“It’s a membrane,” Daniel whispered, horror dawning. “Like a… sac.” As he said it, the beam trembling in his hand, they both saw it. A slow, almost imperceptible swell, then a gentle recession. The slick surface *breathed*. Once. A deep, slow rhythm that was utterly alien in the confined space of a house wall. Megan’s hand flew to her mouth, a stifled sound escaping her. Daniel’s blood ran cold. This was no random fungal growth. This was something contained. Something that had been walled in and was, very clearly, alive.
Before either could speak, a sound emanated from the cavity—a soft, wet, fibrous *tear*. One of the thicker veins, stressed by the falling concrete or the movement of the mass, detached from the stud it clung to. It didn’t fall limp. Instead, it retracted, slithering back into the darkness with a faint, sticky sound, disappearing into the pulsing membrane. “We have to seal it back up,” Megan said, her trembling voice now edged with raw panic. “Right now, Daniel. We pour concrete, we cal
“And tell them what?” Daniel interrupted, his own fear sharpening his tone. “That our wall is growing a lung?” He couldn’t look away from the breathing darkness, held by a terrible, morbid fascination. “We have to see what it is. We have to know what’s in our house.”
“Knowing might be worse!”
“Not knowing is!” he shot back. He hefted the hammer again, his jaw set. The rational part of his mind screamed to stop, but the deeper, driven part—the part that had started this demolition—needed to see the end of it. He positioned the chisel for a decisive blow that would break the seal wide open.
Megan grabbed his arm. “Daniel, *please*.”
He met her wide, terrified eyes. For a long second, they held each other’s gaze, the only sounds their ragged breaths and the faint, wet whisper from the wall. He lowered the hammer. “One more look,” he compromised, his voice hoarse. “Just one more, with the light. Then we decide.”
She nodded, a quick, desperate motion, and released his arm. Daniel turned back to the hole, leaning in closer than before, the smell coating his tongue. He switched the flashlight to its brightest setting and directed the blazing beam directly at the center of the slick, pulsing mass.