This story was originally publishing in 2009 in an anthology of creature horror. I’ve edited it very lightly, otherwise it’s as it was submitted.
Content Warning: Horrific scenes involving a child.
Tooth
Alice Clark was dreaming she was lying on top of a snow-covered mountain, making snow angels with Ethan Hawke when the scream hit her.
At first, she thought it was the call of a yeti. She sat up, fully expecting a hairy, ape-like creature to come hurtling towards her across the mountaintop. Then reality seeped into her consciousness, and she realised it was Julia, her daughter. Adrenaline flooded her system and moments later she was running out of her bedroom, dressing gown in hand.
Julia was sitting up in bed, her right hand pressed against her jaw, the Winnie-the-Pooh lamp already glowing softly on the cabinet beside her bed. She was still screaming, tears streaming down her face, when Alice burst into the room.
“What’s the matter?” asked Alice, already terrified for her daughter.
Julia choked off the scream and tried to reply. Her breath hitched in her chest and her mouth quivered as she fought to find the words to answer her mother. Then her eyes crumpled and she began to scream again.
Alice rushed forward and sat on the bed, pulling her daughter towards her, trying desperately to squeeze the pain away.
“It’s okay, sweetie, it’s okay,” she whispered, knowing it wasn’t.
Julia pushed against her mother’s shoulder, burying her cries. Her body shuddered as she struggled to breathe and Alice could feel her daughter’s heart pounding against her chest. Her shoulder was already damp from the tears, and she gently smoothed Julia’s sweat soaked curls away from her forehead, trying to calm her.
“Just tell me what the matter is, and we can fix it right up.”
“T-t-tooth… It… it… it… h-hurts,” Julia sniffed, her breath coming in short, shuddering gasps.
“Okay, okay, that’s good.”
Alice sighed lightly and relaxed, teeth could be fixed. Gently, Alice eased her daughter away from her shoulder, the pain seemed to have died away for the time being and she was beginning to relax. Then she saw the blood bubbling from her daughter’s mouth.
Julia’s face was bleached white and had a waxy sheen to it, no doubt caused by the loss of the blood that coated her neck and was soaked into her pyjamas. The smiling sheep that had, up until recently, been drifting lazily through a cloudless, pastel blue sky were now being overwhelmed by a steadily growing Rorschach stain.
Alice’s own blood ran cold and the world around her receded as terror washed away the relief she’d felt just moments before. Trying to hide her own fear, she looked at her daughter’s face.
“Julia. Look at me.”
Julia’s eyes drifted around the room.
“Julia! Look at me,” Alice lifted her daughter’s bloodied chin, pushing thoughts of its sticky coating, and what it could mean, to the back of her mind. Slowly, Julia’s gaze reached her mother.
Alice stared at the young girl clinging to her and felt a tidal wave of sadness break over her, threatening to overwhelm them both. Julia’s eyes were glassy and lost focus every few seconds, only to regain it a moment later. She coughed softly and a thin dribble of blood trickled out of her mouth and dropped like a scarlet spider onto Alice’s hand. Choking back a rising wave of panic, Alice forced some semblance of calm into her voice.
“Don’t worry.”
Julia’s eyes drifted closed, then opened again.
“Julia! Listen to me. I know it hurts but you’re going to be okay. I’m going to take you to see the doctor. It’s just a little ride in the car. Not far. You can see if you can see any squirrels. Okay?”
Julia’s eyes flicked to the window and for a moment Alice thought she saw a spark of interest, just before her daughter’s eyes drifted closed again. Julia’s head grew heavy and her body relaxed. Alice felt the panic rise again.
“Julia! Please, honey. Just a few minutes more. Okay?” Alice begged softly as she tilted her daughter’s chin upwards.
A few seconds later, just as Alice was about to start checking for a pulse, Julia opened her eyes. With some effort, she pulled her chin away from her mother’s grip, smearing blood across her cheek. Slowly Julia nodded; then she moaned softly as her face twisted in pain and she buried her head back into her mother’s shoulder.
Alice wiped her hand on the bed and stood up, trying not to jolt her precious cargo, “Good. Let’s go.”
Alice pulled the passenger seatbelt across her daughter. Ziggy, Julia’s toy cat, was huddled on the back seat of the car and Alice reached across and retrieved it. She stared at it for a moment, its doleful face reflecting her own despair, then slipped it onto her daughter’s lap. By the time she’d walked round to the driver’s side of the car and clipped her own seatbelt into place Julia was clutching Ziggy, her head resting against the window, eyes scanning the nearby trees for squirrels.
Alice forced herself to stay calm as she backed out of the driveway, resisting the urge to just fling the car into the road. The hospital was five minutes away, less if the traffic lights were green; there was no need to risk an accident. The road was clear and Alice accelerated up the hill, wheels spinning slightly on the frost coated tarmac.
The first set of lights, the ones that led to the main road, were green but the second set were turning red as Alice reached them. She could see the hospital a few hundred feet down the road and there were no other cars in sight, so she accelerated through the red light, barely registering the flash of the traffic camera as she passed.
Seconds later, tyres crunched gravel as she pulled into the hospital car park. Alice cursed as she scanned a confusing array of signs for some indication of where to go. Rounding the corner of the hospital she spotted an ambulance parked by a set of double doors. Two men in green overalls were loading a stretcher into the back of it and Alice pulled up behind them, tapping her horn twice to get their attention.
The men turned, glaring at her until they saw the girl sitting in the passenger seat. They were at the passenger door before Alice. Julia looked around, confused and scared and looking for her mother.
“It’s okay, I’m here,” Alice said, and to the men, “Her name’s Julia. There’s something wrong with her tooth. Or her teeth, or her mouth, I don’t know.”
“Okay, let’s get her inside. Steve, go ahead and warn them we’re on our way.”
The other man, Steve, nodded and ran through the double doors.
Alice opened the car door, freed Julia and gently lifted her out.
“Okay, Julia,” said the first man, smiling, “my name’s Alan, we’re going to get you inside so that you can see a doctor.”
Julia nodded. She seemed brighter, more alert than she had a few minutes earlier and Alice allowed herself a little hope.
“Right, pop her on the stretcher. It’ll be more comfortable.”
A metal trolley appeared and Alice slowly laid Julia on top of it, desperate not to hurt her.
Alan grabbed the metal handle at one end and began to push, “Come on then, Julia, let’s go for a little ride.”
Julia tried to smile but it turned into a wince as the movement reawakened the pain.
Alice held open the door as Alan pushed the stretcher inside, “My name’s Alice.”
Alan smiled again, it was the smile of someone who knew everything was going to be fine, “Hi, Alice. Don’t worry, she’ll be right as rain before you know it.”
They made it into the operating theatre before Julia started screaming again.
Julia lay on a thickly padded operating table, her head resting on a pillow. A heart monitor beeped softly in the corner. The doctor, who had introduced himself as Doctor Reynolds, the hospital’s dental specialist, was standing to one side, pulling on a pair of latex gloves as a young nurse tied the back of the pale blue gown he was wearing. A stainless-steel trolley sat alongside the table with a terrifying array of scalpels and probes and mirrors lined up on top of it. A tiny drill, much like a dentist’s, hung from a hook on one corner of the trolley, its power cable snaking out of sight under the table. An older nurse stood quietly next to the trolley.
Julia eyed the drill nervously. At some point the nurses had tried to clean her face and neck but she was still smeared with red. She was still holding Ziggy by the scruff of the neck; she’d screamed even harder when the young nurse had tried to take him away.
The doctor moved towards the table as Julia screamed again. Her voice was hoarse and a thick rivulet of blood dribbled out of her mouth. Fresh tears ran down Alice’s cheeks as she looked at her daughter, convinced she was watching her die. She didn’t realise the doctor was talking to her until he touched her gently on the shoulder.
“Mrs Clark. Could you go to the head of the table? Talk to her, try to keep her calm.”
Alice nodded and moved round the table. She leant down and began to stroke Julia’s forehead, whispering random snatches of comfort. She talked about Ziggy; about the trip they were going to take to the Christmas shop in London and about how well Julia was doing, how brave she was. Anything to take her daughter’s mind off the pain. Anything to try to clear the terror from her eyes.
Doctor Reynolds moved to the table and flicked on a halogen light that hung from the ceiling, “Right then, let’s take a look. Can you open your mouth for me, Julia?”
He slipped his rubber coated fingers inside her mouth and peered inside.
“Nurse Branagan, we’re going to need some suction.”
The older nurse reached under the table and returned with a long plastic pipe attached to a rubber tube. There was a click and an electric pump shuddered into life. Julia stiffened.
“It’s okay, sweetie,” Alice said softly, “it’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s just like the Hoover at home. The doctor’s going to suck all that horrible stuff out of your mouth so that he can see how to make you better.”
The nurse reached forward and slipped the pipe into Julia’s mouth. There was a moist sucking sound as the tube slurped down blood and spit and Alice was relieved the rubber tube wasn’t transparent.
The doctor leaned forward again, and gently eased Julia’s mouth open further. Alice watched him, trying to read the expression on his face. He reached up and adjusted the position of the light, then picked up a wooden tongue depressor that looked a lot like a lollypop stick. The doctor rummaged around in Julia’s mouth for several minutes, twisting and poking with the depressor. Julia’s cheek seemed swollen and Alice could feel her tense as she fought against the pain.
Suddenly the doctor jerked backwards, as though he were suddenly afraid of his patient.
Alice looked up, “What?”
The doctor frowned, “Nothing. Nothing to worry about.”
Out of the corner of her eye Alice caught the young nurse glancing at the older one, a concerned look on her face. Nurse Branagan glared back and gave her head a slight shake.
The doctor seemed to regain his composure and looked across at the older nurse, “We’ll need some lidocaine.”
Then he crouched down, rested his elbows on the side of the bed so that he was level with Julia and smiled, “Okay, Julia. I think I can see what the problem is. A piece of bone has worked its way into your gum. Have you eaten any fish or chicken recently?”
Julia shrugged, wincing, and the doctor looked towards Alice.
Alice shook her head, “She had a McDonalds yesterday, but she had a burger.”
Doctor Reynolds shrugged, “Not to worry, it could have come from anywhere. Anyway, I don’t think it’s a big problem. We’re just going to numb your mouth a little bit, Julia; just like the dentist does. It will sting a little I’m afraid but then all the pain will go away, and I can sort you out. Okay?”
Julia looked at her mother for reassurance, then, having received it, she nodded.
The doctor stood up again, “Don’t worry, Mrs Clark, it’s nothing to worry about.”
Alice let out a deep breath and forced a smile.
Nurse Branagan returned and handed the doctor a syringe. Alice blanched. She’d always been afraid of needles.
“Okay, Julia, I need you to hold very still, just for a few seconds,” said the doctor.
Julia gave a little moan as the doctor moved the needle into her mouth. Alice could see her toes curling inside her striped socks.
The doctor frowned. Alice could see him shifting the position of the needle, adjusting the angle as he tried to push it into Julia’s gum. He peered past his hand, the frown deepening. He pushed harder and Alice felt Julia tense. She was about to call out, to tell the doctor to stop, when she heard a soft cracking sound and the needle slid into the soft pink tissue. A few seconds later the doctor stepped away from the table and gave the young nurse the empty syringe.
“Right then, we’ll give that a few minutes to do its work. You should feel the pain start to go away.”
Alice closed her eyes, willing the pain to fade quickly, praying she would get her daughter safely out of this room. The antiseptic smell that filled the air couldn’t quite mask the underlying bitterness and Alice became intensely aware that this was a room where people died.
There was a muffled shout and a face appeared at the window of the operating room. The man’s ruddy face was covered with dozens of cuts and bruises. Thick clumps of grey hair sprouted from either side of his head and Alice could see his mouth working, spitting out words she couldn’t hear. His hands clawed at the window in frustration, leaving dark smears across the glass. His incoherent rambling grew louder as two nurses appeared from behind him and gently steered him away. Nurse Branagan flicked a set of blinds closed. She was about to apologise for the interruption when a shrill keening filled the air.
It was several seconds before Alice realised she was the one making the noise. She was staring at Julia in horror as blood poured out of her mouth. Julia wheezed and coughed and spluttered, desperately trying to drag air into her lungs. Alice tried to help her sit up, her hands slipping on the blood slick skin, then screamed as a split appeared in Julia’s right cheek. Julia arched her back. Joints cracked and there was a crash as the young nurse knocked over the trolley as she stumbled backwards.
The tear in Julia’s cheek widened and Alice felt herself drift towards unconsciousness as a dozen black grubs wriggled out of the gash. They lay on the bed, blindly twisting and turning and rolling as the medical staff looked on, frozen with horror.
Alice was about to flick the grubs onto the floor when Julia screamed in agony. Blood spattered the bed and a metallic tang filled the air as her cheek burst open and something grey and bloody clawed its way out. The thing, the creature, whatever it was, dragged itself out of the side of Julia’s mouth in a riot of blood and tissue and Alice watched in horror as it crawled to the edge of the table and dropped to the floor.
The creature was thin, about three inches in length, most of that taken up by a dozen bony segments that formed its spine-like tail. Its translucent body was wrapped in a bony exoskeleton, and Alice could see the shadow of some unknown organ pulsing between the curves of its ribcage.
Two bulbous, lidless eyes dominated its skull-like head, the yellow spheres blown out of proportion to the rest of its bony features. Its lower jaw was elongated, a set of teeth hooked upwards from the end. One tooth was broken and Alice could imagine it embedded somewhere in her daughter’s cheek. A pair of translucent wings, crumpled and wet with blood, sprouted from its back and they twitched slightly as it sat on the floor.
There was a retching sound from the corner of the room as the younger nurse threw up into a sink.
Slowly the creature lifted itself up onto its skeletal legs, leaving spidery trails of blood on the white tiles. The front pair of legs were smooth, much shorter than the other three sets, which were covered with vicious barbs and ended in talons that tapped against the floor as it moved. The creature flicked its front legs over its head to clear blood from its eyes and looked slowly from side to side, surveying its new environment.
There was a metallic scraping sound, and Alice saw the doctor lifting a large metal dish from the floor near the fallen trolley.
The creature hissed, the harsh sound clearly audible. It turned its head towards the doctor, its jaw dropping open as two tongues flicked out into the antiseptic tinged air. The rubbery tendrils darted left and right then disappeared again. The creature hissed a second time and its tail arched upwards as a thin spine slid from the end. It began to move unsteadily towards the doctor, its hind legs trailing behind it. The creature got a dozen steps before the remaining legs on its left side gave way and it collapsed.
The doctor slowly advanced on the creature as it lay there, futilely flailing its tail against the floor, trying to right itself. Gradually the movement slowed, then stopped, and a thick pool of black mucus began to seep from underneath the creature’s body. Alice saw the tips of its legs twitch one last time as the doctor dropped the metal dish over the corpse.
Alice and the doctor stared at each other, looking for answers.
Then the steady pulse of the heart monitor switched to a high-pitched whine and all hell broke loose.
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