The Fear You Know

27 Fading

 The sun pulled towards the horizon with slow methodic inevitability as the sky overhead began to darken. Distant waves crashed against a distant beach as Eli craned his neck around nervously to watch the sky.

The last rays of light began to sink behind the horizon slowly snuffed by the impending march of nightfall.

They staggered back in the direction of the tower, Peter supporting most of Eli's weight, darkness beginning to pool over the sea. Eli watched the clouds and sky nervously, but Peter kept his pace steady, ignoring the formations beginning to build in the darkness. Eli wanted to run, but Peter held him fast.

At first, Eli worried the monolith in the sky was returning to take him, but as the night fell and the blackness gathered, it became clear that the rising dark was not a product of exclusion.

The void of darkness continued to build, rising over them in a massive wall threatening to crash down upon them. The tower looked so small in the distance, but Peter didn't seem to notice or care, carrying Eli steadily over the cracked earth.

The sky roiled and churned as Daunting sensed their presence, Dark fingers stretched out from an unfurling hand, rising into the sky ready to drop down upon them. Eli grew tense ready to run, sheer panic building inside his chest threatening to tear out of him, but Peter gripped him tighter. The hand had reached its peak now scraping nails against the ceiling of darkness, fingers twisted into claws, and then it plunged downward. Eli yelled, closing his eyes and holding his hands up.

He covered his head.

Nothing happened.

After a moment, he slowly opened an eye watching as boiling clouds roiled and churned around them, swirling in great gusting circles as if passing around a barrier.

Just like what had happened when Peter faced off against Exclusion.

Peter kept an arm around him, and the darkness seemed to part like a breaking wave past his body as they made it the last few feets into the tower fumbling in the darkness along the stone wall until they found the door, which was, surprisingly, back on its hinges.

Before they could do anything, the door was thrown open and they were dragged inside. Eli staggered to his knees on the stone floor as Peter staggered to one knee.

The door slammed shut, and though the wind still whistled from the broken windows, the darkness did not enter inside.

Without a sound, Eli pitched forward towards the ash, but was caught by strong hands that lifted him and rolled him onto his back, leaving him to stare up through the tower to where the tarp had been released over the distant skylight. His mind and body swam in a well of confusion.

His body felt slow and feverish, as if he was in a dream, and when he looked down at his body, he could also see the partially obscured outline of the floor beneath him, visible through his, not entirely opaque form.

"Eli, can you hear me?" he lifted his head slowly, Looking up to see his father kneeling over him, Eli's head resting against one of his knees.

Wink oozed off of Peter's back and onto Adrian's shoulder, a large wet eye glowering down at him,

"He's not getting better." Peter whispered, turning his head to look up at Adrian "But we found him."

Their voices grew distant and muffled, and Eli felt his cheek sag against his father's arm. The dark smoke was visible again, lapping at his skin and hands.

Adrian wrapped his arms around Eli's chest and pulled him into a partially sitting position.

"This isn't something we can cure Peter. Becoming an acolyte is a personal decision one can't be lightly forced into or out of, and right now Eli still hasn't chosen either side."