The wind whistled loudly all around him as he stopped in the center of the field. Yucca plants broke the snow covered plain, their long, green points standing high above the ground as the wind tossed the powder into swirling clouds all around. Branches rattled together, the sound of bark raking against bark the only other sound that he could discern from the night.
His heart rose into his chest, a damp layer of cold sweat matting his creased forehead. Each quick breath shuddered past his lips, the frozen air in his quivering chest turning to mist as it burst into the night.
The shrubbery rustled behind him as it parted as Harry suddenly appeared. He was wheezing loudly, barely more than stumbling through the deep snow. Doubling over, he placed his hands on his knees as he stood next to Scott, coughing. He stared down at the ground sucking in as much as possible as quickly as he could, before finally looking up, scanning the line of trees at the other side of the field.
“Where…?” Harry huffed, pausing just long enough for a couple of deep breaths. “Where did they go?”
“I’m not sure.”
Scott focused intently on the darkness all around, all of his senses poised taut as he searched for some clue as to where they had gone.
“We have to keep moving,” Harry said, finally able to stand fully erect, his shoulders still heaving.
“But where should we go? I see absolutely no sign of them anywhere.”
“If we just stop, you’re friend’s as good as dead.”
“There’s no doubt in my mind that he already is.”
“Then what do you want to do?”
“I don’t know,” Scott said softly, his voice trailing off as the wind swept it from his lips.
The two stood in silence, side by side, as the dark night closed in around them.
A loud noise boomed from somewhere, sounding as though it came from all sides at once. It was a cracking sound, like a thousand branches being snapped in half all at the same time. Fading back into the night, the silence swelled around them as they scanned the tree line that encircled them. There was another booming noise, then another, and another. It was straight across the field from them, and it was getting closer with each successive sound. The tops of the trees ahead tossled visibly, the white snow shaking off to expose the green needles beneath.
Holding their breath, they could do little but watch as fear overwhelmed every inch of their frozen flesh.
The noise grew louder and louder as the forest itself sounded as though it was being ripped apart. Trees crashed to the ground just out of their range of view, the ground shuddering beneath their feet.
It was coming closer and closer, they could feel whatever it was there with them in the darkness, laying siege to the grove of pines straight ahead of them. Wide eyed, they watched in horror as the wall of trees straight ahead imploded. The center of the trunks seemed to implode from the core, fragments of wood no larger than toothpicks flying through the air from the suddenly halved trunk. The upper reaches of the trees toppled to the side, the heavily needled branches crashing to the ground with a thud.
“Sweet Jesus,” Harry muttered, quickly covering his eyes as the fragmented, sap- drenched shards of tree trunk rained down on them.
As silence finally settled into the forest around them, the last remnants of the booming explosion of the trees echoing high in the valleys above, the two surveyed the area. The trees had been cleared in what looked to be a large path leading straight ahead of them into the hills. Jagged, pointed stumps littered the snow- covered ground in the ten-foot wide path leading up the slope into the darkness. The remains piled against the still standing trunks to either side, the green and brown masses of the fallen trees pressed together to make it look like a half pipe. Tiny yellow wooden shrapnel peppered the snow all around them in the small clearing, sticking to their clothes with the sticky yellow sap as the smell of pine all around them was almost overwhelming. At the end of the channel carved through the trees, deep within the darkness that rolled down the face of the western slope of the Rockies, there was the shadow of a man.
“We need to go,” Harry whispered, tugging on Scott’s sleeve.
“What… who is that?” Scott asked, staring at the pitch- black shade of the human form from which all of the darkness seemed to resonate.
“Now!” Harry whispered forcefully, looping his arm around Scott’s and dragging him through the clearing towards where they had come from.
Scott stared back over his shoulder at the darkened figure as Harry fought to drag him back towards the car with everything that he had. Stumbling, but unable to steer his gaze, Scott watched in awe as the figure raised its arms out to either side and held them there, the trunks of the trees suddenly bending as though they were made of rubber. A pair of amber eyes glowed like small pinpoints of sunlight from beneath the figure’s darkened brow. His eyes locking on those of the massive shadow, those eyes helplessly entranced him, everything else fading to black around him.
“Come on!” Harry shouted, his voice dissipating beneath the loud siren of the wind as it howled down through the channel from the snow- capped peaks above. The shadow of the man grew wider; the tattered and shredded fabric that dangled from his shadowy form tossing and snapping about him like long thin flags as the raging wind rocketed past.
Scott could do nothing more than stare at the shadowy figure, feeling hopelessly drawn towards it.
His barely dragging feet snagging on the twisted and ragged trunks of the mass of scrub oak, Scott slipped from Harry’s grasp, crumpling into the mess of tangled branches which cut off the view of the image with its fiery ashen eyes. His whole body seemed to grow limp, a warm, pleasant sensation washing through every inch of his formerly frozen flesh. It was as though he was laying on a beach somewhere tropical, just he and the hot equatorial sun that shined down on him alone. There was but the vaguest impression of discomfort beneath his armpits as he could feel Harry’s hands gripping tightly, dragging him through the tangled array of branches and beneath the cover of the pines. His eyes lolled back beneath his only partially closed lids as a feeling more pleasurable than any he had experienced in what he could then remember of his pained life flooded through his senses and he felt nothing but the warming tingle that buzzed electrically through his veins.
A small line of blood rolled over his upper lip from beneath his right nostril, clinging to the chapped skin momentarily before running down into his slacken mouth, pooling on his upper teeth.
“Get up and walk, damn it!” Harry shouted down at him as his aching arms and back could no longer find the will to drag him.
Harry knelt on the ground above Scott, whose eyes finally rolled back from beneath his fluttering lids enough to give him the semblance of consciousness.
“Look at me!” Harry growled, grabbing Scott’s face between his two leathery palms and shaking it atop his flimsy neck. “You need to get up right now or we are both going to die out here!”
Loud, booming footsteps echoed through the foothills as the ground shook beneath them. The thicket of scrub oak they had just passed through rattled as the branches tossed against the line of snow beyond.
Boom.
Boom.
“Wake up!” Harry shouted, smacking Scott across the face as he frantically looked up towards the origin of the sound, his tensed legs poised in anticipation of their call to flight.
Scott’s mouth slowly closed, his dry tongue smacking against his dehydrated palate. His fluttering lids opened momentarily as his eyeballs rolled back completely into his skull before reappearing again as he fought to awaken from whatever trance had gripped hold of his physical form.
Boom.
“Get up!” Harry called through a wave of panic as tears spontaneously streamed from his eyes.
Boom.
Powdered snow cascaded through the air all around them in a sparkling crystalline shower of glimmering flakes from the tops of the trees where it had been piled nearly since the start of winter.
Boom.
Harry slipped his arm beneath Scott’s armpit and heaved him into the air, his back screaming in agony from the shards of white hot pain that stabbed into his brittle back like the searing blades of so many daggers.
Boom.
Turning, Harry could feel Scott’s dangling feet fighting through whatever possessed him, lightly kicking at the ground as they fought to find some sort of traction.
Boom.
The sound was so close he could feel the vibrations from the trembling ground clear up into his thighs. His eyes fixed on his winding path through the maze of the trees as the tears froze to his bright red cheeks.
Crash.
The scrub oak peeled back behind them as whatever was the source of that booming exited the clearing, slamming into the wall of branches, which peeled back and splintered into nothingness.
Boom.
Scott’s toes danced of the ground as something vaguely reminiscent of feeling coursed through the blood. The warm glow, which had dulled his senses, was slipping out through his pores into the night, allowing the waves of coldness to creep back along his flesh, chilling the skin before stabbing like sharp icicles into the flesh beneath. His eyes fixed on the ground as his head bobbed on his noodle of a neck.
Boom. Crash.
Branches were ripped from the trunks of the pines, the green needles filling the air about the shadowy form as it’s heavy footfalls pounded on the ground. Forcing its way through the forest, anything in its way was pulverized into powder.
Boom.
His feet starting to churn in an attempt to run, Scott’s feet sunk into the deep snow, wrenching him out of Harry’s grip. Landing face first in the packed powder, he closed his eyes tightly, pushing back the ice crystals that burned like fire against his bare eyeballs as he tried to get his arms beneath to push himself back up.
Boom!
“Get up!” Harry screamed. He whirled and grabbed Scott by the back of the shirt, dragging him along the ground as he watched the foliage behind them exploding in a cloud of green and white. He could see the black form in the center of the shrapnel, those eyes glowing like embers as they locked onto him.
Boom!
Bracing his hands against the frozen earth beneath the mat of snow, Scott dragged his legs under him and he was at least on all fours. Fighting against the wrenching on his shirt, he stumbled to his feet, lurching forward of his own volition.
Boom!
Harry let go of the sweatshirt, glancing back just long enough to ensure that Scott was on his feet. Turning back to the winding course through the irregularly spaced trunks, he barely had enough time to force his eyes shut as he ran straight into the low lying branch. The rough bark tore at the skin on his forehead, splitting it wide in a series on scrapes, the skin around it turning purple. The swelling began at impact.
Boom!
His feet flew out from beneath him as the next thing to land would be his shoulders as he watched his feet rise up into view against the dark canopy of the trees above. The back of his head slammed into the snow, which plumed into the air around him as his back crashed to the earth as well. Flopping helplessly at the ends of his flailing legs, his feet were the last to come crashing down.
Boom!
Scott scrambled onto his hands and knees by Harry, trying to slip his hands beneath Harry’s shoulders and hips, in hopes of, even in his severely weakened state, picking him up to carry him from the grove.
Boom!
The ground shuddered beneath them as Scott fought in vain to raise Harry from the ground as he rolled from side to side trying to regain the wind that had been forced from his suddenly collapsed lungs. It felt as though the earth was going to open wide and swallow them as it trembled beneath the thunderous footfalls that were now nearly upon them.
Boom!
The crashing was right behind him now, the echoing footfalls no more than a few feet from his turned back now. He could feel the cold breath of whatever it was that was following them raise the hackles on the back of his neck. The ferocious wind that ripped through the air, seeming to originate from the very core of their stalker, gusted painfully from behind, carrying with it the shrapnel from the leveled forest.
Boom!
Clenching his fists at his sides, Scott stared down at Harry briefly. His clenched eyes finally opened as his rolling stopped, that first wonderfully cold inhalation filling his lungs from the finally gasp. Knowing that there was nothing he could do for his new found friend other than watch him breath, Scott summoned the swell of adrenaline that pumped up from his chest, spilling out through his vessels into every corner of his being. His chest began to pound in anticipation. His bared teeth curled back his tightly sewn lips, his breath bursting from his nostrils like a wild bull.
Boom!
His legs tensed as he prepared to leap to his feet. His fingernails pressed crescents into his palms as his pulse throbbed within his tightly closed fists. He just needed it to get a little closer. Just a little more….
Boom!
Leaping to his feet, he whirled around. Facing the direction where the booming had come from, he led with his right, swinging it in a huge arc with all of the might that he could muster. It whistled through the air, landing on nothing but the thin night air as he stumbled forward, losing his balance. Toppling into the snow, he hopped back to his feet as soon as he hit the cold surface. His head snapped from one side to the other as he sought to gain a glimpse of whatever had been there only a second before.
But there was nothing there.
“My son,” a deep voice whispered along the breeze that streamed through the forest, swirling about them for a moment before finally being absorbed by the darkness.
“Where…?” Scott stammered as he whirled, trying to find the figure that had been right on their heels only a moment prior. It had sounded so massive, how could it have just vanished without a sound?
There was a loud crashing in the underbrush to the right as Scott whirled in time to catch the flash of the eyes of a large buck as it bounded through the foliage, its enormous rack of antlers blending in with the criss- crossing mass of tangled branches above it. Its eyes flashed like two yellow lights, their image lingering against the night as there was but a flash from the white patch on its hind end as it bounded off into the night.
“Are you all right?” Scott asked, turning as he noticed that Harry was now sitting up, sucking in the crisp air as though he had never done so before.
“Yeah,” he wheezed, take one long inhalation before allowing a long, thin sigh to creep from his lips, his shoulders finally settling into a slouch.
Scott caught movement from the top of his eyes and immediately looked up. There was a darkened shape hovering in midair against the line of trees in front of them.
“Help me,” a wispy voice whispered as the object dangling in midair came into focus.
It was a skull.
The flesh had been ripped from the exposed bone, severed muscles and tendons dangling from where they connected to the red stained skull. Two barren black holes stared at them from the center of the dripping face, the blood flowing in streams down the exposed bone, welling atop the stone cut cheek bones before falling in long lines to the snow.
“Please,” the apparition mouthed, its jaw clicking with the movement. “Help me.”
Scott stared at it, fighting his trembling legs as they wanted nothing more then to burst into a sprint, carrying him as far away from there as they possibly could. Slowly, a dark outline of a human form appeared beneath the skull, barely standing out from the darkened night. Perhaps he had at first mistaken it for one of the trunks of the trees that lined his view, or perhaps it hadn’t been there at all, but slowly it came into focus, barely discernible against the blackness that seemed to emanate from it, rather than from the night.
Tattered strands of fabric blew like tendrils from the form along the light breeze that had changed directions unnaturally so that now it was blowing right into his
face. Two fiery embers peered forth from the blackness that surrounded the face beneath the shroud, burning straight through him with their blazing stare. A long arm extended from the form’s shoulder straight up into the floating skull, the hand disappearing within.
“Help me,” the meek voice cried again, the hand making the mouth of the skull move.
Scott just stared at the skull, which merely mouthed the words that floated on the sap- tinged air.
A loud, cackling laugh burst past the cracked lips of the figure that finally lowered the skull and turned it so that he could look into the hollow sockets where the eyes had only recently been. More laughter ensued as he moved his hand beneath the bone, causing the hinged jaw to open and close.
Even in the darkness and without being able to make out more than the outline of the shape, Scott knew that it was Matt.
“Help me Obi Wan Kenobi,” Matt uttered through the cackling, amusing himself with the lifeless skull. “You are my only hope.”
Laughter boomed from the core of the shadow as Scott was helpless to do anything more than watch.
“Here,” Matt said, his glowing eyes fixing directly on Scott.
He tossed the skull through the night, the darkened shape disappearing into shadows in midair before finally appearing right in front of him. Scott caught it against his chest, the damp, red fluid leeching into the fabric of his sweatshirt. He could feel the cold wetness of the rapidly drying skull on the skin of his palms. Holding it out on front of him, he could see clumps of blood stained hair matted to the barren skull, the seams in the plates of the bulbous head looking like sutures. As he watched it, the lower jaw cracked audibly as it lowered, the jaggedly broken teeth parting.
“It’s time,” a deep, hollow voice echoed from within the mass of bone in his hands.
Startled, he dropped the skull to the ground as though it had been a poisonous snake poised to strike at him. He eyes followed it to the ground where it sunk straight into the deep snow, only the reddened cap of the head visible atop the piled white powder.
The Bloodspawn Page 30