Worm Read Online Free

many teeth. So many, they were like the spokes of a bike tire.
    It was getting ready to strike.
    With a cry, Tony tossed the clothes hamper at it just as it moved. It bought him bare seconds but no more. It was not stopped by the hamper, not in the least. In fact, it drilled right through it, corkscrewing with immense velocity and punching through the wicker in a cloud of fragments.
    Tony managed to throw the door shut behind him.
    But he had no time to secure the lock.
    The creature hit the inside of the door with such force that it slammed shut. It hit it again and put a dent in it, the wood splintering as it split lengthwise. Then, from the other side, a sound like the claws of a dozens rats scratching manically…but Tony knew it was not claws but teeth. The thing was chewing right through the fucking door.
    Stevie was yipping.
    Tony was speechless.
    He stood there uneasily, tense with fear and anxiety, his own voice droning in his head: Am I seeing this? Am I really fucking seeing this? A monster from the toilet? A beast from the bowl? But by then those teeth on the other side had eaten through, tearing a hole right through the door. The hole wasn’t big enough for it to fit through, not just yet.
    But it was determined.
    Unbelievably, savagely determined.
    Tony knew he had to keep pressure against the door or the damn thing would knock it right off its hinges, but there was no way he was pressing his back against it. He could just about imagine what that thing would do to his unprotected back if it went through the hamper that quickly and chewed a hole in the door itself.
    Christ, he didn’t want to think about it.
    Stevie continued to yip and Tony shouted at him to shut up, which, as usual, only got him yipping that much louder and that much more shrilly.
    The worm—Jesus, it had to be a worm because it sure as hell wasn’t a snake—kept hitting the door with maximum thrust. The door was only a cheap panel job. Something designed to look nice, but with absolutely no tensile strength. It was cracking open. Chips of paint and wood splinters were flying in the air.
    It gnawed another hole through.
    Tony was glad he pissed or he would have gone right down his leg by that point.
    Think! Think! Think! There’s gotta be something you can do!
    But he knew there really wasn’t. To do something meant he’d have to quit pushing against the door and as soon as he stopped doing that, Mr. Worm was going to tear him a new asshole. Literally.
    Stevie yipped louder.
    The door was coming apart.
    Tony was scared shitless.
    Another hole appeared, this one down by his knee. He saw the bulblike snout of the worm press through. A ribbon of black slime hung from its mouth like drool.
    Then it withdrew.
    It stopped pounding itself against the door.
    Tony listened.
    He heard a distinctly appalling slithering sound, which must have been the worm sliding across the tile floor. There was a splashing, wet sort of noise and he dared to hope it had gone back down the pipe. But the thing was so furious and relentless in its attack, the idea seemed ludicrous. Things like it did not give up until they got what they were after.
    It was quiet in the bathroom.
    He heard water dripping, nothing else.
    Even Stevie had quit yipping.
    Toilet water flowed under the door and Tony was standing in a rank, chill pool of it. He waited. A minute, two, then three. Gradually, he eased off on the door. He expected the worm to batter it, but it didn’t.
    It was absolutely silent in there.
    He looked over at Stevie and the little mutt cocked his head in that way Charise thought was so cute. But he was not trying to be cute, Tony knew. The cocked-head thing was the dog’s version of what the fuck? That’s all it was and all it had ever been, despite Charise’s human need to pretend otherwise.
    His heart thudding in his chest, Tony moved away from the door.
    Damn, it looked like it had been hit repeatedly by hammers. Big fucking hammers. It was hard to believe