145. The worst of night, 1

(Rose)

I wake up sore. I look around cautiously before moving.

Something is not right.

She did not greet me as I woke up, and that is something like someone showing on time at work every day for twenty years suddenly arriving late.

It's worrisome at the very least.

I don't see anything suspicious around us. The morning is colder than usual but alright.

An instinct like a voice inside my head is yelling at me not to move or breathe.

It's her. She's terrified.

Something ominous is close by and she thinks we should make ourselves invisible. I try my best, facing apparently nothing but beginning to be afraid too.

A minute or an hour passes in silence. I'm so still I'm almost blending inside the landscape.

How long should I wait? She speaks directly into my instincts, not with words but feelings.

She asks me to stop using words. She begs me to think as less as possible for now...

What could be so frightening to a being like her I wonder. Something we have to hide from.

Something alive. Something obviously not human. Something that never was human... Something dangerous that would get us if we tried to flee now openly... I'm beginning to truly fear the kind of monster she wants us to hide from.

We're in grave danger and I can't see or hear anything unusual. Only, she can. Like for the stone she found I guess, she can sense this kind of thing, of energy, from a great distance. I can feel and sense a few kinds of energy from a distance, like light, temperature, sound. As if it was another one, like electricity, she can sense a few others I cannot.

The sky suddenly turns black as night. The sun vanishes as if it never was. My heart jumps. Blume yells the thought of closing my eyes and I do so, before the nightmare falls upon us.

I hear a worse silence. Some wind. Something far up in the sky moving around. I can still feel the sunlight on me and through my eyelids.

Something is flying around, wide and dark enough to hide the sun in full day. It goes away. The odd sensations stop.

B - Run!

I don't reply and jump on the way, without packing but the bare minimum. I begin to run on the open morning road feeling as if a war had begun next to me, though the landscape is as still and quiet as ever.

I run at a good pace and she's helping me breathing more efficiently so I can keep the rhythm longer. I cannot speak meanwhile, but she knows what I would have asked.

As I go along that road, she tells me.

B - I'm sorry. That thing I saw is... A monster. Not one like the humans or beasts you faced before. No, a monster like... me. Like the older thing I was, only far, far more powerful and dangerous. That monster, it reeked of murderous intents from miles away. It would have killed us both on the spot hadn't we laid low as it passed by.

R - Was it... Looking for us?

B - No, I don't think so... It felt that something alive was around, but I kept us hidden as much as I could from the moment I detected it. Hopefully it thought we were just a small animal and nothing more... It's going south west... That city maybe.

R - Why?

B - It's... Wrath. Cruelty. It wants to kill. It's looking for intelligent beings to destroy and devour...

R - An ogre...

B - Please, just run as fast as you can. I don't know what would happen to us if it were to find us...

She's almost begging me again, in panic. An ogre is on this land, and it may find us...

~

I ran for around three kilometres. I'm feeling a weird mixture of exhaustion, hunger, sickness and strength. She's acting on some parts of my body to give me more endurance and strength, but it begins to feel wrong. I feel more and more nauseous.

R - Please... Stop what you're doing. I feel sick.

B - It's not me. It's the ogre leaving poison in the air on its way. I'm trying my best to protect you from it.

R - What is it trying to do?

B - I told you... If there are any humans left in the area where it is now, it will hunt them and slaughter them.

R - But why?

B - It's not a being you can comprehend... It's a true, real, monster. A being of your worst nightmares lost loose on the world and nothing will stop it...

R - How could such a thing... Be?

B - That thing hasn't evolved from your nature. It's something transformed from mine. A being like me in older times. A power without conscience nor mental boundaries. It's not even truly a mistake from life... It's the worst of what beings like me could turn into... The absolute worst... Monster.

R - Until... When?

I run slower now, I breathe less and less easily.

B - Until... Maybe the end of times. Or until a bigger fish manages to eat it someday... It hardly relates to biology at all. It will eventually die sooner or later, but it could be a very long time unfortunately... I'm sorry but I can't stop it. I can't defeat such a monster. It could eat me whole...

R - What can we do?

B - Halas, just run away...

I feel hollow. I knew nature wasn't always fair, merciful; or systems I could have a righteous influence upon. But knowing a monster is loose and all we can do is flee makes me feel awful.

Animals are neither good nor bad in what they need to do to survive and exist. That thing seems different. But in the end, neither was I judged for my crimes...

I'm feeling awful.

I begin to tear up as I trot and lose my breath.

We will make it to safety...

B - I'm terribly sorry Rose...

I'm tearing up.

~