Crying sounds began to increase as the creatures got nearer to the party. This time the discordant sounds coming from the bats sounded as though someone had taken all the toys out of a daycare and children of all ages were crying out their disapproval at having their favorite things stolen. Soon the flapping of wings surrounded them as the monsters began to swarm the adventurers.
Swinging weapons around to try to fend off the attacks, the party began to do their best to strike down anything that came too close. All except James that is. James was crouched on the floor with his hands over his ears as he screamed in terror at the creatures around him.
"Son of a bitch!" Kiera cried out as one of the creatures landed on her shoulder and bit into her neck.
Grabbing the bat-human hybrid by the head, Kiera slammed it onto the ground and stomped on its body, killing it instantly. Looking at her display, she saw a little blood drop icon appear just beneath her HP bar. She focused on the icon as she waved her hands around to fend off more attackers while she tried to get more information. What she saw made her swear again.
"Shit. These fuckers cause bleeding when they bite you!" Kiera called out to the others.
Continuing their defensive attacks, the team swung weapons, shields, and arms at anything they could to keep them off of them. One of the bats fell to the ground after being bashed by Derek's mace and landed right in front of James. He quit screaming and stared in horror at the creature with a small child's head as blood leaked out of its mouth, nose, and eye from the blow.
James stood, turned, and ran from the hall, letting out a yell of pure horror as he went.
"What's his deal?" Jay asked, swatting at bats with one hand and slicing at them with his ninjato in the other.
"If we kill these bats we can just go ask him," Derek grunted as he held his shield up as one of the creatures ran into it before falling to the ground, stunned.
After another few minutes of fighting, the creatures became more and more sparse, until only a few bats remained. They were quickly dispatched by the team before they paused to catch their breath.
"Guess we should go see what got into shithead back there," Kiera said, leaning over with her hands on her knees.
"I think, I know. But you all need to be nice. It's not a fun subject." Tom said, standing back up and turning to move down the hall to where James had run off.
They found James at the end of the hall around the corner, sitting on the floor with his knees in his chest, his arms wrapped around his legs holding them up, and his head buried in his knees sobbing uncontrollably. Tom crouched down next to him and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, bud. Is this about Anthony?" Tom asked cautiously.
James' head nodded, never leaving his knees.
"Who is Anthony?" Jay asked softly, trying to be sensitive to the mood, but feeling awkward at seeing this side of James.
"Anthony was James' kid brother. He wasn't planned, but was a surprise when James was about twelve." Tom began explaining, looking down at James as he paused to see if he wanted to take over. Seeing no indication he could, Tom continued, "James loved that kid. They did everything together, and Anthony looked up to James like he was some kind of hero."
"You keep using past tense," Jay said, realization beginning to dawn on him.
"When James was seventeen, and Anthony was four they were playing outside when a van pulled up out front." Tom began when James looked up and seemed to be getting his emotions under control.
James wiped the tears from his face and looked up at his friends.
"Two men jumped out of the van and grabbed Anthony. I tried to stop them, but they were so much stronger than I was. They took him. We called the police and they searched for five days trying to find him. The whole city was on alert. Texas Rangers were called in to scour the area." James began as tears started falling from his eyes again.
"It's ok, James. They are your family now. We share this burden with you." Tom consoled him, rubbing his hand on his shoulder.
"We got a call on the sixth day of searching. I had barely slept or eaten anything, going around hanging up fliers to try to find him. The police came to the house. They had found his body in a ditch on the side of a two-lane highway almost a hundred miles from our home. The thought of him being scared and alone without us, I felt like a piece of me had been ripped out and left a gaping hole. It was..." James broke off as more sobs wracked his body.
Nobody spoke for a long time, most hanging their head in sorrow. James finally composed himself again.
"I haven't been the same since. I see his face in every child I see still. I was right there. I should have been able to do something." James said as he took deep breaths to steady his emotions.
"You did. You were there and fought for him. You couldn't have done anything differently. Evil men did this. It's not your fault people do terrible things." Kiera said as she knelt on his other side and placed a hand on his other shoulder.
"I saw the faces on those bats, and it brought back every memory. Every feeling. Every sleepless night and every numb day that I had to go through life putting on a happy face. It reminded me of standing in the morgue. Of the sheet being pulled back over his small body for us to identify him. His cold lifeless and damaged body just lying there." James let the emotions out as he spoke about his trauma.
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Kiera hugged James tightly for a long time. She rocked back and forth as she held him and James began crying again, the burden of the past coming back to haunt him like a phantom sheet of sorrow.
"We are here with you now, James. Everything is okay. We are here to help. I'm so glad you opened up to us." Kiera said giving him a final hug and then holding him at arm's length to stare into his eyes. "We are bound together now. You can always count on us. Trauma is part of life. We all live with something that haunts us. Sometimes the trauma is greater in others, but sharing the burden instead of masking it with humor is the path to healing."
"I don't know that I can ever get over the loss. Somedays it feels like the wound has closed and there's nothing but scar tissue, then something creeps up to remind me of his laugh, or the games we played together and the wound feels as fresh as the day we got the call." James explained.
"We all cope with loss and trauma in different ways. But to always bottle it up and cover it with different feelings only makes the wounds fester." Derek offered from behind Tom. "This chink in your armor has shown us what lies beneath, and we accept you still, despite whatever happened. You can talk to us about it. That's the only way to begin the healing process."
"I don't know if I can do that," James said as he sniffed, wiping a runny nose on his sleeve.
"You can't. Not alone anyway. You need others to share the load. That's what we are here for now." Jay spoke softly as he leaned in to look James in the eyes. "And no matter how big a dickhead you are, we aren't going anywhere."
James smiled slightly at this.
"I don't think I can face those creatures," James said.
"That's fine. I'll kill every last one of them so you don't have to bear that. Nobody fucks with my family." Jay said firmly as he stood back up, hands on his hips.
"Thanks, Jay. I really appreciate that." James sniffed again.
"Kiera, can you stay here with James? The rest of us can head down the hall to handle this bunch." Tom asked Kiera, who still knelt beside James.
"Sure. We'll wait here." Kiera replied rubbing James' back with her hand to comfort him.
"Alright then, let's go fuck up some monsters," Jay said turning and promptly walking down the hall back to where the bats had been.
Michael, Tom, Derek, Kevin, and Kirsten followed behind him, determined looks in every one of their eyes. They began to pick up the pace to get to the end faster and began moving at a light jog. Soon they passed the place where the bodies lay and continued. The hall was in complete darkness except for Jay's light, as the bats preferred this kind of habitat.
Shining his light ahead to the end of the hall, Jay saw an arch that opened into a larger room. As they neared, they slowed their pace so as not to go rushing into danger. At the archway, they stopped and Jay carefully peered out into the room. Pulling his head back quickly Jay turned to the others.
"Not good. There are a lot of them." Jay said.
"Any idea how many?" Derek asked.
"More than I care to count. Hundreds maybe?" Jay said.
"Fuck. Any ideas?" Tom asked, looking at each of them.
"Yeah dipshit, the tattoo. Use the fucking tattoo!" Jay scolded Tom. "We don't really have any other AOE attacks for this."
"Right! Good call. Alright, I'll go first. Let's light this birthday candle." Tom said as he stepped into the room, stepping softly toward the middle of the room.
The ground was covered in guano from the bats hanging upside down on the ceiling. There were a few soft cries from some of the babies as they crawled around. Stopping in the center of the room, Tom stood there for a moment, equipped his greatsword, and took a deep breath. He almost gagged as he realized that was a terrible idea as he was standing in the middle of a poo pile and activated his tattoo.
Several of the bat creatures dropped from the ceiling around him as soon as the first bit of damage hit them, thudding to the ground silently. The rest of the creatures began wailing and crying loudly as they felt the pain Tom inflicted. Power rushed into him as he began loosing Eldritch Blasts at the ceiling, lighting several with green flames as they had clustered so close together. More of the bodies fell to the ground, still alight with the light of the green fire.
The room took on a sickly green color from the light of the flaming bodies around him, shadows dancing along the wall in a macabre display of the massacre taking place. Bats began swooping down to attack Tom as he stood there. One headed straight for the back of Tom's head as he focused on the ones in front of him. An axe blade chopped the beast in two as Michael swung his axes furiously cutting at anything that moved.
Everyone else rushed into the room to begin their attacks as well. From the back of the room came a low grumble as a pair of red eyes flashed open on the back wall. Large leathery wings unfurled as a creature roughly the same size as a human climbed down the wall and across the floor toward Tom.
"SHIT!" Jay exclaimed suddenly. "Looks like Grandpa woke up, and he's as mad as he is ugly!"
"Well, fuck up his day then!" Tom shouted back, too busy defending himself as he had become the target of the majority of the monster's ire.
Crawling on the floor now, the giant bat moved closer to Tom, seeing him as the largest threat to his brood. Jay interposed himself between the monster and Tom, slicing a bat out of the air right in front of the boss bat. Looking down at the body that had been cut in half by Jay, the monster turned back to Jay and gritted its teeth as it growled at the murder of one of its offspring.
"I might have fucked up. Can we start over?" Jay asked the beast just before it lunged at him, fangs looking to sink into his flesh. "I guess not!"
Jay dodged the attack and sliced at the bat's head with his sword drawing a large gash across its cheek.
"Tough old bastard. Guess that leathery skin is more than just for making you look like an elephant's ass." Jay said as he danced out of the way of the claw on its right wing that swiped at him.
"Take out its wings so it can't get a height advantage!" Derek shouted from the other side of the room, resorting to just trusting in his armor's defense as he grabbed two bats out of the air at once and crushed them in his hands, then threw those two bodies at two more bats causing them to collide and land on the floor, Tom's tattoo draining the remaining life.
Realizing his greatsword wasn't helping much, Tom stored it away and began casting an Eldritch Blast in each hand, the fire sometimes spreading to more than one target as he used the held spells as weapons. Holding the spells required a constant flow of mana, but with the tattoo doing its work, Tom had no shortage of mana to use.
"Flaming fist would have been fun," Tom thought about the other options for tattoos.
Jay danced around the large bat as it continued to try to bite or maul him. Moving quickly to the side after a bite, he reached out and stabbed his sword into the flap of skin between its wings instead of targeting its head. He ran and dragged his sword with him tearing a huge gash in the skin. The monster screamed in agony with the voice of an elderly man. Turning to face him, It lunged faster than Jay had expected and they went down in a pile.
"JAY!" Tom shouted.