Brian Keene - The Conqueror Worms

I made sure the door was dead-bolted and then I checked the rifle, verifying that there was a round in the chamber. The barrel was still warm from the previous shots.

“Earl,” I called through the door, “I’m only going to say this once. Go home! Get off my carport and leave my property. There’s something wrong with you. You need help, and I’m sorry that I can’t help you. But I swear to God, if you take another step, I’ll shoot you dead.”

He stopped and cocked his head to one side. That sneering grin never left his face.

“That’s not very neighborly of you, Garnett. Not very neighborly at all.”

“Neither is shooting down a chopper full of people.” I held the rifle up to the window so that he could see I meant business. “Now get out of here. I mean it. Go on home, Earl. I’m not telling you again. Don’t make me do it. I will kill you if I have to.”

His smile faded.

The worms underneath the doorstep parted, clearing a path for him.

And then Earl charged.

Sarah screamed, “Teddy!”

“Get back, Sarah!”

Swallowing hard, I rammed the barrel of the gun through the window. Broken glass showered down onto the worms below. It was hard to aim, since I was holding the weapon lower than normal, but I pointed the rifle at Earl and squeezed the trigger. The rifle kicked and the shot went wild. The flash lit up the carport and the yard. For a second, I caught sight of the big worms, out there in the darkness. They seemed to be waiting.

Before I could fire again, Earl was at the door. He reached out and grabbed the smoking barrel. His face twisted with rage and he babbled nonsense words.

“Gyyagin vardar Oh! Opi. Ia Verminis! Ia Kat! Ia de Meeble unt Purturabo!”

Sarah frowned. “What the hell is he saying? It’s gibberish.”

“Ia Siggusim! Guyangar devolos! Verminis Kandara! Behemoth!”

Earl knocked the barrel away from himself just as I squeezed the trigger again. The rifle jerked in my hands, its roar filling the house. Carl and Kevin ran into the kitchen. Carl shouted something, but couldn’t hear him because my ears were ringing. I turned to call for help and the rifle went limp in my hands.

I looked through the hole in the window. Earl was gone again, but he hadn’t gone far. As the ringing in my ears faded, I heard him laughing in the rain. He ran through the darkness, his feet squelching loudly in the mud. The big worms had disappeared as well.

“Teddy,” Carl shouted, “what in the world is going on?”

“Earl’s alive,” I gasped, stepping away from the open window. “He hid beneath those worms on the carport, and whatever was left of his sanity is gone. The big worms are out there, too.”

“He might as well be dead then. They’ll eat him, won’t they?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. They seem to be waiting for something—almost like they’re working with him.”

“That’s crazy,” Sarah gasped.

“No, it’s not,” Kevin said. “The Satanists back in Baltimore were working with Leviathan and the mermaid. Maybe something like that is happening here.”

I sighed, and rubbed my tired eyes. “At this point, I’m willing to believe anything, no matter how far-fetched.”

“Well,” Carl growled. “If the damn things won’t kill Earl for us, then let’s shoot him ourselves.”

Rifle in hand, he started for the door.

“No.” I stopped him as he put his hand on the doorknob. “None of us are going outside.”

Carl pulled away from my grasp. “Damn it, Teddy! Why not?”

“Because it’s not safe anymore, and not just from Earl or the worms. The ground is starting to cave in. You can’t see where you’re going out there, between the darkness and the fog. You walk around in the dark, and if a worm doesn’t swallow you, a sinkhole will. There’s a big one out in the field.”

“What are you talking about?” Kevin asked. “How do you know this?”

“While you guys were asleep,” Sarah told him, “Teddy decided to step out for a pack of smokes. He almost didn’t make it back.”

Carl let go of the doorknob and sank into a chair at the kitchen table. He rubbed his red eyes and sighed. “You went outside? I reckon you really did need a dip.”

“Maybe,” I said. “But not anymore. I’m officially cold turkey.”

“I’ve heard that before,” Carl said.

I shrugged. “You can believe it this time.”

“I recognized some of the words that Earl was shouting,” Kevin said. “Ob and Meeble and Kandara. Maybe a few of the others, as well. They were some of the graffiti we saw inside the Satanists’ building, during the raid to rescue Christian and Louis. I think they’re names or something.”

“Names of what?” Sarah asked.

“I don’t know. Demons, maybe?”

“Oh, come on, Kevin. Why—”

“I think he’s right,” I interrupted her. “I don’t know how or when Earl Harper became a magus—to be honest, I’d be surprised if he could even read—but that gibberish sounded a whole lot like some kind of spell. Like they do in the movies.”

Nobody responded.

Finally, Carl tottered to his feet. “Don’t reckon it’s too smart for us to be standing around jawing if Earl’s still out there and on the loose. We’d better stay awake the rest of the night, and keep a careful watch.”

“You’re right,” I said. “Kevin, you stay here. Carl, you take the big picture window in the living room. Sarah and I will each take a bedroom window on opposite sides of the house.”

“What do we do if he tries to get in?” Kevin asked.

“Shoot him,” Carl said. “And if he gets up, then shoot him again.”

We each took our positions. I stood in my darkened bedroom and stared out into the rainy night. There was no sign of Earl or the worms and nothing moved in the darkness. The house was quiet. Occasionally, I’d hear a rustle from across the hall as Sarah moved, or Carl sneezing in the living room, but that was it.

I was exhausted, both physically and mentally, so I sat down on the edge of the bed, careful to make sure that I could still see out the window. I yawned. My head felt thick and my eyes itched. The headache still pounded in my temples and my body cried out for nicotine. It was hard to concentrate and my mind drifted. I thought about Rose and our kids and grandchildren. I thought about my days in the Air Force, and of the war, and the places I’d seen and the things I’d done. I thought about my brothers and sisters, and my parents, and of my own childhood. I remembered sunny days—days without a cloud in the sky. Days without rain.

I awoke to the sound of breaking glass, and cursed myself for falling asleep. I sat up on the bed just as Earl crawled through the window.

“Now you’ll see, Garnett. Now you’ll all fucking see. Behemoth is coming!”

His hand clenched the broken windowpane and a triangular shard of glass sliced into his palm. Earl laughed as the blood dripped between his fingers. A gust of wind blew the rain in behind him, and something else—the all-too-familiar stench of the worms.

Elsewhere, I heard the others shouting. Their footsteps pounded down the hall towards my room. I reached for the rifle, but I couldn’t find it in the darkness.

Glass crunched under Earl’s feet. He glided toward the bed, wet hair plastered to his scalp, yellow teeth glinting in the darkness. He raised his bloody hands, and in them was the machete I had stored in the shed. He must have broken inside and stolen it.

“We’ve got unfinished business, Garnett. Seaton and the others, the United Nations folks, are for Behemoth to eat, but you—you were promised to me.”

Someone hammered on the bedroom door. I heard voices shouting my name.