Erondale

Chapter 11

Toby’s POV

Rae starts to drop from her horse. I don’t know what comes over me but I feel fear for the second time today. I’m not sure what it is but something about Raleigh has my emotions all over the place and heightened.

I jump off my mare, without a second thought to my own safety, and get to her just in time to stop her head from hitting the ground. Sir Alrich comes over and attempts to take her from my arms but I let out a vicious growl.

His eyes widen but I don’t back down. I don’t want him anywhere around her. I don’t trust him. I lay her gently on the ground and walk over to her best friend, Emma. Emma and I have been hanging out for the last few months. We’re friends, even though she has a tiny crush on me.

I know that she does but I’m just not interested in her, in that way. She’s nice enough. So, we were hanging out and riding when we heard Raleigh scream. Fear sparked adrenaline and I shot my mare forward as fast as I could.

A sting of anger hit me when I saw that not only was she fine but she was with Sir Alrich, again. Upset, I decided to return home but ended up finding this instead. I am having a hard time keeping my breakfast in myself.

I gently lay Rae down. Once my heart rate regulates, I take off my jacket and lay her head on it. Emma comes to stand beside us and I grab a hold of her and hold her shaking form in my arms. Glancing over at Sir Alrich, I can’t help but see that his face is expressionless.

“Do you know who this is?” I ask him.

He shakes his head. “No. I don’t. I can’t even tell if it’s a man or a woman.” He whispers.

One thing that most people don’t know about my family, is that we aren’t normal. We can communicate to each other through mind-linking. It’s why our house is on the outside of the territory. I mind link my dad. The King’s blacksmith. I need to get a message to his men.

*Hey, Dad. We have a really bad situation here. I need you to inform the King.*

*What is it, son?* He replies back, instantly.

*We have another dead body.*

*Do you know who it is? Or who killed them?* He asks, stepping into his Alpha role.

*No, Dad. It’s bad. Very bad.*

*Where are you?*

*We are about a quarter of a mile away from Silver Lake.*

*Okay, I’m on it. Are you alone?*

*No. Sir Alrich, Emma, and Raleigh are here.*

*Okay, you kids stay put. Someone is coming.* He orders.

Normally I groan when he calls me a kid. Right now, looking at this body in front of me, I feel like a kid. I look at Sir Alrich and notice that he is using a stick to move the clothes around on the body. Is he searching for something?

“What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to find something to help me identify who this is.” He says quietly.

“Have you found anything?”

“No. Everything is too torn apart.”

That, he is right about. The body laying in front of us is barely recognizable as a person. The hair has been plucked out of their head, there are cuts on the scalp. One cut in particular looks deep enough that you can see the skull. A reddish, almost blackish, color liquid pours out of the wound.

There is so much blood coming out that if they weren’t already dead, I don’t think it would be long before they would be because of that one wound alone. The rest of the hair is matted with blood causing it to clump up into little balls of hair. You can see strands of it laying all over area.

One of the eyeballs is missing, the socket looks like a deep black hole sitting on their face. It gives you a creepy feeling; almost like you could see deep in the soul. It’s eye is laying over to the side while the other is hanging loose out of the socket, blood leaking out of the tear ducts, almost as if the person was crying blood before they succumbed to the fatality of their wounds. The blood runs down the face, in a tear streak path, that leads past the nose to the mouth.

The nose has been cut off so that we see the caverns, or the holes that lead to the brains, inside it. The lips are completely missing. You can see the teeth, all of what’s left that is. Some of the teeth are cracked and broken like someone took a chisel to a few of them.

The cheeks have several holes in it, pieces of the muscles pulled out of the holes. Blood is splattered in indescribable patterns. It’s littered all over the face, down the ear, and smeared across the neck. That's just the face.

The body itself is even worse. Blood is pouring onto the ground in a giant puddle. It’s blackened and some of it has dried onto the ground. Not only is it in the puddle but it’s splattered all around the area in arcs. The chest has been skinned alive and the skin is completely missing. There is no sign of it. All we see is the muscle and bones that lay underneath it. The sternum and ribs are cracked open wide.

The whole bottom half of the body has been separated and lays a few feet away from the main part. It’s so ripped up that we can’t even see the s****l parts that belong to it’s body. In it’s place is a giant hole. The stomach is ripped wide open, with blood pooling outside on to the ground, and the intestines are spilling out.

The arms have half of it’s skin hanging off almost as if some one was in the middle of skinning it when they got interrupted. You can see the bones, muscles, tendons, and arteries on display. I don’t even know where the legs are but taking a glance around, I see blood trailing from the body beyond the trees. It looks like someone dragged both legs on the ground. Every few steps, it looks like blood squirted from an artery.

The sight is a little too much and I hold onto Emma tightly, making sure to hold her in a way that she won’t be able to see it. Unable to hold it in anymore, I run to the nearest tree and throw up everything that I just ate.

“I don’t understand.” I hear Sir Alrich say. “Rae and I passed through here on our way to the lake. We didn’t see this.”

I snap my head up. “That means that whoever did this is still around here.”

His eyes widen. “You’re right.”

He starts to run to his horse but I need to stop him. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to find them.”

“By yourself?”

“Yes. Someone needs to stay here with the ladies.”

As much as I hate to do this, I have to keep him here, I suggest he do the one thing I wish I could be doing instead. “No, you need to be here when Rae wakes up.”

“But, they’ll get away.” He complains.

“That’s not important right now.” I argue.

“How do you think that she will feel when she wakes up, sees this, and you’re gone?” It’s a cheap shot but one that is necessary.

He pauses for a few minutes. He stares at Rae, with sadness, and sighs.“You’re right.”

I let out my breath slowly. My dad said for us to stay put. Seeing this mess and knowing how quick it happened, I would feel guilty if something hurt him.

As much as I don’t like him, Rae does and for some reason I don’t like it when she’s hurting. I watch as he walks over to Rae, placing her head in his lap. He strokes her cheek, whispering something to her. I can tell that he really likes her and it only makes me even more upset. Emma whimpers and I glance down. She’s decided to try and take a look around.

“Don’t” I whisper. “You really don’t need to see this.”

I grab a hold of her again and shield her within my embrace. She’s visibly shaking but she manages to speak to me without a wavering voice. “Why are we still sitting here?”

“We need to stay put until someone comes. We could be in danger.” I explain to her gently.

She buries her head back into my shirt. I can barely hear her when she says, “How do you know any one will come.”

I can’t tell her my family secrets so I just hope that she will stop asking questions.“They will. Just trust me.”

I need to know how far away they are. I’m with Emma. I really want to get away from here. So, I reach out again, through our mind-link.

*Dad?*

*Toby? Hang tight, we’re almost there.*

*I don’t know how long I can sit here staring at this mess.*

*It won’t be long now.*

I don’t respond as I hear the sound of horses. They’re finally here.