“Ugh, Goddess. I don’t even want to know. I was mostly curious at first, but I really doubt they moved down there. Perhaps we should try—” Bart’s mouth stood agape as the last word exited his mouth. A sudden squelch had been heard from behind, followed by another then another. The prince wheezed and sputtered blood as the knife connected with his flesh over and over again. The lanky, robed figure continued to stab him in the back, far longer than what seemed necessary. There was one last wet schlunk before he fell to his knees, only kept from falling completely by the monstrous fingers digging into his shoulder. The dark stranger propped him up and held the blade against his throat, ready to finish him off when—
June screamed, facing up toward her brother with an outstretched hand. “Bart! Behind you!”
In a flash, Bart spun around and blocked the arm of his would-be murderer with an arm of his own before the masked figure could plunge the knife down into his back. June’s small premonition had saved his life once again. The prince struggled as he tried to bear the weight of the much larger figure pushing down against him, the tip of the knife reaching dangerously close to his eye. With his free hand, he grabbed the figure’s wrist and attempted to wrest it off himself—and not doing a very good job. “June…! Run away!”
The sounds now coming from in front of June sounded very differently from her premonition. She could hear her brother struggling—breathing, but could not sense much about the attacker. Not his sense of movement, nor his breathing. It was as if this entity bore no life of its own. She struggled to come up with her next move, having only a few scant seconds to decide before her brother befalls the grisly fate she had just predicted. She took a gamble and—ignoring her brother’s plea—lunged toward his attacker. She made impact, grasping at whatever part of him she could. Her panicked mind was in overdrive, finding it almost impossible to place where every correct limb or body part was that would be on a normal human. She finally managed to wrap an arm around its neck while flailing her other arm wildly trying to get a grip on the arm bearing down on her brother. June’s fingers found the cold metal mask attached to its face and pulled at it, hoping to disorient it. There was a loud clang as the mask hit the floor. A sudden scream from Bart almost caused a frightened June to lose her grip. “Are you okay?!”
“Dear Goddess, June! His face! His hideous face!”
The echo of her brother's scream was so disturbing that she had almost lost her grip. She couldn't even imagine what kind of face could frighten him so. She once again reached for his weapon arm, this time getting a nice grip on his upper wrist and brushing fingers against the grip of her brother's. A resurgence of courage filled her, giving her strength to squeeze even harder. It wasn't until then that she realized how disgustingly soft his body felt under her. It was almost jelly-like in her grip and had felt like she could break his arm at any second. Had her brother felt it too? She pulled her foe's arm back as hard as she could and with their combined strength, she could finally feel the pressure of the attack weakening. “Now, brother! Move!”
Bart finally had enough leeway to maneuver out from under his attacker, who had almost brought him to his knees. He rolled onto the ancient ground, kicking up large clouds of dust.
The hideous figure thrashed back and forth, swinging his knife at the girl behind him. By some miracle, she just barely managed to dodge the flurry of slashes despite not being able to see them.
The figure was moving much too clumsily in anger, drunkenly stabbing at the air right next to June’s head. The dangerous swish of wind passed by her ears several times, until something inside the enraged monstrosity snapped, causing him to let out a piercing wail.
The cry sounded strangely avian, yet it was still unlike any kind of bird June had ever heard. There was no end in sight to the piercing shrill that was now making her head spin and she was now trapped riding the bucking sentry. She held on as tight as she could, but she could feel herself slipping—wanting to roll off before a stray cut of the knife. But if she let go now, the contemptible monster would be free and they would be at its mercy once again.
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Suddenly, from across the room she heard her brother rushing forward—screaming at the top of his lungs. What was he about to do?!
Bart, without missing a beat, had picked up a loose shard of glass from one of the old windows and charged at the strange enemy being somehow held at bay by his blind sister. He knew this would their one and only opportunity to save themselves. He dove at the hooded figure’s chest, narrowly avoiding the swing of a knife himself and plunged the jagged glass into what he presumed was its heart.
“Bart?! Are you okay? What was that?! What happened?!”
“Nngh! I’ve got him, June! Get away from him and get somewhere safe!” Bart kept his hand on the shard of glass, letting it cut into his palm as he held it firmly inside his attacker. He avoided looking directly at the face that had terrified him earlier and instead watched as June climbed off of him and stumbled into the darkness. He prayed that no other member of that macabre march had heard its screech and made their way here to join it. They were struggling enough as it was against only one of them, he didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if it did. The thing in front of him continued screeching, announcing what he rather hoped was its death knell. It dropped the strange knife in its hand and flapped its arms wildly. Bart finally let go and shoved the figure away as hard as he could.
It staggered back, trying to keep its footing after Bart’s assault, arms outstretched while continuing to reach towards him until finally it collapsed into the shadows between a row of ancient pews.
“June…?” Bart looked around for his sister. “It’s alright now. You can come out. I’ve… I’ve vanquished our foe. You didn’t get too far, I hope?”
“Bart? You’re okay? We’re safe?” June’s shaky voice came from the darkened corner of the room. She had fallen back onto the ground, knees hugged in front of her. Her head bobbled around, trying to detect another sign from her brother. She reached her hand out in front of herself, hoping he would reach it. “I-I’m over here.”
“O-Oh!” Bart had pulled his sister to her feet and was surprised to feel a sudden embrace. He hadn’t known June to frighten so easy, but perhaps she had finally hit her limit. “There, there, June. It’s fine now. I didn’t see any sign of more of those fellows slinking around in the shadows, but it may be best for us to get out of here while we still can. It can only get worse from here.”
June held her brother tightly for a moment then slowly released him. “No… We were brought here for a reason. I just know it. We can’t turn back now. We already stopped one of them. We have to keep going.”
Bart heaved a long and tired sigh. “I doubt I’ll be able to change your mind, will I? Fine. But if we’re going to be traveling through this cryptical cesspit, we’ll have to be ready to defend ourselves. One of those freaks was perilous enough, but there were many, many more of those things marching into this place before we arrived and it will be all over for us if we’re discovered.”
“That reminds me,” said June with a hint of morbidity in her voice. “You screamed about its face earlier. What did you see behind the mask? How ghastly was it? No human could have made the noise that it did. These things definitely aren’t like you or me.”
“Far more grotesque than I’d care to remember. I can’t even begin to describe how such a thing should not exist in this world. And the thought that this place is replete with them fills me with enough dread to cause my legs to want to collapse under my very weight. Unfortunately, I’m not a reprehensible enough brother to leave his creepy yet innocent sister at the mercy of these fiends.”
“Wait, I know!” June yelled as she felt her way around. “Let’s grab that knife he was holding! It’s a better weapon than nothing.”
Bart walked over to where he remembered it dropping the odd dagger it carried. He reached down and inspected it. The handle felt strangely light in his hands. The long, asymmetrical blade was broad near the hilt then bent and curved repeatedly like a wave. It was like no dagger he had ever seen before.
“Did you find it?” asked June peering over his shoulder.
“Yes. What a strange blade it has. I can’t imagine this doing a good job of piercing anything.” He looked over at the hooded body slowly sinking unnaturally into the floor. Had it started to decompose already? He looked back down at the blade in his hand, his clear reflection in the blade was staring back at him. “I suppose it’ll do in a pinch.”