The chattering of the diner silenced as the door's bell chimed and two pale faced and sweat drenched early twenty year olds scrambled to a waitress. Their voice were trembling and on the verge of a panic attack, they begged her to let them use the diners phone.
"Sorry like I said it's against policy to let anyone use our pho-" "Listen lady! We just got ran off the road by some sick serial killer! W-we need to call the Goddamn police!" The man screamed out, startling all of the patron.
"Calm down sir, your causing a commotion. Im law enforcement so you can speak to me." Stepping forward Nick gathered the duos attention as he pulled out his badge.
The man's eyes widen in relief, he walked over to Nick and tried to grab his shoulders in a frantic state only for Nick to slap his hand away, not allowing the man to get him in a vulnerable position.
"Just take a deep breath and calm down, can you tell me your names." Nick's voice was calm but authoritative, a confidence voice that one would expect from an NIA agent.
"M-my name is Trish Jenner, this is my brother Darry Jenny." The woman spoke for the first time, fear and confusion apparent in her shaky voice.
"We are on college break and decided to go home, we were driving down the highway on route 17 when out of nowhere this old black truck started tailgating us and honking it's horn, this happened for like a minute before overtaking us and speeding off." The diner was silent as the customer were listening on.
"Taking this as just some redneck asshole we continued driving not thinking much of it, when he passed by an old church this truck had stopped at." As the woman, Trisha, retold the story about what happened, Nick couldn't help but notice the fear in the man named Darry's eyes grow.
"We slowed down to get a better view of what their doing, that's when we witnessed a crime! We saw this tall man in a trencoat dumping a human shaped bags into a large pipe leading into the ground, this was when they also saw us!" The woman clenched her shaking hands, determined to finish the story.
"The fucker jumped into that rusty ass truck and chased us down, they sped up until they began slamming into our bumper and eventually ramming us off the road. After taking a few minutes to calm ourselves down, my dumbass brother had the bright idea of going back to the pipe the man had thrown those bags into. I... I think my brother should take over from here."
"Before you guys continue, might I ask why you didn't just call the police then and there?" It was 2008 and completely common for people to have phones.
"Our parents practice Haredi Judaism, they believe smartphones are a waste of time and expose people to inappropriate content. Me and Darry don't actually practice it but seeing our phones angers them, so we left them back at our dorm before we drove to meet them." Getting an understanding nod from Nick, both Trish and Nick turned their attention to Darry, wanting him to finish the rest of the story.
He had a thousand yard stare and was lost in thought, it was only when a sharp jab to his stomach from Trish awoke him.
"Right we uhh... I was looking down this massive pipe and smelt a powerful stench, that was when Trish, who was holding my legs, let go of me and I slid down the pipe" as he said this, Darry glared at his sister.
"Don't look at me like that, You're the one who wanted to be dangle down the pipe and the one who started thrashing around when you saw a rat! I didn't let go of you, you kicked away from me" Trish immediately began defending herself. The two siblings glared at each before Nick finally put a stop to it.
"Can you continue." Nick voice was very commanding, it awoke the sibling from their petty glare as Darry's annoyance was once again overan with fear.
"Right sorry... I slid down the pipe and fell like 8ft onto the ground, using the flashlight Trish tossed down I could finally see the horrors that I had landed into..." The man's eyes were quaking remembering the scene, his nails dug into his skin and the pain allowed him to remain coherent enough to speak.
Nick felt the faintest embers of a memory bubbling as the man spoke, something about what he said struck a cord of remembrance!
"Bodies... Hundreds of them were plastered about everywhere! This underground lair was part of the dilapidated church, everywhere from the wall to the ceiling had bodies somehow plaster to the wall! One of them was that missing highschool couple from 1986, the one all those local urban legends were about!"
Even the best actors in the world couldn't put on a performance similar to this man, Nick could just see in Darry's eyes that everything he was was true. His sanity looked like it was seconds away from shattering, his world view had completely turned on its head from this experience.
"The thing about these bodies, was that they were all sown up and mangle! Mostly it was their stomach, but sometimes they had missing limbs and even eyes! It's was li-" *Ring Ring Ring*
The diner's phone rang out, cutting off Darry's hysterics mid sentences and leaving the place in a dead silence. Everyone who was listening in on Darry gave the waitress a meaningful look, silently demanding she answer the phone so they could hear the rest of the man's story.
Under the glares of dozens of patrons, the waitress answered the phone only for her face to make a puzzled expression.
"I-its for you." She said pointing the phone to Darry, the man hesitantly picked up the phone and place it to his ear.
Wanting to listen in, Nick used his Bear Body only on his ears to increases his sense of hearing and move closer to the phone. While it wasnt overwhelmingly strong like his smell, bears sense of hearing were about twice as senstive as a normal persons.
"Yeah, hello. Have you seen the cats yet Darry?" An old African woman's voice spoke.
"Who the hell is this? How the fuck do you know my name!?" The stress from everything putting Darry on edge, his fight or flight instinct were going from just a phone call.
"No time Darry, have you seen the cats I'm talking about!" The woman's voice was rushed and filled with anxiety.
"Who are you!?"
"You have a torn shirt, right? And a bloody hand from the falln. Your shirt's torn just enough to exposed a small rose tattoo on your stomach."
Nicks eyes sharpened as he began surveying his surroundings, looking for anyone who could be watching them right now. Whether it was in the diner or outside, Nick couldn't spot anyone on a phone talking.
"Just tell me who this is!"
"You've found its house of pain!" Nick's face scrunched up, he could feel the memory was close to resurfacing but not fully.
After absorbing that poisoned man when Nick first arrived in this world, everything about him had been passively slightly boosted. His eyesight, organ function, strength, reflex's but most importantly, his brain! His memory was enhanced and was what allowed him to recall things from media he watched only once over a decade ago.
"All of those bodies down there... Stuck to the walls like beautiful pieces of art. That's what it likes to call it lair, its house of pain."
"How do you know so much!"
"I don't know if it's a demon or a devil..or just some ancient and hungry thing from a dark place in time. This thing... It steals lungs to breath, eyes to see and tongues to speak..."
Nick's eyes widen in realization, remember where he heard this scenario before! It's was a movie he watched when he was just sixteen, he thought a scary movie was perfect excuse to snuggle on a date!
"It smells your fear and once it gets a whiff of something it like, it'll track you down to the ends of the earth and take what it needs. Hold on, I need you to listen to this!" The woman stopped speaking and instead placed the phone next to a radio.
"Jeepers Creepers, where'd you get those peepers? Jeepers Creepers, where'd you get those eyes?"
It was at this moment Nick almost gagged as he placed his hand over his nose, the overwhelming smell of rotting fish flooded is nostrils!