“You were brave,” the princess commended, gliding to her side, “but you were also late.”
Her power disappeared just as the fight ended. She was back in her own form, untouched, unblemished.
“I was slow,” the little girl admitted, “the parents are dead.”
“You were afraid in the beginning. That’s why they died.”
“What will happen to the little bunnies that got away?”
“They will live, or they will die. Without their parents, its hard to tell. They will have to learn how to take care of themselves. Some of them will not grow up.”
“It’s my fault. I was afraid.”
“It’s good you are afraid. Your fear tells you that something is not okay. But never let it consume you. You have to rise above it, always.” Said the princess, gazing into Jean’s eyes lovingly. “Now, come along child. There are other adventures waiting for you.”
Although bummed, the brooding girl followed Princess Jessamine, eager to start on the next adventure. Jean was resolved to be better the next time. They cut a path through the grass towards the tall mountains. They climbed the mountain without difficulty and went down. On the other side was a grassland. There were no roads. Jean and the princess stopped when they reached another section that was sealed off with the same richly decorated glass with a great, transparent door.
There were two kids and a bleating adult goat on the other side. The kids playfully jumped up and down rocks. On the left, was a wolf. Its coat was deep black, and it stood taller than Jean. The snake with the gem-like scales appeared again. Jean did not hesitate this time.
The adventures continued. They all began the same way. A glass door, then they prey, then the predator. With each challenge, prey were more endearing, the predators even more fearsome. Jean’s anger escalated with each one and with it, the brutality she unleashed on animals that would have harmed those she wanted to protect.
Her challenges continued until she no longer felt fear, until she no longer hesitated. Until she learned to trust the female voice. The voice that lent her power. The voice that said the same thing over and over again.
Let me in. I will help you.
~0~
In one of her captures, she saw a thick cluster of trees. She stopped and took pictures around her. This time, she counted with each shot to remember the direction she took each one. Almost all pictures she took were out of focus. One was severely out of focus, almost all blur but the general outlines suggested there was a wider path there. She retraced her counting and headed in that direction.
Just to be sure, she took another picture after taking two steps.
Run.
Gina did not stop to think, she just ran, firing shot after shot after shot, the flash briefly showing her the path forward. In the brief moment it took the LED to flash and die, something big came into view. It towered over her. It had blackened skin and eyes that glowed when the flash hit it.
Whatever it was, it growled. The woods seemed to reverberate with the strength of its growling. Gina ran, crying and desperate. She was having difficulty catching her breath. The space between flashes could not keep up with the pace she kept. Gina bumped into a tree.
She heard it growl again. She screamed, as if in reply. The voices of her friends came again, rising above the growls. They sounded like they were having fun, like they were enjoying something.
Gina did not feel the pain. She was on her feet again, running. Her only concerns were getting away and holding the phone tightly. She barreled her way into a thicket, went some distance forward, and fell down again.
She was on her hands and knees in no time, crawling forward. She could not hold the phone up yet but her need to get away fueled her to keep crawling. She yelped when her leg would not move. She wriggled trying to get away but the shoelaces got caught on something.
Turning around, she took pictures to see what it was then tried to get it off. The sound of branches snapping became louder. She kept pressing the button that fired the flash with her thumb while her other hand tried to free her shoe. She yelled in surprise.
The phone rang. She had to stop pressing the button, afraid she would cancel the call accidentally. While she was bathed in darkness, Gina looked at the screen and pressed the green button. It took long for the phone to respond. Too long. She did not wait.
“Mom? Mom? Mom? Help!” Gina begged, screaming loudly.
The voice on the other end sounded worried but it was all she could get, the tone. She could not make out the words her mother was saying. She had no time to decipher them, she needed volume. Gina kicked, wishing her shoelace would come free while she tried to focus on the screen to find the button that would send the call to speaker.
The growling came again, closer this time. Gina screamed for her mom, asking her to come get her, to help her, to take her away.
~0~
The woman passed through the wall, its hollow eyes as dead as ever, lips held in a perpetually vicious smile. The figure turned towards the woman and let out a sound that was a cross between a snarl and a shriek. The woman cackled and raised her hand. The knife glinted in the room’s light.
In the span of a blink the hideous woman was within range of the painfully pale figure. She brought her large knife down on the monstrosity but missed. The tall creature was too fast that Emmy did not see it dodge, she only saw the woman’s arm swinging down, missing the target.
The white figure brought its arm up and slashed. The woman’s head slid from its neck and tumbled to the floor. Emmy was confused. The woman walked through a wall. She was not supposed to be solid, yet, not only was the figure able to decapitate her, her head thudded against the floor.
The tall figure let loose its terrifying roar once more as more creatures crawled out of its body. It threw its arms up in different configurations each time, all fingers now sporting the same razor sharp nails, and started scratching its own body with it. It did not bleed but the deep scores released even more crawling insects that writhed and buzzed and flew all over the room. It howled a howl that shook the house.
Emmy shook in fear. The air was filled with malicious intent. Her body bounced to the rhythm of the creature that was taking her from behind. She felt a sticky wetness where her chest was as its fingers dug deeper into her skin.
When the white creature stopped howling, it turned towards Gina again. Emmy saw it raise its clawed hand up. The next moment, Emmy saw her daughter’s left foot drop to the floor.
“You fucking animal! I will kill you! I will kill you!” she yelled repeatedly.
Gina’s eyes cried thicker tears of blood. The next moment, her hand came off. The figure seemed to revel in Emmy’s agony as it toyed with Gina, running all of its nails on the child’s skin, grazing it, scoring it. The entire left arm fell to the floor next.
“You fucking- fucking… I will kill you! Motherfucker I will kill you!” Emmy screamed through thick tears, her voice growing hoarse.
The light in Jeans room flickered, slowly at first, then quickly. A figure emerged from the shadows. It moved with each flicker. Emmy was finding it hard to focus with the flickering and tears. Her screaming came to a stop. It was the shade.
The white figure did not seem to notice the flickering lights nor the shade. It continued hacking away at Gina’s body with its sharp claws. It wailed a sickening wail when its left arm was ripped from its body. The figure turned swinging its remaining arm wide. It caught the shade in the midsection, tearing off a large chunk. When the shade’s body part landed on the floor, it sizzled and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
The shade in a suit retaliated by disappearing with the flicker and appearing at the back of its opponent. It dug both its arms inside the tall figure’s back and tore it open. Thousands of insects flew off in all directions darkening the room even more. The shade tilted its head side to side, slowly at first then in rhythm with the flickering lights. Within seconds, all the insects in the vicinity writhed and burned filling the room with an acrid stench.
Emmy felt like something inside her was torn as the creature that mounted her bellowed. The sound that came out of it was loud and too low for any human throat to possibly mimic. She felt her bones shake at the strength of it. She felt the creature’s phallic appendage slip out of her violently, then felt the bed indent deeply to her right. The creature continued to roar as it stalked towards the shade.