Chapter 16: How many bones does the human body have?
All Mikel asked for was a little — just a little bit — of time to process this warped reality that cracked open the moment he opened these mismatched eyes. But no. The ghosts wouldn't wait. The malevolent spirits that took on grotesque forms wouldn't either. Not Doom. Not his cursed relics. Not anyone.
I can't even be a little depressed in peace?!
He ground his teeth, glaring at the malnourished, oversized creature staring back at him.
Its skeletal frame stretched freakishly tall, limbs too long for its body, skin clinging to bone like it had been vacuum-sealed. Its bulging eyes looked ready to pop. A few brittle strands of hair clung to its otherwise bald scalp. Worst of all, its mouth wasn't stitched shut—it simply didn't exist, as if it had been born silent.
But what really caught his eye?
Its spidery fingers weren't just dragging along the ground—they were buried in the walls of the house before it. Now he understood the bone-like pipes that sprouted inside the home.
It was its fingers all along.
Crack... crack... crack...
A slow, bone-grinding noise filled the air as something shifted behind the creature's shoulder blade. Mikel's expression twisted in dismay, watching in real time as its malformed body evolved.
With a sickening pop, something tore free—another bone jutting out from under its skin, unfurling into what looked like a centipede made entirely of interlocking bones.
Can I even exorcise this thing?!