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A tendril brushed my face, tangy as lemon, stinging of acid.
I gripped the hilt so firmly the knife shook.
The tendrils fanned out in a translucent invasion—climbing wall, ceiling, floor, and slithering.
If ever I needed help...
A white burst flared.
The faeries hovered in my side vision, splayed into multi-fractured splotches by my fogged vision. Pinpricks of hope in the face of darkness.
Watch the evil; watch the step backward.
I needed eyes on stalks—and four at least. Why the fuck was I here again?
The stairs were somewhere behind me, past the doorframe, a few yards more.
Creep backward.
Something told me not to run. Prey would run.
I shuffled, muscles tense, though any Kung Fu master worth their diploma would say to relax and find mychi, to seek my inner calm. Fuck. Who could find theirchiat this moment? As I blindly found my way to the stairs, the heels of my boots pushed past furniture, glass, and obstacles I’d forgotten. My aim was to leave and to never come back.
I took a second to wipe sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand. The thing, whatever it was, kept a distance from me. I was not the primary target.
Someone had died here. Must have. It fit. The fire. The burned bed. And now a nightmare thing. They seemed drawn to death and violence.
If I didn’t make it out the door, there was nothing for me here except ashes and my own demise.
As if the knife were some holy warding device, I waved it before me, point out, almost daring the tendrils to swarm in, or not.
Please, not.
My breaths were harsh, as if I’d run a mile. Sweat slicked my thighs, dribbling down the backs of my legs and my back. I tasted salt when I licked my lips.
Almost to the stairs—I recognized the smashed coffee table to the right.
Almost...
The thing rammed me, screeching as it knocked the wind out of me. The knife cleaved something that sucked at my hand before it fell away. It wasn’t all that was here. Other things suckered themselves to my arms, biting my skin, scratching.
Blindly slashing the knife to left and right evoked subsonic screams that skewered my ears until the room spun.
Roaring back, I blocked my ear with my free hand half expecting to feel blood.
The room faded to an empty gloom.
Quieted.
No faeries. No creatures.
I couldn’t see them,anyof them. At all.
The strain of trying hard? Who knew? Who the fuck knew?
Were they still there?
Nightmare flesh slapped at my face. The stinging exploded in my cheek; pain sank into my jaw.
