Night Terror.

Night Terror.

Havillah was awakened by the sound of wailing. A soul racking sound that had left her feeling hollow and all creeped out. With cold fingers it had creeped down and grasped her neck, tracing a sharp claw down the curve of a spine, jolting her out of what until then had been a peaceful sleep.

The sound she could tell was coming from a far and yet it still sounded loud and very taunting.

"The village!" She thought as she jolted out of bed and made to walk towards the window. Pulling aside the heavy black curtains, she pushed her face up to the glass. Cracked as it was, she attempted to stare out through the spaces that had been left between the boards, but all she could see was a sweeping darkness not even a glint of the light that should have shone from the town below.

"You won't see a thing through there." A voice said from behind her and she turned to look at the form that was leaning on the door post by the open door. How long had he been standing there? She did not know. She had not heard him come in and it left her wondering if he had been standing guard while she slept through the entire evening.

"What time is it?" She decided to ask despite the gnawing curiousity brought about by his presence in the room.

"Three hour turns past dusk." He said, taking a step forward to meet her where she had moved to stand in the middle of the room. "And my question is, how is it you were able to sleep through all that? What are you?" He stalked her, prowling around the room like a wounded tiger waiting to pounce on her.

"Forgive me if my crime was resting all to peacefully." She suddenly got angry. "What does that now make me? A spy and a...?"

"You think this is a joke?" He moved closer in order to further intimidate her. "People are out there losing their sanity due to these night terrors. It is my work to protect them-"

"But you have failed and are still failing." She could not help herself. His attitude was quite annoying. Even so, she somehow understood him and maybe, the reasons that were behind his actions. "Right?" She suddenly smiled and in his shock, Jharey found himself admitting.

"Yes. I have failed. I have failed and my people are paying for it. Dearly. Everyday a life is lost. They may not be dying, but their fate may be much worse than death. To be trapped in a living nightmare to the point that you lose yourself? That is the torture they are going through and when all is done, all that remains when the nightmares have taken their sanity is just an empty broken husk. So yes, Havillah. I have failed as a mayor of this town. It is not like we get to fight physical terrors like the rest of you, but that doesn't make them any less deadlier." He finished his rant frowning at Havillah's quite thoughtful look.

"Well, I am not a spy. I am running though, but not from something but towards something." She added after a moment of thought. " Wait! Night terrors? Your terrors are actually nightmares?" She queried with eyes full of disbelief and the man's frown grew deeper.

"Are you belittling us?"

"No!" She was quick to defend. "It's just surprising that's all. How do they even manifest?"

"You mean to ask what the people actually see? Like I said, it is more like a living nightmare. What is surprising though is that you were able to sleep considering how loud the whispers are even when you are wide wake, but I guess it must have something to do with the fact that for some reason the intensity seems to be much lower  today?" His eyes widened as if he was just realising something just then. She still did not understand him, or anything for that matter, but she was slowly getting there. That is, if this man continued to cooperate just like he was doing right then. "Come," he suddenly said, pulled at her hand albeit more gently than when he first brought her there.

He took her through the door and brought her into the corridor. After a few paces they came up to the front door which was also bolted up. Not with one bolt, but several. Like in Bethesda, Havillah realised that the multiple bolts must have had some significance. But for an invisible terror, were they truly necessary?

Jharey was quick to read her look and he immediately began to explain, his hostility from earlier having vanished into nothingness. Now, the cold hard look that he had once borne on his face had been replaced by a certain urgency. One that spoke of his inherent need to show her everything and probably to have her understand him as well.

"Sometimes they get violent."

"What? The terrors?"

"Yes and the people they posses. The ones that we call the Gone." He told her and she frowned at that word that kept coming up.

"Why do you refer to them as Gone?" She had to ask.

"Because they have lost all their faculties and are only subject to being possessed by the night terrors. By day they may appear docile, but at night it becomes a different matter. Now, I know that you are wondering why we don't just get rid of them, but those are our people trapped inside there and we are yet to lose all hope of recovering them."

"That's admirable." She commended him. "I guess, if you did so, it would mean that with time there would be no one left, right?"

"True. Now stay close." He said as he pulled the final bolt and led her outside. "It is bound to be chaotic out here. Even though the town is now awake, our attempts are barely keeping the terrors away."

The pair ambled down the path to join the one that went down the hill and soon enough they came to the small gate. As they went through the gate, the cries and the shrieking became louder with every step that they took towards the town. Soon enough, they came to the town square and despite it being night she could see that the fog was thicker here and also quite cold.

"Come."Jharey spoke again as he reached out to grip her hand tight and it made her wonder if this fog was the sort that one could get lost in. Like a blanket it was enveloping everything and were it not for the lights that were coming from the little glass windows on the houses and the many gas lanterns in the streets and in the square, Havillah was sure that they could have easily gotten lost.

What was even more surprising though, was how the fog was behaving. She could hear the whispers within it and it made her wonder if those were the voices that Jharey had been talking about. With every sound, a tendril like a cold wraith like finger would break away from the white mass and reach out for one of them. Then it would curl around the head, falling down the back before dissipating to allow for another tendril.

Curious, Havillah reached out her free hand to touch the one that was now garnering for Jharey's head and curiously it curled away before returning to the fog to allow for another tendril. With even more curiosity Havillah looked around herself to watch for her own tendrils but stumbled on a loose rock catching Jharey's attention.

"Please...do hurry before we attract a violent Gone to her side." He spoke with a certain urgency looking around for what Havillah assumed were Gones lurking in the shadows.

"How do you even know where you are going anyway? I mean with the fog so thick..."

"I was born here so I have a general sense of things so to say. " He replied unaware of the look that had formed on Havillah's face as yet again the fog let out a tendril to caress his forehead before drifting down his back. He appeared to shudder for a moment and unable to hold it in any longer, she finally decided to ask.

"Do I have them?"

"What?"

"The tendrils from the fog." The man turned to her with a question in his eyes before shaking his head in confusion.

"What tendrils?"