Datu’s eyes glow an ugly color that makes me shield my eyes. I reach for his arm to stop him from bolting, but my fingers slip through him like smoke. A scream rips from my throat as fumes of pitch-black limbs swathe and curl in the air like a violent storm.
The form looks solid, but it isn’t. It’s a thousand different pieces strung up in one chaotic bunch. It’s rankling yet fluid as it shoots straight into the forest, and I’m not driven by fear as I run after it.Him.
I just know what he’s going to do with those men.
“Datu!”
My soles cut through the spines that have grown from the ground. They roll like waves of teeth, black rotting gums. Deflated tubes of intestines flail, racing toward me. Only until they’veskittered past me when the fear finally sets in. They aren’t there for me.
“Datu—” I gasp as I peer around the forest. The fruits have worn off, and I am blind again, alone, in the dark. My heart is on my throat, making it hard to breathe. My muscles are not frozen, but they might as well be at the way they shake.
All I hear are men screaming for their lives, and an intense roaring sound. To my left, there’s a bright orange glow. A blowtorch. Light.
My body functions once more, and I’m stumbling, feeling around frantically.
“Datu!” I yell through the whooshing of fire. My eyes water at how disgusting the air is here. As I stumble into a clearing, one thing is clear to me—there are two floating bodies. Tall, male, all writhing in pain as black smoke holds them up by their nostrils.
They move closer to the sharp rows of trees. I can’t fathom how it’s growing from below andabove. The barks glow a sick violet light. Like the two men are nothing, they are tossed into the cave, comically loud sounds of crunching bones, ripping flesh takes over my senses.
I blink once. Twice. I’m on my fifth blink when it begins to make sense to me. The men were just eaten by something in the forest. Like what happened to the gecko.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, I’m one of the good guys!” Another man yells. Only then do I notice there is someone left behind. He’s pulled up his sleeve, showing his tattooed arm.
I have to squint to see who it is. It’s not Ingar. The tattoos are an imitation of Datu’s, but it’s more…tangible. Not foreboding at all. It doesn’t make me sweat with dread looking at it.
The forest shudders, then a clamour of trees, woods ripping apart surrounds us. It’s a cry of rage from the beast that had just eaten the two men. Shockingly, the beast doesn’t eat the man who grins nervously.
“They were my offering to you, my lord. I hope that filled ya up good.”
My lord?Blood leaves my face as I recognize his voice.
“Heyah, toots, we’ve been looking all over for ya.”
“Captain Moriarty?” It did not even occur to me then that the captain was actually a real person. I thought he was just an AI voiceover meant to infuriate us.
“Howdy! We’ve come to collect the extraction for the day. We gotta ship it ASAP, ya know. Efficacy and shit.”
I rub my hands over my face, confused. “Excuse me?”
“Did you not jerk the chief off today?”
I look around me, and I don’t see Datu anywhere. Where is he?
“I’m supposed to run interference in case you get too distracted by the pollen. Those stuff are strong as fuck. Gave me a hard-on for days when I took a whiff. Hooo-weee!”
A distressed wail makes the glowing leaves rattle.
“Sorry, my lord. Girl wandered too close to the sun. I’m taking her with me back to the chief in the extraction chamber—where she should have been the whole time.”
He is so fucking condescending, I want to slam my fist through his—
Before Ican finish my thought, the ground underneath him splits open, and he falls in screaming bloody murder. His shrieks grow farther away, and then—whoosh—purple goo shoots straight across the sky away from our forest.
I’m so utterly confused as the chilling frisson cradles me. It’s not abrupt, violent. It’s a thin cloth gently fluttering to the wind, landing on me, swathing, tangling, strangling me.
“Datu? Where are you?” I’m starting to hyperventilate as I shout, “I can’t see!” My voice sounds like a shiver. “Don’t leave me here.”
Something twists around my ankles as tears run down my cheeks. I’m frozen in place, afraid to be eaten if I move an inch. From my blurry vision, those same black spines tangle around my legs, spiraling like I’m the most precious thing.
