Too
As soon as they reach the bottom of the steps, Willi curses, then scolds herself as she’s not supposed to curse. But it was just a small word, not one of the big, bad ones, and it’s exactly what Mother would do in this situation.
“I forgot a flashlight,” she says, keeping her voice low. She hasn’t forgotten about The Thing Under the Floor.
“What do you need a flashlight for?” Little Mushroom Man asks, not taking the hint to whisper.
“I can’t see,” Willi tells him. “It’s too dark.”
“I can see!”
“You can?” Willi frowns. She has yet to get any sort of view of Little Mushroom Man’s eyes. The fact that he can see in normal lighting is already shocking, so him seeing in the dark is strange.
Then again, she supposes he is a mushroom.
“Yeah! What are you looking for?”
Skittering thumps are heard above.
“A snow shovel,” Willi says, then, in case he doesn’t know what that is: “It has a long stick, then gets wide and black at the bottom. It’s made for scooping.”
“Okay! Lemme see!” Little Mushroom Man bounds past Willi and, while she can only just make out his little figure scurrying around, she can definitely hear all kinds of chaos as he explores boxes and bags and tools.
More thumps, louder this time. Willi looks up, despite the fact that she can’t see anything.
“I’m sorry to bother you,” Willi says to them. “She has nothing better to do, so she might as well try talking. “We just need something really quick, then we will be out of your way.”
Thump, thump, thump, right over Willi. And then
a hiss.
Willi holds her breath, wanting to step away, but how do you step away from something that’s above you?
The hissing continues, long and wet, and Willi hopes that if she stands very still, nothing more will happen. She prays for Little Mushroom Man to find the shovel soon, when:
“Ssssssssssssssssssssstill whole…”
Willi gasps. “You spoke!”
Something shoots out, grabbing her wrist. It grips tightly and she squeaks—no, screams, expecting fully that The Thing Under the Floor is going to try to eat her.
But no. They grab her tightly and caress her hand before feeling for her cheek.
The hand it reached out with is, oddly enough, while being too long, with too many fingers, too distorted,
is also far too human.
“Still………..whole?” The Thing Under the Floor says again, turning Willi’s face this way and that, as if she’s being examined. They lift her head, tracing their too many fingers on her throat
before grabbing it.
Willi screams, louder this time, as she’s brought up to the ceiling, up to the darkness, up to the…whatever it is!
“Not whole. Not whole. Changing. Already changing. Like us.”
Us? Is there more than one Thing Under the Floor? Willi grips at the too human, too not human hand as she tries to get her words together. Tries to ask what they mean.
“Little Girl! Are you bothering Thing Under the Floor?” Strange Cook’s voice rings out as they open the basement door and light pours in.
Eyes. Teeth. Hair. Feet. Fingers. It’s impossible to describe it. All Willi can think is body parts as she stares at Thing. At Things. Many Things. No, many humans
all put together into one Thing.
And for a third time, Willi screams.
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Been a while since I updated Stolen House! I had it written on my todo for today, though, so I decided to go ahead and schedule this to be updated!
For an update with me, though, I’ve been focusing way more on my art. I’ve been having fun using different coloring and lighting techniques lately~
Just some examples!
Also, if you can’t tell, I watched The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals recently (since scheduling this) and absolutely LOVED it. I’ve had it on my to watch list forever because I knew it would be something I’m into and I hate that it took me this long to get to it. But get to it, I eventually did, and now I have another musical to obsess over and draw inspiration from!
I definitely plan to watch more of Starkid’s productions. I really wish professionally shot musicals were more of a thing in general (I would love to see Beetlejuice again…), but supporting Starkid seems like a good way to help with that!
Also, quick update on my dog, Winnie no longer has her UTI. She’s all better and we got her checked out at a vet and she’s very healthy (though very socially anxious).
That’s one worry gone! Now to figure how to pay the vet bills. If you WOULD like to help with that, I do have commissions open on my Kofi where I can draw your character! I have sketches, head shots, half bodies, and full bodies available. I also have a Patreon where you can support and check out all my messy sketches before I make them into full illustrations!
(did i do it? did i do marketing right? is this good? hell yeah *dabs*)
Thank you for reading!