Within

by Aaron Bunce

  She turned back down the trail and managed only a few steps before another crash off sounded in the timber. This time, she knew it wasn’t her imagination. It was closer to her than the first.

  Her composure evaporated, sending her into a reckless flight down the trail. The surge of energy quieted her aches and pains, but she stumbled and repeatedly tripped on curling roots and rocks. She could never hope to see them in the darkness.

  Was that another noise? she thought in a panic.

  The slamming of her heart drowned everything else out. She was running blind and deaf. It fed the fear that had already claimed a firm grip on her emotions.

  Shapes loomed out of the darkness all around her. They were everywhere. She got close and recognized a rock or a fallen log. Her nerves unraveled further in the smothering darkness. Cold sweat ran down her forehead, burning and stinging her eyes.

  Panic eroded away her rational thinking. She became an animal in flight, spooked and reactive. Exhausted, she didn’t notice the silent black shape that materialized from the darkness ahead on the trail. By the time she noticed it, it was too late.

  Eisa tumbled to a stop, her breath long gone. She turned gasping to look back down the trail. The trees were thick at her sides, caging her in like an animal. She knew she was trapped. The beast walked towards her, stalking silently forward. Its strange milky eyes glowed in the night, horrible orbs burning in the black.

  She knew that she couldn’t outrun it, and she could not hope to lose it in the trees, especially in the darkness. She was going to die, just like her brothers.

  “What do you want from me?” she screamed angrily, her voice cracking. She fell to her knees and drove her fingers into the earth, tearing loose stones to fling at the creature.

  The creature didn’t bother dodging the projectiles. Even as several of the rocks struck home, it continued forward.

  “What do you want from me? Leave me alone!” she wailed again, her voice so hoarse even she didn’t recognize it.

  Eisa began to sob, her shoulders heaving as the creature stopped a few paces away. It's strange eyes glowed, burning their silent response. One last moment of panic sent Eisa scrambling to run away, but something struck her foot, sprawling her to the ground.

  Face down with a mouth full of dirt, Eisa kicked and flailed. She screamed as a rough hand wrapped around her ankle and rolled her over. It fell over her. She kicked and clawed, fighting like a cornered animal, but it easily overpowered her.

  Strong hands grabbed her wrists and lifted her bodily into the air. Eisa cringed, waiting for sharp teeth to sink into her flesh, and to join her brothers in the afterlife. Instead, she was tossed painfully into the air and over the creature’s shoulder.

  With a horrible growl, it bounded off into the night.

  * * * *

  A deep seeded and resilient need to survive drove Luca on, even after he had grown weary from hunger and his injuries. His bad arm hung useless at his side. He knew enough to understand how bad it was. He couldn’t put any weight on his throbbing leg. Surely it was broken.

  Luca understood the pain of broken bones. Several winter thaws before, he had fallen off the roof of his father’s shed and cracked his leg. He remembered the pain. But this was considerably worse.

  Luca leaned against the handrail of the wooden bridge, the chocolate brown water of the Bear Claw River bubbling and churning below.

  More and more of his body ached with every passing moment, but he needed to rest, even if it was for just a short while. He hadn’t heard the animal cries since he broke out of the woods. That fact made him feel a little better.

  Wind heavily perfumed of fish swirled up through the river valley and wafted around him. Leaves rustled lightly as the crickets sang their eerie song to the night. The noises lulled him.

  Luca rested there for a while, trying not to think about his sister and brother, only of home, his destination. So deep were his thoughts that his chin drooped. He knew that he shouldn’t have stopped, but he was asleep before his chin touched his chest. His sleep was fitful. Frightening dark shapes stalked him, but they would not let him see them, and they would not let him escape. His movements were sluggish, and his legs felt like they were stuck in sticky sap.

  He tried calling out for his brother and sister, but he could make no noise. He continued to dream until he abruptly snapped awake. He startled so fully that he nearly fell over. Several dry twigs snapped in the forest. He clutched tightly to his walking stick as he watched the tree line.

  Luca lidded his good eye against the darkness. Another noise caught his attention, but it was much quieter than the first, this time on the other side of the trail. The moon’s glow temporarily faded as it slid behind greedy clouds.

  Instinctively Luca moved to push off from the bridge, but he had become so intent on the trees that he accidently used his sore arm. It took all the strength he possessed not to cry out. The pain exploded, throbbing in his already aching head.

  Gingerly, Luca clutched to the pulsing bulge growing just beneath his shoulder. He groaned quietly until the worst of it subsided.

  The pain reminded him that he had dawdled long enough. The Moon agreed with him as it peeked back out from behind the clouds, revealing his path in its cool white light.

  Luca looked back along the trail one last time before heaving himself off the ground. He turned and barely stifled a cry. A number of glowing eyes floated in the darkened trees, staring at him.

  Hunter had taken him to their well on a particularly dark night, and in the darkness below, he had seen them. They appeared as orange dots, hovering and moving eerily in the black.

  “Bardaqs,” Hunter called them. They were a miniscule goblinoid, no larger than a household rat. They were pestilential creatures, drawn to wells and the underside of bridges. In truth, they loved any place dark and wet.

  Luca pushed off, leaning heavily on his walking stick. He could see the eyes dance and hear the leaves rustle as the bardaqs moved about.

  Without turning, Luca slowly limped onto the bridge, one step, then two as he hopped along, trying to pick up speed. There was a loud rustling from the brush at his back. He could hear them chirping as they crept ever closer to the bridge.

  Luca tried to remember what Hunter told him about the creatures, but he could think of little beyond “they’re harmless, except in numbers.”

  Several more of the miniscule figures scampered out of the bushes on the other side of the trail. Their eyes floated like saucers against the night as they scampered in and out of the moonlight. Half a dozen of the orange-eyed creatures hovered just beyond the boundary of the bridge. They grew bolder as more swelled their ranks.

  “Go away. Shoo!” Luca yelled, hoping to frighten them back into hiding. But the Bardaqs didn’t shy away. They crowded in on the bridge, chirping to each other like hungry birds.

  The river rushed by below him, yawning like a sprawling black void. He smacked his stick against the bridge, and the bardaqs froze.

  Luca pulled himself forward, leaning heavily on the handrail for support. But the bardaqs followed, creeping closer and closer. He couldn’t put any distance between them.

  Again, he slammed the stick down, this time closer to the curious creatures, but they did not shy away, nor did they stop. Luca’s hopped faster across the bridge, his breathing raspy and labored.

  I’m halfway across. Maybe they’ll leave me alone if I can reach the other side, he hoped desperately.

  The bardaqs swarmed around his feet, hopping in and over his shoes. He could see their strange round heads, the sharp, spiny ears, and their round, unsettling eyes.

  “Just leave me alone! Go….I said go!” he hollered, unnerved by the creature’s boldness. He didn’t know what they wanted, and it scared him. Their odd chirping filled the air, confusing him.

  His good leg started to give out, the muscles knotting and cramping with every labored step. He knew that he couldn’t go much farther without rest. Then the bravest
of the bardaqs scampered forward, onto his shoe and up his pant leg. Its weight startled him, and he mistakenly shifted weight between legs to kick the creature free.

  The pain buckled him against the handrail. The bardaq latched onto his trousers and refused to budge. In a panic, Luca swung his stick down and knocked the pest free. The impact felt surprisingly solid for such a small creature. It hissed frighteningly and it rolled away.

  Luca started to sob openly as fear and desperation gripped him. He clung to the handrail and waved his walking stick before him. The bardaqs scurried back out of range. They chirped louder than ever, driven into a deafening frenzy.

  Luca’s good arm tired quickly, the effort of swinging the stick was too demanding. His strength quickly left him.

  Luca struggled to catch his breath, and his movements slowed. The bardaqs pressed in around him, they no longer feared the stick. They were in front of him, behind him, and even crawling up from beneath the bridge.

  The bardaqs swarmed him, their piercing orange eyes like dozens of frightening beacons. They scurried up his feet and legs. He batted at them with his stick, but his strength was gone. There was so many of them he couldn’t count.

  How can there be so many?

  The bardaqs were crawling up his back and onto his arms, reaching for his face. He could see them in detail. They had short, stubby arms, and wide open mouths. Luca felt their teeth as they started to bite, needle sharp teeth piercing his shirt and trouser, piercing him in a hundred different spots at once.

  His stick fell forgotten over the side of the bridge and splashed into the water below. His crying drove them on. He pulled one of the bardaqs free from his shirt and threw it into the water below, but there were so many of them, he was completely covered.

  Luca crumpled under the bardaq’s combined weight. He squirmed and yelled as the voracious creatures bit and clawed. He rolled back and forth from the pain. He felt their small bodies crunch and pop beneath him, but more swarmed in to take their place.

  In a fit of desperation, Luca rolled towards the edge. With his good arm, he grabbed the mossy beam and pulled himself through. His head and shoulders hung out over the churning waters. He could never hope to fight off the swarm. He would rather throw himself into the black water and take his chances with the current.

  He wriggled and pushed, trying to squirm over the side, but he would not fit between the bridge and the bottom rail. He could feel the bardaqs swarming, clawing and tugging as they tried to pull him back.

  Whimpering feebly, Luca wrapped his arm around the closest post as the bardaqs pulled. Luca clung to the post as his body hovered completely off the ground. The handrail rocked with every forceful tug. The dry-rotted wood cracked loudly. The river surged on beneath him, mockingly out of reach.

  His arm slipped. The post was slimy, and hard to hold. As Luca let go, he clawed frantically at the bottom board and just managed to slip his fingers around it. The bardaqs seethed and pulled, nipping and biting to get him to let go. He wouldn’t let them stuff him under a girder, or in a hole in the ground. He didn’t want to be eaten alive.

  He pulled with all of his strength on the board and felt it rock back and forth. The post shifted and groaned. His fingers slipped, his arm and hand started to go numb. He knew he couldn’t afford to let go.

  With tears running down his face, Luca pulled on the board again and again. The post cracked, and he continued to pull. The bardaqs rushed on to his head, swarming over his arm and onto his wrist. They bit his hand and fingers.

  Luca couldn’t feel his grip on the board anymore, but he could still feel it shaking, and then it popped loudly. He felt it pull against him. He was only partially aware that he was sliding forward as the handrail fell away, and then there was nothing beneath him.

  He tumbled end over end, the bardaqs howling from all around him until the river reached up and took him in its cold embrace. The cold water engulfed him, stealing the breath from his lungs and filling every painful cut and scrape on his body.

  He hadn’t thought this through. He had flung himself off of the bridge in a desperate attempt to get clear of the hungry swarm, but he hadn’t considered if he would even be able to swim.

  Even in the water the bardaqs clung to him, weighing him down and making him sink. Luca pulled at the water, despite the pain in his limbs. The surface of the water hung teasingly above him, just out of his reach. The swirling waters churned against him and with every labored stroke forward, he felt himself slide further away from the world above.

  The bardaqs started to release their hold and fall away. He didn’t feel quite so heavy anymore, but there was so much water above him. His lungs burned, every inch of his body screaming out for his next breath. Then he felt sand beneath his feet.

  Fighting the urge to open his mouth and inhale, Luca pushed off. He ignored the pain, kicking and pulling frantically against the water. His head broke the surface, and air rushed into his lungs. The stars that had been circling his vision started to fade.

  Luca sputtered and choked, greedily taking in large gulps of air. He splashed, desperately working to keep his head above the water. He had no idea where he was. Everything around him was dark and blurry.

  The current took hold as the water fought to claim him. Luck had not abandoned Luca completely. The broken handrail bobbed in the water several strides away.

  It took all the strength he had left, but in several sputtering strokes he pulled within reach. The dry wood sunk under his weight but managed to keep him afloat. Exhaustion claimed Luca as he slumped in the water, the makeshift raft now holding his head above the surface.

  He drifted by a large sandbar, but no longer possessed the strength to reach it. He continued to float, spinning like driftwood in the current, afraid to let go of his life raft in the fear that he would simply sink to the bottom.

  He couldn’t feel pain anymore, and his head felt it was full of water. He was unsure how long he had been in the water, or how far from the bridge he had gone. He was alive, and that was all that mattered.

  The river turned a lazy bend and widened on its southwesterly course. Jagged bluffs rose up on either side. The dense trees lining the rocky banks started to blur together. Everything was growing fuzzy. Several sand bars reached out towards him. They shimmered and seemed to move within the water, like gritty fingers trying to poke him.

  A dead bardaq bobbed in the water, drown in the murky waters that saved him. The creature’s eyes hung open, still glowing with a faint light. Something his brother told him about the tiny creatures popped into his mind.

  Their bite is poisonous.

  That was how the bardaqs hunted. They overwhelmed their prey by sheer numbers, and as the prey weakened, they would carry it back to their hole and consume it slowly. But the tiny creatures were all dead now, and he was still alive.

  It should have made him feel better, but he was still floating, and the bank looked so far away. He just wanted solid ground beneath him. It was out there, beyond the black water, but he knew that he could not reach it.

  He was helpless.

  Luca’s teeth started to chatter from the cold. The weariness grew deeper until he couldn’t lift his head off the wood.

  It felt like the whole world was sliding by, but then one sandbar looked different. He saw a twinkle in the dark. It was nothing more than a pinpoint of light. As he started to doze, the spot of light grew larger.

  Something large and flat appeared in the water. Luca floated right by it before he realized what it was. The heads of large oars protruded from the boat’s sides, reaching towards the water like spindly legs.

  Luca peeled his head off of the slimy wood as a roaring bonfire appeared on the sand. He could see people walking all over the bank and dancing before the pyre.

  “Help! Help me,” Luca cried out, but his voice was so weak.

  He tried again, but his voice betrayed him. They were so close he felt that if he could just lift his arm, he could touch them. He
was going to float by, and they would never know he was there.

  That thought flooded him with an energizing sense of terror, and in a moment of panic he pushed away from his life raft. He flailed his good arm in the air trying to wave and get their attention, but his legs wouldn’t move. His cries for help cut off as he choked on a mouthful of water.

  More water than air rushed into his mouth, but he couldn’t stop trying to call out for help. He choked another mouthful of water down and sunk. It took everything he had just to get his head above the water one last time. He slid past the fire on the bank but swore people had noticed. He so desperately wanted them to see him.

  He was right. The people were up. They were standing at the edge of the river and looking around. Several of them stood knee high in the water, hopping around and pointing in his direction. They were hooting and hollering, making strange noises.

  Luca’s thoughts were sluggish. They weren’t men at all. They were something else entirely.

  There was more splashing on the riverbank. The water cradled him gently. It felt natural. His fight bled away as he sank deeper into the dark water. The moon glimmered and rippled on the surface above him, but he no longer understood why it was important. Nothing seemed important anymore.

  Luca felt strangely peaceful. He answered the blissful call for sleep. The world slid along silently above him as the black closed in.

  Chapter 4

  The monster, the pool, and the wretch

  Bouncing along facedown, drifting in and out of consciousness, Eisa felt like she was locked in a nightmare. She withdrew into herself, like a crab in its shell, as her only means of self-preservation. Sights and sounds floated to her like a dream. Even sound was distorted. It felt like her head was stuck underwater.

  She couldn’t believe Luca was gone. And she didn’t know how Hunter could have fared any better against the savage beast. She didn’t need to see their mangled bodies to know that they were dead.