And He Waited

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Warning: lots of violence, animal pain/death, blood, self harm mention(no actual self harm). Please continue to check book description for content warnings.

"No, no, no," Virgil whispered, voice wavering and breaking off, tears flooding his eyes. "Not again, not again, go away!"

His cries were drowned out by the piercing howl of the beast about a hundred yards away. The howl was joined by two other hounds nearby, coming closer and closer. The hound nearest to him moved at impossible speeds, clearing the distance in mere seconds. Virgil toppled over in fear, landing on his back and feeling the breath leave him immediately.

The hound barked, snarled, growled, shaking Virgil and already beginning to shake away the thin line of salt that surrounded him, his only layer of protection. Virgil pulled his knees in to his chest, making himself smaller in his small circle of protection, hoping, praying the salt would stay and the beast would not get to him. His hands gripped at his ears trying anything to block out the sound of the hound, to stop his head from pounding. Moments later the two hounds howling from before had joined the first, rendering Virgil's attempt at blocking out the sound useless. A glance around showed that the addition of more hounds was moving the salt line even more, already small ripples beginning to form, although not yet wide enough to let the beasts through.

Virgil frantically pushed the salt back into place the best he could, hoping to last long enough for something, anything to happen that would help him escape this. His hand slipped past the barrier for a mere moment before a hound jumped at it. Virgil got lucky, pulling his hand back fast enough that the beasts teeth had barely began to clamp down. His hand came back red, having scraped across the razor sharp teeth of the hellhound, thankful that it was only a scratch and the beast hadn't clamped down around his hand more seriously. He briefly realized he could have been pulled out of the circle then, that those could have been his final moments.

He pushed the idea away quickly, going back to pushing salt into place. This time he was much more careful about keeping his hands securely inside the ring. Virgil was about to fix another minuscule gap in the salt when he heard a sickening noise behind him, the sound slick and wet, forceful, like the sound of slicing through a watermelon.

A very short whimpering was heard, followed by a thud against the pavement. Virgil quickly turned around, horrified, relieved, and sick to his stomach all at once, finding two of the beasts behind him lying on the ground, black blood oozing from their heads. Behind them were Virgil's two companions, finally come to his rescue. Virgil couldn't have been more relieved.

A final rumbling bark that shook the earth around him startled Virgil from his gawking, turning back to find far too late that the circle of salt was finally broken apart. The final hound in front of him wasted no time, ripping a scream from Virgil's throat as it's horrible, sharp teeth sank into his calf. The hellhounds teeth were long as knives, hooked deeply into Virgil's leg, and it was shaking its head, pulling and tearing as Virgil screamed louder than he's ever screamed before.

He saw the beast let go of his leg, saw the red pouring out of his wound as he grew faint, watched as the beast began to lunge for his throat. He heard another pitiful whine that shook through his entire body, saw a knife being pulled back out of the beast's skull. The hound dropped heavily, collapsing right onto the bleeding wound it had just left, and ripping yet another scream from Virgil's throat.

Virgil sat up suddenly, at home, in his bed, surrounded by the salt circle he had made the precious night. He could hardly believe what he had just experienced was a dream, could still feel the burning pain in his leg.

He shoved the blankets away from him, gaze going to his leg. A dark stain had appeared in his pajama pants over the spot that was burning in pain, seeping down into the sheets below him.