The thing that screech like a thousand animals

The night was almost silent and smelled of manure, sulfur, and the candle at Francis' bedside. A combination of vanilla and sandalwood. The wind brushed the chipped paint on the house that gently rocked the window shutters, squeaking with each gust back and forth.

Francis was a middle aged man with poor genetics, resulting in his joints fading just as fast as the hair dye he applied each month. He lived just outside of Bend, Oregon; with the mindset of a city man. He lived with a horse, two cattle, a bunny rabbit that lived under his house, and a cat with an attitude of a guard dog.

At about 12:15am, the sulfur smell became more potent with each ticking of the wall clock. Slowly, Francis' eyes opened, but struggled like a warm-weighted eye mask was gently laid upon his eyes. As his eyes adjusted so did all his other senses.

"Ugh, it's moist in here.." he stated in disgust, "and why does it smell so bad?" slipping on his slippers, closing the shutters and making his way to the lantern sitting on his dresser next to the doorway.

Walking through the halls, with the lantern emitting light up to three feet in front of him, a swift breeze practically knocked him off the guard rail of the stairs.

"That smell again..."

Slightly scared and a bit fatigued, Edison the housecat, brushed between Francis' legs, assuring him that there is nothing to be afraid of.

Outside, the wind began arriving with rain and a heavy humid feeling, the smell getting worse as each minute passed. A banging on the roof echoed through the hallways of his home. Sending an uncomfortable skincrawling feeling up Francis' arms, up to the back of his neck.

"Edi? What are you eating?" He asked Edison, who's at the end of the stairs licking the floor.

Francis leaned down, using the lantern to highlight Edison in the dark. What Edison was licking seemed to be this black slimy substance with tiny spores bursting with yellow gas and that's when he realized that's where the smell was coming from.

"Edison no!" He yelled, which didn't seem to stop Edison from licking the slime, swatting his hand at Edison to get him to move, "Git!"

Edison ran off downstairs and out the dog door in the front of the house, leaving Francis all alone inside. Headed downstairs for cleaning spray and a bucket, Francis was disgusted but assumed it was a type of mold.

So as he began attempting to wipe the slime off the hardwood flooring, it only smeared it and coated the floor like it was an oil change gone wrong.

"Goddammit.." scrubbing at the mess a little harder, he goes, "Put some elbow grease in it, you old man!"

After about five minutes, he gave up and went downstairs to empty the bucket and call for Edison to come back inside. The same bump from the roof upstairs, was now underneath the floorboards beneath his feet as he called for Edison at the door.

"Edison! Edi, I'm sorry bub.." He shook the cat bowl to get his attention, "Edi, Ed-"

A rough thud beneath the house caught Francis off guard, but just as he wanted to ignore it, he heard Edison let out horrifying screech. Panicked and angry that Edison might be messing with the bunny, Francis ran outside and towards the crawlspace beneath the house.

"Edison! I swear to god, if you're bother that fuckin' bunny..." Francis said as he shimmied his way to Edison's scream and rusting.

Francis was covered in mud but made his way further beneath the house. There was Edison, screeching like his tail was caught in the door, thrashed around like a ragdoll. Francis' blood flushed from his face and upper body, as he watched in horror as an unknown animal with the same black slime surrounding it's body, spores bursting the same yellow gas, but a bone-like growth where it's elbows and knees would be, was fighting Edison with the bunny's half eaten body in it's mouth.

"What the fuck is that!??!!" screamed Francis as he yanked Edison away from the animal.

As Francis and Edison made their way to the exit, but rather making his way to his initial entrance, he headed in the wrong direction. Dropping Edison next to his side, he kicked the wooden boards repeatedly, Edison growling at the animal, until they were just loose enough to slip through. Just in time, Edison and Francis escaped.

Francis made a break for the old barn behind his house with Edison under his arm.

"We're good, Edi.." Francis panted, "We're good.." his hands on his knees.

Panting and covered in mud, Francis closed the barn doors and looked for his emergency lanterns, flare gun, and old remington 870. With only four bullets left, he waited for hours. The storm still above them, the sky was a deep grey and the clouds rumbled but still no rain.

The sulfuric smell subsided and Edison was finally calm. Francis looked outside the barn window and scanned the outside of his house for the animal, but no sign.

"I think we're good, my little man." He sat on the haystack and petted Edison.

At the calmest moment, in the house in front of the barn, the animal thrashed and the sound of glass windows shattering, put Francis on his feet. Aiming at any of the windows that indicated any sign of the intruder, silence set in. For what felt like forever, but was only a couple minutes, a very unpleasant scream pierced Francis' ears and sent an unbearable pain through his head.

"Ahh!" grabbing his head and curling up into a ball, "Make it stop!" on the brink of tears, he was fed up.

The next hour was going to be his last stand against the thing that screeched like a thousand animals. He wasn't sure how he was going to do it, but if it meant saving him and his animals, he was willing to risk anything.

Loading the shotgun and setting traps at the access points of the barn, he developed a plan. Not a perfect plan, but it would have to be a one shot take.

"Alright Edison, this is it."

Francis cracked open the barn door, and following the building side. With the shotgun always in his eyesight, he scanned the yard again. Opening the windows of the barn, one by one, until he made it to the other entrance behind the barn.

The smell was back, extremely potent and a low growl, made Francis tightened his grip on the fore-end of the 870, his knees buckling but still moving one in front of the other.

"Just breathe.. just breathe.." he whispered to himself, his eyebrows furrowed and his mouth was stuck in a permanent grin.

He ducked behind a pile of hay, watching the animal sniff but unable to locate Francis. It thrashed around anything in sight, growling in frustration. Francis let off a shot, grazing the right side of the animal. The blood melted the hay, as it dripped on the ground.

As it began charging at Francis, he dive rolled out of the way and let off another shot, but missed.

"Sonofabitch!" he grunted.

Making a run for it, the animal leapt at Francis and clawed his calf. Forcing him to drop to his knees. Sending a tingly warm sensation up his leg and to his right arm, he turned to the animal, let off another shot and blew it's back leg clean off.

Edison, at the time, ran out the front door and under the house again.

"Edison!" Francis screamed and limped to the exit.

As he reached the exit, he was swept off his feet, faceplanting on the ground. Left discombobulated and his mind on high alert, he whipped the animal with the back end of the shotgun and ran.

As time slowed down in the eyes of Francis, he whipped his body around and let out one more shot. In the time it was lunging at Francis, he blew the animal's entire right arm off, in the shoulder, sending it's body flying back into the barn.

With the flare gun from the emergency kit, he lit the gasoline and set the barn ablaze. Watching the animal burn alive, Francis was finally relieved.

"Gotcha, motherfucker." He said as the warmth from the flames coated his face and his eyes watered from the glow. He dropped to his knees and listened as the fire crackled and danced, and Edison purred as he sat on Francis' lap.

Beyond the horizon, however, there were thousands and thousands of the same animals, both falling from the sky and running through the cornfields and crawling out of the ponds of his nearby neighbors.

That godawful screech reverberated all over the valley.

"Well, when life gives ya lemons.." He smiled as he cocked the shotgun and headed back inside for more.