I crawl backward, my hand slipping on the rough floor. I want to run, but I can’t get to my feet. The monsters keep coming. I’m crying for help. Trapped in a dark room, I can’t see anything but them. Their bodies are long and thin. Their hands reach as long as their torsos, fingers dragging the ground. Black skin stretches over sharp bones, splitting open with every movement. Their mouths hang wide, filled with jagged teeth that glisten in the darkness. Their eyes aren’t eyes at all, just hollow pits. Watching me.
“Dad. Pa. Leo. Uncle.” My voice breaks into sobs.
Please.
Please take me out of here.
They’re going to kill me.
One of them drags itself closer. Its fingers scrape across the floor, creating a horrible scratching sound. I squeeze my eyes shut. When I open them, light floods the room. The creatures are gone. Now there are only shadows, tall and faceless, standing all around me.
I try to move away. “Go a-away.”
One of them moves closer.
I scramble away. “Do-don’t hurt me.” I cry out.
It listens. It doesn’t come closer.But there are so many, they all want to kill me. How can I stop them?
But then, among the shadows, I see a figure standing still. It isn’t a faceless shadow or a monster. I don’t recognize him, but he looks human. I crawl toward him as fast as I can.
He’ll save me.
Salvario
She’s sitting up in bed, body shaking, staring at everyone with wide eyes, as if these people aren’t her family.
“Go a-away.” Her words are barely recognizable, as if her tongue has grown too heavy to move, slurring everything together.
Her mother tries to reach her, but she scrambles backward, crying out in a terrified voice. “Do-don’t hurt me.”
My eyes burn. A tremor runs through my lips. I press them into a hard line.
She looks at everyone with horror. Then her gaze lands on me, and the tears I’ve been holding back fall.She’s like this because of me. If only I had believed her, none of this would have happened.
The horror in her eyes shifts to confusion. She crawls quickly to the edge of the bed where I’m standing and wraps her arms around my waist. Her arms have no strength, they’re shaking violently, but it seems like that’s all she can manage.
“S-s-save m-me.” I make out the words through her muffled, slurred voice.
“We should leave her room, she’s afraid of us.” Her mother’s voice is thick with tears. Elowen’s head turns toward her, and she clings to me even tighter.
I don’t move. I just stand there, fists balled at my sides, every muscle drawn tight.
Everyone leaves the room. Once I’m alone with her, I move, bending down and picking her up in my arms. She tries to resist, but her muscles have no strength to do so. Her entire body is shaking.
I toe off my shoes and sit on her bed, back against the headboard, holding her in my lap, wrapped in my arms as tightly as I can.
She looks up at me meekly. “Who a-a-are y-you?”
“Someone who should have protected you.” I blink rapidly, trying to clear my vision so I can keep watching her. “Someone who should have trusted you.” My tears fall onto her face. She flinches, eyes squeezing shut.
I cradle her face against my chest, my tremulous lips pressed to the top of her head. My tears keep soaking her hair.
“I’m sorry, baby.” My voice cracks, the words breaking apart between my sobs.
“Who a-a-are you?” she asks again against my chest, the words slurred.
I pull back slightly to see her face. “I’m Salvario.”
