Through Glass(31)

The breath caught in my chest as I began to shake, the shallow convulsions of my body waving through me as fear gripped me. I had hoped that I would have more time; that they wouldn’t know I was still alive until it was too late, until I was gone. Now it was too late, too late for me. They had come. They had come to kill me.

Punishment for breaking the rules.

No. Please, no.

I listened to the clicks on the stairs as they moved closer, as they ticked down to my death. My body tensing as I ran through my options, my fear making it hard to focus. I should have just run to Cohen, woke him up and run away, but my exhausted body wouldn’t let me.

Now they were here and any “should have” was irrelevant.

Another click, this one at the top of the stairs. The creature’s breathing joining the sound of its talons as the shallow breath echoed down the hall, through my open door and into my ears.

The shaky breath seized through me and my fear ebbed away for just long enough for me to make a move, my body rolling off the bed to drop on the floor as silently as I could.

I froze as the creature did, the clicking stopping while both of our breathing froze in the air. The monster had heard me.

I squeezed myself under the bed, my tiny body moving easily into the confined space as I looked around the tiny area that I had wedged myself into. My eyes scanned over soccer balls and clothes that I had never cleaned up as I’d searched for a weapon. Or maybe I was scanning for some way out, for something to use against the thing that hunted me.

There was nothing except objects of a forgotten life and the dust that covered the carpet with a heavy layer of grey. The dense covering broke into frantic bursts as I breathed and moved to press myself against the wall to hopefully stay out of sight.

I took one last glance around the room as another click echoed through the silence of the house. My eyes rested on the pile of banisters and makeshift clubs I had made years ago. I clenched my teeth at seeing them, cursing myself for leaving them there. My fingers twitched toward them and I moved my body, shuffling under the bed as I made my way toward the weapons. Dust plumed around me as I attempted to get there before the creature came in.

I reached the foot of my bed just as a loud click sounded right outside my door. My arm reached toward them in a frantic effort to arm myself.

Click.

The sound came again; this one louder, closer. The thing was looking for me. I withdrew my arm quickly as I pressed myself against the wall, my eyes trained on the door as I waited. The silence of my fear was broken with one sharp click against the floor right outside my door. I narrowed my eyes toward the sound, my heart beating loudly in my ears as I held my breath, waiting for what was to come.

I watched as the feet stepped on the plush, beige carpet of my room; the bare skin shiny like tar, the deep color somehow even blacker than the ink they had covered the sky with. Long, golden talons extended from the toes, the wicked things clicking against the floorboards as it ripped the carpet to shred.

I held my breath as best I could, however it wasn’t quite enough. With each click of the creatures golden talons against the carpet, small bursts of air escaped and tiny plumes of dust blew away from me.

I couldn’t look away from the glinting gold of the talons. I silently prayed they were not the last thing I would see.

The clicking stopped as my breathing did, the feet turning on the spot on the soft carpet of my room until the creature faced the bed I hid underneath.

The silence stretched as my lungs began to ache, my body calling for air, but I didn’t give it what it needed. I wouldn’t.

The creature stood still as I watched its feet with my breath trapped in my chest. I wished I had a way to fight the thing that hunted me. To hurt it, to kill it.

Then, the alarm went off.

The gentle buzz of the clock cut the air like a knife. It was the shot of a gun that signaled the beginning of my end. The shallow breathing of the Ulama picked up into an excited pant, a pant that began to grow, mold and flow into the call of their kind.

The sound resonated in my ears as it grew, the high pitched screech vibrating painfully through my skull. Every muscle in me tensed as the shriek that would signal my death rose in volume.

Until it stopped and the world fell apart.

The bed I had been hiding under was thrown off me in one quick movement. The monster screaming as metal frame, box-spring and mattress flew through the air only to crash against the opposite wall with a bang that jolted through me like electricity. I screamed as remnants of metal, wood and fabric crashed through the wall, showering me with bits of drywall and sending what was left of my once untouched room into a shamble of debris. A gust of wind blew over my body and my mouth opened in a scream of fear and anger.

I didn’t wait, I couldn’t. I gasped and screamed as I moved, pushing my body up to face him while the creature looked down on me, its surprisingly human eyes cutting through me like a knife.

I froze at seeing them there and at how familiar they felt. They weren’t an empty black like all the others, they were blue. Blue like my baby brothers, blue like the history teacher I had a crush on in fifth grade. I could see thoughts, emotions and regrets in the color of those eyes. The realization froze me.

My screams stopped as I stared into the thing. My fear only growing as I stared into a human that was trapped inside. No, not human. Ulama. And it was here to kill me. One breath of a second passed between us before the thing stepped forward, trapping me against the wall with nowhere to escape. I watched as the creature came closer, its hands rising to reveal the lengthy, golden talons of its fingers as he prepared to strike.