Something in the Shadows

by Elle Beaumont

  “Do you even know where we are?” My voice trembled as the rain died down to a sprinkle and the sound of a horse galloping came closer.

  “Not really, but I need you to run, El.”

  Bryce pulled me forward quicker as my heart began to beat hard again. Breathing became more difficult through a swollen nose which might have been broken. I still couldn’t see where to put my foot and if luck held out, bad luck that is, I’d be breaking an ankle sometime soon.

  When we hit flat land and no trees, I sighed internally in relief. The new terrain would make running easier.

  “We need to get off this trail.” Bryce pulled me into the next set of forest as galloping hooves sounded behind us.

  I shrieked and ducked with Bryce in time for an ax to chop down a sapling beside us where our heads had been.

  “Run!” Bryce pulled me along behind him again as I looked over my shoulder. Rider and horse were turning around for another pass. The moon peeked out from behind a cloud enough to give me another look at the headless form.

  I screamed at the ghastly sight of the rider raising his large ax to swing at us again. His clothes were old style and the horse’s eyes still glowed red like a demon. Then, Bryce had us in the forest running for our lives. This time, wood split as the pair attempted to follow us.

  “Bryce, you have to go!” I pulled my hand from his grip.

  “I’m not leaving you behind.” He looked back at the noise behind us.

  I wanted to rescind my offer for him to go, but I’d already slowed him down. “I’ll be fine. Run.”

  “I can’t.”

  Wood splintered closer to us. I whimpered. “Go, Bryce, before he reaches us. He’s not after me. Go. Here, have my keys.”

  Bryce’s warm lips crashed onto my forehead as he took my keys from my hand. “Be safe, Eloise, or I’ll never forgive myself.”

  Bryce dashed off in the next second. Where was he headed? To my car or deeper into the forest? The darkness threatened to suffocate me as I sat on the ground and curled in on myself, wrapping my arms around raised knees. Did Bryce even know which way led back to the lodge and my car?

  Horse hooves galloping away nearly made me shriek until they faded into the distance. Bryce hadn’t taken the trail with Headless so close. The trees would slow Bryce down, but they’d also slow down the horse and his rider. As long as Bryce and I stayed where the forest’s trees were thick, we could survive this, right? But there was so much open land around the lodge and stables. Would Headless catch up to Bryce then?

  I rose to my feet. Pain made me nauseous along with the taste of blood in my mouth, but I could do this. I could help Bryce. Determination helped me step forward. I’d have to hurry to delay Headless. Somehow. Both he and Bryce had a head start on me, but Bryce could hide if I slowed the horse.

  Ignoring the way Bryce had gone, I went to the trail the horses followed during the rides we could sign up for while here, the trail the demon horse had ridden on. I’d been scheduled to ride tomorrow if I still lived. However, I decided to pass and spend the day inside sleeping. How many hours until sunrise?

  I pulled my phone from my back pocket while hobbling as fast as I could down the trail. I’d never beat the horse wherever it went, but I’d give it my best to meet up with it. My luck remained the same. The phone was as dead as a doornail.

  The further I walked, the more my shoes began to sink into the new mud of the path. They made a squishing noise when I pulled them up, so I tried to walk closer to the trees and side of the path using my hands out in front of me to keep me from walking into a tree. Any chance I’d had to see hoofprints had been washed away by the rain and hidden by the clouds over the moon.

  When I believed I’d remain in the forest forever, the trees opened up to the field. My shoulders fell. We’d run much further from the lodge than I’d expected. In a brief sliver of moonlight, I couldn’t see either Bryce or Headless. Had Bryce arrived at my car safely or had he been overtaken by the headless man on his mount?

  I shivered as I took a step forward into the field.

  “Just put one foot in front of the other, Eloise. Just keep walking. Find Bryce or…” Or find Headless, but I couldn’t say that out loud. Deep down, or very shallow down, I didn’t want to find Headless. I wanted him to go away with the sunrise, but Bryce and I had gone to take our walk at least an hour before midnight. Time in the dark was hard to tell, but we weren’t at sunrise yet. There was still too much time before sun made its appearance in the sky. Even a minute was too long.

  Somehow, foot after foot, I made my way to the stable. Horses made some noise inside, but no humans were about. From a corner of the barn, I couldn’t make out any people around the lodge either. The front lights on the building shone down into the parking lot, but I couldn’t tell if my car had been intentionally tampered with by Bryce.

  I ran from the barn closest to the lodge to the side of the lodge itself and peeked my head around the corner. Bryce’s SUV blocked my car from view. Had he made it to my trunk?

  “Walk to the car. Check the trunk. Find Bryce.” I repeated the instructions aloud a few times before I found the nerve to follow through. The darkness didn’t help. Neither did the silence that seemed to want to crush me. The lodge’s occupants were actually sleeping through the worst night of my life.

  I stepped around the corner of the building. My feet crunched on gravel and my heart stopped, but nothing else stirred around me. Another step and still nothing. No birds. No crickets. No owls even. Could they sense the predator running amok tonight?

  When I reached Bryce’s car, my body trembled so bad I had to hug my stomach to keep my arms and hands from hitting anything. Memories flooded my mind as I walked between his SUV and my small car. Had only hours passed since I hit him with my car door?

  At the back of the car, the trunk remained closed. Without my key to open the lid, that told me nothing. Bryce could have come and gone and closed the trunk behind him. Or, he might not have made it to the car yet. Headless was after him, not me, so my journey back to the lodge was probably a lot easier than Bryce’s.

  I leaned my elbows onto my trunk, facing the lodge, and held the sides of my face with my hands. With the rain, I couldn’t tell if my nose still bled. It still hurt. Was Bryce hurt? Maybe I should have stayed with him.

  A horse whinnied and I spun to find myself looking into a black horse’s red gaze. He breathed out and mist smacked me in the face. The chill of it froze me to the bones.

  “Look out!”

  Someone grabbed me from behind and hauled me out of the way as Headless’ ax came down on the back of my car, splitting the trunk in two.

  “Come on!” The magician pulled me along toward the building. What was he doing here?

  Horse hooves clopped behind us as we burst into the lobby of the lodge. The lights blazed, but everyone remained missing. Tears filled my eyes as I blinked against the pain of the light against my eyes which were used to the darkness outside.

  “This way!” The magician led me down the hallway on our left toward the restaurant and room where we’d had the magic show. Unlike Bryce, this man didn’t care how he handled me. I’d be bruised after this.

  The magician swung open the door to the room where Bryce’s dad and Nick argued, also the room where the magician had hypnotized Bryce and I. This room had bad memories all around and I wanted nothing to do with it, but once inside, the magician flipped off the lights and pressed his body against mine. He didn’t seem to care that he crushed me between himself and the wall.

  “Quiet.” The magician’s breaths came in fast gasps and he glistened with sweat.

  “What is going on?” I kept my voice down but the man hissed at me.

  “Do you want to die? Then be quiet!”

  “What is going on?” This time I spoke a little louder. He could at least answer that one question so I could leave and find Bryce.

  “Shut up! We’re all supposed to be asleep right now. The creature is supp
osed to kill anything that moves.”

  That meant…

  “He’s not after Bryce?”

  “He is, but you’re supposed to be asleep and I’m supposed to be out of here. That guy who hired me, Nick something, he slashed my tires. Now, shut up!”

  Footsteps down the hallway caused the man to whimper. Well, I’d found out answers, but it looked like I wouldn’t live long enough to tell them to anyone. Headless was after my head too which meant leaving the forest had been a bad idea.

  Why wasn’t I asleep? He’d hypnotized me too. Was that where everyone was? Sleeping? If the magician could create Headless, I didn’t doubt he could put everyone to sleep. And here I hadn’t believed in magic.

  Wood splintered beside us as the door flew across the room. I screamed. The magician drug me after him deeper into the room and away from the door, keeping me between himself and Headless. The ax in Headless’ hand was raised, ready to take off my head. It was so big, the blade probably could take both my head and the magician’s off in the same swipe.

  My heart pounded and if the magician hadn’t kept backing us up around the now set up tables away from his monster, then I’d have been glued to the floor. Thankfully I’d used the bathroom earlier or I would have also wet my pants.

  “Go away! Go kill the boy! He’s your target!” The magician’s voice broke as terror consumed him.

  “What was the Latin for on the stage?” That was the last question I wanted answered before the night was through. Well, more like before the night was through for me and I died.

  “The spell would keep Bryce Simmons awake tonight. He won’t tire. Not until he’s dead or the sun rises.”

  “Why the sunrise?”

  “Because that’s how much the guy paid me for. He couldn’t afford until the boy was dead or for an exact target. Now I realize I should have done that anyway.”

  The magician threw me forward into Headless’ path, but for once, my bad luck wasn’t so bad. I tripped over chairs and somehow, painfully, ended up beneath a table.

  “No! No!”

  A thud proceeded the magician’s head rolling beneath my table. I held a hand over my mouth to keep from screaming. Light from the hallway filtered into the room enough for me to see the man’s open eyes and blood pooling at the base of his severed neck. He’d done this to us, but had he deserved to die?

  I did shriek when the ax sliced through the table inches from my toes. The half table and chairs made it hard to scramble out of the mess and when I did, I barely ducked in time to keep my head attached to my body.

  My eyes were as big as saucers as Headless raised his ax once more. This time, I wouldn’t be lucky enough to duck. My one bit of good luck for the night was gone. My breaths came too fast. If I were lucky, I’d pass out before he decapitated me.

  Someone roared. I flinched, but it wasn’t the creature. Someone behind the monster drove a sword through the monster’s middle. Headless didn’t flinch but turned to expose Bryce to me.

  “Run, El!”

  My feet listened as my brain fumbled, but I ran from the room without trouble, Bryce right behind me.

  “The sword was a good idea,” Bryce grasped at my hand as we fled the building, the headless man behind us, “but I’m afraid it didn’t work.”

  “Now where?” I swung my head back and forth. Complete darkness met my sight. The light from inside had ruined my night vision.

  “Trees. Let’s go.”

  Bryce ran, my hand in his, through the parking lot toward the nearest part of the forest. We came to an abrupt halt as a horse appeared and reared up on its hind legs in front of us.

  “This way!” Bryce pulled me back toward the building. Headless was on his way down the stairs. “Climb in!”

  Climb in?

  The lights on his car blinked. Oh, climb in! If we could make it in time before Headless reached us we’d be good to go.

  I opened the door and climbed into the vehicle. Bryce yelled a warning as Headless’ ax took off my door. The engine started and Bryce wasted no time reversing out of his space. Tires kicked up dirt as he shifted gears and we raced away from Headless down the driveway to the road. Bryce didn’t stop when we reached the pavement but turned right, the way I’d arrived at the Ranch.

  “Buckle up, El.”

  Had my brain not been overrun with terror, I’d have thought of that once the car was in motion being that I had no door keeping me in the vehicle. I did as Bryce said and closed my eyes. My body was still hyped up, but we were on the road. We were racing away from the danger. When daylight came, we could go back to the Ranch.

  “Of all the bad luck in the world!” Bryce hit the steering wheel as he glared into the rearview mirror. “They’re following us.”

  “They’re what? How?”

  “Demon horses can go as fast as they want, apparently.” Bryce gripped the wheel tighter. “Hold on. I’ll see if we can go faster to beat them, but don’t hold your breath.”

  I gripped my seat belt, too afraid now to close my eyes. If death was coming for me in the form of a car accident, I didn’t know if it was better to see it coming or face it without knowledge. Seeing as how my eyes refused to leave the road, I’d say I picked seeing my demise.

  “Hold on. They’re coming up on your side.” Bryce moved the car to the left lane, and I could see us hitting someone head on. What way was better to die? Loss of head or head on collision? I was still young. I tried not to think too often about how I would die. Living was my preferred option.

  Movement outside my door caught my attention. Demon red eyes looked over at me from the horse’s head. Its rider leaned forward, ax in hand, motivating the horse in silence to run faster. How could the monster even see to know where he was going?

  “Down!”

  Metal shrieked and the car wobbled and skittered on the road as Headless’ ax tore through the frame above my head, shattering part of the windshield and spiderwebbing the rest. Bryce’s side of the SUV remained intact, but my side was being opened like a can of tuna fish. How long could the vehicle last? We’d been lucky not to swerve off the road, but my luck wasn’t on its best behavior tonight.

  “Brace yourself!”

  “Now what?” I couldn’t handle more. My stomach wanted to vomit.

  Bryce braked. Hard. My body pushed against the seatbelt and I reached for the dash to help the belt in case it faltered on its job. And I screamed. Tears blurred my vision. If fear didn’t kill me, Headless would.

  The car fishtailed as we slowed, but Bryce kept us from dying. He didn’t let us come to a full stop before we pulled a U-turn in the road and sped back to the Ranch.

  “We’re going to die. We’re going to die. We are really going to die!”

  “We are not! I won’t let him kill you!” Bryce growled at the mirror out his door. “Hang on, Eloise. The sun will be up soon.”

  Soon? I highly doubted that, but I wasn’t about to object while he held my life in his steering wheel gripped hands. My eyes were still open wide, and I felt no urge to lay my head down on a pillow. Of course, with the demon horse running behind us, my adrenalin pumped hard. Although…

  “He spelled me too, the stupid magician!”

  “He did what?” Bryce looked my way.

  I pointed to the road. “Don’t look away! Duck!”

  Bryce lowered his head and we guarded our faces against the glass in time for the horseman to make Bryce’s SUV a convertible. I wasn’t a fan of the style.

  “The magician,” I yelled over the wind now hitting us, “the Latin he whispered to you was a spell so you wouldn’t sleep tonight so Headless could hunt and kill you. I heard it and haven’t fallen asleep all night either. I’m not tired.”

  Bryce’s lips moved, but I couldn’t hear what he muttered. The words wouldn’t have been nice if I had.

  The car swerved to the left and I recognized the welcome sign for Ranger’s Ranch ahead when the horse and rider hit our car, sending it skidding in the gravel driv
e. Bryce had it under control in seconds, but I’d left my stomach back there.

  “Where are we going?” We kept accelerating past the lodge and into the fields. I had no idea what the plan was.

  “The forest! Be ready to run!”

  I held my hand over my seatbelt buckle, not intent to release it until we were near a complete stop. A feeling in my gut said the stop would come fast and my face didn’t need more damage from impacting the dashboard.

  Our headlights bobbed up and down on the ground in the field. My seatbelt kept me mostly in place on the rough ride as the forest at the end of the field drew closer.

  We accelerated with a jerk. Metal crunched. I looked back. Headless had nicked the back of the SUV with his ax, but thanks to Bryce’s quick acceleration, we’d been spared.

  The SUV swung left. I held onto the seat. With all the belt had been through, I didn’t count on it holding out much longer.

  “Get ready to run!” Bryce braked hard and the SUV came to a stop. I released my belt a second too soon when Headless’ steed ran into the vehicle and sent me into the dashboard.

  Tears stung my eyes and more blood dripped from my nose, but Headless’ horse’s whinnies woke me from my stupor. He hadn’t been fazed by the impact.

  Bryce met me at the front of the SUV. I couldn’t look around for Headless but the tree he took down with his ax behind me as I pushed into the forest said he was right at my back. This time around, would he leave the horse behind like he had at the lodge? If so, we were in so much trouble.

  Rain began to pelt us again as Bryce pulled me through the forest. His grip on me wasn’t as firm this time because of the water coating our hands, but he kept me up to speed with him. Considering I had to breathe in and out through my mouth and the tears and rain blinded me, he did a fairly good job at keeping us both alive.

  Galloping on the left drew attention to a path we hadn’t noticed. The horse flew by us, without a rider, and my fear sunk in. Headless was on foot behind us. A killing blow could come at any moment. We’d never see it coming.