The Cobbe house ix The Cobbe house.

That cold late September night; has to be the most ingrained into my memory. It had been raining the day before, so the path had become a quagmire of rutted animal tracks, that clung to our shoes, and numbed our feet.  Our coats, though wrapped about us, failed to keep out the encroaching blue winter chill, that tainted our faces in the half-light. On my back I carried a rucksack that contained gasoline in coke bottles stuffed with rags, in my pocket a Ronson lighter and that damned toy soldier. Nell and
Cerci each carried a spade tied to their backs on s ling made of string.  I knew we were prepared. Despite that, there was a growing sense of dark foreboding within all of us, as we made our way up the steep incline that led to the plateaux that looked over the town.   

Our torches shone a dim yellow light, that concealed more than it revealed. Trees took on a spectral presence and seemed to turn towards us, the knots of unformed limbs, were peeling back to become lidless yellow eyes that stared towards us with alien, unnatural hostility.  Strange noises and stranger odours, similar to that of decay, crawled out of the darkness; and tried to enfold us with lank feelers over our faces, that gave us all shudders.  It was trying to push us away. That in-itself spurred us on.

 It was as we were in sight of the house that the first incident occurred.  A horse and cart were heard. The sound became louder and louder; then the scream’s   started.  We looked all around us for where the sound was coming from. In the spinning torch light, I saw Cerci's strained face, her eyes on stalks as the screaming became louder and louder. Nell grabbed my arm.  Even Daniel who seemed the less aware or perhaps more so, than the rest of us, even he, at one point, put his hands over his ears. To stop the screaming Then it suddenly stopped. 

The silence was numb and more terrifying than the noise that preceded it   We are in for it now, I thought and slowly took the lead.

‘These are images… things that have been… trapped by, by that dark entity.’

I pointed the flashlight towards the house that, in the darkness loomed ugly and threatening.  It was true. Time was dislocated here, fractured by something bigger than ourselves.   It took us fifteen minutes to reach the front door of the house; and for the first time, I began to think how utterly insane this was.  We should have waited until the morning, when the light of day, would have put all such thoughts to rest.  Instead here we were on the cusp of night entering into our childhood fears.

The open door of the decaying house looked more akin to a cavernous mouth than ever.  Strange murmuring’s and scuttling’s were heard inside. I felt my hands involuntarily start shake as I stood there.  Yet, Daniel was the least afraid of all of us.  I still recall how he stood there, in the direct beam of the flashlight, his shadow reflecting off the walls, seemed, at least to me, to offer some form of protection.  I didn’t see it first. Nell did; and she screamed.  Some form of shape. A feeler or a leg of something huge and monstrous, grabbed hold of his waist. In a second
he had been violently sucked into the night of the house. Cerci  screamed and charged in. We all followed.  Yet He was nowhere
to be seen.  With grim resolution, we fought our way down that narrow hall, down the stairs and into the cellar, that stank with such putrefaction, that it’s hard to describe.
        ‘Daniel!’  screamed Cerci  pleading atthe darkness.  ‘Let him go! you fuck!’

Yet nothing was heard, save a faint flapping sound from above. I felt feelers on my neck, I didn’t want to look up, to train the torch upon what was roaming the room, above our heads. Instead I fought to find the place where in this darkness the end of all this. In the left corner of the room, there grew some form of matted fungi, which reflected a pale blue tint when not under the light
of the torch.  Next to it, not facing us, but kneeling on the dirt floor was Daniel. I took the toy soldier from my pocket and threw it towards him and onto the fungi, that, with a slithering hiss wrapped itself around it. It was then that I saw, within that fungal mass, the corruption of a human child.  

It suddenly slithered down into the dirt.  Cerci screamed and ran for Daniel, yet something above him, suddenly threw her
backwards across the room with a violent thwack.  It hissed malevolently, wrapping a tendril around
the neck of Daniel.

 Daniel let out a chocking Mum. Nell threw me
the spade upon her back and dived to help Circie as it flapped its chitin wings as it lifted itself just off the ground.  Daniel’s feet hung an inch off the ground.

With desperation and in the half light of my thrown I dug down, then putting the torch onto the hole clawed at the ground fighting off the feelers that were pulling at me.  Eventually I reached the slithering huddled mass and cut into it with my spade, slamming into it again and again. The fungal thing burst and a hideous s liquid sputtered out all over my hands like luke warm coffee.  Then I took off my rucksack and with a shaking hand lit and threw the first of my incendiaries into the pit. A burst of flame curled up. There was a hiss and hideous scream.  I didn’t dare look,  back I just pulled Daniel  free  as Nell pulled a limp Cerci from the floor and up the stairs. 

I carried Daniel outside and put him of the ground. Then went back to help Nell and Cercie.  When finally, we were all free, I lit and threw the other three incendiaries into the gaping hole of the mouth of the house.  Flames curled up the walls and out of the gaping vacant windows. Cracking the beams and turning the night sky into a pale orange hue. Then came the most chilling of all things. For above the house, an eclipse of moths slowly circled. They danced in the flames. Many burned, and with hideously human cries fell into the flames.  

Daniel who had slowly come round shouted

‘looky’ and as he did so, the moths faded into ashes as the yellow orange flames and burst out of every hole, house burned to the ground.

That was all six months ago. Since then, many look up to the plateaux where the  Cobbe house once stood. People remark on the fire that night and how it was impossible to put out and how at the smae time, whoever did it deserves thanks, for since it there has been a change of air in the town.  Once or twice, when I look that way, up toward that shell, I see a little more growth coming back to that once poisonous hill. However, whenever I see a moth…I cannot help but shudder.

 As for the flunky club?  Well... Nell has moved into movies; while Cerci , took Daniel west. I get the occasional letter; and I? well I am left with my memories. I am not bitter. Sad and relived. Now that Dad has died, I tend to keep his hous for tourists.  20 dollars a week, if your interested.