You cautiously open the basement door.

You pause, holding your breath as your hand grips the door handle. You listen but don’t hear any more noises.

“Hello?” You venture, before shaking your head and trying to come to your senses. “It’s just a mouse” you think. “A big, disgusting mouse.” You remember that your dad set traps in the basement, so you decide you should go down and check them to make sure they’re still set. Opening the door, you grab the lights pull cord and give it a sharp tug. The solitary light flickers feeble and burns out with a snap. You sigh and muster your courage. There’s another light at the bottom of the stairs, you just have to not trip and break your neck on the way down.

Step by step you cautiously negotiate down the steps. “Should only be one more” you think just at the moment where your foot slips out from underneath you and you slam down on your bare ass and bounce down the last step. You land roughly on the floor at the bottom of the steps feeling sore and stupid.

“What the fuck did I slip on?” You ask yourself aloud. In the dark, you slowly crawl up on your hands and knees and run your hand along the step.

You feel a damp, slippery substance coating the step in a puddle. It’s viscous. Not quite liquid but definitely not solid.

“No fucking wonder. What is this? Water? Oil?” You ponder. As your eyes slowly adjust to the darkness, you can see that the material is light pink in color, with bits of red something floating in it. “The fuck…” you try to get out when you feel a sudden sharp tug at your ankle. Something wet and warm has wrapped around your ankle and pulled you off your knees. You flail in panic and attempt to free yourself, but the thing gripping your ankle has an iron grasp.

It pulls your sharply back towards the corner of the basement. You suddenly become aware that the thing pulling you, is leaving a warm, slippery trail. You attempt to right yourself, but find your hands and knees becoming coated in the gel, becoming slippery.

You then hear the wet, squelching noise draw near as you struggle fruitlessly on the ground. A second warm, wet thing wraps itself around your other leg and vines it’s way up your exposed thigh.

“What! What the fu…” you exclaim, but the words **** in your throat as a third wet appendage wraps around your head and over your mouth, muffling your cry.

“Mmmphmphhmm!” You managed to mumble. The two vines grabbing your ankles twist your body and prop you roughly on your knees. The thing around your head forces it down, propping you in a **** position.

Still the wet, squelching sound grows louder, and now is accompanied by a low, sinister hiss.