Occupational hazards

The wind howled down the streets of the suburban are. As the clock tower of the nearby church signaled that it was already one hour past midnight, without a single soul to find. Under the guidance of the pale moonlight, a dark figure made its way through the church's courtyard, ever so silent and swift like a shadow. Taking a quick look behind, the trespasser vaulted the almost 6 ft tall spiked fence. Landing in the tall grass, a the figure made is way to the old, abandoned mansion. The pathway was already overgrown, the lawn hasn't been mown in a decade. All in all, it gave off a rather haunted vibe- no normal person would consider living in it clooking at its current state. The trespasser obviously had no such intention as it approached the mansion's porch. Taking a closer look at the large oak door, she placed the palm of her hand on the surface, giving it a slight push as it creaked open, an eerie squeezing sound echoing through the halls. Whipping out a flashlight, she took a step forward. With a click, she illuminated the long hallway. It was rustical to say the least: a large bronze chandelier was swinging from the top, old furniture, covered in cobwebs decorated the entrance hall, as numerous ripped portraits hung off the walls. The burglar slowly inspected all of this, as she pulled her mask down and took her hood off, revealing her pale skin and long auburn ponytail. She slowly walked through the hallway, checking each drawer as she passed them- to her pleasant surprise, two of them even had some antique coins and accessories in them- surely someone will pay a good price for them. However each of her steps was followed by loud sgueaking from the floor boards. It might have been annoying, but An was more worried over the noise it caused alerting the neighbours in the church. At least that was the burglar's impression, as the slightest sound could be heard in this dead silence.

After giving some thought to it, she kneeled down and untied the laces of her right boot, tugging it off her leg. She repeated the action with her other foot before placing the two together on top of a cupboard. Getting up, she wiggled her toes inside her black ankle socks. Tiptoe-ing her way further into the mansion, she tried to navigate and find the quickest way to "easy money". Regarding some of the large mirrors, she almost felt sorry she couldn't take them with her- the golden facade and ilustrations could be worth a whole year's rent! But then, her eyes focused on a single door. It had a metalic frame, an old-fashioned pattern, cut into wood, along with a rusty lock over the doorhandle- jackpot. If there was something valuable in the house- it had to be behind this particular door. Taking out a pair of pliars from her belt, the burglargirl made quick work of the fragile lock. As the piece of metal fell to the floor, An pulled the handle down and started pulling. Strangely enough, the door barely moved- the hinges must have become rusty- who knows how old this place is, anyway. She pulled back her sleeves back, holding the flashlight between her teeth, before taking firm hold of the edge of the door, and placing her socked foot right next to her hands on the wall. Now that she got into position, she started pulling with all her might. Inch by inch the door slowly opened, leaving a black mark on the floor. Once half-way there, the door swung open the rest of the way,causing a lot of noise along the way. An huffed in frustration. She worries about the squeaking floor boards, yet could have awoken a whole army with this stunt. Taking the torch from her mouth again, she enlighted the chamber that was concealed behind that door, only to reveal a set of stairs that let to the basement. "Just great..." she thought to herself.

This is definitely the last place anyone would want to visit in an abandoned mansion in the middle of the night. Oh well, since she went through the effort to open the door, she might as well scout it out now. The burglar carefully took a step forward, feeling the smooth wooden surface under the ball of her socked toes. After the second step, however, she almost slipped and fell down the staircase. The surface was too smooth for her to get a good stand. Letting out a deep sigh, An lifted her foot before peeling the ankle socks off her size 8 feet. All she could think.about is how greatful ahe is that herroommate isn't around, as she removed the second sock, stuffing both of them in her back pocket. Her soles were slightly sweaty from all the walking, but just enough to prevent from slipping off the polished wooden surface. Traversing deeper into the basement, she finally reached the last several stairs. Stepping on the laminated floor again, all she could think of is how cold the ground felt. Turning her head left and right, she was on the lookout to find something of value that would make her trip here be worth it. Strangely enough, the basement was huge to say the least- within it were plenty of dusty recliners, chairs and barrels lying around, none of which were handy or enough to carry out with her. Seemingly random, some sections of the floor were covered in fuzzy wool carpets- this must have been where the homeowners had stashed the rest of their unneccessary inventory. Traversing through the labyrinth of furniture, distant creaking and whistling sent shivers down her spine, but she managed to reassure herself that those were just the mice and wind. Just as she gathered enough courage and made a confident step forward, she sheard a splashing sound. She lowered the flash light, only to find out that she had stepped into a medium-sized puddle of a type of greenish, slimey subatance. A bit weirded out, she looked up to see if it was some sort of leak from the ceiling, but the only thing there was an old, dangling oil lantern.
Crack.

The noise echoed through the basement as the flickering light turned on, blinding the intruder. She had been spotted- it was time to stand her ground; she quickly placed the flashlight in her waist pocket and was about to reach for her staff, when she felt the ground shaking. Like a deer caught in the headlights of a truck, she remained immobile as she heard repeated footsteps approaching- but they weren't human... An animal if some sort. A dog? More like a rhino... Worst of all is that she didn't even know where it was coming from, as the bulb only illuminated the ground 5 ft in front of her. Soon the steps came to a halt, but only to be replaced by a far eerier sound- panting. And it came from right behind her. She felt her heart sinking deeper with every breath she took. Taking a gulp, she slowly turned around- only to stare into the blind darkness. What made this all the more terrifying, is that she could feel the darkness staring back at her. Her expression was that of pure horror as she felt her knees shaking, her feet cold as ice. She slowly reached for her belt, as she got interruoted by an ungodly screech, that made her blood freeze. It was like nithing she ever heard before- a mixture of a wild boar, bear and Satan... This was the only way she could describe it...

Before she could react, a loud, sloshing sound could be heard before out of the midst of the darkness, a tendril came shooting at her, trying to spin around her waist. An came back to her senses and swiftly pushed it away, as it fell limp to the ground. It was like a slimey anaconda, slowly retracting back into the darkness. The burglar slowly stepped back as she watched the tendril slowly disappear in the darkness. For the first time in a long while, An was left breathless. With the swiftness of a cobra, the tendril has lunged forward and hit the burglar girl in the abdomen- knocking the wind out of her. The burglar crossed her arms across her stomach, coughing as she desperately tried to catch some air. Meanwhile, the tentacle has already wrapped itself over its victim's ankle, sweeping her off her feet, making her land on her rump with a *thud*. Feeling its slimey, embrace around her ankle, she could feel it slowly snaking further, not loosening the grip. The little bumps the tendril was covered in created a ticklish sensation as it slid across An's bare, dainty sole. It is then that a sudden realisation struck her- this was a tongue!
This only gave her all the more reason to struggle as she tried to kick the tongue with her other foot, which only resulted in it falling over her other leg, pinning it down with its sheer weight. Still struggling to breathe normally, partially due to the gut punch and due to the fear that was overwhelming the outlaw with each second.
As she laid there trapped, she tried to take hold of a solid object, in hope that she could pull herself out of the monster's grip after that, but to no awail. An clawed against the floor- she wouldn't go down without a fight.
It can't, however, be described as a fight when your opponent can lift you upside down and flip you over like a pancake, without even breaking a sweat...


With the swiftness of a cat, An somehow managed to land on her hands in a push-up pose, avoiding to smack her head against the floor. Her worries only just started, as she felt the tongue coiling around her other leg from behind, and slugging its way between her legs and up the abdomen. Each square inch of it was covered in the thick saliva, making it all the harder for the house invador to take a hold of the constricting tongue. Feeling it thrust back and forth in order to slither further made the delinwuent all the more uncomfortable, as she could feel the tongue snd its rough tastebuds scrub into her. All the while, the heavy panting, mixed with the animalistic howls made the teen all the more anxious as she couldn't focus her attention on escaping the disgusting embrace. The tongue was already wrapping itself around her waist now. An struggled with all her might to push the coils down, but the miscreant had other plans, as it lifted her with ease into the air with its tongue only. Using the momebtif confusion, the tongue quickly spun behind the burglar's neck and around her left arm. The tongue's grip became tighter with each second as she could feel it against her soles, thighs and waist, thrusting back and forth, causing the burglar to feel a weird sort of arousal and disgust. If it wanted to, the monster would have pulled her into its mowl the moment it caught her ankle; now, it's just playing with the prey. An was well aware of that, and this feeling of helplessness and despair made her eyes tear up as she clenched her teeth. The snake-like tongue gained on length as it dangled off An's left arm, 'looking' her into the face like it was trying to hypnotise her.


Staring into the tip of the tongue, she could feel time freeze around her, a loud inhuman shriek awake her from the trance. With the reflexes of a cobra, An grabbed the tongue with both hands just as it was about to lunge forward. It was aiming for her mouth- why? To suffocate her? Gripping it with all her might, she tried to push the beast's tongue away, but the slippery skin made her efforts seem useless as it slowly made its way towards her lips, as it dragged her further into the darkness of the basement. She could already feel its hot breath brushing against the now wet soles of her feet. With tears running down her cheeks, she asked herself: Was this how she would meet her end? All alone in the mowl of a godforsaken creature? No. This can't be happenning. This WON'T be happenning.

Her fear and despair were gradually replaced with anger and scorn. With fire in her eyes, she squeezed onto the beast's tongue. Seeing the sudden increase in resistance, the monstrous tongue added more force pushing forward.
With the adrenaline pumping through her veins, An opened her mouth and bit down hard onto the slippery appendage, sinking her teeth into its flesh. This resulted into a painful yelp as An was swung into the air, her hair flailing around, but she wouldn't realease her grip. Retreating her right hand, she swiftly reached fir her belt, pulling out a pocket knife before repeatedly stabbing into the slimey appendage, causing more agonizing screams, which fell onto deaf ears. Spitting out the tongue with disgust, An grabbed the knife with both hands and was solely focused on inflicting as much pain and suffering to the creature as she went through herself.
With a final stab, the monster's grip loosened up, holding her only by the waist. But the feeling of success was short lived, as she was launched through the air, to the other part of the basement, hitting the oil lamp that was hanging off the ceiling and crashing into a shelf full of old glass bottles, some of which broke on the impact. Opening her eyes, her vision was still blurry, as she struggled to comprehend what was going on. She sat in a wet puddle, while covered in a thick, sticky slime from the monster's tongue. With disgust, she tried to shake it off, as the ooze dripped off her body.

To her horror, she coud hear the same slow heavy thumping steps slowly approach her again, as she struggled to get to her feet again. It is then that she spotted the oil lamp- her only source of light, lying shattered several feet in front of her, the small flames dancing over the carpet, threatening to soon be extinguished. Thinking quick, she searched for a bottle around her, even cutting her finfer through the glove on some broken shards. But luck was on her side, as she grasped the head of a bottle, flinging it towards the slowly decreasing light. An could feel her heart skipping a beat as darkness engulfed her again, the predator's panting becoming louder and louder. For a second there was nothing but utter silence, followed by the sound of glass shattering and a burst of flames arising again, seemingly driving the beast back. The improvised molotov cocktail proved to be a success. Perhaps even too much... Within the blink of an eye, carpets, chairs and the blankets the furniture was covered in caught fire. An sat there motionless, the information having yet to reach her brain. Run. Staggering to her legs, she blindly ran towards the direction she assumed the staircase was, trusting her instinct more than her senses. Limping on her right leg, she didn't dare waste time by turning around to see if she was being chased. If that indeed was the case, she probably wouldn't be still alive. All the while the rustling and cracking of burning wood was heard in the distance, reminding her that she had to get out as soon as possible
There seemed to be no end to this labyrinth, until she eventually tripped in the darkness scraping her forearm as she fell on the stairs. Finally! Staggering, she made her way up, slipping on every second step, not stopping for anything.

Just as she reached the final few stairs, she fell to her knees, crawling the rest of the way. Coughing, she struggled for air, getting up as she turned to face the once pitch dark basement, slowly being engulfed in flames, with another a roar echoing in the basement. She panted as she watched the carnage, slowly placing her hand on the rim of the door, preparing to close it. The footsteps are coming closer and the shrieks louder.
Her eyes widened as she immediately started pushing the door shut, pulling any piece of furniture and knocking it over in the way. Stepping back, she took a quick look at the construction before storming down the hallway, picking her boots up on the way, knocking the entrance door open as she ran down the courtyard in the grass- not even thinking about putting her boots back on as she wanted to win as much ground as possible. The tall grass was being stomped to the ground as the burglar ran for the hills, as the fire consumed the god-forsaken mansion, with sirens howling in the distance...