Creatures of the Night

by Grace Collins

  She stares vacantly into the sky, her face so familiar but so far away. I shake her shoulders. I told Flo I wanted her to die. Blood.

  Scarlet red against dirt brown. Hair weaves in and out of the ground like roots of a dying tree. Her body feels cold. Her bones sag in her skin. Her skin is dull and pale, like the mannequins I threw daggers at in the castle. Blood seeps onto my fingers.

  Vacant green eyes stare into mine, her bluing lips and freckled skin so lifeless.

  “Milena!” Night falls over us as the fire is extinguished. I know I need to move, to get out of here before Charles finds me.

  “Milena!” Eric’s voice fills in my head. “We have to go!”

  I look at him. He’s still lying on the ground, eyes burning with urgency as the hole in his chest seeps red. My entire body is numb as I stare down at Flo, the bed of dirt around her mixing with her blood. I don’t cry; the blood on my shirt seeps onto my skin. Laughter fills my mind, memories of skipping around the fire, climbing the walls, our hair billowing around us like kites.

  When Flo smiled, it brightened her whole face. I step toward Eric. “Let’s go.”

  His breath comes in short, ragged gasps as his eyes flit from me down to Flo. Putting my arms under his body, I drag. I don’t feel the iciness in the air; I don’t feel anything. Eric’s silent, his fur warm against my numb fingers as we move. I don’t know where to go, all I know is that I have to get away from Flo. The rain washes her blood away. But it isn’t enough. She follows me, whispering in my ear, chanting in my head. I love you. It’s all I ever wanted, for some of it to be true, for some part of her to actually care about me as I did her. And she did.

  Branches stretch toward us as I drag Eric through the forest.

  The smoke in the back of my throat chokes my vocal cords.

  When I lift my eyes, I halt. Elias stands between the trees opposite us, his white shirt slashed across his chest, speckled with drops of red. My knees buckle in relief when our eyes meet. I can’t tell if he’s real or if I’m dreaming. “What’re you doing here?”

  “You didn’t think I’d miss all the action, did you?”

  He scans me from head to toe, the small smile dropping from his face when I don’t answer. He crosses the space between us.

  “You’re bleeding.”

  “It’s not mine.”

  “Yes, it is.” His hand wraps around mine to lift it in front of my face. The cut Charles made seeps with blood, but I don’t feel the pain. Elias curses under his breath and tears a section of his shirt off. He wraps the material around the cut so that I can’t see it anymore, before looking at Eric on the ground. “What happened to Eric?”

  Eric groans when Elias rolls him over. “You shouldn’t be here, Elias.”

  “Is it bad?” I ask.

  Elias examines the wound, his fingers combing Eric’s fur.

  “They used a silver blade. This won’t heal on its own—we need medicine, or within the next hour . . .”

  His expression darkens and he looks away. My heart drops.

  Or he’ll die. I scrape my mind desperately for a solution. Because despite everything, I’ve grown to care for Eric, and the thought of losing him. . . . A memory of when I met Darius in the tunnels where Eric was kept arises in my mind. I have to give it this medicine to keep it alive, Darius had said, otherwise the silver will kill it.

  “There’s medicine in the tunnels. I think it could help him.”

  Elias looks at me, eyes sharp. “What kind?”

  “I don’t know. But they used it on him when we first captured him. Darius said it was to keep the silver chains from killing him.”

  “Infumine , ” Elias murmurs. He looks at the sky; the rain has started again. “If I lead us there, can you find the medicine?”

  “Yes. But the hollowers—”

  “Cassia and I came through your village on the way; it’s deserted. All the hollowers were at the ceremony.”

  “Cassia’s here?”

  He rises to his feet, so close and yet somehow feeling worlds away. “Yes.”

  Silence stretches between us, thick with tension. “It isn’t safe there.”

  “It’s our only option.” He looks at Eric, face troubled. I know he’s right, but that doesn’t slow the terror racing through me.

  Eric came back for me and got taken because of it; I have to do this for him.

  Heat emanates from Elias’s body when he steps closer. And though his expression is soft, he doesn’t reach for me. “We should get to the village before the hollowers.” He pulls Eric up, balancing him on his shoulders. “He needs infumine to stop infection. Now.”

  I nod. Protected as we are by the canopy of the trees, the rain is merely a drizzle, but it chills me to the core as Elias steps ahead of me and starts in the direction I had run from.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The forest groans in the wind as we move through it, Eric’s grunts ricocheting off the tops of the trees. We reach the forest edge, the village pitch black before us. But Elias doesn’t hesitate to move forward; it appears to be deserted. The tomato plant climbs up the wooden sticks, absent of fruit in the winter air.

  From over his shoulder, I can see the kitchen shack. Memories haunt the air, an eerie wind passing through the village whispering words in a voice that sounds like Flo’s. Her body was so pale and cold, and I just left her there.

  “Milena?”

  I nod toward the tunnel entrance. “This way.”

  The tunnels echo with Eric’s groans as Elias carries him through the dark halls. Elias’s eyes are the only source of light, so I loosely hold the hem of his shirt and instruct him which turns to take. When the tunnel widens into the gathering room, I rest against the wall as Elias deposits Eric gently on one of the sofas and places a blanket over his lower body. He turns back to me. “The medicine?”

  “Charles keeps everything in his room. If you follow that hall, it’s the last room at the end. I can show you.”

  “Stay with Eric.” I jolt in fright when his hand touches mine.

  “I’ll be right back.”

  He pulls away and I blink at Eric, my eyes somewhat adjusting to the darkness of the tunnels. He isn’t conscious. Pain pierces through the numbness as my wrist starts to sting. We can’t stay down here for long. Even though the hollowers aren’t here, after what happened at the ceremony, they should be making their way back to regroup. Elias returns and kneels beside Eric.

  “Did you find anything?”

  “Infumine.” He holds up a small, glass vial. Charles’s messy writing is scribbled across the bottom, the letters linked together and difficult to read. “It should fight off this infection for now.

  But we need to get him back as soon as possible.”

  He inserts a needle into the fur at Eric’s throat. Conflicted emotions race through my mind—grief, relief, affection. But at the forefront, betrayal lingers. Because every person I’ve ever come to trust has lied to me, and Elias isn’t immune. I can’t suppress the way it affects me. “You knew. This entire time, you knew.”

  He looks at me. “What?”

  “What’d Ana tell you in the mountains, Elias?” My voice is low, quiet, but he hears it, and his expression falters. The familiar sound of water dripping onto metal echoes somewhere in the tunnels, filling the silence. “Tell me what she said.”

  “Charles never wanted you, he wanted me.” His words dangle in the air, thick, like smoke. “When the elders found out the hollowers were going after my mother, they knew they had to do something to keep me from them. They found you at a human orphanage and switched us. Ana left my mother’s body in the cabin because she knew the hollowers wouldn’t stop looking till they saw that she was dead. The hollowers knew they had a child, so Ana left you. She fabricated the scene, made sure there were only pictures left of a baby your age and younger, made it look like my mother killed her husband, herself, and left her baby on its own.”

  I wrap my arms around my body, an attempt to h
old myself together as more fragments of my identity fall through my fingers. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I wanted to but Eric convinced me not to say anything. Ana sacrificed herself to protect my identity, I couldn’t jeopardize that.”

  “Cassia and I found out you’re a wisper and, still, you didn’t tel us.” Deep down, I want there to be a reason, something that justifies keeping the secret. But his excuse is weak; my heart sinks in disappointment. “You shouldn’t have come here, Elias.”

  “If I hadn’t, both you and Eric would probably be dead right now.”

  “If they tried to use my blood, they wouldn’t become immortal and they wouldn’t know why. This would all end. They’d think there was something wrong about the sacrifice. They wouldn’t know it was my fault it didn’t work. But Cynthia saw you, Elias, she knows I’m not the wisper and it won’t be long till she tells someone else.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “You don’t get it. They’ll never stop looking for you.”

  “I said I don’t care.” He steps closer to me, eyes burning.

  “Milena, I didn’t want you to hate me. That’s why I didn’t tell you.”

  “Why would I hate you?”

  “You lived a life that was meant for me—it was never supposed to be you. Your only fault was being an orphan and Ana used that to protect me. Everything that happened to you is on me, it should’ve been me. ” His eyes hold mine. “It was all a lie.

  Everything that happened to you was my fault. If I were you, I would hate me.”

  I want to tell him he’s wrong, that nothing could make me hate him, but I hold my tongue. We’ve always been connected.

  The day his parents died and Ana plucked me from that orphanage an invisible string tied our fates together. But I grew to care for him all on my own. His fierce loyalty, the way he looks out for others, his otherworldly beauty—all aspects that helped him weasel his way into my heart. He makes me feel like I belong somewhere, like I’m wanted. But if I had known the truth from the beginning, would I still feel that way, or would my affection have turned into resentment? I don’t know.

  “Everything’s so messed up.”

  “I know,” he breathes. “I’m so sorry.” His eyes are like an embrace, causing goose bumps to rise along the back of my neck. From the day Charles turned on me, I knew my life had been a lie, but I hadn’t realized it was because this life never belonged to me in the first place.

  “Whose blood is on you?” he asks.

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “It always matters.”

  “Flo’s dead. She saved my life after I told her I wished she was dead.” I can’t help but crumble at the softness in his expression.

  “I know you probably think it was stupid. She was a hollower.”

  “She was your best friend.” I want to col apse against him but he simply grazes the inside of my wrist, a touch so comforting it could almost be an embrace. If I close my eyes, I can pretend Flo isn’t dead. I can pretend that Elias and I can be together, that he isn’t a wisper, that Charles isn’t after him, and that he didn’t lie to me. If I close my eyes, everything washes away and it’s just me and him. I can’t help but lean closer.

  “How long do we have to wait?”

  “He should wake up soon,” Elias says. We’re barely touching, but his proximity is comforting enough. “He won’t be at his best but he’ll be able to walk, at least. We’ll leave as soon as he can shift back.”

  The silence between us is as suffocating as smoke. My mind plays wicked tricks on me, twisting sounds and echoes that resemble footsteps from above. I watch Eric’s chest rise and fall.

  “They’ll be here soon.”

  “And I don’t intend to be here when they do. Cassia will create a distraction to lead them away from the village.”

  “Right.”

  His expression darkens when he looks at me. “Milena, I know what she did to you.”

  For some reason, the revelation stings. Elias doesn’t seem fazed by what she did—he doesn’t sound angry. I know it shouldn’t bother me but it does. Cassia has known Elias for a lot longer than I have; their history stretches much further than ours. “And you’re okay with it?”

  “Okay with it? Are you kidding?”

  “You don’t seem fazed.”

  “Fazed would be an understatement.” He looks offended.

  “When Cassia told me what she did, I nearly lost it. She not only betrayed you, Milena, but she betrayed me and Eric too. It doesn’t matter why she did it, she betrayed our trust.”

  “Then why is she here?”

  “She wanted to help and I wasn’t going to say no.”

  I try to push Cassia to the back of my mind. I don’t want to think about her because when I do, thoughts of Flo creep in too.

  And the guilt paralyzes me more than any betrayal ever did.

  Eric groans, his body shifting. He lies in human form, bloodied body covered in nothing but a small knitted blanket. “Eric?”

  I kneel lower so that we’re eye to eye. “Are you okay?”

  “What do you think?” he snaps.

  I can’t help but smile in relief. His eyes brush over to Elias.

  “You idiot. You shouldn’t be here.”

  “Just put these on.” Elias throws a pair of pants at him. Eric mumbles profanities under his breath, wincing with pain as he shuffles on the couch to pull the clothes on. Once he’s finished, Elias reaches over to help him up. “Let’s go. Milena, you stay behind us.”

  The darkness provides a strange comfort as we venture through the halls. We reach the bolted doors and I move over to the lever, wrapping my hand around. Thump. I freeze. “Did you hear that?”

  Tension lines Elias’s shoulders as we stare at the doors, waiting. Hope stirs in my chest—maybe I heard wrong. But the shout carrying through the wood isn’t imagined, nor are the rigorous pounds that follow. “They’re here.” I leap away from the lever. “Charles is here. Where’s Cassia?” Elias doesn’t move, frozen as he stares at the doors with Eric slung over his shoulder.

  His uncertainty sets me on edge. “Elias?”

  “There has to be another way out.”

  “This is the only exit.”

  For the first time since I met him, panic burns in his eyes. He doesn’t know what to do any more than I do. “Leave me,” Eric says. “You have to leave me.” He tries to unwind his arm from around Elias’s shoulder. “I’ll only slow you down.”

  But Elias doesn’t let him go. “We’re not leaving without you, Eric. Don’t even entertain that thought.”

  I look at Elias. “Can’t you burn them or something?”

  “I can’t risk that down here. If I light something on fire, I can’t control it. And if we’re stuck down here, I don’t want to risk burning you both to death. Take this.” He thrusts a dagger across the ground toward me. It hits my toe, the tip nearly piercing my shoe. “We have to open the doors.”

  I bend over to pick the dagger up. “What?”

  “They’re going to get in—it’s inevitable.” He unwinds his arm from Eric and lays him to rest against the wall before marching to the doors, his eyes on me. “You have to take Eric and get him away from here. When they’re open, I’ll cover for you so that the two of you can get to the forest.”

  Eric frowns. “We’re not leaving you.”

  “I’ll be right behind you.”

  I trust Elias with my life, but this time, I don’t believe him.

  “Elias, if they see you use fire then—”

  “You said that woman already saw me.”

  “But we don’t know if she told them.”

  “I don’t care.” He looks directly at me, face darkened by the shadows. “You and Eric have to get out of here or they’ll kill you.”

  “No, this is stupid. We should stick together.”

  “We can’t.”

  I search for words but come up empty because I know he’s right. If we want to g
et out of this, there’s no way we can do it all together. He moves over to the entrance, the tunnels shuddering with each pound against the doors. Ducking behind the crevice, his hand rests on the lever. “You two wait here. When I open the doors and it’s safe, I want you to run. I’ll burn them the second you’re gone.” Anger lingers in Eric’s eyes but he’s too loyal to argue. Elias looks at me. “Don’t fight me on this. It’s the only way.”

  “Please.” My voice is a whisper, carried through the tunnel like a haunting echo. “We can’t lose you.”

  “Promise me that when you get Eric out of here you won’t come back.”

  “Elias . . .”

  “Promise me.”

  “Only if you promise to come back.”

  “I’ll come back, I promise.” His eyes search my face. “You know I can always—”

  “You can always find me. I know.”

  A sad smile crosses his face before he looks at Eric, who hobbles toward me and slings an arm over my shoulder. Together, we creep over to hide in the crevice behind the entrance and Elias stands facing it. I have to keep myself from screaming at him to stop. “Ready?” Elias asks.

  I nod. Metal grates against metal, a screeching sound that pierces my ears. But once the doors are fully opened, there’s complete silence. The pounding stops, as do the shouts. They didn’t think we would open the door. My muscles tighten as I recall

  Aliyah’s instructions in my mind, every second of my training important. Eric and I are pressed against the wall. All I can see is the side of Elias’s face. I know they’re there, inches from Elias—the one they’ve been looking for all this time. Elias takes a threatening step forward. “I’m the one you want. I’m the wisper.”

  Somebody steps into view, their body half concealed in shadows. I squint to make him out. It’s Charles. “This is the one, Cynthia?”

  Cynthia steps beside him. “I saw him light them on fire. It was him.”

  “And Milena?”

  A sinister smile creeps onto her face. “Dead.”

  I think of the place where Flo lies in a grave that was meant for me. Charles’s jaw twitches but he keeps his eyes forward and turns away from Cynthia. “What do you want, wisper?” he asks.