Through Glass(16)

The sound of talons in the hall hit my ears just as my hand wrapped around the leg of my bed frame; the cold metal feeling like a beacon. I clung to it tightly as I moved, my body screaming in agony as I rolled under my bed right as the door to my bedroom creaked open. The clicking sound moved into the obscurity that I had counted as a sanctuary only a moment before.

I tried to hold my breath as I listened to each step the creature took, yet I couldn’t restrain it. I couldn’t keep the panting desperation locked in my chest as I listened and the creature’s screech, that I was sure would herald my death, reverberated in my ears.

My breathing picked up as the screeching did. The long, golden talon clicked against the floor, the sound muffled by the carpet, while I trembled beneath my bed.

I listened through the pain in my head, my ears perked for any noise as the creature stopped moving only steps away from my head. My hearing heightened from the change and, in one beat of my frantic heart, everything suddenly altered. The screeching grew only to hit a decibel I couldn’t possibly keep in my head. My hands flew to my ears as I attempted to block out the noise, however it only swelled inside of me, the pain bursting within me as it tried to get out. The agony that had incapacitated my body expanded, the pressure growing to every part of my body until I was sure that I couldn’t keep it inside; that one way or another it would find a way out. I opened my mouth in an attempt to let the pressure out, but the pain continued. The pressure in my head causing little white lights to spark in the darkness; stars that I was sure only I could see.

Loud, popping noises filled my ears. The sound was loud enough to take away the screech for a moment before it began to build again, leaving warm, wet trails running from my ears and nose. I screamed again in fear, my mouth filling with the taste of blood. I knew at once that this was how they had killed the others.

Even if I had wanted to fight back, I couldn’t, not like this. I pulled at my hair as the pressure intensified and my body writhed with the pain that rippled through me. I screamed as I waited for death to come, for the pain to be my undoing, or for the flash of golden talons, yet nothing changed. The pain remained. The sound of my agony lingered loud and violent in the air that I was surrounded by; it echoed back to me, almost begging them to end it.

End it now.

I couldn’t take this pain anymore. I would rather fight the darkness and be burned to ash in a moment. Not this. I writhed as I begged to die. As I willed my body to just give in.

Please.

My silent pleas rippled through me, the desperation only growing as the pain did. Yet, I didn’t die. Instead, the screeches of the creatures decreased and moved back to the shriek that merely vibrated through my skull. The lowered sound feeling like a hum inside of me after what I had just experienced.

I kept my hands against my ears as the tears seeped from my eyes, sobs replacing the screams my body had been racked with as I began to calm. I lay weakly under my bed, unable to move. Everything hurt like I had been stretched, beaten and left for dead. I could still feel the pressurized pain inside of me; the sensation was incapacitating.

As much as my boiling anger screamed at me to move—to attack them, to hit and punch and fight—I wasn’t going anywhere. They had complete control. I cried as that realization hit me, my sobs shaking my body and sending surges of pain up my rigid spine. I tried to keep the sound inside of me, but I knew it was no use. I wasn’t exactly hiding, anyway; they knew exactly where I was already.

I listened to the click of their talons through my pain, waiting for them to come forward and finish the job, but nothing happened. The clicks echoed in my ears at the same time that the floor vibrated as they moved out of my room. I stayed still, my body too weak to move and my mind unable to focus on much else.

My heart thundered in my chest, each beat painful against my ribcage. My eyes darted around; searching for what, I didn’t know. A weapon, a way out. Even if I found something, I was still trapped; the things were in my house. There was nothing I could do.

I continued to lay under my bed, listening as the clicks moved away. The screech still echoed through the darkness of my home as a new sound joined it. Bangs and crashes filled the space; the breaking of glass, the splintering of wood. They filled the air from every corner. I could only take one guess at what they were doing. They were destroying everything.

The sounds of destruction filled the air around me as the creatures who had invaded my house ransacked it. The house seemed to rock as the sounds of ripping fabric, crumbling plaster, and bending metal grew louder. The screeches lessened before they would simply pick up again.

I didn’t dare move as I listened to them loot my house and destroy the relics of what had been my life up until that moment.

They had come into my world and taken the sun, the light, my family and now they were taking my home. The sobs caught in my chest as they destroyed my life, ripping my very existence to shreds.

The sounds grew the closer they came. I listened as they ripped my parents’ room apart; the walls of my room vibrating as once precious things were thrown around without a care.

I listened to the crashes, desperately trying to keep my breathing even, but it wouldn’t take. They were coming here next, and as much as I wanted to hope they would spare me again, I wasn’t sure what to expect.

I tensed my body, trying desperately to move, however it only seemed to scream at me in the attempt, sending more fire through my bones as they pulsed and ached. I ignored it. I ignored the pain and pressure. I fought through it, screamed through it. Even then, only my fingers would move. My knuckles screamed in agony as I tightened my hands around the carpet, clenching my fingers into it. Fear rippled through me. My eyes continually scanned the dark in search of weapons I knew wouldn’t be there, weapons I couldn’t yield.