Apothecary

Chapter 3

"Mom?" She was leaning out of the doorframe, staring at the entrance to town. "Mom, what are you--?" My mother was staring in shock at the spirit's spring, where three strange beasts were approaching the falls. They looked unlike anything I'd ever seen, and seemed twisted somehow, like they were warped versions of...whatever they were before. They looked like darkness incarnate. I stepped closer to get a better look. The shadow beasts lurched forward and did...something to the spring, and then the entire landscape changed indescribably. Everything got darker somehow, and the air became harder to breathe. I sensed something was wrong, but I didn't know what. Now I was getting scared. These dark beasts...whatever they'd done to the spring, it wasn't good. 

"Y/N, go back inside." She had a determined look on her face. "I'm going to see what's going on."

My mother wasn't one to back out of things easily. Once she saw or decided that something was wrong she would do something about it. Normally I would agree with her, but not today. Not when those things showed up with the power to change everything.

"Mom, what are you thinking?!  Those things aren't here to play nice!"

"We don't know that for sure..." The group of beasts began to prowl about the spring, presumably marking their territory.

I knew there was no way to stop her going over there. But I didn't want her to get hurt. In my haste, I shouted at her.  

"Mom, whatever the hell those things are, they're out of your league! Just come back inside! We can wait them out!"

It was that outburst that started this nightmare.

One of them turned around, looking for the source of the sudden noise--and saw us. It let out a horrible, deafening scream that paralyzed me as soon as I heard it. When my vision cleared and I could move again, all three of the shadow beasts were charging us.

"Y/N, get back in the house!" I did as I was told, going inside as fast as I could.  After a moment she entered too and locked the door. She then shoved a wardrobe against the doorframe to bar it and turned to face me. "Alright, those things obviously aren't friendly."

"That's why I told you to stop! Those shadow beasts took something from the spring and now everything feels...strange."

The dream shifted then, showing only bits and pieces of what had actually happened, with the rest of the scenes clouded in fog. My subconscious was trying to block out the memories. I was grateful for the lack of visuals. I was just trying to forget. Only the voices, disjointed and fractured, remained to haunt me.

Sometimes the voice I heard was my mother's.

"...Y/N, listen to me. We have to stay inside at all costs. If anything happens, you run to the back and crawl out of the side entrance, alright?"

Other times the voice was my own.

"...Mom, you can't go out there! Let me go instead! I don't want you getting hurt."

"...Mom?" 

The last sound I heard within the dream was the ear-piercing shriek of the shadow beasts that rang in my ears as I fled that house--and the town--forever.