The Shadows from Beyond

16 ~ Under Attack

~ Annika ~

I hold Wren in my arms, wishing more than ever that I could do something to help. But I have to trust Torin. He's the one who can help her. I just ... I wish that I could help. Wren's beautiful gray eyes will not open again if Torin fails. Her chest will not rise and fall as she breathes. Her white hair won't grow back. She.... Wren will be gone.

And I cannot help her, I could not help her before. But no, now, I am faced with something horrible. Scarth kneels down beside me, her dark eyes shining with fear and sadness.  She swallows hard and shakes her head, her long, black hair hanging in her face.

"I should've been there. I shouldn't have let her go."

"It's a good way to drive yourself crazy, talking like that," says Valkyrie, as she steps in. She tucks her wings in close and sighs. "The hellhound is dead."

"Well, that's good, but we aren't alone here," says Dilwyn.

"Uh, what?" I ask.

He points up to the roof. "They're coming in, from the same entrance we did. We gotta hurry, now."

"Hurry with what? We can't go anywhere!" I say.

Darius howls from the hall, and Dilwyn, River, and Valkyrie race out into the hall and after him. Scarth remains beside me, her face pale in the flickering firelight. I look down at Torin as he lays motionless beside Wren.

"We can't go anywhere..." I whisper. "Torin can't be moved, and I doubt Wren can, either."

"Yeah, and something tells me that they know that," Scarth says, glaring at the doorway. She looks back at me. "Annika, whatever happens, just ...."

"No. I'm not losing you, too."

She sighs. "There isn't always a choice, Ann."

"I'm not letting you go, Scarth," I say. "I'm not losing either of you again."

A loud, piercing wail fills the air. We both look up. And a large, thin creature standing on two thin legs appears in the doorway. It has gray skin that seems translucent, and as it steps into the room to stand before us, I see the thing's face is just a mass of flesh, there's no features. Save for a giant, razor-toothed grin etched into it.

Scarth stares at it in shock. "Fuck."

"What is that thing?" I ask.

"It's a Cryer."

"A what now?"

She shakes her head. "A kind of old, creepy demon."

"Yeah, I got that from looking at it," I reply.

But then, the Cryer leaps forward, gnashing its razor sharp teeth as it falls flat on its stomach before Scarth. She leaps up, moving fast as lightning, she grabs hold of the thing's thin throat and tears into it with her own teeth. Black and blue blood and gore pours out all over her and the ground.

She vomits all over the beast's corpse.

"Well, that sucked," she says.

"You .... you can fight things.... like that?'" I ask.

"With my teeth? Uh, yeah. But I typically resort to claws when —"

Another ear-piercing scream fills the mausoleum, and both of us cover our ears in reflex. Then, a pair of demons with similar bodies to the first one step into the room, blood trickling off their talons.

"Oh, shit," Scarth mutters.  "That's bad."

"Yeah," I say.  "Torin, wherever you are, if you can hear me, hurry up!"