Shadow Slave | Sleepless Dreamer-Chapter 24: New Arrivals (4)

Time started to slow as Hope jumped.

Scri- scri scritch-

At first, he could barely hear it.

Scri- scri- scritch- scr-

Silence clamped over his ears. But at its center, the sound of whispers hissed in the back of his mind.

A forced memory pressed upon his vision—layers peeling around into that forsaken home he left years ago, wanting to spark a somber desire. It was not by his own curse's accord but of the last desperate pitiful attempt from the behemoth.

Wooosh!

Air accompanied his feet as the unwanted nostalgia caressed him.

He felt himself descending, a pull towards the unknown that hid beneath the fog.

It all happened in a split moment. The barely audible whispers broke into another horrible cry.

It swelled up louder and louder.

A sharp yell of discontent and anger and hollow laughter mingling in one.

It called to him.

The warped savagery.

Although he was in mid-air—at the tips of death's grasp—a stirring urged him to reach back.

But with it something else darkly hummed.

Not the hum of a longing or of any type of fear created by outer means. But his soul felt upset.

Upset once again that such a false thing was offered.

That a stupid lie was crafted to sway him like one of its mindless beasts.

Escape.

Escape.

He had to escape.

Hope did not want to be dragged back behind those barred windows and infinite labyrinth. Not again in that consuming darkness till he became all but an empty shell to be played with or ripped apart at the pleasure of their cursed hands.

But despite all of that, he let his arm reach back.

Hope knew he had to.

Twisting himself around, a crack appeared across his false memory's visage as he saw the number of arms, the number of hands, and the number of fingers reaching out like those hellish figures clawing for heaven.

Grab!

Their hands then snatched his wrist into a vice grip.

!!!

Hope was pulled back. He swung toward the building.

He braced his shield up before he slammed into the wall.

Wham!

"Huak!" Adam yelped.

He held tighter onto his back.

"A-ah Sir!?"

"Ugh...." Hope groaned.

"Your arm! It's-"

Something trickled down his arm and back like slithering rivulets.

He looked up, seeing a pile of compressed bodies in the window. A few of the several Profaned beasts had impaled torsos from the broken barred window as they clung onto him.

Eyes glazed in frenzy.

Blasphemed faces.

Their black fiendish claws dug into his wrist and forearm.

But the longer Hope looked at their grip, his mind gradually started to register the delayed pain.

It was fiery waves at first.

Waves of intense pain that throbbed and rippled into a seething flame-

Krqch!

Hope thrust his shield into the building's crevice.

Pain.

Pain.

His body kept saying.

Too painful.

'Shut up...'

But Hope dismissed those thoughts.

There was no time to be absorbed in suffering.

Instead, Hope started to count the seconds.

One.

He could release his aspect power, but that was not what he needed to do to wrench free.

There was still something else that needed to happen.

Two.

Hope gritted his teeth as he felt his energy waning, his body begging for him to stop and rest.

But why the hell should he?

He had a damn plan.

And he was going to see it through.

Three...

'Ah dammit-'

Hope was about to wrench his arm free. Even if it meant the possibility of leaving gruesome scratches and torn flesh, right now he didn't care.

But before he could, he felt Adam fumbling for something.

"H-hold still!"

"...?"

The boy's breath breathed hotly on his neck as he climbed on Hope's shoulders-

Four...

Five...

And Hope saw not a sheen of metal, but a familiar black shard in the boy's hand as he reached up.

Hope blinked at the sight.

'Huh. Capable thief.'

Six...

It seemed the boy was possessed by his own fight or flight mode. The only thing reflecting in his eyes was the determination to move forward. Whether that was guided by forgettable knowledge or his desire to survive, he reached up just enough and swung the shard through the monsters' wrists.

Creeee!

The boy swung again and again. His weight shook on Hope's shoulders, till finally, the wrists were weak enough for Hope to pull free.

He wiggled their severed hands off, their grip releasing and disappearing into the gray fog.

A second later, Adam lost his balance.

"W-wah-!"

Seven-

CRASH!

Hope grabbed onto the boy as a crash exploded above.

Wisps of rubble and the Profaned fell behind them. The sound of giggling and hissing blew passed from the scratches left on the stones.

Screeeeeee!

Hope held the boy close with one arm as he stared up at the ugly behemoth.

'There you are, you bastard.'

ScrreeeeEE! Scre- scre- scre-

The behemoth had broken through the wall.

Half of its piled self hung over the edge. Its hands gripped around to prevent itself from falling any further as its multiple silver coined eyes flitted down towards them, brimming to life like a predator sighting its prey.

But their curved slits for smiles held a hint of strained frustration as they released a hollow teemed laughter, an invading sound shaking in the corridors of their minds—

"...ha..haha..."

Hope flinched as a dazed laugh breathed out of the boy.

"I don't...." The boy's eyes trembled. "...what's...hap..i..ng"

Hope could see the boy's face relaxing.

No. No. No. No.

The boy's mind was being carried away into the behemoth's whispering sea of conjured memories.

Hope tried to shake the boy. "Hey. Wake-"

Screeeee!

Boom- Booom- BOOM-

The building shook, shivering even, as the multiple horrid arms and legs skittered down toward them.

'For fuck's sake-'

With the boy already fainted, Hope hoisted him over his shoulder.

Whatever spell had attacked the boy's rush of fight or flight, the moment he started to relax, his body started to give in to that relaxation and shut down at the opportune moment.

Krqch!

Hope thrust his shield again in a crevice as he scaled down, leaving bloody streaks and blotches of red from his wounded hand.

Not only was it clawed from the monster's grip, but he still had the gash on his hand he made earlier to wake himself up from the monster's spell.

But Hope abandoned the luxury of pain with each climb.

His body and mind merged like a synchronized machine as he stemmed down the wall.

Krqch!

Hope couldn't blame the boy for fainting.

Many of those wasteless hours weighed on them—moreso on the boy—which Hope could not properly detect behind his eyelids.

But now, Hope was carrying the boy like baggage.

How unfortunate.

Krqch-

ScreeeeE!

Hope stole a glance and caught a glimpse of the shadowed behemoth untwisting itself...

As if realizing that it couldn't carry its whole weight down, the mold began to separate.

The complexity and disturbing sight revealed its foul pile untangling each black limb and torso as it dipped over the edge. Bodies slithered, hundreds of arms crawling and pulling over one another as they competitively reached out.

Krqch-

Breathe.

Krqch-

Focus. Hold. Climb.

Krqch-

Hope continued scaling the crevices. His shield anchored at every other grip.

But he knew he couldn't keep this up for long.

At the corners of his vision, trailed-up vines grew thicker with each descent.

And after passing what was to be four stories, he could see one of the thick vines beginning to curl away from the wall and disappear into the fog.

Hope wrapped his arm securely around it. He leaned back and stood horizontal.

Screeeeeee!

Did he have to kill it?

Not necessarily.

But Hope wanted to hurt it.

Tk.

Hope angled his rifle up.

If he could, he would want to return the pain whether twofold or threefold.

But even if it were less than that, no powerful being would be satisfied that something lesser than itself had left a mark.

For how much of their pride breaks or is chipped away when a prey successfully snaps back?

As Hope beheld the monstrous sight, those hundreds of scratched smiles floated and danced into a mirage.

Like those in the hall, it stretched and bled and screamed and pulled in impossible directions—

ScreEEAEUeeEE!

But hidden between those folds of flesh, at the center of the pile, underneath the limbs and torsos, were bigger sized eyes that were wide open.

One hideous look and the lines laughed at him.

'How the hell...'

Their hands were still a distance away, and yet the scratches had already reached him. Spiraling, in and out his ear, clawing out of spite—

'For fuck—'

Round and round those lines went—

Strangled lines and bulbous eyes impossibly shrieking—!

Bang!

A thunderous sound clapped the air.

Bang!

Then another.

BANG!

And another.

ScreeeeEUUGH!?

The behemoth screamed.

It stopped crawling and shrank away.

Three of those wide eyes at the center of its pile bled a string of thick blood like tar.

Scrreeeeee!

The behemoth reeled back, its multiple hands instinctively cradling the gaped wounds.

However, as if the searing pain lanced through its brain or a hidden raw spot, the behemoth's hands clawed at the many faces in a crazed frenzy.

Fingers dug into its black burnt skin. Deep gouges. Smears of blood. But an agony exploding within.

The rest of its arms reached around helplessly as it reared further back into the building, the limbs groping around, clawing the air and the wall.

The wall...

'Shit shit shit shit-'

Hope gripped tighter onto the vine as he saw the behemoth drag and tear stone and vines when finally-

Snap!

The vine Hope held onto was severed.

At least, from the wall it did. But on the other side...

Wsssh!

At that moment, their weight pulled down.

Hope's stomach dropped into an unsettling flutter.

The draft of cold wind hugged around as the last glimpse of the monster disappeared into its labyrinth den; even after it was gone, the afterimages of its bright silver eyes clung in the air.

Tug!

The vine finally pulled taut.

They then begun to swing to the other side.

The night's mist breathed across his face and whistled in his ears. Any traces of pervasive sounds from the behemoth were fading away completely. His mind unburdening the congestion with each distance.

But where was he going now?

In the blinding fog, Hope could see a darker wall growing in size as if to swallow him whole. The sound of rushing water could also be heard.

Hope raised his shield and braced for sudden impact.

But surprisingly, he continued into that darkness.

'Wait what-'

Snap!

'Shit!'

Hope instinctively covered the boy's head with his shield as they flew toward the unknown.

A wall- No. The ground?

Splash!

Cold water slapped.

Instead of hitting hard pavement or earthen soil, his body sank into several-inch-deep water and a ribbed planked floor, rolling in the pitch-black darkness.

Hope finally rolled to a stop.

"Cough! Cough!"

His muscles spasmed as he pulled up for air.

'Where-'

Hope spun his head around in every direction. Black in every turn.

'Where am-'

Hope held the boy close to his chest as he leaned on the floor for support.

A ribbed floor could be felt underneath his hand.

Almost reminding him of when he awoke in the bloody carcass—

Oh not again.

'Where the hell am I?!'

Hope grimaced as he repositioned himself on his knees.

His hands groped beneath the waters and traced a long thick metal limb. He reached behind and found another limb. Through the throbbing pain, Hope reimagined the structure.

Two parallel metal limbs.

Ribs connecting its center.

'Wait...these are called...tracks...?'

An image flashed in his mind of the closest resemblance to what he felt.

Railroad tracks.

Hope had only ever seen these railroad tracks above ground—albeit destroyed either by warfare or the Spell—but he'd never imagined them being built underground.

Hope picked the boy up as he tottered to his feet. His legs trudged through water to what he assumed was the direction of a wall.

And his foot hit stone.

Blindly he reached and felt a stone block to a height up to his chest.

He achingly raised the boy over the wall.

He then climbed after.

But once he realized he was back on solid ground, his body collapsed.

"Urg!"

Hope fell face first.

The soreness weighed on him as if his soaked clothes plus all the items he carried weren't enough of a burden.

Please. His body seemed to say.

Rest. We need rest.

"Urg..."

Hope grunted as he swung off his rifle and backpack—already long dismissing his shield before—and cast them to the side.

He then sagged.

The pain blossomed now. Hope could feel his arm being drenched in a different wetness. The smell of exposed flesh touched his nostrils, the sting vicing.

But even foul blood was tasted when he licked his lips.

"...ah fuck...."

This journey was supposed to be a much...much shorter one...

Who knew he would be trapped in a damn building for so long?

Rest.

Rest.

Even if his body didn't speak at all like the cramped voices in his head, Hope heard its plea in his bones.

'Yeah yeah I got it...'

He rested his forehead on the wet concrete.

This wasn't what he meant when he said he wanted to take a bath either.