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Maynia -- Day Twenty-Seven -- 1,759 words
I had already looked around the house and inspected each room Jaden could get into, checking to see if it was now all cat-proof and we’d get to leave him here alone for a few hours. I was standing around the main hallway, contemplating this, when I felt something warm brushing on my pants, I glanced down and saw it was Jaden—probably showing me he was capable of handling himself for a few hours.
I crouched down and scratched him behind his ears, hearing his rumble of approval. I couldn’t help the sad smile that crossed my face as another thought crossed my mind.. Gramps would have been available to take care of him while we were all busy..
My eyes then wandered towards my belt, my last conversation with Shiela playing in my mind..
“Here, take this.” Shiela handed me what looked like a dagger, encased in a leather sheath. Curious, I took the object from her hands and unsheathed it enough to see the reddish tinge on its metallic surface.
“What’s this for?” I looked back at her as I placed the dagger back in its sheath.
“For protection. Keep it with you, just in case..” Shiela looked at me with all seriousness and I didn’t bother to question her at that—the only thing that did bother me was the thought of a said demon that plagued our town— it turns your deepest fears into something twisted..
Somehow, I wasn’t really looking forward to facing my fears but then again—
I was immediately pulled back from my thoughts when I heard Jack shouting outside, “Z! Where are you going?? Where’s Shiela??”
The sudden disturbance had Jaden scampering away from me as he headed for the stairs to the second floor of our house, giving me an excuse to rush outside as I shut the door closed, “Mines! Someone took her!!” Z shouted through his helmet before he sped off from the driveway.
I felt my blood run cold at the thought that it could very well be Diana who took Shiela to the mines—I didn’t think twice when I rushed towards Jack’s pickup just as he was getting on the driver’s side, “Luke! The tower!”
“Just drive!” I heard Jack curse loudly before he started speeding off—I’d find time to get back to the tower just to jumpstart it, but for now, I wanted to see Shiela was safe. I didn’t want to lose her too..
“There!” I pointed pass the windshield as I spotted Z’s parked motorcycle on the side of the road, Jack now slowed to a stop as I surveyed the mining area before us. The place had seen better days, it had been a fun spot to run off to when we were kids just ‘cuz of the thrill it provided but now—it looked like it was ready to be blown into fields of fire..
Jack and I got out of his car as I kept glancing around the place, trying to find a sense of familiarity from my childhood as we headed towards the mines’ entrance. My focus landed back on Jack just as he handed me a safety helmet, “It’s a good thing these lights are still working.” He said as he switched on his headlights then headed into the entrance, I switched mine on too before I followed after him.
I was starting to wonder if Jack knew where he was going, I myself barely even remembered these tunnels now.. Where could Z have landed himself into?? I just thought that before I decided to let out a couple of shouts to call his name before Jack held up a hand to shush me, making me stop as I looked incredulously back at him. How was he expecting us to find Z and Shiela in this hellhole??
“Luke, you don’t know what you could be notifying about our presence!” Jack whispered harshly back at me but I couldn’t help the snicker that escaped me at the thought that Jack was avoiding Diana at this point. I shook my head at him as I brushed past, opting to lead the way instead—I wasn’t too sure about the ‘demons’ Shiela kept talking about but I’d already handled enough people to know that the demons we usually encounter are the ones we create ourselves, and this time, it was Diana who had made a demon out of herself.
I didn’t notice what it was I stepped on, but it wasn’t solid enough to bear my weight, making me drop into what looked like a deep hole. “Luke!” I glanced up and saw Jack’s silhouette against his headlights that shone down on me, “Hang on, I’ll find something to help you climb out of there!”
I turned around from where I had landed and stopped Jack from whatever he was planning, “Jack wait—there’s actually.. a connecting tunnel here..” I scooped up my own fallen headlights and placed it back on my head as I stood up from the ground.
“Luke—don’t you go in there by yourself!” I heard Jack whisper harshly from above, but I only waved him off as I gestured towards the tunnel, “Try to go straight ahead from where you are. I think this tunnel somehow connects up there—I’ll try to find my way around here—”
“Luke, I said don’t—” I turned my back to Jack’s silhouette and tipped my helmet at him before I headed off.
The tunnel turned out to be wider than I thought, I pressed a hand to the walls as I kept moving forward, noting the sudden smoothness of its surface. That’s odd.. it actually feels like.. a normal house’s walls..
It was then I heard footsteps come by me, I glanced up in time to see a familiar figure pass me—Gramps?? It was like I stopped breathing for a moment, hearing only the beating of my heart, as I watched my grandfather’s almost shadowy figure continue to walk straight ahead. It was like I was in a daze as I felt myself start to follow him..
I stopped a few inches away from him when I noticed he had turned a corner and seemed to be speaking softly to someone. Curiosity got the best of me when I neared his turned back before I glanced over his shoulder, I felt myself tense at who I saw..
My mother sat on the floor as she rocked herself. She seemed to be holding on to something as she did that but I couldn’t get a good look at what it exactly was because her hair was in the way. It was then that I heard the familiar voice of my grandfather as he looked upon my mother, “You have to let him go. He’s dead now.”
I was shocked at the cold way my grandfather seemed to have said those lines, but what had shocked me even more was how I now saw the thing that my mother kept holding on to—it was a dismembered arm.
I stepped back in horror just as my mother raised her head and stared right at me with wide horrified eyes, she didn’t open her mouth but I heard her screams—“NO!!! My husband, NO!!!! I tried covering my ears as a way to block out the sounds, but I couldn’t keep my eyes away from her as she suddenly opened her mouth and I saw rows of sharp teeth.
Backing away from the sight, I saw how her mouth seemed to widen and elongate, her skin turning a molted green as it expanded just as her eyes turned reptilian—I barely registered how my grandfather was now a mist in the dark, more focused on what now stood in front of me—a huge fucking crocodile.
I gritted my teeth as I found myself frozen on the spot, before I started making slow steps backwards. The reptile though wasn’t like the ones I saw on Animal Planet because the fucking thing started to charge at me—I only had time to turn around and run the couple of steps before I felt its jaws clamp down on my leg—
I hit the ground hard, the image of a croc doing its death-roll flashing in my mind’s eye—I shouted as it clamped its jaws harder around my leg, threatening to bite it off. I gritted my teeth through the pain that shot up my leg, making me slightly glance back at the creature, it’s reptilian eyes seemed to look back at me in manic delight—the thing was fucking playing with me!
“..the pain you’ll feel is all in your head.”
Shiela’s words echoed itself into my mind and I had to stop myself from the urge to struggle, I still gritted my teeth as I slowly inched my hand closer to the dagger sheathed to my belt, making sure the croc didn’t notice what I was planning.
I only had a second as it adjusted its jaws around my leg before I quickly sat up and stabbed it in its eye. The resulting pain it must’ve caused it made it widen its jaws enough for me to pull my leg back as I pulled myself up and over its huge body, it tried bucking me off as it shook violently from side to side, but it only made my dagger push in deeper into its eye.
I gritted my teeth and held on, wanting to put an end to this monster as I pulled the dagger back and started to aim for the other eye but then— the dagger only dug into the earthy grounds of the tunnels.
I tensed and quickly looked around—no traces of the crocodile were left. I pulled the dagger back from the ground and sheathed it before I checked on my leg, no trace of blood, not even a scar, but I still felt the phantom pain somehow..
I breathed deeply as I staggered to stand up, feeling slightly shaky from my ordeal—then I heard a distant voice talking.. I held onto the wall as I began slowly following the source of the voice, finally reaching a corner where I spied from—
“You don’t understand, Shiela! I only wanted to have Lucas, but then you came along and ruined everything that I planned!—”
I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists as I leaned back on the wall, feeling my blood boil at the voice that I heard—Diana.
to be continued...
Image from Pixabay, by Phan Minh Cuong An: https://pixabay.com/users/minanfotos-9565064/ (edited with dreamscopeapp)