Esper felt the wind crawling over her skin, it was different than the usual one accompanying her down around the abyss. This one was cold and malevolent. It felt like the crook water running over her skin, as the passing current enveloped her. She opened her eyes and saw she was laying in her bed, the world around her as black as pitch, almost eerily so. This was more than the usual darkness caused by the missing sun, this was as if the darkness itself was alive and moving with intent and purpose. The bleak aura inching closer, filling every gap available in this tiny fragment of the world. She couldn’t get up, her body wouldn’t let her rise.
She shuddered as she stared at the quivering mass surrounding her, feeling something that she had never felt before, not in this intensity. Primal dread, the old sensation unknown to those who live a life sheltered from such things, rose through her core. The sensation that there is something more than a wild animal or some abstract danger before you. Dread is an entirely different sensation than angst or anxiety or fear. No, this was something dark and forgotten. Unwelcome by the conscious, living mind and repressed to the deeper recesses of our thoughts by desperate imaginings, seeking to fill the black void it leaves, as it consumes and coats your perceptions.
The girl didn’t know what to do. Her skin was so cold and the wind swirled around her, filling her ears and biting her wide open eyes. It had a presence, a real tangible presence of being, that she felt physically inside of herself. The unconscious signal that she wasn’t alone in the room fired a thousand-fold over. That secret, unconscious part of her mind that she had no awareness of; the part that works silently in the shadows to keep our waking lives filtered was now screaming. Screaming to make itself heard. Though she didn’t know quite what to do with the information.
Raising a meager arm from beneath the blanket, she held it towards the thing coating her senses. A twitch shuddered through the mass, though she could differentiate no movement in the blackness. She felt it moving. A thousand legs propelling the turning of a thousand more in the dark gestalt. Shifting the weight of something monstrous and old towards the girl. “It can see me,” she thought to herself and woke up once more, this time in actuality. Laying on her back, she felt the wet stain beneath her.
Her only blanket lay kicked off to the side and her hair was tangled, damp with sweat. She rose up slowly from the rough mattress, the old grasses inside crunching, as she motioned over them to plant her bare feet on the floor. Looking around the room, she saw only a familiar kind darkness. The one that had filled this room and the world outside for every night of her life so far. The kindling fire had long since died out, leaving only the faint smells of burning wood and urine in the room. Esper stood up and walked over to the table and wiped herself off with a cloth, using the old bowl of stagnant water there.
Throwing the rag down to the table, it landed with a splat and she felt another droplet of moisture hit her waist. Brushing it off with her hand she returned to the bed, took the crumbled blanket and spread it over the bed once more. Covering the wet spot which was a problem for tomorrow. It was still late, she yawned. The visions of the dream were still present in her mind, but they were quickly dwindling away into the ether of lost memories. The ominous feelings and fears subsided and replaced with exhaustion and frustration.
Laying back down, this time on top of the blanket, rather than under it, she felt her eyes grow heavy once more. Her body and mind having not strayed far from the realm of slumber, now easily returned to it. She barely managed to let one final midnight yawn escape her, before the world was lost once more unto a darkness deeper still. ‘THUNK!’ Esper's eyes shot wide open, her body springing to its feet with explosive speed. The door rattled as some unseen force was dragging itself along the other side of the heavy wood. ‘THUNK!’
The sound of splintering wood filled the dark room. Though she couldn’t see it, what the sound meant was clear to her. The primitive latch holding the door shut was bending further and further outward with every force against it, tearing the old long since rotting wood beneath it apart with violent force. Her mind was racing, there was nowhere to go so the only thing left to do was hide. Maybe the door would hold, but maybe it wouldn’t- ‘THUNK’ another rattle shook the construct. The vibration traveling through the floor and up through her bones.
She quickly lowered herself down onto the ground and slid under the bed, her small body just barely managing to fit under the rickety construction. A thick film of dust and dirt clung to her side and her nose itched. Sliding all the way against the wall behind her, she realized she was holding her breath only after the burning in her lungs reached her senses. Breathing out and in deeply, making sure not to blow away the thick coating of dust, she set to work. There wasn’t much time left. It was impossible to see anything, but she knew what to do.
Tiny fingers traced over a patch of floor beside her, weaving an intricate pattern onto a thick patch of the dust that was remaining. ‘THUNK!’ A loud scrape and tear filled the air, as the door finally gave way, the little latch falling to the ground with a slight jingle, as it rolled across the boards. Esper shut her eyes tightly, not that it made a difference in what she could see. Her finger still running the groove into the dust, following the same pattern over and over without straying. Making a circle.
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A footstep. Wet and large. It had come into the house. It was almost done, thought Esper, as she continued her motions. The sound of a heavy, wet foot stepping into the house became audible. Then another. Esper held her breath, the air smelled deeply foul. Far worse than the old corpses that had taken too long to fall down the chasm and had begun decaying on the way. No, the smell was rank and sour and not as meaty. A vague hint of acidity mixed with the putrid aroma of old rot. Esper held her breath, just in case this one had good ears.
The floorboards in the middle of the room screamed, as the massive weight of the bloated feet landed upon it. There was nothing to see, but Esper knew that the feet were just in-front of the bed. It was done, silently she lifted her hand from the floor before herself and pulled it back towards her body, pressing herself as tightly against the wall as she could and mouthed the secret words. Instantly, something unseen in the dark came to her, not visible to the eyes in this light but something felt in the heart. It filled the gap beneath the bed and floor alongside her and made the air dense and heavy. The intruder dragged their feet across the floor in their search, the boards croaking at every overbearing movement. A sharp wooden crash followed by another smaller one rang out.
“Why did it come in here?” wondered the girl’s racing mind. They never came in here. The house was supposed to be safe. A heavy weight pressed down on the bed now from above. The cloth wrapped straw smashed down to the ground, the weight of something massive on top of it. Pressing heavily against her and pinning her down to the floor, pinning her arms and side down beneath her; compressing her body from the heavy pressure. A loud snap filled the air. The disgusting sensation of scarlet pain flew through her body, as sharp nausea shot up her core and it took all she could muster to not scream. More would come if she screamed.
The floor under her arm was warm and wet and she could feel it above, digging and tearing at the bed. Did it notice her under the bed? Even with the spell? Her mind raced in those seconds. Her gaze flew to the side, wildly searching for an escape but it was too dark to see anything. Even if she managed to squeeze out, she would have to get out of the house in the dark, which would be okay normally, but now there was one inside. And even if she did get past it and the knocked over table that was somewhere in the cramped dark space, the others were still outside in the gloom. She wouldn’t make it past all of them, nobody did.
Her lungs were burning now with painful intensity, but she didn’t dare to breathe. The weight crushing her shifted away towards the center. As the pressure left her body, she felt a pop in the elbow beneath her, almost as painful as the first. It stopped digging. Heavy wet feet planted themselves back down, one after the other. Much to the dismay of the floor, which gave out a final dying cry. Her lungs burned and her head was starting to spin. The weight rose up from the bed and followed the shuffling of wet meat which now made its way back towards the door.
A sharp clang, followed by a wet growl as the bowl, which had flown off the table was kicked in the dark, interrupted the scene. Though then the shuffle went on and the creature went out of the broken door, sliding one foot past the other. Only when Esper didn’t hear any sign of it anymore, did she dare to carefully and quietly exhale and resume breathing. The tears running down her face sideways landed on the ground before her with quiet drips as she forced herself to resist the urge to breathe in all at once. The wet from her eyes destroying the magical sigil.
She was still alive, the spell must have worked. She mouthed a silent “Thank you,” to the ambient darkness filling the room, daring not to speak aloud. This had never happened before, one had never come inside of her family home. They had knocked once in a while here and then, but one never forced itself in like this. Did it hear her? See her? She wasn’t home late, it couldn’t have seen her. What would she do? It wasn’t safe to stay here anymore, tears ran down her face still and she squeezed her eyes tightly shut to cease the flow.
Reaching her upper arm outward she motioned to slide her body out from under the bed. But stopped mid-reach as a white hot pain shot through her side, causing her to wince and bite her tongue in an effort to not yelp. The arm beneath her hurt with incredible intensity. A fresh stream of tears ran down her face, the skin under her eyes beginning to burn ever so slightly from the mixture of dust and moisture. What now, she kept thinking. What now?
As best she could, with her left arm beneath her, she reached towards her hurt arm. A fresh surge of pain hit her, as her fingers touched the warm, wet skin. Following it up and around until she felt it, the large shard of jagged wood that was lodged into her flesh, slick with blood. Her fingers touched it and she recoiled immediately as the pain hit her.
She would have to tear it out. There was no other way. Wrapping her fingers around it she recoiled instinctively once more, her feet flailing out and kicking the bed above her. Pursing her lips and shutting her eyes tighter still she pulled on the fragmented wood impaling her. The surface was slick with her blood now and her hand slipped up off of it, taking fresh splinters with it.
It didn’t budge and the pain that shot through her now was more intense than any ever before. A white hot flash seared through her core, causing her body to convulse in reaction. The nausea was intense and she began to retch, her empty stomach contracting with violent force. A small stream of bile left her mouth, trickling down the corner and mixing in with the blood below. Esper couldn’t see it, but she felt the dark world around her spin violently and she shut her eyes.
Then without conscious effort, she fell back to sleep.