Page 46 of A Beautifully Crafted Lie

Leaves rustle behind me, to my right. Heat leaches from my skin as I snap my gaze to the dark forest, searching for where the rustling came from.

I see only trees, ferns, mist, and the dark.

It’s nothing. Probably an innocent little animal minding its business. The sickening tightness in my chest doesn’t ease. Nor does the tension in my muscles. I’m so cold. A capped-sleeve tunic is far from adequate to keep me warm at night.

I stand slowly, making my way to the path. With my back to the forest behind me, my skin crawls, my muscles twitching with a desire to run. My childish fear of the dark sinks its teeth back into me now, threatening to eat me alive. I walk sideways, searching the trees one by one, looking for movement I pray I won’t find.

Crack. Snap. This time it comes from my left. My feet are moving before my mind fully functions to form a plan. Leaves rustle all around me at once, surrounding me. Disorientating me. My head spins, and I’m not convinced it’s from my injury. Gruesome images flood my mind from tales brought before my father by families of those lost in the woods. FUCK!

Turn back, Aed had warned. But he was the one who wanted me to escape. He wanted me to free him, too. This is me escaping, I hope.

Reaching the gravel path, I run.

I run farther and faster than I’ve ever run before. Weakness spreads through my legs as they work harder to propel me along the path, but I push myself to run even faster until I’m completely out of breath. I continue pushing myself to my limit, enduring the pain until it feels like my lungs have been violently ripped out and shredded. Until I can’t endure anymore.

The forest is dead quiet when I stop to catch my breath. Not so much as a breeze blows in the canopy of leaves above. The only light is sparse patches gifted by the moon. The world around me is painted in black and blue as I scan the trees, my eyes darting between them without pattern or sense, aimlessly searching. Senselessly praying. I try to swallow, but I can’t, not so much as a drop of saliva wets my tongue.

Carefully, I straighten and turn. Nothing. There is nobody and nothing in sight. Only an empty path and the woods that surround it. I must have imagined it. I dust the caked-on dirt from my pants. I’m being an idiot.

Like stones in a metal drum, a deafening roar surrounds me, booming through the forest. My palms flatten against my ears. There’s no defined direction to the noise, nothing but its quickly-increasing volume signifying an approach. My insides turn to liquid, but my feet remain rooted to the path. What do I do?

From nothing to near gale force, a wind picks up, pushing me off the path and into the foliage beside it, smelling of decaying flesh. I stumble, fighting against it, but it’s no use, not even as I lean my entire weight against the wind gusting toward me. Kicking into the dirt, I feel my hands tremble as I claw into the invisible wall of air.

“Push back!” Aed roars.

“I am!”

“No, you are not! Fight!”

Clattering stones turn to hissing, the sound sharp in my ears. “It’s been a long time since I’ve tasted human.”

The wind dies down without warning, and I fall face first in the dirt.

Oef! With soil between my teeth, I scramble toward the path on my hands and knees, but something grabs hold of my ankles. I kick against its grip, clawing my way toward the patch of moonlight a few strides from my reach. My fingers find purchase on a rock, jagged and sharp-edged.

Long, unrelenting claws grip my legs, piercing my skin and pulling me into the dark-green vegetation. I turn onto my back, bracing myself.

“Fight damn it!” Aed’s roar is deafening, fuelling my anger.

Pale arms with bony protrusions like broken branches lead to an emaciated torso as hollow as the trunk I’d taken refuge in. The creature’s face is withered, its skin pulled so tight it almost splits open against sharp symmetrical cheekbones. It has no eyes, only holes as dark as the depths of the forest. The creature climbs up my body. Its breath is death. Every inch of my skin crawls, every muscle in my body straining to run, run, run. But I can’t. I’m trapped. Caught. I’m every bit the prey I thought myself to be, successfully ensnared by a monstrous predator.

The creature opens its mouth, releasing a deafening screech, displaying teeth as sharp as razors dripping with blackened saliva.

My fingers numbly whiten as I tighten my grip around the rock I’d freed clawing my way forward without success. With one smooth swing, I strike harder than I ever thought I could. Black splatter sprays onto my face, and for a moment, its grip on my body weakens.

It stumbles to the side, but I don’t let it recover. I strike and strike again, fighting back as Aed commanded me to. Its wailing grows desperate until it’s nothing more than a whimper. Scrambling to my knees, I release the bloodied rock and run, the last remnants of heat leaching from my skin. My steps are uncoordinated with horror. Fuck, fuck, fuck!

Looking over my shoulder, I watch it scramble onto the path behind me, lunging forward on its hands and feet. Oh gods. Oh mother. Oh fuck! I’m going to die. I have no weapons. There are no rocks in sight, only dirt and gravel. Shit!

“Use your gift!”

“I don’t have a gift! Help me!” I practically cry out, scared.

I step into a shallow hole and nearly lose my balance. The sound of ripping material accompanies a crippling burn in my heel. No, no, no, no, no! The creature closes in on me as I slowly lose momentum, each step becoming more halting, more agonising.

My body refuses to comply.

Shadows drown out the moonlight behind me, and I stop breathing altogether. They solidify into the shape of a man. A tall, broad-shouldered man with silver-tipped hair. Odhran. He lowers into a crouch as the beast closes the distance. Without hesitation, he launches himself at the creature, tackling it to the ground. A blood-curdling crack echoes through the woods.