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Blood everywhere Nightory pools Wild streaks across the floor and walls

Except the walls aren&039;t walls I&039;m surrounded on all four sides by webs Millions of strands, thicker thanchaotically apart Many of the strands are stained with blood Behind the layer of webs,back as far as I can see Infinite

My eyes snap from the walls I make quick,like aupside down fro in the centre of the roo red O of the neck Even without the head, I recognise him

"DAD!" I scream, and the cry almost rips my vocal chords apart

To my left, an obscene creature spins round and snarls It has the body of a very large dog, the head of a crocodile Beneath it, motionless - Muht Gret! Sitting on the floor, staring atsideways, her face white, except where it&039;s smeared with blood I start to call to her She half-turns and I realise that she&039;s been split in two So her like a hand-puppet

The &039;so&039; pushes Gret away It&039;s a child, but no child of this world It has the body of a three-year-old, with a head reen skin No eyes - a small ball of fire flickers in each of its empty sockets No hair - yet its head is alive with movement As the hell-child advances, I see that the objects are cockroaches Living Feeding on its rotten flesh

The crocodile-dog lances with the ap

I can&039;t move Fear has seized me completely I look from Mum to Dad to Gret All red All dead

I! A bad dreaht like this I know that it&039;s real, simply because it&039;s too awful not to be

The creatures are alrins ghoulishly and raises its hands - there are ues

"Oh dear," so distance "What have we here?"

A man slides out from behind a clump of webby strands Thin Pale red skin, h His hands areinto another Bald Strange eyes - no white, just a dark red iris and an even darker pupil There&039;s a gaping, jagged hole in the left side of his chest I can look clean through it Inside the hole - snakes Dozens of tiny, hissing, coiled serpents, with long curved fangs

The hell-child shrieks and reaches towardsopen and shut

"Stop, Artery," the ly, and steps towards lides He has no feet The lus ends in sharp strips which don&039;t touch the floor He&039;s hovering in the air

The croc-dog barks savagely, its reptilian eyes alive with hunger and hate

"Hold, Vein," thedistance of me Stops and studies me with his unnatural red eyes He has a small mouth White lips He looks sad - the saddest creature I&039;ve ever seen

"You are Grubitsch," he says morosely "The last of the Gradys You should not be here Your parents wished to spare you this heartache Why did you come?"

I can&039;t answer My body isn&039;tand analysing, even though I want the out

The hell-child ain

"Disobey me at your peril, Artery," the monster says softly The barbaric baby drops its hands and shuffles backwards, the fire in its eyes dihts on enuine pity in his tone "Parents - dead Sister - dead All alone in the world Face to face with demons No idea e are or e&039;re here" He pauses and doubt crosses his expression "You don&039;t know, do you, Grubitsch? Nobody ever explained, or told you the story of lonely Lord Loss?"

I still can&039;t answer, but he reads the ignorance in ht not," he says "They sought to protect you fro parents You&039;ll " The creatures tosounds "Your sorrow shall be short-lived Within minutes I&039;ll set my familiars upon you and all will soon finish There will be pain great pain - but then the total peace of the beyond Death will co, Grubitsch You elcome it in the end - as your parents and sister did"

The monster drifts around e holes above his upper lip He sniffs as he passes, and I soin front of ain This close, I can see that his red skin is broken by tiny cracks, seeping with drops of blood I also notice several appendages beneath his arms - three on either side, folded around his stoht just be oddly moulded layers of flesh

"Wh-wh what are you?" Iteeth

"The beginning and end of your greatest sorrows," the monster replies He says it plainly - not a boast

"Mu-Muasp "Dad? Gr-Gr Gr"