If you hear the dark ticking and clicking.
Run for your life,
There’s something hunting you in the dark.
I flinch at my mother’s words in my head and force them out, listening to Reed. His vile words have softened, and now he’s singing about confusion and pain. Trying to understand why. He sounds so far away.
He’s a voice in the dark. A rope. My path home, and I cling to him for a long moment. I live in the dark, always. And I’m the hunter, not whatever this is.
I finally start heading deeper, but this time, I move faster, running.
Sing louder.
Sing, Reed. Sing.
I find more and more bodies before I finally hear them. Leaf is growling and struggling. That alone alarms me.
“What’s in the dark, mother?” I say, twisting so I can curl my pudgy arms around her neck. She pulls me tight against her chest and kisses my cheek.
“It’s the beetle,” she whispers.
“The beetle? What’s a beetle?”
“It sticks you with poison and drags you down to eat you like a liquid soup.” She tickles my belly until I cry with laughter, but I was always scared of beetles after that. As she intended, as I should be.
“Fucking bugs,” I snarl as the memory slams into me. I hate bugs.
I launch through the space, using my hands on the walls and floor, guiding my way until I see Leaf. His green is a throbbing, furious colour as he struggles to hold something back. I don’t hesitate, rushing over to it and climbing up its body.
Its body is smooth but covered with coarse, thick hair that I use to pull myself up. It’s three times taller than me and twelve times longer if my calculations are right.
It’s massive, but there’s got to be a- ah, here it is.
I stab down, shoving my arm deep into its eyeball. I rip and tear, holding on as it goes wild, thrashing around and bucking. My talons slice through its insides, and it falls, dead. I roll free and stand up, flicking the disgusting bug eye juices off my arm. Absolutely and totally revolting.
“Leaf, where are they?” I snap out. I don’t like the sudden quiet. Is he still there?
He growls but doesn’t answer.
“Leaf?”
“I can’t see. How can you live like this? I feel so-”
“Vulnerable?” I say with amusement.
“Yes.”
I dance around, running my fingers over everything until I locate my four Sirens. They are alive and breathing. I grab Ronit and pause, cocking my head and listening. Something in the air, like a quivering.
“What is that?” Leaf asks, moving closer towards me by instinct.
I reach out and place a hand on the wall. It’s vibrating, the earth is pushing in, closing the wound the beetle created.
Fuck.
“Leaf, come towards my voice.”
He walks towards me, and I pass Ronit into his arms. I grab Brio, who is the next closest, shove him at Leaf, and I grab Lirin and Canto by the back of their tops.
