by K. R. Bowman
I stared up at the sky. Nightlins flew every which way. More Nightlins had arrived. The Nightlin, that we had almost run into on the street, had his black wings stretched out far, and he hovered right above the smaller Nightlins. Their focus was on something else, but I waited for more of them to disappear from my sight before I took off.
I ran straight for the door. Callum waited just inside. He caught me before I could stumble. Again, I was momentarily blinded, but Callum seemed to know where to go. He took my hand and led me through the dark. We came out into a hallway. A torch was set into the wall. The flame meagerly dipped high and low. The light it threw onto the walls was hazy and added to the fear that had built inside of me. Callum dropped my hand and jogged down the hall. I ran to keep up with him.
The hall had led us to the dining room. We took a hall that would lead us to Chuck and the Hunters. When we reached the room, it had been utterly destroyed. Instead of only part of the wall missing, now three walls and the majority of the ceiling were gone. Debris and bodies scattered the floor. I tried not to study them. Callum pulled me across the room to the other door. The Realmers were in the corner of the small room, firing arrows or wielding a sword.
The Nightlins swooped down and tried to grab the Realmers, but they were met with Czars of all different sizes, each with their counterpart riding on its back. The Hunters yelled battle cries and dove into the melee. Callum pulled me over to the Realmers. He stood in front of me with his arm pushing me hard against the wall.
We made it and hunkered down behind the others. We were under several heavy wood tables with rocks piled on top. We were cramped in the small space.
I looked at the dirtied and bloodied faces that surrounded me. They were worn and thin. They weren’t going to last much longer. They had fight in their eyes, but I could tell their bodies were going to fail them first. Callum leaned out a few times and shot fireballs at the Nightlins, which surprised them thoroughly.
A small hole between two of the tables gave me a view of what was happening in the sky. I watched the same dark creature that I had nearly walked up to, soaring around the outside of the building. I needed to figure out something.
I needed to act, to stop the killing.
I made sure no one was looking and crawled to the corner of the room, where some of the rubble from the ceiling would make it easier to access the rooftop. I glanced behind me, but everyone was occupied with their own fight. I reached up, putting my weight on my arms and pushing myself up to the edge so that I could see over the rock roof. I pulled myself up onto the top of the building as fluidly as I could, hoping no one had seen me.
I stayed kneeling. I pulled my bow and arrows from my pack and fitted an arrow to the string then sighted down the shaft. I tightened my core and breathed through my nose, trying to gain control of my nerves. The black creature hadn’t noticed me yet, so I was hoping to get the upper hand. Its back faced me, and its head was turned to watch below.
I pulled my arm back, aiming for between his shoulder blades. As the arrow came back, I pulled air in then let it out, letting the arrow fly simultaneously.
The arrow soared straight toward it, but it seemed to hear it at the last moment and turned swiftly, catching the arrow in his side. Black fluid sprayed out, and it screamed with anger. Its head whipped around, and its eyes landed on me.
It turned toward me and pinned its wings to his sides, making a dive straight for me. The creature was on top of me in seconds. Its claws tore through the skin on my arms and hands. With its claws, it grabbed my bow and arrows and crushed them. One large clawed hand tightened around my wrist. My feet left the rooftop. I lashed out, hitting it wherever I could. It dropped me. I rolled across the roof, holding my hurt hands against my chest. The wind around me shifted then, and it hit me again. This time its claws tore into my bicep and side.
I think I heard someone yell my name.
It was hard to breathe. I was sure I had broken one or more bones. I stayed lying on my back, staring up. My hearing didn’t seem to work. The wind blew against my body and face, but that was all my senses relayed to me.
My head fell to the side. The rough surface of the roof pressed into my cheek. Silver metal gleamed in the moonlight. The sword had somehow fallen from my back. I rolled over to my stomach and slowly pulled myself toward the shiny handle. I glanced to see if I could find the creature, but he wasn’t in my line of vision.
The creature screamed, and I jerked around to see arrows flying toward the monster. The black creature spun wildly through the air dodging the arrows perfectly. I spotted Callum’s head and shoulders just above the roofline. His hands moved in a blur with him fitting arrows to the string. His dark hair swirled in the wind. Dirt and blood covered his face and ran in streaks down his arms. He yelled as he released each arrow.
My heart leapt with hope, and my crawling pace quickened. I heard a screech, and as my hand settled around the hilt of the sword, I rolled, facing the black sky. I swiftly yanked the sword from the scabbard and held the sword before me, trying to keep anything from attacking me. The creature had flown toward me from the side, but twisted past to avoid the sword. I pulled my knees under me and sat on my shins. I kept my eyes tuned to anything moving.
The wind blew my hair in my face, and my arms hurt from holding the sword. The gashes along my arms, hands, legs, side, and forehead throbbed, making it hard to concentrate. The cut on my right bicep leaked blood down my arm and collected in the bend of my arm.
The dark creature circled me. I was in the middle of the roof since the farside had collapsed. It swooped in close then flew out of reach again. It tried to push me to the edge of the crumbling ceiling, but I moved at the last second. I nearly fell and scraped my chin on the rough roof. Its massive wings spread out behind it, looming overhead.
The creature taunted me.
My anger made my headache worse. I gripped the sword and tried to keep my arms up. It could tell I was tired.
The top of Callum’s head barely poked above the roofline. He yelled at people below him, trying to find more weapons. He kept looking fervently at me. His eyes frantic as he motioned the people below to hurry.
The creature flew on my right, and then, it was on top of me. It tore the sword from my hands and flung it over the side of the building. It laughed uproariously. I kneeled on the rooftop watching it. My mind rifled through every outcome, every possible action. I scanned the roof searching for any weapon I could use.
It lunged.
Callum screamed my name.
The creature’s claws tore at my chest. Its razor-sharp talons sliced my skin open, reaching inside me. The pain was excruciating. Black spots filled my vision. I knew I didn't have much longer. Its mouth opened in a demonic smile.
Angry tears streamed down my face as I screamed. One of its arms wrapped around my body, keeping me pressed against it; the other hand greedily ripping inside my chest. My feet left the rooftop.
Cold enveloped me. Ice weighted my limbs.
The hollows of its eyes gazed into my soul. The black skin pulled tight as it laughed in my face.
Despair filled me. How could it laugh? How can this be real? Callum?
Its claws sank deeper and under my sternum and ribs. It seized my heart in its grasp and tightened its grip. My breath left my lungs, and my eyes squeezed shut. The pain lanced through my body. I gave in. Empty blackness swallowed me.
An alarm went off.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
My eyes sprung open. Sunlight hit my face, blinding me for a moment. A golden room surrounded me. The navy bed sheets tangled around my body. The room seemed familiar. I gasped.
Home.
What the fuck?
Epilogue
My hearing came back first.
High pitched screams, and other unidentifiable noises were excruciatingly loud to my sensitive hearing. So, I turned it off.
Serene stillness settled around me, though I knew it w
as anything but. My eyes wouldn’t open, so I used my other senses.
Smoke, dirt, blood, and death permeated the air. Death. I could almost taste it, like iron and rotted meat.
Spreading my fingers out and moving my hands away from my body, chunks of the building had fallen away. My right hand brushed over something squishy and cold. I recoiled. More death.
Why couldn’t I see?
I wiped my hands on my clothes then tried to wipe my eyes clean. I couldn’t feel anything on my face except for dirt and blood, but no reason to cause blindness. I stayed kneeling on the ground and concentrated with every ounce of strength to open my eyes.
Blinding white light filled my vision.
I snapped my eyes shut. My fists clenched by my sides, and my nose flared from tension and anger. Something had felt different about that light. I slowly opened my eyes again.
The light never dimmed, but I could make out shapes. The outline of the room and the hole where the Nightlins had burst through stood out. The white light encompassed everything I looked at, even myself.
Slowly standing, I stretched my hand out in front of me and turned it over. The white light rolled around my hand. Little tendrils of light flickered and crawled through my fingers.
I dropped the mute from my hearing. Someone close by screamed. I spun to see Irene gaping. She took a couple steps towards me and stopped. Her eyes were big and round, her mouth in the shape of an O.
“You’re, you’re on fi-fire.”
I looked down at my body, and this time my eyes made sense of what I could see. The flames licked up my legs and arms. The white light wasn’t pure but shades of blue and orange, the colors defining different shapes and textures.
“Callum?”
Irene stood with her fingertips pressed to her lips. Her large, blue eyes were cautious.
“It’s okay, Irene.” My voice crunched out.
I looked once again at my body covered in white flames. Okay, how to… de-flame?
I closed my eyes and concentrated on turning it off. Opening my eyes, nothing had changed. I closed them again. My muscles contracted, and my hands tightened. Be calm; think of something soothing. For some reason, Sloane popped into my mind. That day standing by the crystalline pool filled my head. The way the light had reflected from the perfectly colored water onto her face and hair. The coolness of the cave was drowned out by her.
“It’s gone,” Irene murmured.
My eyes flashed open to a normal, dark world again. I gazed down at my body, and everything seemed normal. Normal as in covered in mud, red blood, and black goo. No evidence of the white fire was seen anywhere.
Except, when I took a step forward, I looked down and saw two black footprints had been scorched into the stone, where I previously stood.
“Where’s Sloane?” I asked.
About the Author
K.R. Bowman has been writing stories since she was a child, always with her head in the clouds, dreaming up different worlds. She has a Bachelor’s in Interior Design that she uses for her day job. Her loves are traveling and discovering new pieces of the world. She currently lives in the south, where she drinks way too much sweet tea.
She loves all types of fiction but mostly writes fantasy, sci-fi, and mystery with a female lead. She loves action and adventure, and characters that a quirky underdog.