My phone rang its usual ear-piercing melody, breaking my restless sleep.
Marie squirmed uncomfortably on my sides, grunting in annoyance.
I shut down my phone, and pure silence filled the void.
“Marie, wake up.” I softly shook her.
“Mhh.”
I moved her head away from me with care, left the couch, and opened the little window to the outside.
Noises and smells from the forest reached me in a gust of wind.
It was one PM, and some birds were singing, having come back early from their migrating trip of winter.
The sun shined high.
The air smelled of budding plants and fallen rain. Water had fallen from the sky when we slept, but the clouds had dissipated now.
The Yür wasn’t there yet, I had taken a large margin with my alarm. Because of that, our rest wouldn’t be much, but it would have to be enough.
As I looked at the coniferous forest, I thought about what we should do.
This Yür was slower than me, we could easily outrun it for a week, and wait for Astarte to come back. She’d probably have a solution.
Something was wrong.
Would Alik really expect us to fight the thing? And even if he didn’t know how fast I could really run, a plane would have had the same effect.
Something in this Encyclopedia was missing, some vital information that made this Yür even more dangerous than it seemed.
I went back to the couch and read the chapter on it again.
“Still alive.” Marie mumbled.
“Yup.”
“Seems we found ourselves a viable solution. Running away.”
“I was just thinking about that. Doesn’t it feel…weird?”
Marie raised herself up, stretching her body.
“You’re a nice pillow, couch though…not soft enough. My body is aching.”
“Mh mh. Any ideas?”
“None. Obviously, we’re in for a bad surprise, but what it is? I’m hungry and thirsty.”
“I doubt the sinks are working.
“I’ll go check. I don’t suppose we’ll find food.”
“In a vampire lair? I don’t think we want to find food.”
She nodded and left the room.
I read the entry again.
Unconventional means. That had to be the solution.
“Marie?” I shouted. “You left your phone here. Can I call Henry?”
“What?”
“CAN I CALL HENRY ON YOUR PHONE?”
“Of course!” Said my girlfriend down the stairs.
I opened up her phone, and called the contact named “Illy-sensei <3”.
Cringe.
After two rings, I got an answer. “Marie?” A masculine, anxious, tired voice answered.
“Nope, Gray. You okay?”
“Yes. Well no. I’m trying to find where Marak sent Illy and Rose. I went to our friends in the coven but…they also disappeared. Even Gione is not answering.”
“Gione?”
“It is one of our oldest witches she…”
“I got it. Call Lily King, she’s a police lieutenant, ask for her help. I don’t know how much time I have Henry, so we need to cut it short.”
“Yes, of course. You managed to escape the Yür, that’s a relief.” He didn’t sound relieved but still extremely worried.
“But for how long? I’ve read the entry in the Encyclopedia, but it doesn’t tell me what we need to do.”
“No? I thought it might… I was going to ask Gione about it in detail, she would have known, but…”
“But she’s missing. Great. What can you tell me, yourself?”
“Not much. I’ve never witnessed it directly. Until this morning, at least. It passed next to the house to follow you. It’s not a pretty sight.”
“I’ve seen the drawings, I imagine.”
“You can’t kill it, and it morphs into liquid when you hit or trap it, so that is useless as well.”
“Yeah?”
“It gets stronger as time passes, as it absorbs the inner energy of the things it passes through. It doesn’t take everything, so it’s not usually killing anything or being noticeable like that, but it grows exponentially. There is a famous story where to escape the curse, a coven created a flying house for the target. He lived there for a week. The Yür grew bigger and bigger and faster and faster. At some point, it became unstoppable and large as a mountain, reached the house and the target, then disappeared into nothingness.”
“So that’s the catch... We can run away for now, but the more we wait, the more impossible it becomes to stop.”
“It can’t be stopped.”
“The book tells of unconventional ways of doing so.”
“I…I have honestly no idea.” He lied.
“Henry, you just lied to me.”
The phone sizzled in unresponsiveness for a few seconds.
“…I know a way, yes. But you have to believe me, it won’t work in those circumstances.” That was the truth.
“Couldn’t you just tell me? It could give me an idea for something else.”
“It won’t, I assure you.”
I heard the resolve in his voice. I sighed.
“Fine. I won’t push deeper then.”
“Thank you, Gray.”
“If Marie dies because of you, I won’t let this pass.”
“I…My solution is as likely to kill Marie as the Yür.”
“Ok. We’ll find something else. What about you? Can we help somehow?”
“Not with the Yür on your tracks.”
“Fine. Contact me if you have any news, we’ll do the same.”
“Goodbye Gray, be prudent.”
“The same to you.” I shut down the phone.
I sighed again and scratched my head.
I heard the footsteps of Marie getting closer.
“Water is still running.” She announced as she entered the room, giving me a glass of water.
As I drank, she asked. “What did Henry say?”
“Basically, we won’t be able to run for long, it grows bigger and faster exponentially. It shifts into liquid when you hit it or trap it.”
“Well, that’s bad news.” She sat down next to me. “Let me read it again now that my brain is almost functional again. I’d kill for bacon and eggs...”
I showed her the book.
“Unconventional means, uh? Author couldn’t tell us what those were?” Marie noted.
“I’d hazard a guess he didn’t know himself.”
“Can’t even dream of a life on the road with you. Too bad.”
“I think we need to call our joker.”
I showed her the contact I popped up on her phone.
She grimaced. “I agree.”
I called Astarte.
She did not answer.
“Of course…” I began, then immediately received a call back from her.
“Ni hao!” A young teenager voice shouted.
“Arte?”
After two seconds, she answered.
“One and only! Didn’t want to make you pay for the long-distance call.”
“We’re in trouble.” I said flatly.
It took some delay for her to respond again.
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“I know. My business is finished, and I should have been back shortly, except someone sabotaged my plane.”
“Alik send us a Yür.”
“…I see. A good idea, except it’ll probably only kill Marie.”
“I’d rather not die by gore asphyxiation.” Marie started talking as well.
“…Hey! How are you Mar?” Arte said cheerfully after a few seconds.
“Horrible, I haven’t eaten anything in twelve hours.”
“…Pfff, Millenials. You can easily survive thirty-six. You have water?”
“Yes?”
“…Then I’ll be back way before you die of hunger, don’t worry about that.”
“I think the point is that we worry about a curse trying to asphyxiate us.” I reminded the millennia-old being.
“…yes! That’s a bad one. You’ll figure something out, I’m sure.”
“Wait, can’t you help?”
“…Nope, I’ve got no idea.”
“Know someone who might?” I asked.
“…Plenty. No one trustworthy though.”
“You never had a Yür try to kill you before?” Marie said in disbelief.
“…Well of course! But I just stopped breathing for a decade or two, it left on its own one day.”
Marie and I facepalmed.
“Nice Arte, very helpful.” I noted.
“…I told you I couldn’t help! You’ll be fine, the Yür is just the distraction, to tire you out, what’s next is more... Sorry, I need to go.” Her tone suddenly became serious.
“Wait, Astarte!?” Marie shouted.
But the smartphone only answered with a succession of beeps.
“Great.”
“We’re fucked.” Marie exclaimed.
“Language.”
“Fine! We’re doomed.” She corrected.
“Let’s read the entry again, and brainstorm.”
My girlfriend pinched the bridge of her nose. “Yeah.”
We had gone through the same sentences over and over, with no luck.
“I can’t. I’m hungry, I’m pissed, I’m scared, I’ve got no ideas Gray!”
“I’ll admit, I’m pretty stumped as well.”
I realized the forest had grown quiet.
“It’s here.”
Marie froze. “Where?”
“In the forest somewhere.” I concentrated harder. A sloshing noise in the distance. It wasn’t going straight for us. It was…making circles around.
“The hell? It’s not acting like it's written in the books.” I realized.
“Great, so our only source of information is unreliable.” Marie exclaimed sarcastically.
“Maybe…”
“What do we do?”
“Well, let’s leave for now. We can go back to Illy’s home, maybe I’ll be able to track Marak’s scent and if we find him…”
“Torture info out of him?” Marie raised her eyebrow.
“Well, if he’s holding the other witches hostage, we could free them and ask them for help.”
“It could work. But it brings us back to what I asked you before: did you smell him this morning?”
“No…”
“Is it likely you could have missed it?”
“Possible.”
“But…?”
“Unlikely.”
Marie sighed. “If it’s not attacking us, I’ve got something else to propose.”
“Uh uh?”
“Let’s go meet it.”
“No way you’re getting close to that thing.”
“I don’t want to, but I think we need to understand what we’re facing. And two brains will be better than one. Do you think you can still outrun it?”
“I don’t know…”
“Well, the Marak plan is definitely out then. Gray, let’s go, we have no time to lose.”
“You stand behind me at all times.”
“If it makes you feel better.”
We had decided to take a quick walk into the woods.
I was carrying Marie on my back. She was the one who asked, as her shoes were not made for muddy forest soil. We had stopped talking, as even she could hear the eeriness of the complete surrounding silence.
Only one sound echoed occasionally through the trees.
My girlfriend could hear it now.
She was breathing faster.
I could smell the Yür. Blood and putrefaction.
“We’re getting closer.” I informed.
“You’re certain it’s not moving towards us?” Marie asked. “It’s not laying a trap, is it?”
“I thought this was your idea. And it stopped moving altogether. It’s staying there…”
“I’m having second thoughts.” She gulped.
“Too late now. I’ll go on my own if you want.”
I saw something red in the distance.
“Not a chance.” She reinforced her grip around me.
“It’s there.” I informed again.
“Yeah…I can see it too.”
I approached the monster carefully, one step at a time. The more we advanced, the more we could distinguish it through the foliage.
“This thing is atrocious.” Marie whispered.
We could see it clearly now, from two hundred feet (60m) away.
It was tall, half the size of the surrounding coniferous trees, but scrawny, made of a reddish mass of red and brown that neither seemed liquid nor solid. It was built like a man, except it was like a stickman figure with no features.
The hair was the worst, as even at that distance, you could see ripped faces hanging from it.
It was not walking around us anymore, but the tendrils that served as arms were grabbing plants and trees, sucking the energy out of them.
“Look.” Marie pointed. “It’s made like a road.”
She was right, vegetation had been sucked out of existence on its left and right, probably where it had circled around.
“Why is it not moving anymore? Is the house warded somehow?” Maire tried.
“No, I would have felt the energy…”
As I talked about magic, I concentrated on it.
“We’re too far away but I think I know what is happening, but I need to get closer.” I had a hunch.
“Ok…” Marie said, unsure.
“You’re still following?”
“Always.”
We stepped closer. The sounds it made were stronger and stronger. And it felt like it was…reaching for us. Its arms were trying to pull all the branches and leaves between us and it.
“Gray?”
I concentrated.
There was…magic, stopping it in place.
“It’s being held there.”
“What? By who?” My girlfriend asked.
I recognized this energy. “Marak.”
“Why would he help us?”
“He’s not. He could just release it right here and now, and it could catch up to us.”
“…shouldn’t we leave then?”
“No. No sudden moves. Marak isn’t anywhere near, he can’t know we’re here. Now why did he stop the Yür?”
“Didn’t Arte tell us it was just a distraction? Aren’t they just using it so they can prepare whatever’s next in peace?” Marie deduced. “By the way, how is it held in place with a spell if Yür absorbs magic?”
“Maybe it can’t absorb the magic that created it…But there wasn’t this energy around it this morning, it was really going for us. Why the change?”
“…what if they realized what Astarte said? That it wouldn’t be able to kill you, and decided to go straight to plan B?”
I stopped to think.
King had told me about it.
“Or what if they heard it…they could easily have listened in on our phones.”
“Seriously? Great. Just means we’re trapped here now. If we leave the house, how much do you bet it’ll start chasing us again?”
“Not betting but…” I stopped. The Yür was acting strange.
It was fighting against the spell holding it into place, pushed by its core reason of existence. I could feel the energy around it, it would not move, so the Yür tried…something else.
Red liquid squirmed out of it and fell on the ground.
Marie and I looked in disgust, until we saw the liquid take a more viscous form, and squirm towards us. The Yür was trying to circumvent the spell that stopped it from coming closer, and it had apparently succeeded.
“Gray!” Marie shouted in horror.
“Saw it. Hold tight.” I began running back, but the piece was crawling fast.
It was small in size, but that wouldn’t prevent it from entering your lungs and clogging your throat. The mental image was more than disturbing.
“What do we do?” Marie was looking erratically behind her. “It is still following!”
“I don’t know! I’ll be able to outrun it once we’re out of the woods but…”
“Go back to the house! I’ve got an idea!” Marie exclaimed suddenly.
I didn’t try to discuss and ran towards Jeanne’s coastal house.
We burst inside through the broken entrance and Marie jumped off my back and landed on her feet.
“What now?” I asked.
“Kitchen!”
I ran behind her, as she was rustling through cupboards.
“What are you looking for!?”
“I…I saw it when I was looking for a glass of water…its…”
I heard the sound of liquid sliding up the home’s stairs.
“Marie!”
“Here!” She handed me a large jar.
“What am I supposed to do with that?!”
“Trap it inside of course!”
“That’s anything but unconventional!”
“Do it!”
I ran towards the entrance, red liquid flowed on the ground. As it got closer to me it drained itself back into a globule the size of a fist.
I walked back, the jar opened in front of me, waiting for the right moment.
It came almost immediately, as the blob of flesh and blood launched itself towards my face.
I had quicker reflexes and caught it midair inside the glass container.
I closed the metallic and rubber lid.
“You got it?” Marie came closer.
“Stay away, it’s resisting!”
It was clearly smaller now that it was inside the jar, more solid for an instant, then, it took liquid form again and began forcing its way out of the lid.
I held the latter in place with my hand, but I felt the piece of the Yür create gaps in the rubber, nonetheless.
“Gray!?” Marie was looking at me, looking around, trying to help.
“It’s going to get away!”
“Hold it there, I’ve got something!”
I pushed even harder, as Marie went back to the kitchen.
The liquid was reaching up, denying gravity, leaving the bottom of the jar empty as it forced its way on the lid.
It was completely liquid, only taking a solid form to pierce and destroy the rubber.
“Marie!” I repeated.
“Bring it here!”
I ran towards the kitchen.
She was filling the sink with water.
“Flip it over the water, stick it to the sink grinder.”
“The what?”
“The siphon!”
Panicking, I turned the jar upside down, and pushed it very quickly in the sink. Water pushed the piece of the Yür partly inside the jar, and I stuck it over the sink’s siphon.
“Now what?”
The jar was only half filled with water, compressed air stopping it from filling completely, and floating up there was a fleshy, angry ball creature bouncing around with great force.
“Haha!” Marie exclaimed.
“What?” The thing was still fighting, if I didn’t hold it in place, it would have flown away on the spot.
“It’s not liquid anymore!” Marie explained.
Still pushing down, I looked at the creature more carefully. True, it had taken its solid form completely.
“Yeah. So? It’s still going to break the jar any minute now.”
“It can’t take a liquid form if it is in water. Blood is mostly water, it would dilute.”
“Ok, great. What if you were wrong and it had just absorbed the water and gotten even bigger!”
“Only living creatures have magic, and that’s what it supposedly absorbs.”
“Good thinking, if we hadn’t established beforehand that the book was faulty, you’d even be a genius.”
“Mostly adrenaline and sheer luck.” Marie smiled. “What’s genius, I hope, is the next part.”
She moved next to me.
“Marie, it is still trying to break the glass.” I warned
“I know. I need access to the sink’s controls.”
“Ok?”
“I’m going to open the siphon, and at the same time activate the grinder.”
“Wait, you want to… It can’t be killed!”
“It’s not alive, yes. But can it continue functioning normally if it’s ripped into pieces? Can it reconstitute itself like that? Henry told us that hitting it won’t do anything because it’ll take a liquid form when you do. Why dodge the hit if it has no effect in the first place?”
I thought about it for a few seconds. “It makes sense. It is a magic creature though, should we really rely on this thing working logically?”
“Magic shouldn’t work against the law of physics.”
“Shouldn’t.”
“Yeah... You ready?”
“What am I supposed to be ready for?”
“Grabbing me and running away if everything goes terribly wrong.”
I laughed. Then the jar began cracking.
“No time, do it.” I ordered.
She pushed a button, the siphon rose, water began flowing down, then she pushed another button and…
Nothing happened.
“What is…?” I began.
Marie had a terrified look. “I fried the electrical system.” She finally remembered.
“God dammit…” The jar was almost empty of water, but quickly, I pulled it away from the siphon and pushed it directly on the metallic surface of the sink.
The piece of the Yür was still in solid form, sloshing around in a quarter full glass container, cracking under the pressure of the aggressive red mass.
“What now?” I asked.
“I…I have no idea. We need to rip it to shreds somehow, while it’s in contact with liquid.”
I looked at it.
“Fuck.”
“Gray?”
“I’ll apologize to my brother later for my language. I just really… I don’t want to do it.”
“Do what?”
“This.”
I turned the jar lid on top again, stopped the piece of flesh from escaping with my hand, then opened the tap and filled the container to the brink with water.
The thing was pushing, even feeling like it was biting on my hand, but it wasn’t strong enough to hurt me whatsoever.
“What are you doing, Gray?” Marie said anxiously.
“Trusting you.” I put the jar over my mouth and let everything flow.
“OH MY GOD!”
The piece of Yür tried to force its way into my throat but was stuck because of all the water flowing around it.
I chewed.
My eyes watered immediately. Smell and taste, rotten, moving flesh mixed with already putrid water attacked my taste buds and my nose.
“Stop! Gray! Stop that!” Marie tried to force my hand down, to no avail.
I chewed and chewed, holding myself up the very best I could, refraining from vomiting multiple times.
Every time I swallowed, it got worse and worse.
After what seemed an eternity, I had emptied the jar.
My stomach was rumbling, but whatever magic the curse had left, it wasn’t enough to move anymore.
I felt woozy and sat down.
“You dumbass! You absolute dumbass! Gray! Are you all right!?” Marie was looking at me desperately.
“Y..yeah. You were right. It stopped moving.”
“I don’t care if I was right or wrong! You could have killed yourself doing this!”
“Nah, it wouldn’t have killed me, Astarte said so. Better for me to do that than for it to attack you.”
“Arte said it would PROBABLY not kill you. PROBABLY.”
“I took my chances.”
“Don’t ever do that again!”
“Don’t worry, I’m not ready to go chew on the giant one. This is the most disgusting thing I’ve eaten in my life.”
Marie sat on her knees next to me and began crying. “I don’t want you to hurt yourself for my sake...”
“Hey…hey. It’s okay. I’m not hurt, it was just unpleasant.” I took her in my arms.
“What an understatement.” She said between sobs.
“Yeah, I guess. And I’m not doing this for your sake. I can’t stand the idea of you being hurt, that’s all. I’m doing this for myself.”
“Absurd rhetoric.” She sniffed loudly, hugging me close.
“It is the truth though. No one is allowed to hurt you except me.”
“Creep.”
“You’re mine.”
“I’m not.”
“I’m yours.”
“You are.” She sniffed again, more quietly.
I laughed wholeheartedly. “So unfair.”
“You almost died in front of me, I’m allowed to be unfair.”
“I didn’t almost die.”
“I convinced you to do something that could have killed you.” Marie continued.
“That’s true for every relationship in the world. We can be betrayed, we can die. We decide it is worth the shot.”
“You’re being cheesy now.”
“I ate a living curse, let me be cheesy.”
“Fine.”
“Do you think Jeanne had toothbrushes?” I asked out of the blue.