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43 - The Elders Vs The Eye Part 2
🕑 Added 2025-02-24 00:48:50 +0000 UTCWhat happened next reminded Lexie of that famous Mike Tyson quote:
'Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.'
The unexpected retaliation from the Hechtl threw everything into disarray.
Suddenly everyone was screaming and dashing for safety, which meant the very doors that were warned not to go through. They dropped weapons, shoved and pushed each other to get out as the tentacles searched for a victim. Someone yelled that they thought they were having a heart attack, and another person screamed back, “No time for that! Move!”
As the slimy tentacles slithered through the crowd, it mostly went after those who were running.
Luckily, two things salvaged the situation. Terry and Mr. Frederick, who had been set to guard the doors, didn’t budge.
“Get back people!” Glinda said. “You all are losing it again.”
The tentacle then wrapped itself around an old man’s leg, who screamed bloody murder and fell as it dragged him back a few feet.
But before it could lift him in the air, Aiden aimed and shot a bullet of green goo at it. It. It hissed as it made contact with the tentacle.
The creature outside screeched again, releasing its victim and whipping its appendage back through the windows.
“Hold your position, everyone,” Aiden yelled. “No one goes out. Nothing has changed.”
“But it can get in now!”
“It doesn't matter. We’re still better off here than out there, where we can get picked off individually. Now I know it’s hard to resist the fear and the temptation to run, but do your best to not look at the creature for more than three seconds at a time.”
“I didn’t look at it and I still nearly pissed myself,” the older lady in the wheelchair croaked in a shaky voice, her knobbed hands shaking in fear. Lexie felt a wave of pity for her. It must be torture to be in a situation like this and be unable to wheel yourself out fast enough, so you have to rely on others for your safety. Her wheelchair looked motorized but maybe it wasn't working or it wasn't fast enough. They should make wheelchairs with turbo mode for situations like this,
Or maybe they already do and she just doesn't have one? I should look into it once all this is over.
Lexie was aware her mind was traveling to such random thoughts because she was trying to distract herself from the panic that had overtaken her once again. When the tentacles had burst in she hadn't run like everyone else. She'd just frozen up and the thing could have easily grabbed her. It was only luck that saved her.
She didn't know what was going on. She was usually so quick to action, with good reflexes but today it was failing her. Both her mind and her will were failing her. They were no match for the fear and panic the creature inspired.
She didn't know how Aiden was doing it. Even as everyone panicked, he looked completely in control, if mildly annoyed that they weren't following his instructions. She figured he might be fighting the fear by focusing his mind on survival tactics instead. Lexie thought she could do the same, distract herself.
Whenever she was scared she would just think about something random, something that would make her mind wander. Or think of something useful that may be able to help her in this situation.
Cards. She would think about her cards. Think of what cards you can use.
“I understand,” Aiden told the woman in the wheelchair and strolled to her. “From now on, you’re with me. You can hold onto me when need be and I’ll try to block you from the creature.”
She nodded and grasped onto his shirt. “Thank you," she said.
He nodded and then turned to the rest. “The creature's effect can still work when it looks at any of us but it's not as potent. Still, we have to ensure that it doesn't look at us for too long."
“How?”
“We split up into groups and each hide behind the pillars in the farthest parts of the room Now that the creature has found its way inside, it will send more tentacles and possible feelers into the room to detect how dangerous it is before coming in by itself. We attack the feelers one by one, and then also take turns trying to shoot it Hechtl whenever you sense it's staring in one direction for too long. That will do one of two things; it will either scare it away or anger it into coming in. Best case scenario, we scare it away and we escape. Worst case scenario it comes in here, I'll keep it busy and you guys escape."
"Not without you," Lexie said mentally. As scared as she was, as terrified as the creature made her, she wasn't leaving Aiden here alone with it.
"If it comes in," Aiden said. "Terry, you'll lead everyone out the back door. Alright?"
Terry, whose face was as white as her eyes were determined, nodded and held her rake to her chest.
Suddenly, the air felt heavy again.
“Oh God. I think it’s coming back," someone whispered. "I can feel it.”
Aiden nodded. “We’re going to break into four groups. Each group should have a gun meister and a spear person. The oldest and weakest should be at the back of the room so they can get out first if Hechtl manages to come in. Now arrange yourselves accordingly. Quickly!” He added that last part as a screech punctuated the creature's return. Everyone then scrambled to group themselves, muttering to each other but remaining surprisingly civilized. At least there was no shoving and pushing this time, only mild grumbling.
"Frank, you're with me."
"Tessa! Over here."
Soon they had their four groups although Lexie had to sacrifice her gun to go to one of the groups that didn't have one, because her father insisted she be in his group. They were at one of the frontmost pillars and Lexie held her breath and watched as the feelers came in slithering through the windows and sliding on the floor.
When it reached their group, Aiden aimed at it, but Mr. Frederickson shook his head at him.
"No, need to waste the bullets," he said reaching out with his spear and lightly touching the feeler.
With a zap, the thing hissed again and retreated as though shocked with electricity. In retaliation, it sent three more tentacles in there. This time, Aiden shot at the one in the front but the other two reached the back group. Frank quickly took care of them and he wasn't lying about his gunmanship as he squeezed off two shots within a second and hit both of them.
The creature cried out and retreated again, the eyeball floating upwards and leaving the window.
“Hold steady,” Aiden said. “It’s not gone." And then to Lexie, he murmured. “Next time, I’m going to need the card.”
Lexie stared at him and from his eyes, she could see what he intended to do. Fear seized her heart. She shook her head.
“No.”
“Lexie-”
“What if it doesn’t work? What if it sees you before you can activate it?”
“It won’t. I’ll cause a distraction.” Out loud he said, "Frank, I’m going to need you to do a crazy favor.”
“Crazy is my middle name chief.”
“Good. I’m going to need you to distract it the next time it comes back. Try to keep its eyes on you but don't look at it too long or you'll fall under its thrall. Even if you don't, keep in mind that it's going to be more than a little dangerous."
“You’re in luck. Danger is also my middle name.”
Aiden shot the man a grateful look, then turned to one of the back groups. “Glinda, Terry, look out for the feelers. Everyone else hold your position and be careful no matter what happens. Don’t move.”
The atmospheric heaviness returned and Lexie heard more glass cracking. At the next earthquake-level shake, even the wall showed fissures. The squelching sound of the creature was undeniably closer. Lexie closed her eyes. Cards. Think of cards and card combinations.
What would help her in this type of situation? What could she do so her dad didn’t have to risk his life?
“Lexie." Her father said too soon, and her brain jumped into her panic mode. She couldn't think properly. She didn’t want to open her eyes and have him ask the question again, or make her give him the card.
But she couldn't think fast enough. The creature was getting closer.
When she opened he eyes, Aiden was staring at her steadily as though trying to instill confidence in her that he wasn’t sure even he felt.
“The card.”
Lexie wanted to deny him again, but the thing was almost inside and the feelers were moving through. It wasn’t fair for her to jeopardize everyone and the whole plan just because of her childish fear. So even though she really really didn’t want to, she opened up her inventory and initiated the transfer.
"Please be careful," she whispered after she was done. Aiden pulled her in for a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“Take care of her,” he told the rest of the group surrounding her, which consisted of the fisherman hat man with the duck-patterned socks, Mr. Frederick, and a few others.
“You have our word,” Fisherman-hat tells him.
“Frank,” Aiden suddenly barks. “Now.”
“Semper-fi, Bitches.” Frank came out and shot right at the eye, weaving and ducking as all the feelers suddenly charged at him. Lexie glanced over and saw that the creature was looking solely at Frank and targeting him with the tentacles. Frank was struggling to shoot all six of the feelers to prevent them from reaching him. Glinda sprung out to help him and now all the creature's attention was divided between both of them.
Aiden crawled out the other side of the pillar, flashed the card, and immediately leaped into action.
He bolted for it, getting as close as he could to the thing, and leaped off the table into the air.
Lexie watched in awe for a second because that was a very high leap. Whatever workouts he was doing with Max must be paying off because he didn’t even seem winded as he brought out his gun, inches away from the creature, and was about to shoot it in the eye.
And then without warning, the eyeball flicked back to Aiden with horrifying clarity.
It could see him.
Suddenly Aiden’s shooting arm went slack, and he crashed clumsily onto the table below.
"Dad!"
Aiden didn't answer. Still, he had the dexterity and presence of mind to roll over to keep from looking at the creature and also avoid a brand new attacking tentacle.
At least at first.
As he scrambled back to his feet, the tentacle encircled his limbs and around his whole body, pinning down his gun arm and dragging him closer.
“Dad!” Lexie screamed as Aiden was being lifted in the air.
Frank and Glinda were still occupied with the other tentacles, so they couldn't help. It was Terry that moved first. She leaned back and javelin-threw her rake toward the arm holding Aiden.
The projectile found its target.
The creature screeched as it got zapped, and the shock was enough for it to let go of Aiden. The fall was only a few feet this time, but he lay on the ground unmoving though groaning.
Lexie quickly activated the joint <Getting Out of Hand> and< Hustle and Shuffle> combo, targeting Aiden.
It took sixteen seconds and she dashed forward to carry him to safety.
Aiden was groaning when she swept him into her arms. “Lexie, what are you doing? How are you doing this?"
“I made you lighter,” she said, running quickly. “Why didn’t the <Out of Sight> card work?”
“I don’t know I...it must have seen me somehow…” His eyes shut and his face squeezed in pain. She saw his shoulder was shifted out of position. The same shoulder that Mouse dislocated.
As she put him down behind the pillar, Aiden had gotten some of his mobility back. Biting his lip, he grabbed his dislocated arm and shifted it back into place with a sickening crunch that made everyone around them wince.
Lexie looked in the direction that Aiden flashed his card, noticing something wriggling in the corner.
“There's another eye,” Lexie said and then Aiden's head snapped toward her, as he slowly climbed to his feet.
“What?"
“Look.” She pointed to the corner where the feeler had snuck underneath one of the locked doors.
No one had noticed it before because no one was looking in that direction and so far the feeler hadn’t done anything but observe the group. But it was there.
It seemed that by that point, Glinda and Frank had managed to drive off the rest of the feelers, so Glinda glanced in that direction and sneered.
"Nasty bugger," she snarled and shot it several times until the tentacle melted into green and black goo on the floor.
“This time, the Hectl screamed in pain but it didn't back out.
Instead, it banged against the walls, trying to push itself in through the broken windows.
“Alright, folks,” Aiden said, sounding remarkably calm for someone who’d almost been eaten by a giant eye. “This is it. Everyone at the back without a weapon, make your way to the door. Once, it gets in. You get out and don’t stop running until you’re inside another building.”
“That’s about a km away.”
“Oh God, I think I’m really having a heart attack now.”
“Please do,” Glinda snapped at the man, then pointed at the Hechtl. “And while you’re at it, could you run in that direction? I think maybe we’ll all have better odds of getting out of here if you distract that thing.”
“Glinda!” Terry scolded.
“What? He's the one trying to die, he might as well make himself useful while he’s at it."
“Ignore her Ignacio,” her sister said. “You’re fine. Just do your best alright.”
“Someone will need to take Mrs. Corwin with them,” Aiden said, gesturing to the woman in the wheelchair and then nodding at fisherman-hat guy. “Merryweather. Can you do it?”
His face was conflicted. “Yeah, but I can stay and fight. I may not be good with weapons but I was a pretty good brawler back in the day. I don't feel good leaving you here by yourself."
Aiden smiled. “Thank you for the offer, but I don’t think that will be useful here. Just help get as many people to safety as you can.”
Merryweather bit his lip and then nodded. Then he put his hand on Aiden chest and closed his eyes as though muttering a prayer in another language.
Aiden must have understood it because he put his hand on the man’s shoulder when he was done and said, "I appreciate it.”
After he was gone, Aiden turned to Lexie. “I don’t suppose you would leave if I asked you to would you?"
She shook her head.
“Thought as much. Just stay down and remain hidden, honey bee. Okay? If it gets out of hand, you get out."
Lexie swallowed and nodded.
After Merryweather quickly shuffled the more vulnerable to the back of the room, and the creature was nearly inside, Aiden finally addressed the group that remained.
“Alright,” he said. “Same strategy. Keep in mind that when it gets in here, it's going to be a thousand times worse. That fear you feel will magnify. You’re going to want to run away at all times, and you’re going feel like fighting it is futile. It's all a trick. The Hechtl wants you to feel that way. It’s the only it can survive. But just know it's almost as scared of you as you are of it."
Lexie wasn't sure about that. She thought Aiden might just be saying it to give everyone hope, but it must be working because they nodded and stood a little straighter.
"We’re going to hit it with everything we’ve got. One after another. Spread out so that it can’t get a hold of anyone. And if you see it targeting one person overtly then we all jump in to save them. Alright?”
They nodded again.
"Luckily it’s still young so it won’t be able to catch on to our strategy." He inhaled deeply and glanced back. The Hechtl had almost squeezed in completely.
“Okay good," Aiden announced. "Now let's go!"
A battle cry rang out as they all dashed toward the Hechlt at the same time it broke free from the wall entering the building. Behind her, Lexie could hear Merryweather opening the door to let the people out, but it was drowned out by Terry, Frank, and Glinda's war cries as they valiantly attacked the creature. Terry focused on zapping the feelers, while Aiden, Frank, Glinda and another man (who had Merryweather's gun) were all shooting the eye.
Lexie remained hidden behind the pillar, watching the battle play out. They were doing as Aiden said, going after it incessantly one after the other, never letting it focus too long on one person.
They were injuring it over and over, but it was regrowing and healing fast and there was no sign that it was getting physically weaker.
“You have to get it in the main eye,” Aiden said. “We can’t kill it but we can blind it. It won’t be able to heal as fast from that, and then it will be trapped here after we seal the windows.”
"It’s hard boss," Frank said, as Lexie tried to figure out how she could help them. Maybe she could make them stronger, or faster? Lighter? She wished she had tried out different card combinations now.
When Glinda started running to avoid a particularly aggressive feeler, Lexie began activating the <Hustle and Shuffle><Getting Out of Hand> combo.
Lexie had a theory that she could reduce the clumsiness factor of the combo by simply limiting the rise of the waste mana in <Getting Out of Hand> making sure the card deactivated before mana had gone halfway up it.
When she was done, she pointed at Glinda giving the woman a speed and dexterity boost. And while she stumbled at times, she didn't fall.
She wasn't as clumsy.
Good. It worked.
Now if only she could give it to someone else at the same time.
"Ah!" Frank suddenly screamed slapping at his body. "It’s got me. The damn things got me and I'm going to die."
"No one's got you, Frank," Glinda said. "You just stared at it too long. It’s just the fear talking. Look away."
Frank did as Glinda and Aiden kept the creature busy.
"Thank you," he said when he was done and got back into action.
While they were attacking, the creature drifted closer and Aiden managed to fire a shot dead center in the eyeballs.
The creature gave its loudest screech yet and even better, it bled.
Black goo dripped from onto the eyelashes and it reared back.
The rest of the group wanted to run away but Aiden didn’t let it retreat, rushing behind it, and executing another big leap. This time he aimed and got it right in the eye again landing a second shot.
More black goo streamed out. The Hechtl sobbed.
Lexie almost felt bad for the creature then. Almost.
But then she noticed that it was starting to attack Aiden more aggressively, its feeler jabbing toward him faster than he could shoot. One of them grabbed him.
Lexie's heart pounded.
Making a spit decision, Lexie materialized two cards, began activating them, and stood.
Aiden saw her and screamed. "Lexie no!"
She immediately felt the fear as she got close, slamming onto her like an oppressive weight, and felt the need to curl up into a ball on the floor and stay there. But now that she knew what was happening, she didn’t give in. Instead, she took a deep breath, made the swirling motion that had taken her weeks to perfect, pushed all her mana into the pathway and then counted to ten, while hiding behind the pillar.
And when she was done, she dashed right for the eye.
<Hustle and Shuffle>, the first card she'd activated, gave her a speed boost and buoyancy to leap from the table like Aiden had done. Nothing grabbed at her mid-air, all feelers currently occupied by Aiden, Frank, Glinda, and the other man.
For a second, Lexie felt like she was floating in mid-air, and stared right into the petrifying eye that was still focused on Aiden.
And then she raised a finger and shot a confetti cannon right into its pupil.
Screech!
She'd pushed enough mana to add force to the projectile to make the creature cry out in pain. And though it didn't make it bleed, the confetti got in its eye and Lexie had to imagine that was probably irritating in addition to obstructing his vision.
It dropped Aiden as Lexie landed on the floor, and luckily he managed to land on his feet.
“Everyone out and shut the doors,” Aiden shouted and no one had to be told twice.
They all bolted in unison for the backdoor, fear and desperation in every step, hoping that none of them got caught by a tentacle.
Lexie was ahead of the pack but as her speed boost ran out she began to lag. That was until Frank grabbed her and sang her onto his shoulders, not missing a single step while he did.
The spry old man was the first one out of the door, followed by the other man whose name Lexie did now know, Glinda and Terry. Aiden had reached the door before them, but he stood by it keeping an eye on the creature.
When everyone was out he finally came out too and slammed the door behind him.
"We need to seal the windows," he gasped and Lexie was about to ask how when she saw a figure on a bike in the distance that made her entire body flood with relief.
Thank goodness. Her Uncle Max was here.
