Teeth of the Fray
284 Words
---
Chapter Five — Teeth of the Fray
The Fraybeast screamed again, and the world bent with it.
Kairos staggered, clutching his ears. The sound wasn’t just noise — it pulled at his bones, rattled his shadow until it flickered thin. His teeth hurt like they were about to be pulled out of his skull.
“Move!” Arielle barked. She shoved him forward just as the creature lunged. Its body flickered between shapes — a hulking wolf, a mass of writhing hands, a broken tower walking on spider legs.
Kairos sprinted, his boots slapping the cracked ground. “You didn’t say anything about screaming nightmares on your list of rules!”
“That is the list!” Arielle shouted back.
The Fraybeast’s claws gouged the earth behind them, leaving grooves that bled glowing threads. Each strike warped reality — trees stretched, stones unraveled, the air itself buckled like broken glass.
Kairos’s shadow hissed: “You can’t outrun it. Use me.”
“Use you how?” Kairos snapped.
“Step into me again. We’ll cut across the Loom.”
“Last time I nearly vomited my spine out!”
“Better spine-less than lifeless!”
Another scream split the air, and Arielle yanked Kairos down as a s***h of unraveling light tore past, shredding a hill into nothing.
Kairos made a decision. A bad one. His specialty.
He grabbed Arielle’s arm. “Trust me!”
“Absolutely not—”
Too late. He dove into his shadow, dragging her with him.
For a heartbeat, the world went flat — colorless, silent, crushing. They fell through nothing, through ink, through threads that cut and burned. Then they were spilling out of a different shadow
- Writer
