Through Glass(41)

I ran through the charred house, my father’s boots slipping on the ash that lined the floor of the once beautiful home. I ran through the blackened rooms, moving quicker as the sound of the Ulama surrounded me. Their warning was growing as it shifted.

I burst out of the house and onto the porch just as the change become clear. The creatures weren’t right behind me anymore, but I could still hear their call echo around the empty neighborhood as they hunted me. I was getting close. I just needed to move faster and then I could hide.

The sound echoed loudly and I could tell they were closer. The call of their kind was a gun shot in my ears and I took off running. I ran down the burned steps of the porch and into the street that stretched endlessly before me. I needed an alley, a yard, some form of maze to drag them into so I could lose them again. However, I saw nothing as I ran other than the closed up houses with the fences locked tight.

I ran hard as the screech increased, the sounds joining together as they caught sight of me again. The sound of my death echoed from their mouths as they pursued me, the clicks of their talons rattling the street as they came closer.

I needed to get away, to hide. I needed to find light. Although how, I wasn’t sure. I ran as the backpack thumped against my back, the weight heavy against my spine.

The lighter.

Fire was light. I ran faster, scanning the houses, looking for one I could get into easily; one that I could light on fire.

The screech of the monsters increased as another scream met the others, this one louder. The sounds cut through me and my body shook as I turned onto another side street, pushing myself farther than I had ever gone. I could feel my joints try to give in, the burn in my lungs begging me to stop. I grunted as I pushed my body, fighting to keep the howl of pain trapped in my chest. Every joint and every muscle continued to beg me to stop, but I couldn’t listen. Listening meant death, listening meant the terror that gripped me won. The sound of the Ulama that ricocheted through my head promised me that.

The screech of death increased as it bounced through the empty silence that surrounded me. It bounced through my head until it was just another pain to add to all the other aches I was already feeling.

“No,” I gasped again, the word strained as my body attempted to give in.

“NO!”

I ran into the first open door I could find, taking me into an abandoned house with the ornate red door wide open in front of me. I ran through the door and as far back into the house as I could. My legs screamed as I moved; my feet pounding, my body coiled in fear while the scream of my death echoed through the air. I couldn’t run any longer. I could feel my body threatening to collapse at any moment.

If I wanted to survive, I only had one option now.

I didn’t stop to think, to look, to plan. I just ran through the house and right into a large dark room, the only one that still had a door.

I slammed the door behind me, not caring if I made any sound, and fell to my knees. My breath came in sharp spurts as my heart beat wildly through my chest. Everything inside of me prickled in awareness. I could barely make out the call of my death through the door as the sound grew louder as the creatures followed me.

I didn’t have much time.

I swung the backpack from my back, my finger fiddling with the zipper before I was able to open it and dump the contents onto the dirty carpet I sat on.

Clothes, pictures and packets of food came tumbling out before the one thing I was looking for flew out and rolled away from me.

I lunged for it in my panic, my fingers scrambling through the mess that lingered on the floor of the decimated house until I found it. I wrapped my fingers around the tiny lighter just as the click of talons from somewhere in the house met my ears. The sound was just audible behind the high pitched squeal of the creatures that were intent on ending me. Ice trailed through my veins as I heard the click of the talons inside of the house, my stomach tightening as it threatened to turn itself out. I gasped as I clung to the lighter, the small, orange box cold and awkward in my fingers.

Click.

It was coming.

I needed something to light on fire. I turned on the spot, my hand trailing across the dirty floor as I dragged papers and who knows what else into a pile before me.

Click.

The screaming of the monster increased and the fear in my chest tightened as my finger moved over the sharp little wheel of the lighter.

Click.

I could hear the thing right on the other side of the door. I could feel the screech vibrate through me as the monster clicked its massive talons against the wood that was now the only thing separating me from it. I glanced up at the door, my breathing erratic as I tried to focus, as I tried to not let the fear take over.

Over and over my finger flew over the sharp wheel of the lighter, pressing again and again as only bright little sparks erupted from its tip. I fought the urge to scream, to grab the rail and fight the things that were on the other side of the door, but I wouldn’t win, not against two. Light was now my only option.

Click.

The click of the creature’s talons on the knob.

Sparks from the lighter.

Click.

The turn of the knob.

Sparks from the lighter.

Click.

The creak of a door.

I ran my finger over the wheel as I watched the doorknob turn, the heavy wood beginning to swing forward. I had expected this to be the end, the flash of the golden talons to be the last thing I saw. I looked down, my finger moving over the sharp wheel of the lighter one last time only to have a flame erupt from the small tip of the orange box. The tiny flame blazed between my fingers. The light was as bright as the sun in my eyes. The little flame burned my retinas as the long forgotten brightness seeped into my sensitive eyes. The flame was brighter than the dull blue glow of the emergency light had been.