#8 - In the Night

  Genevieve walked as the sun sank lower and lower behind the trees swallowing the dying light. Every log was a creature waiting to devour her. Every branch was a claw trying to rake her into its grasp. She had brought a lantern hoping that it wouldn’t be needed, but she quickly realized that it had been a useless hope. The shadows and shapes dug into her mind forming all the terrors she could imagine, but she was waiting until the last second for fear of running out of oil.

It was one of the quiet village children that had told her in whispered words that her brother had been dared to go to the castle in the woods. It was her parents that did not believe in the curse enclosed in the stone walls, but it was she who knew that the creature in the castle was real. 

Genevieve’s breath came sharp with every sound of the wood. The bushes snagged her clothes and she stumbled many times before she finally relented and lit the flame of her lamp.  The pool of light only made the darkness beyond more sinister. The unknown loomed in front of her. Her hand had a white-knuckle grip on the lamp's handle as she lifted it trying to extend how much she could see.

She wanted nothing more than to turn around and go back to her safe home, but she didn’t really have a choice. Her brother was alone in that castle, and if she did nothing the darkness would be the last thing he saw. With every muscle in her body protesting Genevieve took a step forward. She flinched as a twig cracked branch beneath her foot. She felt her heartbeat in her ears and in her ribs, its rhythm becoming the fear laced tempo of her foot falls. 

One second all she saw was trees and the next a castle loomed in front of her. It was a dark silhouette against the dying rays of the sun, an endless hole in the heavens. Genevieve gripped the hatchet she had stolen from her father. She doubted that hatchet would be much help against the monster that resided in the castle but gripping its wooden handle gave her enough courage to step forward.

A breeze whipped at her hair and cloak beckoning her to the castle. Plants had grown through the steps devouring them whole. Only half the door was still on its hinges. The wind pushed at its rusty hinges and the door let out a moan. She slipped the hatchet from her belts as she slowly stepped forward. She peered around the jagged edge of the door. 

The orange glow of the lamp revealed broken furniture and a leaf covered floor.The room had the sickly sweet smell of rotting leaves. She tried to keep her steps soft as she walked down the hall her father’s axe raised. She strained her ears to listen for any sound to warn her of the creature or to guide her to her brother. 

Genevieve advanced down the hallway tensing at every corner. She gripped her lantern so tight the handles edge dug into her skin. She didn’t dare call out her brother’s name for fear of calling the monster. 

A sound echoed behind her and she turned quickly, only to find an empty hall. There were only the cold stone walls and the shadows beyond. The lantern rattled as she turned to a sound behind her. The light skipped over the walls as she raised her hatchet. A cold sweat broke over her skin as she listened waiting for the creature to jump from the dark, but as she strained her ears she knew for certain that it was her brother. 

Caution was forgotten as she ran towards the sound. She heard one unearthly screech behind her. Her breath jarred in her lungs as she was yanked to the ground. Her vision was the inky in the shape of a skull and her nose was filled with the smell of death. She swung her axe at it blindly making a sickening sound as it hit the creature. She scrambled forward covering her ears as its shriek rattled through her skull. She stumbled blindly, her lamp abandoned with the creature and her axe. Her ears rang and only the wall gave her any idea of where she was heading. 

Genevieve did not stop moving. She could hear the creature clambering behind against the stone. Her breath was loud and jagged bouncing against the walls. Her lungs burned as he stumbled over things she couldn’t see in the dark, hitting the floor and crawling until she could get to her feet again. 

A whimper rang out slicing through her fear. She froze holding her breath even as her lungs burned to see if she could hear it again. At the first hint of a noise she was running, calling out her brother’s name. She careened into a large room with the barest of light shining through the windows. In the dim light she could make out a large bed and sitting atop it was the shape of a little boy. 

Genevieve launched at the bed, grabbing her brother. She smothered him in a hug as he cried and clung to her. She wanted to open a room in her chest and put him there safe and sound. Claws clicked in the hall and she pressed her breath tightly to her chest.  Glancing around the room she found no other door. She pulled her brother off the bed and pushed him under it before following herself. She clamped her hand over his mouth and her own.

Light pooled into the room, illuminating the floor. Genevieve could only see the creature's feet, too long and sharp, as it stepped into the room. It made a raspy noise as it walked around the bed. Her brother's heart pounded out of time with her own. She gripped her brother ready to drag him through the castle as soon as she could get past the creature. 

The creature bent over and Genevieve shifted to the edge of the bed. She pulled at her brother ready to throw him ahead of her and give him a head start. The creature set the lamp and the hatchet down beside the bed. It lifted itself back up and stepped out of the room.

Genevieve didn’t allow herself to breath until she could no longer hear the creature. Slowly she slid out from under the bed, pulling her brother onto his unsteady legs. She walked backwards from the door keeping him behind her as she slipped the hatchet into her belt. She kept a tight grip on the lamp and her brother’s hand as she stepped back down the hallway. 

She did not hear a noise again until she made it through a labyrinth of stonework. When she came to the large hall in front of the door she shoved her brother behind her as the creature came into the edge of the light. She pulled out her hatchet and it shrunk back. Her heart lurched at the wrongness of it. At it hunched shoulders, and it’s fingers lace close to it’s chest.

It made a raspy noise as it gestured to Geneveive. “Keep safe.”

The creature slipped away into the dark and Genevieve pulled her brother to the door. Passed them the world was calm and quiet. The lantern rattled and their breath huffed as they ran through the trees. Genevieve looked back once at the empty castle in the middle of the forest, but she never stopped moving. Everyone was asleep when they snuck into the house. She felt out of place in the warm stillness. 

Genevieve cleaned her father’s hatchet and placed it back in it’s spot all while her brother clung to her. They finally crawled into bed and he somehow fell asleep wrapped in her arms that night, but Geneveive couldn’t follow him. Her thoughts were filled with an inky black creature that lived in the forest alone.