt to lighten the mood.
I found out that Ruby didn’t like me because she found it difficult to make friends and Angela really was the only friend she made. She was jealous. When I thought about it, I realised that Ruby really didn’t seem to know anyone Angela wasn’t friends with. She didn’t know what she was going to do when they made it back because she felt completely alone.
The plain seemed to stretch on forever. Occasionally, we found ourselves stepping into water and we ran away. As time went by, we ran out of things to talk about and we just fell silent. Ruby started to wonder if that thing was still following us. I told her that the thing was probably aquatic so as long as we stayed out of deep water, we’d be fine.
Suddenly, the ground trembled. Ruby grabbed me by the hand and we started running. Without warning, something erupted from the ground. I remembered being buried under massive mounds of dirt as Ruby had ended up being catapulted into one of the trees. A massive gorge separated us and in the middle, there it was.
It was a mass of hundreds of animals parts fused together. It was like someone had ripped open various animals, and then stuck them together. Its limbs and organs and bones would stick out and flail around when it moved. It reeked, with this white substance running down its body. And there was Angela, placed directly on top what must have been its head. Hundreds of paws were groping her naked body and she was drooling and licking her lips. Each head was doing it and their eyes kept on rolling back every now and again and they would let out moans and shrieks.
Even at a distance, I could tell Ruby had gone into shock. I watched as the eyeballs of the creatures turned to her. What looked like several tails or tentacles made from body parts emerged from its back as it made its way to her.
Ruby hugged the tree as that monster slowly made its way up. The wind carried her voice and I could hear her; Luke, please. Please. Please! I’m sorry for everything. You can do it. I forgive you. Just do it. Do it now! Hurry. You don’t have much time. It’s getting closer. I know you can do it. I’m sorry. Please. Please. Please! Kill me now before it gets me! Use the rod! Don’t let it eat me! Kill me! Please! Luke!
I still had the rod. I pointed the rod at Ruby and I screamed “burn”. Sparks of electricity ran down the pole, burning my hands. I cried out and dropped the rod. As soon as I let go, the sparks disappeared. When it stopped, I picked it up and screamed “burn” again. I tried to hang on longer – it felt like I had soaked my hands in oil and held it in front of a fire – and the sparks shot out at Ruby. As it started to do so, I dropped it, and it died down without reaching her. I would have used it again, but it had landed at the bottom of the gorge.
Ruby knew this. So, she bit her tongue off, chewed chunks of skin off her wrist and elbows, clawed at her throat and temples, and sliced open veins and arteries. Even then, she wasn’t unconscious when the creature finally caught up with her.
It grabbed her, making its way under her shirt and wrapping around her. Its ends made its way into her mouth and into every single hole in her body. Within moments, I saw small chunks running down the tentacles. I saw her body thinner. She was twitching and I think she was crying. The creature pulled away and the tentacles joined together to create a massive tube. Ruby wasn’t moving. She was staring, slack-jawed up at the sky like she’d been lobotomized. The tube suddenly grabbed her by the head. It sucked her up and I watched her form slowly slide into the creature’s body.
As soon as Ruby was eaten, I tried to run. I struggled to free myself, but my hands hurt too much to move them. I couldn’t even bend my fingers.
Then, I felt something wrap around my head. I started screaming. The creature got me. It was fucking eating me! It twisted and pulled and eventually, I was ripped out. I’d dropped the rod and I struggled until it was inside its mouth. I was in its mouth! I was in its mouth!
Q: Mr Luke Moore, please calm down.
A: I could feel myself being pushed down to its stomach. I was slowly losing the ability to move and breathe. I started to fall unconscious. I struggled to stay awake, but there was nothing I could do. As I reached the end of the tube, I could hear Angela and Ruby screaming.
Suddenly, I jolted awake. I could feel myself falling and heard an ear piercing, demonic shriek. I hit the ground, hard. Small hands suddenly grabbed me and dragged me out of the tube. It was those kids. They came back for me! They came back to save us! The children surrounded me in a circle. The creature expanded and nearly filled up the gorge. The kids looked frightened, but they were going to protect me. They cared. They really cared.
I heard a snarl and I looked up. There stood Huber at the top of the gorge. She leapt down and landed right in front of us, making the ground tremble and crack. She was baring her teeth and she had this angered look on her face. I noticed she had the rod wedged into her chest.
The Necromerger had fused together Ruby and Angela together like flayed Siamese twins. Then, it spoke. It loomed closer to Huber and it had Ruby and Angela’s hands touch and stroke her face. It said, “You can’t hurt me now, blood sister. I ate one of them. You must eat me, blood sister. You must let me become one with you. You have resisted myself and my kin for too long. You must be tired, why don’t you surrender, blood sister?”
The homeless man appeared and grabbed the hands. He forced them off Huber and said, “Bless this land and all humans who enter.” That made the demon scream. In response to this, it grabbed him and devoured him. That made Huber wail. The demon tried to take advantage of that and placed some of Angela’s fingers into her mouth. It would have forced them down her throat if she didn’t have her teeth clenched shut.
I could tell it got angry. It pulled away from her and it made every head on each animal pull back their teeth so they’d be sneering. It said, “If you will not eat me, then I shall eat them!” Without warning, twenty tubes appeared, grabbing each child’s head and started to slowly eat them from the inside out before sucking them into its body.
Huber grabbed the sides of her face and started wailing and screaming before stopping all of a sudden turning to The Necromerger. She quickly removed her clothes and opened her left eye. A white flame burst out of the empty socket.
She grew taller and her right eye caught fire. Her body contorted to look more like an animal’s. Her mouth elongated and her teeth became like giant, jagged, knives with a long, barbed, forked tongue. Cracks formed along her skin. There were long spines running down her back leading down to a tail she’d grown that ended with a spiked club. Her arms grew long enough to drag behind her and her hands were gigantic with large pointed nails. Nine wings came out of her back – three were like a bat’s membrane and the rest were like white bird wings.
A demonic scream escaped her lips and she ran at it. It tried to grab her and her tail instantly tore off a chunk. She swiped her hand at it, ripping off a much bigger piece. She freed each child, tearing off more chunks of the creature. They had become shrivelled pods of bones and skin. When she freed them, she absorbed them into her stomach, making it swell. Once the kids were free, she landed on top of its back and punched it several times before tearing it in half.
The Necromerger was screaming. It somehow slammed her into the ground and I saw her disappear into the dirt. It attempted to attack me. Just when it was about to grab me, the homeless man burst out and seized it flesh. He dragged it away from me when he noticed Huber lying against the dirt. He crushed the flesh in his hand and ripped it away from the flesh.
It tried to reform itself when Huber flew over to Angela and Ruby. She freed them from its grasp and held them with her teeth. She ripped out the rod and buried it into the gaping wound she made. Burns appeared all over her skin and I heard sizzling.
The next thing I knew, I felt the homeless man grab me and force me to the ground as the monster’s caught fire. He let go of me and lit hit pipe again. I don’t think he cared he was severely burnt.
When I was about to say something, I heard The Necromerger letting out a scream. I looked back to see Huber bury one of her hands into a giant bloodied hole in the girl’s fused back. She pulled out this shapeless mass from their flesh that writhed and squirmed in her grasp. I think it was the creature’s soul.
Huber’s tongue grew longer and she ate the burned flesh of that monster. The other children slowly emerged from her stomach, their bodies reformed. When she was finished, she crushed the creature’s soul before embracing Angela and Ruby. They seemed to shrink, like she was absorbing them into her as well. The surrounding area was still on fire. Despite the sound of grass and wood burning, I could hear her laughing. When she finished, she was holding what I thought was a giant cacoon. She was naked, but normal again. The burns were gone. The homeless man approached Huber, picking up the lab coat and placing it over her shoulders.
Q: At least The Necromerger got what it wanted.
A: I started screaming and crying. I just couldn’t stop myself. I must have been in shock or gone into hysterics or something. I didn’t even stop when Huber held me. She still had the cacoon. I could feel her nuzzling me, but I was pushing her away. I begged and cried and howled. Nothing could be done to calm me down.
The next thing I knew, I was wandering down a road with two newborn babies in my arms. A police car was pulled up beside me and a policeman was in front of me, asking me who I was. My hands weren’t burnt anymore. For some reason, we were wearing grey bracelets.
I don’t know why, but when I saw the bracelets, I was reminded of the time I was in year seven or six when, all of a sudden, Angela, Ruby, and I started crying. We weren’t sad or anything, but we just cried until we didn’t have any more tears to shed.
I was put in the car and taken to the hospital. Jason came to visit me. He cried when he saw me and he asked how our daughters were.
I didn’t understand what he meant by that. He thought I must have suffered from some form of amnesia from the event. He explained to me that Angela and I got drunk at a party and she fell pregnant from our one night. Angela didn’t want them, but Jason wanted kids and he’d convinced me to be their father. She was meant to be eight months pregnant when we went out.
When he saw my confusion, he took me into the maternity ward to see the girls. It-it-it was them.
Q: Them?
A: Angela and Ruby. I don’t know how, but it was! I felt dizzy and I had to be taken outside. Angela wasn’t pregnant when we left. We wouldn’t have gone out if she was. You don’t take pregnant women out on boat rides. That’s how I knew it was them. I was shown pictures of Angela’s belly and ultrasounds. I’m taking a DNA test to prove who they are. According to the rest of the world, I was the father to two people I’d grown up with.
<It is silent for ten seconds>
Q: And that’s everything?
A: Yeah.
<Sighing can be heard>
Q: You know, it really is a shame that so many people are killed each year by crocodiles. It’s a pity Angela went into labour while you went out on the water.
A: What?
Q: You don’t really think the police would believe you when you state a demon attacked you and you were saved by the Huber family, do you? You can’t be serious.
A: But that’s what happened. I’m not making this up.
Q: Yes, but unlike the rest of my family, I don’t have any real desire for mortals to learn about them or my extended family for that matter. You’re lucky you had your dear friend Huber around or he would have just sat by the sidelines to see what was going to happen to you.
<The sound of a chair being scrapped back can be heard>
A: Who the hell are you?
Q: Me? I’ll get to that in a moment. But first, I request you sit down.
A: No.
Q: Then stand there. Doesn’t matter to me. Would you like to know what happened between your dear friend Huber’s attack and you wandering down the road?
A: W-what happened?
Q: Your dear friend Huber managed to calm you down before your daughters broke free from the little cacoon she was keeping them in. The girls were born with their hands pressed together. John managed to separate them, but he cut open your hand and used your blood to combine their DNA with yours. It’s just in case someone decided to take a test on them. He also went out of his way to manipulate the memories of those around you to make the situation more plausible. You should be grateful we did all of this for you.
A: But why?
Q: We just felt pity on you and your friends. You know, like throwing a scrap of bread to a starving pheasant. We don’t really have a reason to feel sorry for you, but we helped you anyway. Would you like to know how I know about your interactions?
A: John told you?
Q: No, I’ll be visiting them when I’m done with you. Then it’ll be my turn to make my nephew suffer for harming my children. I find my nieces and nephews are more enjoyable to punish than humans. I don’t understand why entities believe humans are the ultimate toys – you’re the equivalent of a toothpick doll. Anyway, it was those bracelets. Because you came into contact with the Huber family, it means you’re more likely to have entities similar to The Necromerger coming after you. The bracelets – if worn all the time – will keep them away. That’s only the bad entities though. Don’t worry; this will probably be the only time you’ll see us. But first, we’ll have to make an agreement.
A: What kind of deal?
Q: Agreement. In about two minutes, a policeman will be coming in to interview you. Tell them that Angela suddenly went into labour in the boat and a crocodile attacked you. Ruby and Angela were killed, but you and your daughters survived. You just went into shock and don’t remember how you escaped. If you do that, I’ll make sure they’ll believe you and you can get on with your life. However, if you decide to recount everything you’ve just told me – I’ll make sure they don’t believe you. Maybe, you’ll be considered a suspect for their deaths.
A: What about the lack of wildlife, and the gorge, the creature’s remains, and the fire?
Q: You don’t seriously believe we don’t know how to cover our tracks, do you? There’ll be a lack of wildlife for a few months, but the place will be repopulated by December. Oh, and that rod only burns things. It doesn’t make smoke. Your life’s going to be ruined either way, so what do you say?
<It is silent for five seconds>
A: You’re a sick fuck.
Q: Then I guess the same sick fuck will make the decision for you. And I’ll keep an eye on you to see how this plays out. But hey, at least your scarred mind will be proof of my family’s victory.
A: Why are you recording all of this?
Q: You’ve given me no reason to tell you what I do in my spare time. You’re running out of time, Mr Luke Moore. What happened on that boat trip?
A: Alright! Alright! A crocodile attacked us!
Q: Good man. I’d wish you luck in your life, but you can have Jamestown cordial for all I care, Mister Luke Moore. Just keep in mind, if you tell anyone about this, I’ll make sure you – and your daughters – remember everything in vivid detail. You may consider this cruel, but I’m just trying to protect my family. If you were in my position, you’d do the same.