by Sara Clancy
“You want to jump?” his hissed in a low breath.
“You want to stay?” she replied.
“We could die from this height.”
Holding his gaze, she tried to sound braver than she felt. “It would be a better way to go.”
The wind picked up with a new violence, forcing them up and down for a few feet before the wires grew taut. Clicks and twangs filled the air as the metal protested. With her cheek pressed tight against the rubber, she couldn’t look away from Tristan’s wide eyes. Careful to keep every other part of her body frozen in place, Ruby skimmed her hand over the floor towards his. He did the same and their air-numbed fingers met halfway. They clutched to each other just as something solid crashed into the top of the carriage.
The blow sent them swaying wildly. Ruby bit her lips, forcing herself to keep her eyes open as footsteps echoed from above. Just keep going, she begged silently. Please, don’t see us. Just go. Another thud and the carriage bucked. Another. Tristan kept his eyes locked onto hers as they waited. While the companionship was comforting, the shadows had turned his eyes a dark, inky color. She felt sick.
Three soft taps against the glass. Tristan and Ruby scrambled up, swinging around to sit back to back. He clicked the flashlight on, flicking the beam from one window to the next while Ruby clutched Tristan’s hand and her knife with equal ferocity. The children were on the roof, each one ducking down to stare at them through the wall of windows. They remained in place, still smiling, as the carriage swung wildly in the growing wind.
“Let us in,” the little girl said. “We won’t take long.”
Neither Tristan nor Ruby responded. Breaking into a blind rage, the children began to pound against the glass. Fractures severed the glass like spider webs. The children clawed and tore at the glass, creating holes for them to sink their fingers through. Ignoring the pain in her leg, Ruby lunged up and raked her blade across the questing hand. She wasn’t convinced that she had hurt them but they pulled back nonetheless. So she slashed again. Again. Driving the children back as they tried to burrow in.
It was a losing battle. Tristan cried out as the doors whooshed open. Ruby whirled around. Without hesitation, she drove the blade into the closest child. The little boy. Still holding onto Tristan, she felt him reel back with disgust as the boy slumped onto the floor. Pulling the knife from the tiny face, she slashed at one of the girls. Tristan, having shaken off his shock, hurried forward to help. Giggles rang in Ruby’s ears as the girls toyed with them. A sudden burst of wind slammed into the carriage. Already unbalanced, Ruby was knocked off of her feet.
Tristan staggered forward as he refused to let go of her hand. With wide swings, he used the heavy flashlight like a war hammer, trying to keep the girls at bay. Pain pulsed through Ruby, keeping her down as securely as a hand around her neck. She blinked past the tears forming in her eyes. As her vision cleared, she found herself inches away from the mangled face of the boy. He blinked.
With a staggered cry, Ruby threw herself up. In her haste, she knocked into Tristan just as another gust struck. The carriage lurched. Caught off guard, Tristan fell through the open door, his unrelenting grip on Ruby dragging her out behind him. They toppled over each other as they plummeted. The frozen wind gave way to branches that cracked as they passed. Pine needles and clumps of snow filled her mouth as she tried to scream. A dry crack sounded as she hit the ground. Agony exploded within her, leaving no doubt that her leg was broken.
Leaves and clumps of dirty snow littered down upon her as she curled in on herself. Squeezing her eyes tight, there was no way she could keep the pathetic sobs and groans from escaping her. Saliva dripped from her lips as she struggled to roll over. The final blow and the break combined to rob her of any higher thinking. It was only the intense, primal instinct to flee.
A light flickered and waved across her closed eyelids. She winced, bearing her teeth like a feral animal as she squirmed away. Hands fell on her and she thrashed. If it weren’t for the damage to her stomach, she would have sunk her teeth into the flesh of the hand.
“Ruby.” Tristan barely got the name past his lips before he fell into a series of ragged coughs. “Get up.”
One arm weaved under her shoulders, but he struggled to lift her.
“My leg’s broken,” she sobbed.
“So is my arm,” he countered. “Get the hell up!”
Her ribs became an inferno as she slung her arm across his shoulders. Close enough to the tree to use it as a brace, she helped Tristan drag her up onto her feet. Pain narrowed the world to a few components. The shifting beam of the flashlight. The crunch of snow covered earth. Tristan’s warmth pushing against her side. She didn’t know where they were going. She just kept moving. Following Tristan as he lumbered forward.
The forest opened up around them. Gravel crunched under their shoes before her mind caught up with the fact that they were crossing the staff parking lot. Tristan propped her against the side of his car as he dropped to his knees. The slight motion made him scream, but he still curled lower and reached into the wheel well. Still catching her breath, it took a dedicated effort for her to lift her head. Shadows shifted along the tree line. The trees shivered in the moonlight as something small ran past.
“Tristan.” She had intended to yell, but the most she could summon was a whine. “Tristan. Hurry!”
The children emerged from the tree, sprinting towards them.
“Tristan!”
With a victorious grunt, he yanked a magnetic box free and slipped out his spare key. The children were only a few feet away as he opened the door and threw himself inside. Her broken leg made it hard for her to follow. The smallest girl flung herself at Ruby’s window as it slammed shut. Bellowing with rage, the tiny child struck the window, breaking it bit by bit, and demanding entrance. The car’s engine roared to life. Tristan shoved the car into reverse, yanking on the wheel as he peeled out of the parking space and straight into a tree. She felt the jolt right through her bones.
Tristan cursed under his breath as he worked the gears. Perhaps out of habit, he flicked the headlights on. Stark white light illuminated the world and washed over the three children. A cold sweat beaded across Ruby’s skin as the children began to walk towards them. Their eyes were sleek black onyx. Their bodies barely showing any sign of strain. Tristan stomped down on the gas. The car burst forward, bearing down on the children. They didn’t flinch and neither did he. The engine strained as they drove over the children and barreled down the road.
“Oh God,” Tristan whispered over and over. His eyes wide and jaw slack.
It hit Ruby then that Tristan hadn’t experienced the children as she had. Not directly. Not face to face. She wasn’t even sure that he had actually even gotten a decent look at the black eyed children. For him, there would still be some lingering part of his mind that couldn’t separate the sight he saw before him, of the small, delicate forms being crushed under the car wheels, from the demons he knew them to be.
“Oh God. Oh God!”
“Keep driving,” Ruby demanded as she twisted in her seat.
In the red glow of the rear lights, it was easy to see three dark silhouettes. They seemed to grow smaller as Tristan sped down the road, just before the light faded and the darkness claimed them again.
She watched them get up.
***
Ruby didn’t bother to open her eyes until Tristan turned the engine off. Blinking against the harsh floodlights of the gas station, she lifted her head to look at him, not daring to move beyond that. It didn’t hurt as much if she stayed still. Tristan swore under his breath as he pulled off his seatbelt. His attention instantly locked on her legs. Swept up with adrenaline, Ruby hadn’t noticed that the leg she had broken wasn’t the one that was already injured.
“How’s your arm?” she asked.
“I’m pretty sure it’s my collarbone,” he said.
The question wasn’t enough to draw his attention from the bump in her shin.
Since there was no blood seeping into her jeans, she was sure the bone hadn’t broken the skin. But something was clearly where it shouldn’t have been.
“One more town,” she said.
“We’ve driven through three,” he said. “We need to get you to a hospital.”
“What we need to do is get out of here before the cops start asking questions,” she corrected. “I was lucky the first time. Everyone was so used to people getting attacked by ‘animals’ in those woods that they were quick to write it off. But this,” she shuddered as she thought back over what they had just left behind. “How are we supposed to explain any of this?”
Tristan stared at her, his eyes widening as he realized the extent of their situation.
“People will understand why we made a run for it. We were trapped by murders. We were injured. Of course we run.”
“Do you really think they’ll believe that I had nothing to do with those murders after they hear about what happened in the Yukon? People dying around me once is bad. Twice is more than a little suspicious.”
“I’ll back you up,” Tristan said.
“That might not be enough.”
“So what do you suggest we do?”
Layers of pain and fatigue created a thick fog in her head, making it a struggle to think past her most immediate needs. “I’ll disappear, I guess.”“Just leave your whole life behind? You can do that?”
“Do I have a choice?” She said. “I don’t’ know how the black eyed children found me here but I can’t risk them doing it again. If I thought that they couldn’t get to me in prison, I’d happily turn myself in. But I don’t want to be stuck in a cell when they catch up with me.”
After a moment of awkward silence, she added, “If you want to go back, you can blame everything on me. The police with probably believe you. I’ll agree to whatever you tell them if they find me.”
Tristan replied quickly, “Only one problem with that. You said that the children went after everyone who tried to help you. Well, I helped you. Odds are that I’m on their radar now.”
“So, you want to come with me?”
He swallowed thickly before replying, “You need medical attention. We both do. Let’s focus on that for now.”
“I can make it to the next town if you can.”
Tristan watched her for a long moment. She could almost smell the fear wafting from him, and he slowly nodded.
“One more town,” he agreed. “Just, let me call Nina. I think it’s okay now.”
The only way she had been able to calm him down after hitting the black eyed children was to promise that they would get a head start before contacting any authorities. Her thinking had been to give them an actual chance to slip away. She didn’t want to risk the children getting even the slightest hint of where they were going. Not until there were cities between them. Tristan’s intentions had been to ensure that Nina had no reason to go anywhere near the parking lot. Ruby already knew that, once she had access to some painkillers, she would be dealing with a lot of shame over that. But in this moment, her survival instincts spurred her on. It told her to run, as far and fast as she could, and worry about the others later.
“Okay.”
Tristan was already slipping out of the car. He took care to lock the door behind him, and she was grateful for it. Left to the silence, Ruby rested her temple against the door again. She looked over the area without seeing any of it. At this hour, there wasn’t much traffic, and the gas station was relatively empty. There was only one other car. An SUV that had a child sleeping in the back seat as the mother filled the tank. The pump gave a repetitive ding as it marked off the dollar value, and she found the sound luring her to sleep. She only meant to blink. But when she looked again, the mother had headed into the store. Movement around the edge of her vision drew her attention back to the car.
She straightened in her seat as she spotted the children. Two little boys and a girl with raven hair. The oldest boy had to push up onto his toes to be seen by the child within. Ice encased her heart as she watched the little boy lift his hand and tap the window with three quick strikes.
“No,” she whispered. It’s not them. It’s not them! But the reassurance couldn’t compete with the fear brewing within her gut. Because every cell in her body screamed that there was something very wrong with these three children she had never seen before. It was that same primal fear that wracked her every time the children they had left on the mountain were present. The realization hit her like a physical force. They’re the same. Whatever hell bound species the three children are, they’re not the only ones. “No.”
Her fingers were too thick and her brain too fried for her to work the door handle. The back door of the SUV popped open.
“Stop!” Ruby screamed.
She threw her weight against the door, forgetting too late that the lock was engaged. Yanking the lock open, she pushed the door open and screamed across the lot.
“Don’t let them in!”
The mother came from the store to see Ruby raving at her child. She rushed the distance back to her car, glaring at Ruby as she went. The woman was so focused on her that she was almost at the car before she noticed the three children. In unison, the children turned, the stale light glistening off of their eyes.
“Don’t let them in!” Ruby screamed.
The children had already begun speaking. The distance between them was too vast for Ruby to hear anything that the children were saying but witnessing the effects were enough. No matter how much Ruby screamed, she couldn’t get the woman to so much as look in her direction. The children continued to whisper and the life drained from the woman’s features.
Ruby hurled herself from the car. Her legs were too damaged to carry her weight and she crumbled to the ground with a brutal cry. Even this wasn’t enough to draw the woman’s attention. The children had her enthralled. Sprawled out across the concrete, Ruby screamed and swung her arms wide. But none of it was enough to prevent the woman from nodding her permission. The black eyed child climbed into the back seat as the mother slipped behind the wheel.
The roar of the engine covered her screams. If the mother saw her flailing her arms, it wasn’t enough to make her stop. As the SUV pulled out of the gas station, the floodlights played across the windows, offering her quick glimpses of the interior. For one, heart-stopping moment, the light glanced across the slick black surface of the children’s eyes. They all turned to her, familiar eyes in faces she had never seen before. In unison, they smiled. She had only a moment to see the horrific display before they passed and the SUV entered the shadows. Ruby’s fingers clawed at the concrete under her as she stared at the retreating headlights, broken and sobbing, the single question repeating in her mind.
If there are more than one set of them, how many black eyed children are out there?
* * *
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