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68

Luke jerked awake, completely smothered in darkness. He covered his mouth and nose, not wanting his panicked breathing to wake his siblings.

Perhaps sensing their big brother's distress, Valery nuzzled against him, moaning softly in her sleep, and Tim let out a little snore.

Luke reached over and hugged them both, taking comfort in their warmth and the knowledge that they really were still alive and breathing.

But that dream. He'd had nightmares before, but never anything like this. Normal nightmares started to fade away the moment you opened your eyes and they disappeared completely by the time you lit a candle. In any kind of light, even the darkest dream could seem silly, embarrassing even, so you forgot it and went back to sleep. But this... it was as if he was still trapped inside.

It had been so dark, so black, he could barely see anything, but he knew he wasn't alone. He had his little brother and sister with him, because -

You'll take good care of them, won't you?

• because they were all running away from something. It was part of the dark, moving all around them. It had teeth, far too many teeth, even for a maw of such incredible size. There were hundreds of them, arranged in rows. Even the gaps between the main teeth were filled with thousands of smaller teeth, moving and wriggling across its bloody gums like swarms of bees. Its throat was like a red tunnel leading straight to hell, and at its centre it had a single, unblinking eye, drowning in blood.

He had grabbed Tim and Valery's hands and they had sprinted through the darkness, but the shadows themselves were thick and unyielding and fought against their every stride.

Luke had been too afraid to look back in his dream, but he had heard the sound of its footsteps, crunching through the snow. The gait was uneven, which meant that it had to have been limping, and yet it had absolutely no trouble keeping up with them. The sound had gotten louder and louder, closer and closer, until the darkest shadow he had ever seen fell across their backs. It was so deep it made the pitch blackness all around them seem as dull as dishwater. It was covered in sharp spikes from head to toe and it had two thick demonic horns sprouting from its head. It had reached out to them with claws as long as knives, and all the while that terrible sound just kept getting louder, the sound of uneven footsteps crunching through the snow, coming closer and -

His heart stopped dead, then continued at triple speed. He perked his ears and listened.

At first there was nothing, but then it came again. The unmistakable sound of footsteps, coming right for them. And it was not in his imagination.

"Tim!" he whispered. "Tim!" His little brother didn't stir, so Luke reached over and shook him by the shoulder. "Tim, wake up!"

He groaned and muttered, "Luke? What? What's wrong?"

"Shh! Listen!"

They both held their breath. The footsteps were close enough now so that they didn't even need to strain their ears to hear them, even through the thick, rough walls of the log.

"What are we going to do?" Tim whispered, absolutely frantic.

Luke already knew the answer to that one. Nothing. They were trapped. They were tired and hungry and freezing. They were three children incapable of fighting back. If Banno found them, they were as good as dead. It was as simple as that.

Valery stirred against him, clutching at his clothes as if she were drowning. Luke prayed that she would settle down and go back to sleep, but tonight was not a night for prayers to be answered. She reached up and rubbed her eyes. "Luke? What's going -"

He pressed a finger against her lips. "Shh..."

She caught on quick and didn't make a sound, but she couldn't stop herself from shaking in fear. Luke took her hand in both of his and tried to stay as still as possible, but it was hard. His body had gone into panic mode, and that called for air, but every little movement seemed so loud he was scared to even breathe.

They cowered together in the dark, brothers and sister, and they listened.

The sound was coming from Luke's side - a soft crunch of snow roughly every three seconds.

Valery whimpered in the dark. It was a tiny sound, like the frightened squeaking of a mouse in a trap.

"Shh, Valery," Luke whispered. "It's okay, I'm here. I won't let anything happen to you."

She buried her face against his chest and tried to stay as still as possible, but he could feel her heart beating even faster than his own.

You'll take good care of them, won't you?

I'll try, Dad. I'll try my very best, but I don't know what else I can do...

The sound was gone. There was nothing. It was just the darkness all around them. Never before had Luke experienced silence as total as this. He couldn't even hear the rustling of his siblings' clothes or the steady whisper of their breaths. It was as if he had gone deaf. What was going on out there? Did it leave? Did the evil pass them over?

No.

Something slammed down on the wood above their heads and Valery jerked against him. He didn't know how they managed to not scream out loud - perhaps they were too scared to scream - but he doubted it would have made a difference anyway.

A long, slow, scraping sound travelled through the wood, starting at their heads and going down towards their feet before repeating again.

Something was sweeping the snow off the log.

*

Banno stuck his hand into the snow and swept it aside, hating the feel of it against his burned palm, all slick and cold. Even the noise it made as it fell to the ground annoyed him, so muffled and soft, as if the nothingness had gotten into sound itself, making it fake and dead.

He stuck his hand in again, but this time his claws struck something solid.

"Hello..." He brushed the last layer of snow aside and was rewarded for his efforts with a glimpse of black wood. The snow had filled all the tiny little cracks in the bark like bolts of lightning, but that was okay. Sometimes, when the critters of the forest tried to hide from the cold, but they didn't have a hole in the ground or a cave to snuggle up in, they'd settle for a fallen tree like this. The elements hollowed it out for them, and they huddled together to sleep the winter away. Badgers, squirrels, skunks, and maybe...

Foxes.

Banno slowly walked to the end and dropped down to one knee. Pus leaked from his ear and mixed with the blood and drool hanging from his shredded lip and dripped into the snow in a disgusting blend of white, red, and yellow.

"Are you in here?" he whispered, feeling that tingle of excitement rushing through his veins. "Are you trying to hide from me, Valery? So naughty of you. But don't worry, I'll forgive you. I'll forgive you because I love you..." He plunged his hands in the snow and scooped it off to the side, barely feeling the cold at all. "I'll finish what we started, and then we'll finally be together. Just you, me, and Vallah. I'll take you in my arms, and then I'll take you in my mouth, and then I'll take you inside, where you belong..." He dug through the snow, and he bled, and he smiled. "I'll never let you go..."

*

There was something at the entrance of the log, scratching and digging at the snow, trying to get in.

There was no way out. They were stuck. It was like being back in that terrible dream all over again, unable to move, unable to run, unable to save his family, unable to do anything.

They held each other in the dark, not making a sound, and listened to the claws scrape and dig through the snow, each swipe growing steadily louder as their last and only line of defence became thinner and thinner. The pale light of the moon finally started to shine through, illuminating the snow from the inside with a soft blue glow, but even that kept flickering in and out as the shadow moved back and forth, and then...

A dark, bloody hand broke through.

*

Banno's hand plunged all the way through the snow, into the hollow trunk beyond. His tongue was hanging from his mouth, dripping with saliva.

"Now I got you," he muttered, scraping the last dregs of snow aside. "Finally, I got you... I got you!" He got down on all fours and peeked inside.

There was nothing in there but shadows and the smell of decaying wood. He stuck his head inside as far as it would go, squinting and sniffing, but there was definitely nothing in there, not even squirrel pellets. He pulled his head back, shaking with cold and anger, and punched the side of the log with all the strength he could muster, sending bits of bark and sharp splinters of wood flying through the air. "Dammit!" He raised his fist to punch it again, and that was when an odd burst of pain bloomed inside his head, just behind where his right eye used to be. The world swayed beneath his legs and he had to grab hold of the log just to keep himself from tipping over. He massaged his temple, blinking his one good eye in an attempt to clear the strange red filter that had fallen over his vision, making everything seem bloody. The trees were covered in it, their branches heavy and dripping. The snow was made from it, just heaps of frozen blood crystals that had fallen from a red, bleeding sky. Even the log in his hands didn't look like a dead tree anymore. It looked like a carcass ripped to tatters, with broken ribs pointed to the sky and a hollow chest cavity slowly filling with blood.

Blood... everywhere...

Something warm dribbled from his nose and flowed over his lips and teeth, something bitter. Banno wiped the back of his hand across his muzzle and (no surprise) it came back soaked in blood. He stared at it, the red vapour of his breath flowing between his splayed fingers like bloody steam, and for the first time he realised there might be something wrong with him.

No, wait... This feeling wasn't new. It had always been there, a sense of incompleteness. It had just never been this strong before. If he could find Valery, though... If he could find her and make her a part of him, he'd be all better. She would fix everything.

They'd make each other whole again.

Just thinking about her was enough to clear his vision. The blood leaked away from the centre, putting everything back the way it was, the regular old fake colours of the night: black, white, and grey.

The red stayed at the edges, though, pulsing and undulating, acting as a reminder. He had to find Valery, and he had to do it soon, before it was too late.

He checked the log one last time, just to make absolutely sure he hadn't missed anything, then stood up with a groan, fighting the wave of dizziness threatening to throw him right back down to his knees.

Find me, Banno. Please, please find me...

He looked around, scanning every tree and bush and clump of snow. She had to be somewhere in these woods, and he would find her. He would rescue her.

He would bring her home.

*

The hand pulled back, scraping a bit of snow with it, then reappeared again, making the hole bigger and bigger.

Luke held onto Valery as hard as he could. If that thing wanted to get her, he'd have to pry her from his cold, dead hands first.

A cloud must have chosen that exact moment to pass in front of the moon, because even the tiny bit of pale blue light that had illuminated the snow slowly faded away to pitch black, leaving only the sound of scratching claws.

"I'm scared," Valery whispered. "Oh, Luke, I'm so scared..."

The last layer of snow crumbled away and a dark shadow appeared in the entrance. It was spiky and ruffled, with a pair of demonic horns growing out of its head. It was exactly like the shadow that had fallen over him in his dream, reaching out to grab and devour everything in its path - teeth and claws and endless throat, a deep red tunnel leading straight to hell itself.

Luke kissed his little sister on the forehead and held her tight.

The cloud shifted and the pale fairy-light of the moon slowly returned, turning pitch black to grey, and grey to faded blue. The demonic shadow staring in at them began to change. The horns turned into a pair of ears, and the dark spikes turned into tufts of red fur. The reaching claws turned into a hand with broken fingers. The moonlight finally reached his face, wiping away the last dregs of Luke's hellish nightmare, revealing something he thought he'd never see again. The kind eyes, squinting into the darkness, searching...

"Kids?" His voice was frantic, desperate. "Are you in there?"