Old Masson with his little grey hair left covering his balding head is the head caretaker at Salams oldest and most neglected cemeteries know as Smalem.
His main battle was with the army of rats that plagued the place to the point he was now in a feud with them.
For you see generations ago the rats had moved from the wharf s as their had plenty of food at thier demand, fir this reason the rats were abnormally large ,some would say mutant.
During his battles with the rats he did all the usual things to get rid of them ,set traps,put poisoned food in their burrows, he even brought a shotgun to shoot them ,but all to no avail as the rats were multiplying ,the graveyard was getting overrun ,and their were ravenous.
To describe how large were their bigger then the musdecumanus which can measure up to fifteen inches in length without the naked pink and grey tail.
Ones Masson had observed were as a good sized cat .
He got reports from the hired grave digger s about finding burrows with malodorous tunnel s which were large enough for a man to crawl into them on their hands and knees if they dared .
The ships that had come generations ago from distant ports to the rotting Salem wharves had brought strange cargoes.
Alone in his cottage Masson would ruminate about the extraordinary size of the burrow s and he would remember disturbing legends of ancient witch haunted Salem such tales if moribund an inhuman life that are said to dwelt in forgotten burrows in the earth.
And of Cotton Mather who hunted down the evil cults that worshipped Hecate, Magna Mater whi had frightful orgies and it was easy to see why the legends presisted due to the dark gabled houses that kean perilously towards each other over narrow cobbled streets and the subterranean cellars and taverns with their blasphemous secrets and eerie mysteries.
Where practised forgotten pagan rites which were still celebrated during festivals in defiance sanity and the law.
So most of the elders and inhibants in Salem would if asked would declare thier were worse things than rats crawling the unhallowed earth of Smalem.
Masson despite his dread he also respected the ferocious rats as he knew within thier flashing needle-sharp fangs lurked danger.
Was it true that ghoulish beings who came from the pit of hades held the power to commande the rats into an army to do thier bidding.
For the rats were messengers between this world and the ghoulish beings from hades sent by Morningstar himself.
Legends also states that the rats stole the bodies of the dead for nocturnal feasts.
The myth of the Pied Piper is a fable that hides a blasphemous horror, and the black pits of Avernus have brought forth hell-spawned monstrosities that never venture into the light of day.
But in reality Masson was not one of the counter culture who believed in such tales he was what is deemed in society a loner
He decided instead to hide the rats existence from investigation as that meant he would lose his home and his job.
But he had to hide the gnawed coffin s and the mutilated bodies so he decided to cremate them by building his own crematorium in the far reaches of the cemetery.
Here he removed the gold fillings from the bodies and if the deceased had rich clothing he would strip them .
Masson knew the he could also give bodies to medical students and less reputable doctors who were in need of cadavers for teaching and other various activities and these people were not overscrupulous where the bodies were obtained and were willing too keep it secret for fear of Losing thier influence on the general public.
If asked Masson just fiercely denied any existence of rats even if thier denied him of some of his victims for after he preformed his gruesome thefts he would go back to burn the body and he would notice the rats had gnawed a hole through the coffin and had dragged the whole cadaver through this hole to tale back too thier lair to eat until gourged.
Then there was the curious circumstance of coffin s being gnawed at the end only not a single bite on the side or top, were the rats working under direction as he had frist thought he put this down to tiredness.
One day as he stood in an open sprinkling wet eating a heap beside the pit.
This day it was raining a cold winter s drizzle and as he looked around the graveyard seemed like a slough of yellowish sucking sinking mud and the rain washed tombstones stood up in a sort of irregular battalions.
The rats were nowhere too be seen as thier retreated to thier burrows and Masson was glad he had not seen one for days.
The body inside the coffin had bee buried some several days earlier he had meant to Rob it but had to wait too see if any relative of the dead man may turn up to show thier respects.
He grinned to himself the straightened his bent back and put the shovel too one side.
After taking a look at the flickering lights of Salem he took up his spade and bent down and examined the fastenings of the coffin.
Masson stiffened abruptly as beneath his feet he thought he sensed stirring and scratching and he thought inside hus head something was moving within the coffin.
A pang of superstitious fear ran through Masson s body then a sense of overwhelming rage as he realised the sound of rats has forestalled him yet again.
Masson wrenched at the fastenings of the coffin in his paroxysm of anger so he used his sharp edge of his shovel straight under the lid of the coffin then used his hands to lift the lid off .
Using a flashlight he sent its cold beam darting around the coffin.
It was empty then a flicker if some movement at head of the case and whatever it was ,probably the rats,it darted the light and ran towards where the end of the sarcophagus was placed, Masson examined it closely ut was gnawed through and had a gaping hole which led into plutonium darkness.
Masson watched as a black shoe ,limp and it was being dragged and disappearing before his eyes,Masson fell onto his hands and knees and made an a attempt to clutch the shoe and on doing so he lost his flashlight, then he felt a sudden shoe tugged and his ears picked up a excited squealing he felt around for his flashlight and he luck held out as he found it ,he then put the beam from the flashlight down into the burrow.
Rain spattered against the white satin lining; the coffin was empty. Masson saw a flicker of movement at the head of the case, and darted the light in that direction.
As Masson wondered how large the rats were that could carry away a full grown body 0f a man or women, he started to load the pistol he had brought as protection.
His curiosity was getting the better of him as he knew of the trinkets of treasure the bodies had on them and how much money he would make to spend spend spend.
So he clipped the flashlight to his belt crept through the tight fitting burrow,occasionally finding it had to squeeze himself along.
The air was musty stench of carrion then I long forgotten childhood dread overwhelming took over of maggots, but a more overwhelming feeling was more stronger ,greed .
Under his feet were clods of earth then he thrust if there was a cave-in and he decided to go back fir he could get another cadavers later but he forgot one tiny problem the burrow was too narrow too turn around.
Panic set in until his logical side of his brain took back control and he remembered a side tunnel he had just passed when he reached this tunnel he trusted his legs into it backing he himself able to turn this was not without causing pain to his already bruised and painful knees.
Then suddenly out of the blue he felt an agonising pain shot up through his leg ,
It was sharp teeth of rats who were shrill squealing, and I heard scurry of many tiny feet and as he shakenly held his flashlight he saw his nightmare dozens of great rats staring at him intently with thier slitted eyes these beast s were as large as cats ,misshapen things.
For a moment the beaming glowing light from the flashlight held them back, but the rats edged closer,Masson could see dull orange teeth thus made Masson realise about the pistol he had on his person.
It was an awkward position, and he tried to press his feet into the soggy sides of the burrow so that he should not inadvertently send a bullet into one of them.
Like rolling thunder the bullet that was shot deafened Masson and he went into a coughing fit due to the smoke but a least for the time being the rats had gone.
But he had made the mistake of misjudging his enemy for there were there again to rush at him.
The swarm of rats began to squeal insanely biting at his legs ,he managed to fire off another shot and only luck saved him shooting is own foot.
The rats retreated only a bit less then before as if playing a bizarre game of chess.
A great grey rat paused and watched him. Its long ragged whiskers twitched, and its scabrous, naked tail was moving slowly from side to side. Masson shouted and the rat A great grey rat paused and watched him. Its long ragged whiskers twitched, and its scabrous, naked tail was moving slowly from side to side. Masson shouted and the rat retreated.
As he crawled as fast as his body would let him he came upon a shapeless huddle and realised it was the remains of a human body it looked like a brown shrivelled mummy but the real shocking thing was it was moving.
It was crawling towards him, and in the pale glow of the flashlight the man saw a frightful gargoyle face thrust into his own. It was the passionless, death’s-head skull of a long-dead corpse, instinct with hellish life; and the glazed eyes swollen and bulbous betrayed the thing’s blindness. It made a faint groaning sound as it crawled towards Masson, stretching its ragged and granulated lips in a grin of dreadful hunger. And Masson was frozen with abysmal fear and loathing.
Just before the Horror touched him, Masson flung himself frantically into the burrow at his side. He heard a scrambling noise at his heels, and the thing groaned dully as it came after him. Masson, glancing over his shoulder, screamed and propelled himself desperately through the narrow burrow. He crawled along awkwardly, sharp stones cutting his hands and knees. Dirt showered into his eyes, but he dared not pause even for a moment. He scrambled on, gasping, cursing, and praying hysterically.
Squealing triumphantly, the rats came at him, horrible hunger in their eyes. Masson almost succumbed to their vicious teeth before he succeeded in beating them off. The passage was narrowing, and in a frenzy of terror he kicked and screamed and fired until the hammer clicked on an empty shell. But he had driven them off.
He found himself crawling under a great stone, embedded in the roof, that dug cruelly into his back. It moved a little as his weight struck it, and an idea flashed into Masson’s fright-crazed mind: If he could bring down the stone so that it blocked the tunnel!
Masson dug into the wet soggy earth and hunched himself half upright to dig away at the earth around the stone, the rats were getting closer inch by inch .
With one almighty tug at the stone it felt as if it's foundation s were rocking.
A near by rat was approaching, then the grey and leprous crept hideously with its orange teeth landed bare ,one last frantic tug and the stone crashed down, then he heard frightful shriek s ,and then a mass of clodded earth ,the tunnel was collapsing.
Masson threw himself onto the soggy earth inside the tunnel he could now barely move his hands and legs so to get any movement he crawled like an eel ,as he lay on his stomach he tried in panic to raise himself but the roof was only a few inches from his back.
He felt around he was in inside a coffin an empty one which the rats had gnawed at its end.
He could neither go back or forward and try as it might the coffin lid was immovable.
Masson found himself gasping for air, it was dreadfully fetid he tried to tear at satin that lay inside the coffin until it shredded.
If only he could reverse his current status to life giving air.
Suddenly he felt an white hot agony lance through his breast, his eyeballs throbbed, he felt his head swelling, it was getting larger and larger then the sound of exultant squealing of the rats ,he screamed insanely but the sound of the rats was not drowned out.
For a moment he thrashed about hysterically within his confines of his self made narrow prison then he began to quieten grasing for air.
His eyelids closed, his tongue blackened and he delved into the plutonium darkness of death surrounded by the sound of mad squealing and munching of hysterically hunger rats dinning on his cadaver.
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