Chapter 1 - The Monster in the Plaster
The high-pitched whine of Clara’s cast saw ripped through the sterile silence of the hospital room.
"Arthur, stop her!" Vanessa shrieked, dropping her facade of the worried stepmother. She lunged forward, her manicured hands grasping for the saw, but Arthur caught her arm. For the first time since his wife's death, a flicker of genuine uncertainty crossed his face.
Clara didn't flinch. Her hands were steady, guided by years of emergency room precision. She pressed the vibrating blade against the blue fiberglass. It didn't cut skin; it only destroyed the rigid shell.
Leo squeezed his eyes shut, sobbing in terrified anticipation.
With a sharp crack, Clara pried the two halves of the cast apart. A foul, metallic odor instantly filled the room—the smell of infected flesh and something earthier. Something rotten.
Clara peeled back the cotton wadding.
A collective gasp sucked the air from the room. Dropping onto the pristine white hospital sheets was a creature straight out of a nightmare. It was nearly eight inches long, armored in dark crimson plates, with dozens of yellow, frantic legs. An Amazonian giant centipede. Its venomous pincers snapped wildly as it hit the light.
"Oh my God!" Arthur stumbled backward, knocking over an IV pole.
Before the venomous arthropod could dart toward Leo's exposed leg, Clara slammed the heavy metal base of her medical bag directly onto it, crushing it instantly.
The room plunged into a deafening silence, save for Leo’s frantic hyperventilating. Clara gently lifted Leo's leg. His pale skin was marred by a dozen inflamed, necrotic puncture wounds where the creature had been systematically biting him for days in the pitch dark.
Vanessa pressed her back against the wall, her face entirely drained of color. "It... it must have crawled in while he was sleeping in the yard!" she stammered, her voice trembling.
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Clara looked up, her eyes locking onto the stepmother with the intensity of a predator. "Fiberglass casts are airtight, Mrs. Sterling. Nothing crawls in. That creature was placed against his skin before the plaster was wrapped."
Arthur turned slowly to look at his wife. The blinders were finally beginning to crack.
