Chapter 6 — Arthur | Dad Is in There.
937 Words
Chapter 6 — Arthur | Dad Is in There.
The creature is moving fast.
Too fast for us to follow easily in the dark. Its feet make no sound on the dead leaves. My feet make a lot of noise. Elidja's feet make a lot of noise too. We're hunters, but we're still human. We make noise, we breathe hard, we can't see in the dark like the creature can. The fear is really scaring us.
"Faster," the creature says without turning around. She had told us under no circumstances to ever look back. And here we are, unable to see in the dark like she can.
"We're doing what we can," I say quietly.
The forest is really dense. The pines are packed tight, the branches are low. The ground is uneven. Without the lights, I can barely see two meters in front of me. The moon is hidden behind the clouds. All I have is the silhouette of the creature ahead of us. My instinct tells me not to lose sight of her. Because I can feel there are things all around us that I can't see. Things that are scaring the hell out of me.
Elidja is behind me. I can hear him breathing, gasping for air.
We've been walking for ten minutes when the creature stops suddenly.
She raises her hand.
We stop.
Silence. "They're already here."
Then I hear it. Sounds around us. In the trees to the right. To the left. Behind us. Branches cracking. Breathing.
"Above all, don't look back," she says again.
"Wait a moment. They've found us," the creature says.
"Run," the creature says.
"What?" says Elidja.
"I said run."
We start running.
I run without thinking. Branches whip my face. My feet find the ground by instinct. A rock, a root, a dip. I stumble. I don't stop. Behind me, I hear Elidja gasping, leaves crushing under his steps.
I have only one thought in my head. Save our father.
Behind him. Something else. A dark thing.
This thing is much faster than us.
"Arthur, right!" Elidja shouts.
I dive left. Something massive passes beside me in the dark. I feel the wind, I smell a smell. Sulfur, earth, and something else I don't recognize. A claw catches my jacket. I spin around, fire blindly, two shots. A growl in the dark.
I hit it. It's not dead.
I keep running.
The creature is ahead of us. She's running now, faster. We can barely keep up. She zigzags between the trees like she knows every inch of this forest.
Maybe she does.
"How many are there?" I shout.
"Many," the creature answers without slowing down.
This is not good.
Another sound on my left. I fire without stopping. Elidja fires behind me. The gunshots echo between the trees, and for one second, the sounds around us stop. Like we hit one of the creatures.
Just one second.
Then they come back. Closer.
The creature stops in front of a rock. Twice my height, covered in moss. She slips to the side, into a c***k I hadn't seen.
"Here. Quick."
We slip behind the rock. The space is tight, damp, and smells like earth. There are three of us, pressed against the stone. Outside, the sounds are circling around us. Footsteps, breathing, growls, and scratching on the rock wall.
They know we're here.
They're looking for the entrance.
I look at Elidja in the dark. I can't see his face. I can feel him holding his breath.
"What the hell is all this?" Elidja asks.
"We've been followed since we came in, but these creatures are different from the ones at the entrance," I tell him.
"Elidja, try to hold your breath. Breathe in and breathe out. You'll see, it'll work," I tell him.
"Alright," Elidja says.
I hold my breath too.
The creature leans toward us. Her voice is barely a whisper.
"They can't come in here. The rock is ancient. They respect it. Like it prevents them from entering," the creature says.
"Why?" Elidja whispers.
"Because this is where it all began." The creature pauses. "This is where the gate was first opened. A long time ago."
"What gate? What exactly are you talking about?" Elidja asks.
"The gate that separates the two worlds," she says.
"A gate. Damn, what is this now?" says Elidja.
"It's a veil that opened here for the first time," she says.
I look at the rock around me differently now, because according to the creature, everything started here.
Outside, the sounds have slowly begun to fade.
We stay still. Ten minutes. Twenty. Until the silence is complete.
Finally, the creature steps out.
"They're gone. For now," she says.
I breathe out slowly. They're finally gone.
"They're gone. We can come out, Elidja."
"And our father?" I ask her.
The creature looks at us. Her yellow eyes glow faintly in the dark.
"He's further in. Where they keep the prisoners." The creature hesitates. "Your father and five other people. Humans they're keeping to interrogate them. To find out what the hunters know about the gate," she says.
Elidja puts his hand on my shoulder for a second.
We look at each other in the dark.
Dad is there. I can feel it. We're so close, I say.
"Let's go," I say.
"Yes. Dad is in grave danger," says Elidja.
"Yes, it's only a matter of time. Because they already know we're here," says the creature.
"Yeah, she's not wrong," I say out loud.
"Follow me, and be good," she says.
We're following you, then. Take us to our father.
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- Writer
