Gianfranco Mancini’s Reviews > Becoming > Status Update

“Shouldn’t you be calling other cops or the National Guard or something?” Michele said. “And tell them what exactly? That my town is under the spell of some creature from the lake? That they have eyes that glow like something out of a Stephen King novel? That their hands turn into tentacles?”

Were it Sunday, church service would have met an all-time low in attendance. Pastor Josef Hernandez would have worried. Only, Jason Rotenberg and his son Kyle had paid their heavenly neighbor a visit last night and taken the pastor and his new wife, Helen, to the lake. There was a new service underway. An evil upon the Earth had come up from below and she was hungry.

After missing a week of school, Michele managed to talk her parents into letting her cousin Laura stay over. Michele’s father said okay, but it was contingent upon the girls staying at the house. Under no circumstance were they to go near the woods or the lake. They agreed but staying out of the woods was impossible. Michele knew Greg was out there, somewhere.

The thing poking up from the mud was glowing, but it didn’t look like a slug, more like a slimy vine. It stirred an uncomfortable sensation in her gut, and then, it moved. She jumped back holding a hand to her chest. “Greg, put that down.” “What? No way. I need something to put it in.” “I’m serious, Greg. You should just toss it back in the lake.” “No way. It’s cool.”

Stumbling toward his house, he made his way up the back steps, and stopped at the tic tac sounds of something hitting the porch floor at his feet. Dropping his gaze, he stared at the two teeth that had fallen from his mouth. The fucked-up sight jolted him.