Michael took several breaths to catch his wind and looked at the black-cloaked body on the ground beneath him, feeling a surge of wooziness, his hands tingling with energy, adrenaline and, he guessed, blood loss. That was what he needed to deal with immediately.
"OK..." Michael muttered under his breath as he tried to come back into reality. "Think."
Michael decided that he needed to stem the flow of blood on his left arm, so, looking around at what was available to him, he set about creating a tourniquet.
He took several breaths before turning and looking down at the deceased enemy. It seemed like there was no life in it. But he prodded it to be sure, and sure enough, it was rigid and rapidly cooling to the touch. He pulled at the cloak it wore, trying to free some of the material so that he could wrap his arm up and stop himself from losing any more blood, and then took the black blade that the figure had been trying to use against him.
Its limbs and torso were wrapped up tightly and bound with the fabric and Michael wondered if this was the creature's own doing, or if someone or something had dressed him this way.
"Right. OK. Now..." he muttered, taking more breaths to keep himself in the here and now. His vision swam a bit. His brain tried to remind him of his double, but Michael wasn't going there right now.
It took him a while to figure it out, and then, using the sword which could have killed him minutes before, he cut some of the creature's cloak free, and pulling it out from beneath him. Michael felt the wound in his left arm with a small pang of fear, not really knowing how bad the injury was or how long he had to deal with it. It could get infected or worse.
Hit with the rush of urgency, he quickly tore the material free, and then hurriedly pulling his own belt from his jeans, he used the two materials to create a tourniquet around the top of the wound in his arm.
He figured it probably needed more, and so, ripping off another piece of fabric, this one from around the monster's throat, he wound the thing tightly around the injury, trying to stop himself from losing any more blood than necessary. After a few moments of twisting the belt to make a tighter tourniquet and trying to get used to the dull throbbing ache that was coursing through his upper left arm, Michael managed to sit back, and his heart began to beat a bit more slowly and rhythmically.
Then, feeling slightly more comfortable with his immediate situation, it hit him that the girls were still somewhere, and in that moment, he looked to the windows, realising that the little bat monsters could be anywhere, but there didn't seem to be any outside the glass now. Michael didn't know what he would find outside, but it didn't seem that they were at risk of attack right away. But what if they had gotten the girls? And Sarah?
And that reminded him, where had Sarah, Lucy and Katie gone? They must have left when the monster in black had been trying to kill him.
Michael didn't want to admit that they'd probably just run for it and left him there, but he could see it being the case. The black-robed creature's dead body was laid on the floor and he walked towards the exit of the library room. His mind tried to focus on what to do now.
First, he wanted to know where the girls were and how to get them all to safety, as he figured there'd probably be more creatures out there, and even if he'd had a strange and unlikely victory over this monster, there was a very slim chance that he could defend the four of them from a horde of attackers, be they the humanoid in black, or the little bat monsters that had attacked him before.
He grabbed the creature's sword once more, thankful to have a conventional weapon, and stumbled out of the library.
He was going to find the girls, and they were going to get out of here.
As Michael staggered out into the hallway of the building and down the corridor that he and the girls had walked up together not more than twenty-four hours ago, it was like an alien environment. A chill, cold, creeping darkness hung over the place like an aura of some sort and he was hit with the idea that there might well be creatures hiding around every corner.
The lights inside were still working, but didn't do much to illuminate the space, the school looking very much abandoned, which made sense to Michael, considering how many people were no longer there, having disappeared when the event had first occurred. At some point he'd have to think about the ramifications of that. It was too big to comprehend now, and he had a task ahead of him.
And so he staggered through the corridors and down the stairs. All around, there were little creepy noises, like creaking of metal or a kind of squeaking sound. He listened out for any monsters, trepidatious at every corner, but nothing emerged and there were no other attackers or beasts that jumped out to kill him as he searched for any signs of his three companions. He searched the place, calling out each of their names as quietly as possible, not wanting to alert anything that was lurking nearby.
But he could not find Sarah, or Katie or Lucy. There were no bodies. There were no clues that they had ever been here. Nothing. But then, Michael figured they were hiding from something and didn't want him to know where they were, either.
But he called for them, quietly, trying not to disturb any unwanted ears. "Girls?"
His own voice echoed off the empty halls.
He could feel a slight breeze blowing through the place, which unnerved him. He figured that the next place he should go would be the canteen, as while he didn't know the girls very well, if they had a second "base" at the school away from the library, well, they needed food and so that'd probably be it. His alternatives were that they went down to the locker rooms, which he doubted as there was only one way in or out, or they'd simply escaped the school and would be lost to the night.
So, to the canteen he went. As he stumbled through, a weird, nagging sensation pulled at his brain that there were little creatures that were hiding around the place, in dark shadows. The girls hadn't talked much about their previous experiences, so he didn't really know if there were any monsters or beasts in here before. The one thing they had said, though, was that this building was the safest place in the area.
His body throbbed from pain and exertion as he pushed on, finally finding himself in front of the entrance to the cafeteria.
He argued with himself as to whether to announce himself as he entered or keep quiet. On the one hand, he didn't know what was in the hall behind the door and drawing attention to himself in front of a roost of bat-monsters probably wasn't the best plan. On the other, if he snuck up on the girls, there was a high chance he'd take another baseball bat to the face. His hand went to the handle, ready to push.
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
The decision was made for him when he heard a shrill cry, a woman's cry, a voice that was almost certainly Sarah's, yelling in distress.
His heart jumped and he rushed in through the double doors.
What greeted him inside made his blood boil.
***
As he barged his way through the door into the large canteen room, the sight was a mixture of the unexpected and exactly what he thought.
First of all, he was thankful that the lights were working, though it didn't help Sarah. As he walked through the doors into the hall, his vision was first met with the sight of a set of black wings, a monster, one that had been at the windows before.
And beneath this creature was Sarah, who was kicking and screaming, and struggling, and his vision was then taken to the black monster's body as he scrambled to figure out how best to attack.
Its skin was jet black and leathery and had small barbs or thorns jutting from the limbs, which looked as though they were strong and powerful, though Michael wasn't able to tell for certain.
The beast seemed to be completely distracted by its quarry. A pair of huge wings that were as large, maybe larger, than its body jutted out of the thing's back. Sarah's squeals sent a nasty shiver down his spine.
As the thing lifted one of its huge wings, it exposed the side of its body. He took the chance to jump in and slice with the black sword he had brought, slashing into its hide. He felt it puncture the monster's skin as the blade slid easily through the monster's side.
As soon as the creature noticed his attack it started to howl. It had no words but made an odd noise, almost a mixture of a high pitched scream and a roar. It seemed to have worked, though. As the thing's claws and talons came free of Sarah and she fell down to the floor in a crumpled, half-naked, sobbing mess, Michael took the chance to jump in front of the bat monster.
But it was now concentrating on him.
His blade at the ready, Michael readied his body for a fight, though in his head, a strange sensation seemed to wash over him.
Sarah had been in real trouble.
Sarah was still on the floor, her clothes torn and ragged, no doubt from the struggle Michael had spared her at the last moment from.
She seemed dazed but looked up at him and said, "You have to run!" Then she started to sob in fear. It was a complete opposite to the stoic, icy character she'd presented to him every time before.
Michael had no intention of doing anything except taking this monster down. His blood was boiling, adrenaline pumping.
His head went a little cloudy, and he remembered that even though he had the upper hand here, he was still weakened and reeling. As if to confirm it, his left arm pulsed, taking very little of the weight of the sword he was wielding with both hands currently.
He looked into the face of the bat-monster, already wounded but no less dangerous, and a chill went up his spine. The creature's face was small but it had two sets of large eyes and a long mouth with small, pointed teeth that gnashed together. He could tell it was hungry for his flesh.
Sarah gave him another warning to run.
He took his fighting stance, but as the beast flared out its huge, powerful-looking wings, he wondered if this was the wrong move. The monster started flapping its wings in Michael's direction. Michael kept his body braced for the onslaught of claws and teeth but he hadn't anticipated the sheer force of the gust from its wings. Michael's stance faltered as his legs struggled to remain standing. The wing beats sent his body staggering and he lost his grip on the blade.
A sudden movement of one of its taloned feet alerted Michael to the beast's intention, and pre-empting its lunge, Michael lifted up the sword and struck the thing with the blade.
But its speed and momentum took him by surprise. It came crashing towards Michael with an alarming quickness.
Despite being impaled on Michael's sword, its teeth gnashed at him, trying to reach him as they wrestled to the ground.
The creature struggled, its black blood oozing all over Michael and his sword. But as they hit the ground together, it became apparent to him that his opponent's energy and vitality was draining away.
But the bat monster, its dark wings beating against the ground as it thrashed and tried to escape from Michael's grip and from his sword's sharp blade, didn't have a lot of life in it. And Michael knew, for his own safety, that it needed to be finished off, quickly, and as blood gushed and spilled all over Michael's clothes and skin, and onto the floor below them, he was filled with a rage and he just wanted the thing to die. His hands trembled as the sword sunk in deeper into the black monster.
Realising he was slightly the stronger of the two, he rolled, ending up on top of the bat, but nonetheless knotted and trapped within its wiry frame and leathery wings. As it continued to struggle, its mouth still snapping at Michael, its sharp, little, black teeth still gnashing and clacking together as the monster's blood oozed all over both of them, the beast let out another strange noise that Michael realised he could finish this more quickly. He pulled the blade from the beast's chest.
The beast's mouth gave one last snapping bite at him as Michael lifted the blade with both arms, the left barely making it above his head, and then the bat thing made one final high-pitched hiss as he drove it straight through the thing's skull.
Unlike with the cloaked man, Michael immediately new the cleft-skulled bat-monster was immediately dead. As the adrenaline wore off, he realised he'd been letting out a war cry of his own, and he felt both elated and foolish as he came back to his senses.
Then the visceral nature of being covered in blood, screaming and killing his second enemy of the night hit him all at once; and so, his senses being hit with a strange and unnatural emotion of pride and fear and dread all at the same time. His hands shook as he dropped the sword, rolling over onto the ground, taking in some breaths, just to calm his mind, and trying to come back into reality, though this new world had an alien feeling to it, almost as though it was not his own, like a nightmare that he was stuck in. Michael looked over at the thing, its body lying dead and broken on the ground. He wondered what this creature was. A huge monster, black and leathery, bat-like and strange, not human at all, but the way that its black eyes stared blankly into nothing gave him the willies, and as he looked over to where the sword had been left on the ground.
Then he looked at Sarah and his gut sank. He stumbled to his feet and went to her side.
She was sat with her knees drawn up and her arms around herself and as Michael walked over, she lifted her head, her face was a picture of different emotions; relief, sorrow, anger and fear.
"I... Are you alright?" Michael asked.
Sarah's body trembled, but he could not tell if she was shivering from being cold, from fright or because she was upset or hurt, and he didn't know what to say. Then he caught himself staring at her athletic body through her ripped clothes and felt a pang of guilt wash over him before any other feeling could.
Sarah hadn't noticed, which he was glad of.
He pulled the shirt he was wearing off and handed it to her. "Here".
Sarah seemed to notice her state of dress, but did nothing about it as she sat shivering.
He repeated the offer, pushing the garment towards her.
After a long few moments she reached out to grab his offering and as he went to give it to her, their eyes met, her gaze a picture of worry and concern.
To Michael's relief, Sarah responded to him by putting on his T-shirt, though this made him very cold. He slid down next to her on the canteen floor, checking the patchwork tourniquet on his arm. It still held.
"You look like shit," came a small voice next to him. Michael couldn't help but chuckle and shake his head at that, because he could say the exact same thing back to Sarah. She didn't look injured. In fact, the girl's face was a little red but her features still looked softer and more pleasant to him than usual. "How are you feeling? Is anything hurting?" he said to her, his words soft and caring as his voice echoed around the empty hall of the cafeteria.
Her body shook and trembled as Michael watched. He wanted to ask what had happened and how this bat-like creature had attacked her and whether it was alone. He didn't want to pester the girl, and figured that whatever she had gone through was very unpleasant, to say the least.
"I'm... OK, I think. Just a few scratches." Sarah gave him a long look before speaking again, "Michael," she said. He liked his name in her mouth, "Michael," she said again. "You need to be more careful. You could have been killed," her voice was low, barely above a whisper. He felt the worry in it, though her usual snark seemed to be coming back. It made him glad, seeing her fire back.
"You've no idea," he said. Reluctantly, he pulled himself up and then offered a hand to Sarah so she also get up. "Come on. We need to find the others."