The ogress lifted off Darlene, who shrieked and rolled over, quickly trying to crawl away. She got a metre clear before the ogress’ thick hand wrapped around one of her legs at the ankle and dragged her back. Darlene’s nails scraped against the floorboards as she tried to hold onto something, but her efforts were useless against the enormous woman. Resting on her knees, huge belly distended over the floor with Hank still squirming in it, the ogress caught Darlene’s other kicking leg with her free hand and squeezed them together, lifting her off the floor. Darlene’s upside-down top half swung about like a fish on a wire as she cried for help.
“Freddy!” she shouted, seeing him watching. Just his name, demanding he save her. “Freddy!”
But the ogress was already drawing her back into that horrifically stretching mouth, both of Darlene’s shoes squeezed into her cheeks. Then, with those massive hands working their way up Darlene’s body, as she lashed her hands about and screamed, the ogress sucked her in, up to her shins, then knees.
Freddy looked around desperately for some way to stop it. There were cracked floorboards from where the ogress had thumped through the room – he could snap one up and spear her with it. Otherwise there was only the big chair the ogress had sat on – a great lump of carved stone, he now saw. Nothing more.
“Freddy!” Darlene screamed again, now dragged into the ogress’ mouth up to her waist, as the monster’s hand reached forward and pressed down on her shoulder, shoving her further in. Freddy jumped to his feet at last and moved for the nearest broken floorboard. He skidded to a stop, seeing how pathetic the little bit of wood looked. Darlene shouted again, “Help me!”
But she was already up to her chest in the ogress’ mouth. Freddy saw the ogress gulp with all her body, and Darlene sunk suddenly down to her chin, arms squeezed up by her face, barely able to move.
Shaking his head, internally apologising, Freddy turned and ran, just before Darlene was swallowed entirely. He darted straight for the door, drawing a grunt from the giant woman as she finished slurping down Darlene’s grasping hands. The monster rolled to the side, stumbling over the bulk of her stuffed belly, and pushed up to standing as Freddy leapt past a reaching hand. It just missed him, but the rush of air startled him into tripping, and he knocked into the door frame. He turned back to see the ogress rising above him, hunched with arms out at her sides. Her fat belly moved even more now, with both Darlene and Hank inside. Freddy was determined not to join them.
He sprinted out, down the corridor, and heard the ogress crash after him. Without his phone light – dropped when she had grabbed him – he had to run madly through the dark. He threw one glance back to see the monster following slowly, lurching into the corridor. She had to squeeze through the doorway, crouching under the frame.
Freddy kept going right through to the board they’d used to get in, then frantically kicked his way out. He fell through the hole into brambles, ignored the cuts and scrapes and kept moving. He jumped and shoved his way through the weeds, scrambling up the slope, then kept going right over the wall and through the long grass. He ran out into the road and started following it away, aware only of the thumping of his own heart and the loud desperate sound of his own breathing. The road rose up, turning away from Bittershale House, back towards town, and only as he reached the last bend did Freddy dare slow down and look back.
In the moonlit night, before the backdrop of the overgrown property, the ogress rose over the wall as a terrible, bulging silhouette. She swept a thick leg through the brickwork that stood in her way, smashing it down though she could’ve stepped over it, and she took a big, quaking step into the road. There, the monstrous woman also paused, rising up, head turning one way and another. She hadn’t seen where Freddy went! If she took the road the other way, she’d go out into the country, far away from Onkley. Freddy watched, daring to hope that she would make that mistake.
The ogress straightened herself, though, and ran both hands over her bulging belly. As she stood there, taking stock, a terrible thing happened: the belly sunk in, the swelling reducing, as though the monster was actively digesting her prey, even as Freddy watched. Worse than that, as her belly reduced, the ogress seemed to expand everywhere else, as though absorbing Hank and Darlene was making her bigger. The road cracked under her bare feet as the ogress gained inches, then feet, hands flexing at her sides to test this new height.
Finally, she was done, her belly flat once more, and her monstrous silhouette was a third taller than she had been before. She rolled her neck, stretching, and sniffed loudly. Again. Then her head snapped Freddy’s way, so quickly he almost fell over with surprise. Giving a startled yelp, Freddy turned and ran on.
He needed to get help – reach the sheriff, anyone. He sprinted back up through the houses on the outskirts of Onkley, lights out, pumpkins sadly unlit. The kids were tucked in asleep while everyone else gathered for the Halloween Party at the old school hall.
The sheriff would be there, Freddy realised, and made his desperate dash in that direction. He ran for all he was worth, harder than he’d ever done in school, until he reached the high street and saw, with blessed salvation, the lights of the hall, the biggest gathering place in town. He paused with relief, trying to catch his breath. A couple of people were outside chatting and smoking, cars were parked all around the entrance, and the windows flashed different colours from the party inside. The thump of loud music came out, along with peals of laughter and chatter. But Freddy noticed another thump, and turned back to see the massive ogress far down the road. She was following at a slow pace, moving like the statue she’d first appeared to be, huge in the dark with her other features hidden by shadow.
“Oh hell,” Freddy whispered, then struggled on. As he got to the hall, he saw the last two people he wanted to see: Diz and Sean, the classmates who always kicked his feet out from under him.
Diz, dressed in a shabby werewolf costume, flicked a cigarette stub his way, laughing. “Hey loser, didn’t think you’d be brave enough to show your face. You’ve come dressed as yourself, huh? I guess that’s frightening enough!”
As Sean laughed too loudly at the joke, Freddy gasped for air, pointing back up the road, but he was too out of breath to explain.
“Shit.” Sean grinned; he was wearing an 80s jacket and sneakers, imitating a character from Back To The Future. “Guess the walk here was too much for this geek.”
“Why don’t you take a hike right back?” Diz said, and stepped in to give Freddy a shove. Freddy fell right on his rear. The bullies pointed and laughed as they walked back into the hall. Beyond them, a girl and guy Freddy didn’t recognise, dressed in matching Frankenstein costumes, shook their heads and followed them in, embarrassed for him.
Freddy got to his hands and knees and looked up to see the monstrous ogress was thumping closer. Another second and the others would’ve seen her! She surveyed the rooftops from her enormous height, impressed by all that was on offer. Freddy shook his head, he couldn’t let her wreak havoc here. He rallied his energy and ran into the hall, yelling, “Shut off the music, there’s something coming!”
Though the music kept playing, there was a moment’s silence from the gathered party-goers, thirty or more adults who made up the bulk Onkley’s nightlife, dressed in sexy or crappy Halloween costumes. Then, a good portion of the onlookers started laughing, taking it for a joke.
“Get bent, Freddy!” Diz said from the crowd, to a series of similar jeers, agreeing that he needed to try harder or that he wasn’t funny.
“No, listen to me!” Freddy shouted, moving into the crowd, meeting eyes, trying to find someone sympathetic. He heard more thumps, beyond the music, the footsteps getting closer. “There’s something terrible coming! It was in the Bittershale place!”
“As if you went to Bittershale,” a girl in a nurse’s outfit scoffed.
“I’m serious!” Freddy locked on her as the rest of the crowd slowly returned to whatever they were doing, their hubbub masking the sounds of the ogress’ approach. “It’s a giant woman, it ate Hank and Darlene and she’s coming here!”
“A giant woman,” another girl laughed, unkindly. She was in a Pocahontas costume, leaving little to the imagination. “You wish. All the more for you perv over, huh, Freddy?”
“What’s this I’m hearing?” a clear, older voice said by Freddy’s ear, and he spun to find Sheriff Peters standing over him in full uniform. “You telling everyone you’ve been trespassing?”
“No!” Freddy cried. “I mean, yes, but that’s not the point, it’s coming, any second! We have to evacuate, Sheriff, right now!”
“Come on now, Freddy,” the sheriff huffed. “I get you don’t feel like you fit in at things like this but there’s no need to ruin it for everyone else. Let’s you just get on –”
The room rattled, lightly, hit by a tiny tremor, and people stumbled and laughed at the strangeness. The music skipped, and in the brief silence between the song, everyone heard the thump that followed – the room shook again. Something massive hit the road outside. Then again.
“Dammit Freddy, this ain’t funny,” Peters huffed, grabbing Freddy by the collar and marching him towards the sound. A group of people closer to the doors turned towards the sound with a better angle looking out, though, and saw what was approaching. A girl in a devil costume screamed and hurried away from the door.
With one last terrible thump, a crate-sized bare foot crunched into the asphalt just outside the door, a tree trunk of a leg rising from it. The crowd collectively backed off with whispers of shock and confusion, as a second foot joined the first, casting shadow over the exit. Then the ogress crouched, her horribly massive form filling the exit, and she leaned further down, her face coming into view like someone checking under a bed.
“What the fuck is that?” Sean gasped, close to Freddy.
“Dammit man, you went all out,” someone else commented, trying to believe this was a prank.
The ogress’ expression shifted to a satisfied smile, then she rose up away from the door again. Too big to fit through, now, thank God.
Before anyone could breathe relief, the wall above the door was hit, hard, and cracked all the way up to the ceiling. A half-dozen people gave nervous screams of surprise, then the wall was struck again, and this time it collapsed in with a thick gust of dust. People scrambled, yelling, as big chunks of brickwork fell into the hall. Freddy shrugged free of Sheriff Peters and pushed his way quickly towards the far side of the hall. There was a stage with curtains, and a door down beside it to get to the rooms at the rear, alongside the fire escape.
The ogress shoved through the remnants of the wall, bringing large parts down where her hands lay. Her terrifying form lurched into the hall, half-crouched to duck under the ceiling. People scattered away from her feet, shrieking, and she slowly lowered herself down to her knees. Fifteen feet high kneeling, she completely blocked the exit, sending everyone charging towards the fire escape, a single door in the far left corner. They slammed into it together, too many at once, jamming the way, and drew the ogress’ attention.
“Keep calm, all of you!” Sheriff Peters yelled, trying to establish order as he pushed his way after them. “Move in an orderly –”
Before they could even open the door, a big speaker came flying overhead, thrown by the ogress. It fell down towards the desperate crowd and they parted with more cries – just before it smashed into the fire exit and broke apart, blocking both that door and the one into the rear. People backed off from it, eyes darting every other way for an alternative, but there was nowhere else to go.
Freddy, in the confusion, found up onto the stage, not to escape but to hide. He ducked behind a curtain and peered back out, trembling at the sight. The ogress watched the scrambling crowd of people pushing past each other, curious to see what they would attempt next. Most of them slowed down, coming to a standstill to look back at her, terror palpable through the room.
“What is this, Freddy?” Sheriff Peters shouted, still trying to retain some semblance of control. “Explain yourself!”
Freddy kept totally silent, as eyes searched for him. The explanation, he feared, was simple. Deep in their past, the people of Onkley had somehow captured this man-eating monster and secured it in Bittershale House. He had set her free, and she was hungry. They should’ve listened to him, though. He tried to get them to flee.
Satisfied that the people’s panic and struggles would provide no more entertainment, the ogress finally leaned forward and reached a hand down to the crowd.