What had broken down the door then? The wind? Magic?
The rain slapped against me, stinging and soaking through my nightgown the second my socked feet hit the road. I scanned left and right, focusing on the left path, one that led to the Crater. At first, I couldn’t make out anything but shadows shifting. Then, I noticed movement, and three silhouettes slid into the dim glow of a streetlamp.
My stomach dropped.
They weren’t like the messenger. These were worse. They were naked, bald, their skin a flat surface holding no features, no mouths, no eyes, and nothing to tell their gender. They looked human only in shape, as though someone had carved out a man’s outline from clay and forgotten to finish it.
My legs moved before I could think, jogging backward, then turning fully.
I ran.
They ran too, their bare feet slapping the wet asphalt as they chased me. Rain streaked my vision, thunder shook the air, and Ithrew a glance over my shoulder every few seconds, praying they weren’t close enough to lunge. Thankfully, they were slow. Still, panic drove me faster, heart hammering as the storm lashed my skin. I didn’t know where I was going. All I could do was run and pray Thrax would find me.
Things like the messenger, the Pylath and these creatures were something I didn’t see in books. If I knew they existed in Nimorran, I would have stayed back.
Who was I kidding?
I would have wanted to come see them for myself. But no one mentioned things like these. No one had ever documented them. Which meant they had never seen them. Or maybe they didn’t live to tell the story? No, there would have been suspicions or assumptions of the existence of these kinds of creatures near The Crater.
I could not be the first to be experiencing this. No.
One minute, I was feeling safe because I’d put enough distance between myself and thethings, the next, I heard heavier and faster steps breaking through the rain.
My blood iced over. I twisted my head, almost tripping, to see a second pack. They were even more unpleasant than the previous type. I couldn’t really make out anything from the rain obscuring my view, but their short arms stood out. They had the body shape of a human, but shorter arms, definitely elbow-length. They outran those three, matching my speed and closing the gap slowly. They were seven.
Terror clawed my throat raw. My breaths came sharp and ragged, my chest on fire as the cold stole my strength, every stride shaking like ice ran in my veins. My phone was clutched in one fist, my knife in the other, and I ran like the night itself was trying to hunt me down.
Their screeches tore through the thunder—shrieks too shrill to be animal, and too hollow to be human.
My body weakened, legs shaking, breath hitching. They were gaining.
But I didn't stop.
The lights from most houses were off, no doubt asleep. Or pretending to. In no time, they closed up, and I searched ahead, hoping to run into Thrax, my chest beating so loud I felt like ripping it out.
I heard their sounds directly behind me, and when I glanced back, they were just as close, so close they’d grab me if they stretched their short arms enough.
Knowing I had just me to save myself, I clenched the knife tight, ready to stab through any of them. The thought made my hand shake, but I reminded myself that they were not human and they had no feelings. It was alright.
A limb clamped my shoulder.
Gritting my chattering teeth, I blindly swung my hand back mid-run, blade slicing through its chest. The creature screamed, stumbling back.
I didn’t have time to breathe before another yanked my soaked hair, dragging my head back. Pain flared down my neck as I tried not to scream, whipping the knife across its arm. The severed limb hit the wet ground with a sickening thud. I didn’t stop to look back.
The knife was so sharp I was sure I wasn’t the one who purchased it. I was bad in the kitchen and buying an extremely sharp knife was something I learned in the early stage not to do—
An arm like a vice locked around my neck and wrenched me backward, hurling me onto the gravel road. My breath left me in a violent gasp as my skin scraped the wet stone.
I lifted my head to see one light coming from a window. A man with a cup in his hand was behind it, frozen as he stared at me and the monsters trying to tear me apart.
“Help!” I screamed.
And he moved. But not toward me—no. He shut the curtains, and the light went out.
My gut sank like lead.
Fuck.
