Jessica kneeled down beside the well. Her ears strained to listen for movement. It sounded like something familiar, something she couldn't quite place. She gazed intently into the darkness, her eyes shrinking to pinpricks. It happened so fast, she could barely register it.
A form, just a smear of color and and a promise of death, shot from the pit. Jessica's mind wouldn't allow her to freeze, she had been trained too well for that. The fingers around her neck were impossibly long, wrapping all the way around. The next three seconds happened like this: She gazed in the inhuman, eyeless face above her as she registered the fact that she was on her back. Her hips swung out the the side as her hands gripped the thing's wrist. She swung her legs, full of hard won muscle from squats and running, up; one across its gaping maw of a face, the other across the sunken hollow of its chest, and arched her back. A liquid popping sound echoed throughout the chamber as its elbow joint exploded in a visceral detonation and she bridged for a picture perfect Jiu Jitsu armbar. It let out a horrendous howl of pain, and scampered to the corner of the room.
Jessica stood up. Her lungs burned with adrenaline fury. She brought her fists up and lowered her chin. The thing was man sized, but...warped. It had no eyes, and its teeth looked like oversized toenails. It's skin was pallid and bruised, as if it had been flailing in the darkness madly for years...
She was ready. Three years of Jiu Jitsu and two of "dating" a golden gloves boxer had given her the tools to fight. Her body was lean and honed. Her mind was sharp and focused. That all made made what happened next that much more unbearable...
|