CHAPTER THREE

Luna

I am lightheaded and make a grab for the door handle and suddenly I feel some small measure of relief, I can somehow dimly hear voices calling my name, telling me to fight, to come back, to brace myself, but I don’t know these people, there is too much noise in my head, father? Does this man think he is my father?

I can’t hold up under this terrible onslaught, so I let go. This isn’t a fight I can win, there is something else at work here, something way beyond the physical and while I may not understand it, I can understand and acknowledge that it is there. More than anyone else in my family I think I can understand the fact that the supernatural exists far more readily, especially since I have had all these nightmares my entire life of impossible things. Still it’s not so easy to accept the fact that there are dangerous predators out there living among humanity as though they were a part of us.

I feel like am floating towards the ground when someone’s hands grab me gently, the world has gone dark for me but I can sense the gentle swaying of someone moving with me in their arms.

It’s been some time, the sensation has not stopped, rather it seems unstoppable, when I hear chanting, the cadence is harsh and it is very painful, I feel like I’ve been scalded with boiling water, my eyes snap open and I realize two things immediately, the dark stranger has me in his arms, this causes me to stiffen and when I do he glances down at me, his eyes which were the green of summer grass before are completely changed now, everything is black, he has no visible pupil, everything is blacked out and at this moment he looks more like a ghost than anything else.

He pulls his lips wide in the semblance of a smile which looks more like a grimace and I finally scream, it is a long thin wail that carries through the night, and I guess the scream has been building long in the back of my throat. He frowns at me and stops, he tries to cover my mouth with his hand, at first I didn’t react and just keep on screaming until I realize it’s the hand with the black substance oozing, now there is a greater edge of panic and I begin to struggle, I need to take in some air so I stop screaming and greedily pull in air and before he can readjust me I twist my body out of his grip in a way that Sheila, my other friend would be super proud of, in a flash I am off and crashing through the woods.

He’s behind me and I feel a wave of hopelessness so severe, am never escaping this crazy fellow, he’s too tall, his strides are insane and I can literally feel his breath on the back of my neck, something inside tells me he’s just messing with me, if he really wants to get me he would have, and I am not ashamed to confess that my breath hitched and tears started to roll down my eyes as I thought of my impending death at the hands of this monster.

The branches are slapping hard at me, there are unseen traps on the forest floor that threaten to trip me up and slow me down but I somehow always just miss them by a tiny breath, I turn my face just to gauge the distance between us and see him almost touching my shoulder with one of his pitch-black wriggly fingers, I hurl myself in the other direction just so, narrowly avoiding him touching me. All thoughts wipeout of my head when I hear the loud roar, I didn’t hear it before because of the pounding of my heart and everything else happening, but I can hear it now, and if it’s this loud then I closer to it than anywhere else. This is good; I take courage in this fact and push myself even faster until I burst out of the forests, into a large clearing and see the waterfall pounding hard into the river below.

I turn around when I get to the edge of the over-hanging cliff, I turn to face the monster and I see that he’s not even breathing hard, actually, his chest isn’t even moving, he steps closer to me and says, ‘are you done with your tantrum now daughter? Come, time passes and our time in this place draws close’ he seems so sure he’s won, I can see the glint of victory in his eyes.

Still facing him, I step closer to the edge of the cliff, and stare at him defiantly, I still haven’t regained my breath completely and now am just waiting to do that, so I can jump my way to freedom.

‘you are so much like your mother at this moment Luna, so stubborn and beautifully so, I am proud of you, you know’ he says as he inches his way toward me, I shiver at the look in his eyes, they do not match his words and his tone at all.

‘do not move an inch more if you value your existence’ a deep almost guttural sounding voice commands and I stand there in shock because it’s like at the sound of that command, coils wrap around me, coils of air, grounding me, steadying if I may say so, this is so confusing and I am so over it.

I watch as the monster before me whirls around in a hard to conceal shock, ‘you! You should be dead! How are you here?’ he demands from someone standing at the very edge of the woods, for the first time this night, I hear an edge of uncertainty in the voice of the stranger who thinks am his daughter.

‘don’t take offense, dear friend, many others stronger and meaner than you have tried to do away with me over the years, am just really hard to kill, I have my momma to thank for that though’ he says conversationally then he pauses as though considering something.

‘you should leave, what is happening here is no business of yours, none at all’ my captor says, in the same tone as the other man, the hairs on my body rise in dread, they are both incredibly dangerous beings, and I shouldn’t be here while they face-off, because they will, especially with the way they are talking like they know one another and this is another one in a long line of their vengeance quests or something.

I try to move but realize that something is preventing me from doing so, I can shuffle slowly, but I want their attention firmly off me before I do anything so as to ensure my safe escape. I know this waterfall like I know my own face; it’s the best thing to happen to me this entire night.

‘Step away from the girl, she will not be coming with you tonight or at any other time’ he says again but this time something in his voice has changed, he’s going to attack soon, I calm my breathing, harnessing my strength and prepare my mind for the coming leap am going to make.

‘Or what? What are you going to do? Parrish, we both know I am the better fighter, the stronger one, why do you like getting involved in matters concerning my family?’ The stranger’s voice has changed too, he’s getting ready to defend or attack.

‘you are undoubtedly the better fighter in every way, this I will not deny, but you vastly under-estimate my tactical ability and willingness to win, also unlike you, I have back up and you are surrounded’ the new stranger says all these lightly as he steps fully into the clearing and I see him well for the first time, he’s just as beautiful as my captor, even more so, his beauty seems so fragile, like it’ll break easily, a mistake that many will have made concerning tis fellow because following everything he has said, he is way harder to kill than your average human being.

He is also all in black, his dark hair is cropped short and his eyes which are slanted like that of a cat and even from this distance they glow a deep blue, just as vibrant as my captor’s eyes when they were that deceptive green from before, I inhale, this beauty is not natural, it’s not human, none of it. If so, who or rather what are they? A question for another day I suppose if I survive this meeting that is.

Huge gray-brown hounds slink out of the woods behind the man named Parrish their eyes glowing red, an aura of fear oozing out of them, they wear menace like human women wear undies, this has gone from a party of two to about forty more in minutes.

There is a super large hound who moves towards me I want to shriek in fear but rather than tear me apart as it closes on me, it sniffs my rigid form once and turns back to face the others in a snarl, it is the biggest hound of the group, and they are all of varying sizes and colors, I didn’t know that so many different shades of gray exist. I’ll have to look into it later.

I know my mind is trying to keep me calm and ready for when I make my move, this Parrish guy seems like he and his companions will protect me from the other bad guy, but who will protect me from them once they finish him off, because these are crazy odds, forty-plus hounds and a wicked-looking guy versus this one human, call it overkill but they are definitely good odds for Parrish, am rooting for him and for my escape.

All of a sudden there is a ringing silence as everything goes quiet, then a flash of light as two swords clash in the middle of the clearing, oh my God! What have I gotten myself into?