Ander - Part 5: Subchapter 69
69
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's had nightmares before, but never anything like this. Normal nightmares start to fade away the moment you open your eyes and they disappear completely by the time you light a candle. In any kind of light, even the darkest dream can seem silly, embarrassing even, so you forget it and go 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?"
"Ssh! 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. "Sshh..."
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.
"Sshh, 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.
Hey guys, sorry for the short updates lately. Normally I would've just fused them together with asterisks, but the next subchapters still need some work. Sorry. :/
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