The Infernal Aether (First Draft)

Chapter 5 - Tug of War

For the second time that day I gathered myself together, stunned but grateful that I had not suffered any serious injuries. N'yotsu had landed next to me and he also appeared unharmed, although the blank look in his eyes echoed the fear I felt.

Milly screamed and I looked up to see her being dragged toward the window by a shadowy figure which I immediately recognised as the fiend we had surprised in Hyde Park just a few hours earlier.

The light was once more not conducive to providing a full estimation of the attacker's features, but what I did manage to see was more than sufficient to further twist the knife of fear in my gut.

In spite of my prejudices in relation to N'yotsu's state of mind in the aftermath of the attack, I found myself considering this fiend to be a creature rather than a man. Indeed, the creature seemed to be a demonic interpretation of what a man should look like. Those eyes which I had assumed to reflect red in the Hyde Park sunset in fact glowed red of their own volition and were set in a face which was twisted in a permanent snarl. The eyes were just a bit too large for the face in which they resided, while the face itself gave the impression of being sculptured or drawn on, rather than 'lived in'.

The creature was dragging Milly with the same sort of impassivity that the tides pull the sea. Mister Patterson and the butler tried to intervene but were batted away as though they were mere rag dolls being thrown from a basket.

I looked to N'yotsu but the man was frozen with terror, the sight of the creature no doubt rekindling memories of that terrible attack in the Park. I tried rousing him but to no avail and so, with a curse, I pulled myself to my feet. Maxwell caught my eye and nodded and the two of us charged at the creature.

I have no real memory of what happened next, save for a flash of red, a taste of blood and the breath being ripped from my chest. I landed hard against the wall, gasping for air, watching as Maxwell was similarly flung away by the creature with ease. What manner of being is this? I wondered.

Milly seemed to snap out of her previous state and looked over to us with pleading eyes. It was this, it appeared, which brought N'yotsu out of his fearful trance.

He charged toward the creature, which lashed an arm at him, the same gesture which had dispatched the rest of us so swiftly. N'yotsu was thrown backwards, hitting the wall with a painful thud which caused cracks to appear him. However, he did something the rest of us had not managed to do. He got up.

Once more N'yotsu threw himself at the creature and once more he was batted away. He struggled to his feet, wiping blood from his lips and smiled grimly. With a yell, he ran at the creature again.

The creature let go of Milly and caught N'yotsu by his chest, lifting him into the air and throwing him to the ground with enough force to make the entire floor shake. It lifted one of its huge feet and stamped down on his arm, causing N'yotsu to cry out in pain. Not satisfied with this, the creature then picked him up by his leg and casually swung him across the room, tossing him like a sack of paper.

The creature turned back to Milly and grabbed her once more. It was about to continue dragging her out of the room when a nightstand flew across the room and hit it squarely in the back. It turned with a snarl, to see N'yotsu limping over with a determined look on his face.

The creature let go of Milly and threw itself at N'yotsu with a snarl of pure rage. N'yotsu swiped the creature to the side and then aimed a kick at its chest. The creature spun away and then turned to face N'yotsu once more.

The two of them faced each other, the girl in between them. "She is under my protection now," said N'yotsu quietly.

The creature cackled. "Keep the child," it said and then bent down and reached out to Milly. We started to shout but then the creature pulled at what at first appeared to just be thin air but then took on colour, shape and substance. It appeared as though some dark cloak were being pulled out from within the girl, a material which as it stretched seemed to scream in pain. Within that strange, ghostly shroud I perceived individual voices and then faces; children and a woman all intermingled and contorted as they were pulled toward the creature.