Nile Owens had a few friends in high school, a group of 8 of them in total. They were mostly different, had their fun, and on their way to college, Nile starts to realizes how unenergetic everybody was about meeting. After a bit of regretting how much he misses high school, he heads off with his parents in the car in a drive to college.
They stop for the night at Raven's Hollow, thinking it just a tourist attraction for the people who wish old towns were still prevalant. After arriving there, he heads for the Dancing Raven, the hotel he will be staying in for the night.
Unbeknownst to him, his parents set up this road trip on the way to the college to be a reunion of him and his friends, and their parents. Nile's parents are the only ones there, since the others' parents are all out antique shopping at a near store. Everybody's getting along fine, until a game is proposed. Whoever can find the most interesting thing in the town, which will be voted on, is the winner, and gets to ask everybody in private any question they want to each person. As much as Nile thinks it sounds like a bad idea to Nile, he plays along and everybody goes their seperate ways in the town.
Raven's Hollow is completely deserted, with only the friends and their parents to inhabit the inn with no staff. As a heavy fog rolls in, and their parents don't return from antique shopping, the group begins to wonder exactly what is wrong with the small town of Raven's Hollow.
That's where things start going very, very wrong. A once happy group of friends is tested with suspicion, murder, and insanity. Long buried secrets will be unearthed, and the simple group of eight friends will realize how inextricably linked they are, and how far apart the truth, or lack thereof, will pull them.
Chapter 1:
Memories
4 days ago
The rumble of the engine hummed constantly in the background. Thankfully for Niles, who was sitting in the backseat groaning, it helped him drone out the constant din of his parent’s conversation, or attempt at one. All they did was go on and on about how exciting it was going to be in college. Unfortunately, every one of his friends was going to a different college than he was, so he was about as thrilled a little kid in an antique shop.
“Seriously…” Nile sighed, putting his head in his paw and staring blankly out the window. “If you keep going on any longer, I might start to think you want me out of the house”
Nile, the only son in his family, was remarkably… Average. As much as he tried to shy away from that, that was what he was. His muzzle was a bit longer than normal, his nose almost making it end in a point. Along with that his ears stood straight on end, ending in points almost like a fennec’s, but he was a coyote. His eyes too, were just a dull gray, not standing out, not even trying to draw attention. So he tried to make himself a bit different by having his faded dirt brown hair down almost to his shoulders. It was a little bit wavy, but it almost looked as straight as anything. Though his hair did touch the collar of his light blue over shirt, which faded down to white at the bottom, it barely managed to do so. His undershirt was completely monotonous though, it was a deep navy and went down a bit further than the over shirt. That shirt covered up the pockets and belt loops on his bland gray pants. So whenever he didn’t have his tail drooping behind him, it would have to raise up the back of his shirt a little bit since he didn’t have a hole in the back of his gray cargos to accommodate that.
That earned a nervous chuckle from his parents, who were too concentrated on driving to think of it as a joke. “Oh, come on, Nile” his mom chided, talking to him like the little kid she saw him as. “We love you so much” And of course, his mother never forgot to tell him that every chance he got. Grateful as he was that his parents cared, enough was enough.
“I know” Niles replied happily, actually excited about getting out of the boring excuse for a town he had lived in. While school was still in, he had been living in the outskirts of northern Texas, where nothing ever happened. The only way he could think of describing the barren expanse of land was… Well, Empty.
“I know, I know” his father mocked, rolling his eyes even though he should have been paying attention to the winding mountain road in front of him. “That’s all you ever seem to say to us anymore” His father had always been the worrywart, the one who had always approached him when he had been in his room for more than five minutes at a time, the one who tried to involve him in every kind of game imaginable whether he wanted to or not. Nile was happy for that, and if it wasn’t for his father’s constant worrying, Nile probably would have been a bit lonely. All of his friends, the seven of them, had been busy with jobs, school, and other things their parents put them to. Most of them, whenever they were free, were getting ready for work the next day. The few times he had seen them outside of high school, had been for randomly thrown parties, like the toga party they had decided on. Unfortunately, there were parents there, so no beer, no extremely loud music… But parents could never stop a bit of ‘bonding’ that just happened to take place on his bed. Unfortunately he wasn’t part of it, and he had to clean off the sheets afterwards. Ren and Yani, those lucky devils.
“Are you listening to me?” His dad’s voice cut into his thoughts like a sharp knife. “Look out the window son, here’s our spot for the night!”
Sure enough, passing by the quickly moving landscape out the window, was a small town, if it could even be called that, in the bottom of a little divot in the mountains. A few houses were spread out evenly across the five roads that spanned the entire town. If Niles let his mind run rampant like it usually did, he would believe that this place was a ghost town straight out of a movie. Of course that didn’t deter him from his excitement at staying in a hotel there, it actually made him even more anxious to get there. Staying in a small town where they were the only occupants… This was the kind of excitement he had been longing for.
Right as he turned to ask his parents exactly what this place was called, his eyes caught something out of the window. Not exactly movement, but something out of the ordinary. There was somebody standing at the side of the road, a female wolf. Her clothes, despite being on an unpaved road, weren’t covered in any dust or scratches, and her face was focused on something. Not just his car, but he could the eyes, those yellow eyes, staring right at him. In the quick glance he caught, he couldn’t tell exactly what she was wearing, but he was positive it was some kind of lavender dress, just down to her knees and no further. By the time he could think to look at her face, the car had already passed her by.
She was quite a ways from town, wasn’t she? And was she doing up in the mountains with those kind of clothes on? Well, whoever it was probably didn’t have any lights on upstairs.
“You okay?” his father inquired worryingly, not taking his eyes from the road. “You look like you just saw a ghost out there”
Besides wondering how his father could know what he was doing when he was supposed to be driving, Nile just shrugged a bit. “Saw somebody out there taking a hike in the mountains” he explained, his gaze going right back out the window. “By the way, what’s this place called?”
His father frowned a little bit, but kept driving. “It’s called Raven’s Hollow” his mother explained, turning her head back towards him and letting her blond hair cover a bit of her face. “We heard it was a great tourist town, plenty of things to do. So we decided to stop by for the night, maybe get our minds off of the long drive”
Nile’s shoulders heaved again and he stared back out the window again, his thoughts drifting away into the vast ocean of possibilities. Just a d**ned tourist town, probably nothing but a few antique shops and a museum… So much for the adventure. Though he wouldn’t mind meeting that wolf he had met on the side of the road, that wouldn’t bother him one bit. She was probably the prettiest thing he’d laid eyes on since Nella.
With a snapping shake of his head, he tossed thoughts of her out of the window. What they had didn’t exist anymore, and dwelling on what could have been was just an enormous waste of time, and not to mention rather depressing. But she had been perfect for him, a bit shy and under spoken, but beautiful none the less. She had been the prettiest arctic wolf he had ever seen, even though everybody else didn’t see that. They only saw how much of a loner she had been, and how she shied away from the crowd at every opportunity. That was how he had met her…
2 years ago
Why was he even here? Because he had been invited by that jock friend of his, Syme, that’s why. And not wanting to offend one of the only friends he knew, he showed up to the house as the invitation stated. A little late, but at least Syme wouldn’t be upset with him.
Nile was already standing outside the house, and he could still hear the pumping music mixed with the ringing in his ears from only a few minutes in there. Not to mention trying to dodge away from all of the football players grinding up against their very *friendly* personty significant others who would probably leave them that very night.
Taking a small sip from his upended water (beer was nasty), the music suddenly became louder, and then followed by a shutting door, returned to the usual senseless bass beat. Sure enough, somebody had walked outside as well, a female figure he could barely even see in the moonlight. Her silhouette was outlined by the waning moon that was trying to hide behind the house. With a shrug, seeing as she seemed nice enough, Nile began walking over towards her as she took a seat on a bench in the walkway.
The instant she saw him, she tensed, and looked like she was about to bolt. Of course, Nile sensed this, and stopped where he was, holding his paws up as if he were surrendering. The only thing he was missing was a white flag.
“I know I’m ugly, but you didn’t have to react like that” he eased with a chuckle, taking another sip of his water.
He got no response for a few minutes, and then a slight giggle escaped her, floating through the air towards him.
“See, you do have a sense of humor” Nile chuckled as he waltzed over to her and sat down on the other side of the bench, not wanting to intrude on her personal space, seeing how jumpy she was.
“Enough to laugh” she giggled softly, placing a paw over her lips and smiling off into the darkness. “Glad to see I’m alone though”
“What, out here, or in having a sense of humor?”
“Both”
Nile’s eyebrows raised a slight bit at her strange response, but shrugged and turned his head towards her. She truly was as pretty as her silhouette hinted at. Her eyes were violet, almost glowing in the iridescent moonlight that shone behind her, and her face seemed to me made for the exact angle he was looking. Of course he had to look a bit down, seeing as she only looked to be around five and a half feet tall, but her petite stature fit her attitude perfect.
Her hair, oddly enough, was an odd mix of brown and red, spilling down her shoulders and halfway down her back in loose ends. Around her neck she wore a choker, with a silver pendant in the middle imprinted with some kind of bird in the middle. The choker was often hidden by the violet jacket which often had its collar turned up. Granted, the collar was only large enough to go up half of her neck, but it almost made her look like a trip right from the 70’s. Underneath that though, she wore a teal dress that looked like it had been cleaned five minutes before she walked outside. There was, of course, a little hole in the back for her fluffy tail to pop out. Odd enough, her fur was lavender, only a few shades lighter than her dress, which draped down to her shins, leaving bare footpaws touching the ground below her. He tried to shy away from thoughts about her physique, but the main ones were that she wasn’t a supermodel. She didn’t have to starve herself to get the look she wanted, she just had the slight natural curves that were just enough to be modest and pretty at the same time.
“You okay?” she asked curiously, leaning forward. Of course he realized he had spaced out for a few moments, but he just blinked a few times.
“I-I’m just perfect, my ears are still trying to recover from the bombardment they took in there…” he groaned, rolling his eyes and turning sideways on the bench so that he was facing her. Pulling his knees up to his chest, he grinned and placed his muzzle on his knees.
“Whaaaat?” she leaned forward with a chuckle, cupping one perked ear in her paw. The other one flattened against her hair.
They both had a good laugh with that one, and after a few more jokes about being deaf, they began to relax around each other.
“So…” Nile said, leaning a bit forward now. Somehow, throughout the conversation, they had managed to scoot closer and closer to each other. They were almost right next to each other at the middle of the bench. “I take it you walked out not just because it was too loud” he ventured, quirking an eyebrow.
Her cheeks colored, though Nile could barely see it. Her fur disguised it rather well. “That obvious, huh?” she whispered, flattening her ears against her head again.
“Okay, okay” Niles replied, putting paws out in front of him and shaking his head. “I shouldn’t have-“
“No” she quickly interrupted him, her voice seeming to gain a bit of confidence from that one word alone. “The guy I was here with just kind of left me to my own”
Nile just sat there quietly, waiting for the rest of the story. If there was any more.
“He asked me to this party a few days ago, and seeing as… Well, he was rather popular, I completely swooned over his invitation like a d**ned cheerleader. Well, moment I get here, I realize how much or a jerk he is”
Nile made sure she wasn’t going to say any more before he put in his two cents. It never did any good to interrupt a sob story. Never. “Well, now you know, popular kids are all just trying to make up for how stupid they are with being as manly or very *friendly* personty as they can”
Despite the somber mood she had brought on, the wolf managed a brief chuckle. “What’s your name, I don’t think you ever told me…” she giggled quietly, leaning a bit further forward. Nile swore they could have kissed from that distance.
“Nile, Nile Owens” he said curiously, wondering why she kept scooting closer and closer. “And you?”
“Nella Kallen”
Nile whispered it once to himself, and then shook his head, knowing he probably looked like a fool just sitting there pronouncing her name. “Well, then Nella” he smirked. “What do you think about ditching jockfest ’06 and go do something else?”
Nella looked about as shocked as if he had asked her to marry her right there. “W… Well, what did you have in mind?” she asked softly, lowering her luminescent eyes so they were in the shadow of the moonlight.
“In mind…” Nile mused to himself, his eyes wandering up to the stars so he could think. “Well how about we head off to the...” he paused for a moment, knowing that he was speaking before he thought. “The arcades?”
Well, that was probably the place to ask somebody to go with-
“Sure!” came the delighted response from a delighted face. “I take it you can drive though… right?” she added on softly, looking up at him.
Now that was a new one to him, a female who wouldn’t mind going to the arcades for a date. Racking his mind, he managed a slightly choked “Yes…”
After a night of crane games, a few rounds of bowling, and falling over each other in the hand-eye coordination games, they walked out the front door of the arcade, laughing their eyes out at how clumsy they were. By this time, the moon was beginning to fade, and a little bit of light was creeping into the horizon.
“Wow…” Nile chuckled, slapping his hip with an exhausted paw. “I never thought that Whack A Mole with your feet would be so… Impossible.”
“Y-Yeah…” Nella chuckled, her eyes turning back towards him with a slight glint from the waning moonlight again. Nile found that strange, the way her eyes seemed to glow in the dark.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, sounding like a little kid talking to his mother as he leaned forward in front of her as they walked. “Upset because I beat you in ski ball?”
She just blushed a little bit and turned her eyes away, almost forgetting the fact that she was walking. “No, not really” she whispered, barely audible above the din the arcade was spouting out of the fronts doors which opened and closed every few moments.
“Well, what is it? I’ve only known you for one night, and as shy as you can be, this just…” he said, stopping and putting a paw on his chin and the other on his hips. “Out of character…”
Again, he could barely see it through her fur, but the coloration in her cheeks was painfully obvious even through her Lavender fur. But before Nile could make some witty and creative comment about it, his eyes opened wide, and before he could think, their lips were pressing together against each other.
Letting out a gasp as Nella backed slowly off, he gaped at what had just happened. It all seemed unreal, in the scantly lit parking lot, they had just… He couldn’t believe it. He just couldn’t.
“I-I…” Nile said softly, his eyes focused straight on hers. “I… Are you sure? I’ve only known you for a few hours…”
The wolf just stared back at him bashfully, her tail flicking contently behind her. In her face it was painfully obvious how much she meant it, and how anxious she was about his answer.
After a few moments of silence, Nile turned and stared the other way for moment. And much to Nella’s disdain, he began to take a few slow steps forward, away from her in the parking lot.
“Wh…” she started, but chocked herself off, almost looking like she was going to break down right then and there.
“Quiet…” Nile said loudly, turning around, quite a ways away from her now. “I’m just getting a running start…”
Before she could even manage an eep, she was tackled to the ground with a playful growl from the coyote, who quickly turned so that he would hit the ground first. After a few rolls, she ended up on top of him, and they both blushed at the same time.
Yet again, Nile was about to make a comment at how gullible she was, but he was interrupted once more by a kiss. As unpredictable as it was, he was more than happy with it, and it was painfully obvious thanks to all of the murring and tail wagging he was doing. After a few moments of their lips being locked together, he pulled away and looked up at her, his eyes locked in hers. She almost looked like she was about to cry.
Nile only blinked a few times as the front of the town came into his view. It was absolutely nostalgic in some way; the ornate buildings seem to rower above him like wooden giants with windows. Everything here was a throwback to the days when every house was made out of wood and logs instead of bricks and mortar. The windows glinted mindlessly in the quickly fading light that was vanishing behind the hills.
“Well, here we are, Nile” his mother announced, holdings her arms out to either and almost slapping Mr. Owens with her outstretched paw. “Welcome to Raven’s Hollow!”
“Welcome” his father half-heartedly chorused, keeping his eyes sharp. “Now if you’ll help me find the hotel…”
They rode the rest of the way in silence down one of the only streets in the backwater town. After two right turns, they made it out into a small paved parking lot, one of the only concrete parts of Raven’s Hollow. There weren’t any lines to show parking spaces, but there were plenty of cars that had already set up a pattern. Well, this place wasn’t a ghost town after all. Since they werent’ the only ones here, maybe he could pass the time playing go with somebody other than his parents, somebody who might present a challenge.
“Here we are!” Mr. Owens shouted, throwing his arms out to either side of him again, but this time he did hit his wife, right on the nose.
“Watch it Quint...” she growled playfully, giving him a fake slap across the face.
Nile wasn’t too impressed with the building in front of him; it was around four stories tall, and seemed to be only five rooms wide. The fading brick had definitely seen better days, it was almost a dull black by now instead of the maroon red it had once been. The sign also, had a bit of rust on it.
“Raven’s Dance Inn…” Nile read out loud as he slowly stepped out of the car, staring in awe at the hotel that looked like it came right out of an old John Wayne movie. There, above the name, was the faded picture of a raven with a top hat that, had the sign been newer, would have been a pure black. It’s beak was rather long, and tucked beneath its wing was a faded cane that would have made any ragtime piano player proud. The sign hung out over the parking lot on a rusted lamppost, and had there been any wind, it probably would have made a creaking sound so loud it would wake the dead.
“What are you waiting for Nile?” his mother called out as she trotted out towards the hotel at an eager pace.
“C-coming!” Nile shouted, still distracted by thoughts of what he had in high school. He had taken advantage of the best times of his life, and since Christian Colleges weren’t exactly known for their partying, he was sure they would continue to be the best times of his life.
Without any further hesitation, he took off after his parents, who were trotting up the old stone stairs in front of the entrance. Sprinting forward, he tried to catch them before they could get inside, but they had already closed the door by the time he had shot up the few steps.
With a groan and an annoyed flick of his tail, he put his paws on the door to open it, and noticed something. Hesitantly, he took his paw off, raising his eyes brows. According to the sign, this place was closed…
“Mom!” he shouted, rushing through the door before he could even think. What the hell, they said they had called this place ahead of time, gotten the hours, and made sure they would make it on time. Well, maybe there would be somebody here to tell them-
There was nobody in the lobby that he could see. Of course, when the door closed behind him, the entire room went pitch black. From the slight sunlight peeking under the door, he could barely make out any shapes, a few of those being a sofa, the front desk, a table… But there were no windows in the lobby. He could have sworn he saw a few on the sides when they had driven up…
Suddenly, there was movement out of the corner of his eye, and he pivoted quickly, trying to lock his eyes on a figure scurrying silently about in the murky blackness that enveloped the room. Dear Lord, he wasn’t alone in this place, and he could tell that wasn’t his mother or father. It moved with such grace and smoothness that he could have sworn it was some kind of snake. The only snake he knew was Rellian, but he was off to college now, just like all of his other friends.
But this wasn’t the time to think about what and who he was missing, he had to think fast. His first thoughts were that he was going to be mugged, but if that was the only thing, he would have seen his parents already. Either he was going to be held for ransom, killed, or-
There, more movement, off to his left. But it wasn’t the same person, this one was a bit taller, darting from cover to cover. Nile’s eyes were still adjusting, but he could tell that somebody had run between there, and a rather large somebody as that. If there was more than one of them, they were most likely armed, and he had no choice but to-
“Surprise!”
Sur…Prise?
Chapter 2
Reuinion
Before he could even say anything in response, the lights snapped on, blinding him for a brief moment. He shielded his eyes from the sudden rush of brightness, but when he lowered his paw, there, by the light switch were his parents, chuckling and winking at each other. But who was-
Standing behind a few of the fixings were the people he’d known. His group. His friends from high school.
There they were, ranging from over six feet to barely five feet tall, and from a slight gut to stick-thin. From bleach blond hair to night black, there they stood. Right in front of him, when they were supposed to be somewhere else… Nile just couldn’t wrap his mind around it.
Of course, as he expected, Ren and Yani had their arms around each other, but they weren’t getting lost in each other’s eyes, so that was a first for them. Ren was the everyday average fox, somewhere around five feet nine, but his hair was what set him apart from the rest. His hair was towhead white, and spilled down to his neck in wavy clumps that somehow managed to look well managed despite how his hairs crisscrossed every which way. Nobody questioned Ren’s hair, it was just Ren’s hair, and nothing more was asked. Poking up through his hair were his rounded ears that looked like they had been dipped in dark chocolate at the tip. Beneath that, his face was rather normal, save for the brilliant blue eyes that any cheerleader would swoon over. His clothes, too, were surprisingly normal: tattered and faded blue jeans that were a bit too large for him, and an unbuttoned navy blue shirt that just happened to show off how toned and slim he was. He never failed to point that out, and sometimes erred on the side of arrogance.
Yani, a bit taller than Ren, was definitely the one who wore the pants in the relationship, and judging by her posture, she knew that fact all too well. The albino dingo held herself upright at a surprising five foot eleven, her fur as white as Ren’s hair. She had no markings, no blemishes, nothing at all to show that she wasn’t a Goddess. Even her hair, which cascaded down to her lower back, was an unadulterated red that was thin and perfectly straight. Her ears were actually a little bit longer than usual, and shot straight up out of her hair, ending in fine tips with a little bit of fur dangling off of the ends. Her face was narrow, and no matter what angle she was seen from, it looked like that was the best angle to take a picture of. And with pink eyes like hers, just her stare was intoxicating. Of course, her stare was almost constantly fixed on Ren, but when it wandered, it gave Nile the shivers. Her clothing, like Ren’s, was a bit revealing, starting with a red shirt that started just above her plump breasts and barely went down to her waistline, hugging her curvy form tightly. Nile swore that the only thing that held the shirt up was its tightness. Other than that, the long skirt she wore, which ended around her knees, matched perfectly with her ‘shirt’. The only other thing she wore was a pair of pink fingerless gloves, which nobody had ever seen her without. Even Ren has never seen her without those on.
“Y-You’re all…” Nile stammered, still unable to believe what was happening. “B… But…” he was at a complete loss for words.
“Yeah, we’re here!” Rellian exclaimed, vaulting himself over the back of the sofa and charging over towards Nile, a playful look in his eyes. “Bet you didn’t expect to see us!”
Nile truly didn’t expect to see the electric yellow snake, or anybody else. Rellian most of all, since he was bound for a transfer program to New Zealand, so he could study at a new prestigious music school over there. But… Didn’t he have to be there next week?
“Rellian…” Niles gasped a little bit as the excited snake stopped right in front of him. “I’m… Surprised to say the least. Didn’t you need to head off for New Zealand in a few days?”
Nodding, Rellian shifted his weight to another hip, his tail flicking contently behind him. For a snake, his tail was rather active. “Well, I’ve got a few days, I’m already packed… So why the hell wouldn’t I come to your surprise going away party?”
Surprise going away party, huh? So that’s what this was. Even in the weeks or so that Nile remembered, everybody had changed so much. Except Rellian, he was still the excitable kid that would never miss a chance to get together with somebody. Surprisingly, Rellian had been single throughout his entire life; all the of the females he had been interested in had just wanted to be friends with him. Nile saw it exactly like that, Rellian was good friend material. A great friend.
Though he was a snake, Rellian almost resembled a dragon in some ways. His snout wasn’t as ridiculously long as a snake’s, but it was longer than a dragon’s. And he had a snake’s cream underbelly , so that kept everybody’s questions away as to what he was. Nobody really knew exactly what species he was, since dragons, according to his high school history book, were long since extinct. But his ears were definitely no those of a normal snake. They almost looked like fins on the side of his head, but they went straight back, poking out of ebony hair and going only to the back of his head. His hair, though, was definitely not normal for snakes, most of them could only grow short and spiky styles, but his was about down to his neck if it was straightened out. It had a slight wave to it, but it was hardly noticeable, seeing as it was about as controlled as a rhino on a small leash. That hair almost always kept his hazel eyes in view, but every once in a while, it would slide over and he’d have to brush it away with an annoying hand. That hand though, only had four fingers, including the thumb, and each finger ended in a scaly point, which always seemed to be sharp. Of course, because of that, he, like Yani, wore a pair of black gloves that fit to his hand perfectly, snug against his fingers.
Since it was summer, Rellian had his black hoodie tied around his waist, which kept his stark and bland lime green T-shirt tucked close to his figure. It also held up his faded black cargo pants, which had a few too many pockets for his own good. He probably could have sold his pocket space for FedEx shipping and made some good money. Other than that, his pants had a few random bits of material hanging off of the side, but the pants weren’t torn anywhere. Why he chose that, Nile had no idea, but it had become his trademark at the school, and anybody else who tried to wear something like him was instantly laughed at.
“Well” Rellian, continued, shrugging his shoulders and stepping away slowly, as if embarrassed of something. “I’m here for a few days before I have to head out across the world”
“Thanks for coming out all this way, man” Nile responded with a cheery grin, his mood suddenly uplifted. “It’s good to see ya” With that, he stepped forward and gave him a friendly hug, patting the snake on the back.
Seemingly shocked, Rellian hugged him back, but quickly hopped back to the couch without another word to Nile. But before Nile could say anything about it, he was swarmed by the oncoming flood of friends, and immediately drawn into the greatest group hug of his entire life. Everybody he had known since high school and a few before, all there together one last time before college separated them for all of four months. Ah hell, four months wasn’t too long, but this was their party. Not just Nile’s party, but everybody’s going away party crammed into one. He was d**ned if he was going to let any drama into this hotel.
But right as he thought that, he caught her out of the corner of his eye, standing off in a corner. Nella. Nella Kallen. His first love. His first ex as well. He closed his eyes and tried to shut her out of his mind, but he couldn’t help himself. He… As much as he hated to admit it, he still loved her for some reason, and since they’re breakup she had become more and more distant from him, from everybody. It was as if whenever he left her he took something from her, something that made her the person she had been. She had become more outgoing, more tolerating, more… More everything. And now she just sulked around in corners and avoided any contact with anybody at all. It hurt him to see her like that, but he couldn’t bring up the courage to tell her how he felt. She… She wanted to be apart like this… Right? And much to his own remorse, he still couldn’t recall exactly why she had left him. It was just one huge gaping hole in his memory.
He was quickly brought back to reality by the laughter, and chuckling, and the closeness of everybody. Even Milo was getting along with everybody, and that was something he’d never imagined possible. Milo, the outcast of the group, who always managed to be the butt of everybody’s jokes. Sure, he was a bit different than anybody else, but Nile had always felt guilty when Milo ended up averting his gaze from everybody else as a result of their laughter.
“Well, looks like everybody’s back together, huh Milo?” Nile chuckled softly, patting the small coyote on the head.
Of course, that made Milo’s ears flatten somewhat in embarrassment, but he managed to squeak out a “Yeah” or something like it, Nile couldn’t tell over all of the cheering and laughing.
Milo, being the obsequious little kid of the group, didn’t look like he belonged out of high school at all. Most thought him to be just out of middle school, and while standing at a gargantuan five feet flat, it was very understandable. Well, Nile only guessed that he was five feet tall, but Nile was sure he was shorter than that. He was also thin with only a little bit of muscle covering his sinewy frame, but it was a miracle he didn’t look like one of the starving African kids on TV. His hair didn’t help the fact, it lay completely flat against his head, no spikes, no ponytail, nothing. It was only barely to his ridiculously thin neck though, just kind of hanging down there without a care in the world. His ears, in contrast to his height, were almost laughably large. They shot out of the top of his head not straight up, but almost completely sideways, only having a slight tilt upwards to them with an adorable little patch of fur on the ends. Along with his ears, his muzzle was a bit long and was almost pointy at the end. Strangely, his ears hung at different heights, his left ear a bit higher than the right. The reason for this was his silver earrings, which hung off of the bottom of both of his ears – two on the left and three on the right. Nobody knew why he had them, and he had never said a word about them either. Perched in front of his eyes on that elongated muzzle was a small pair of glasses, that without, he probably wouldn’t have known that Nile had even walked in the door. His fur was about the same brown as Nile’s, but it was a little bit lighter in most spots, and he had a few random splotches of chocolate colorings on his fur in places.
Today - he never wore the same thing - he had on an lavender vest that fit rather tight on his thin frame. The teal shirt he wore under that, completely logo-less, was much looser, and that vest caused a lot of wrinkles in the undershirt. The bottom of the shirt reached down quite a bit past the waistline of his jeans, which fit him rather comfortably, if not a little bit snug near the top. The bottoms of his jeans were tattered too, leading down into the pair of boots that were surprisingly light, yet thick enough to be considered heavy duty. And, every pair of pants he wore had the hole in the back for his overly fluffy tail (for a coyote) to poke out and swish about.
“Well” Nile announced, finally getting away from the massive group hug and dispelling the whole thing. “Can you spare me a serious moment?”
His entire group of friends seemed completely stunned, or, at least the five that were hugging him to death a moment ago.
“Nile, being serious?” Ren piped up, blinking a few times in completely disbelief.
“Hold on…” came a rather deep voice from the crowd. Instantly, Nile knew exactly who it was. Sure enough, standing there and towering above the crowd, was Tyler Kieran. “Nile being serious?” he mimicked Ren. He walked quickly over to one of the covered windows, tossing the cover away and looking up for a moment. “Nope, sky’s not falling”
The room erupted into laughter, and Nile couldn’t help but give out a nervous chuckle. Tyler had always been a bit sarcastic, but he seemed to lighten up as of late. Then again, Nile had barely seen any of them over the summer, so he had no idea what had gone on with their personal lives.
A few of his friends had gotten to calling Tyler ‘The Beast’ the last time he saw them, and there was plenty of reason for it. He, during his freshman year, had been the tiniest one among them, a short little tiger with an attitude. He wasn’t too strong, too tall, or anything else for that matter. But after getting picked on so much that year, he miraculously had grown to a monstrous six feet six by his senior year, and grew another full inch after that. Of course, he had also grown muscles beyond even the football team’s belief. Simply put, anybody who messed with TK The Beast would be in huge trouble. Thankfully, nobody had ever stood up to him, so the huge tiger never had to worry about fulfilling his promise to anybody. Though he was the beast, Nile always saw him as a gentle giant.
The gentle giant, was not just the average enormous tiger, bright orange fur mixed with gray, not black, stripes that ran along his entire body without fail. It wasn’t hard to tell that though, seeing as he had stopped wearing a shirt once school let out and dress code no longer applied to him. His chest fur, instead of the usual glaring white, was a nicely even-toned gray that actually accentuated his muscles more than the usual white would. Above the waistline his tail hung lazily out, almost pushing the waistband a bit down. His pants were not everyday jeans, they were a nice thin gray fabric, with two drawstrings at the front in case they began to sag a bit. But that was all the clothing was visible on him, for all everybody else knew, he could be wearing nothing else.
“Good to hear” Nile said, waiting for the silence so he could say something.
“Right then, go ahead” TK apologized, taking the hint that silence was wanted. He nodded his head slowly, sending his messy and spiky black hair bobbing slightly from it.
“Okay…” Nile breathed, like he was preparing for a graduation speech. “I just want to say that this isn’t exactly my party” Everybody in the room wore a confused look. “Everybody graduated, we’re all going away, and the only difference I have from you is that I wasn’t in on the surprise. So, this is everybody’s graduation party!”
A cheer rose throughout the entire room, even Nella and Rellian had to join in for this, and Ren and Yani, of course, hugged each other. Milo jumped up and punched the air with an excited yip, and TK just crossed his buff arms and nodded. What he didn’t expect was a “Hell yes!” from somebody in the crowd.
At that, everybody stopped cheering and turned curiously towards whoever had yelled that. It was… Well that was unexpected.
It was Leena, the last person everybody expected to show any sort of excitement, since she was the definition of gothic. She was a deep violet housecat that, other than her choice of clothing, had nothing too special about her. She wasn’t busty like Yani, tall like TK, short like Milo… She was averagely tall, averagely endowed, and with average, if rather pointy, ears that jutted violently out of perfectly straight ebony hair that flowed down to her lower back. Her face though, drew most attention away from that. She had a face that either belonged in a movie or on billboards, but she always wore a bleak expression that ruined her beauty before anybody could get a good look. Her clothes distracted from her face though; it was like she wanted nobody to look her in the eyes. Her top was an eye jarring black that hugged her frame rather snugly, with long sleeves despite the weather that widened out a lot at the wrists. Not only the sleeves, but the bottom of it widened out into what was almost a short dress, ending halfway up her thighs. Beneath that, no pants were to be seen, but she wore the stereotypical loli black and lavender striped socks that went all the way up past her dress. Nobody would dare ask if she wore anything else though, anybody that did would either get a swift kick to the nuts or a firm punch in the nose. No, not a slap, that would only hurt for a little bit.
“Whaaat…” she groaned drearily, quirking a half-assed eyebrow over half opened eyes. She almost looked like she had a bit too much to drink before arriving. “Am I not allowed any kind of happiness at all?” She chuckled dryly, rolling her eyes.
After a few nervous chuckles from everybody, Nile turned his eyes towards the couch where Rellian and Nella had been talking privately, and found it to be completely empty. After a quick search of the room, he found them walking down a far hallway around the corner, still talking.
Nile’s cheeks flushed a bit from jealousy. Were those two hooking up with each other, or was he just getting paranoid? He shook his head and turned his attention back towards the rest of his friends, who were all talking together, laughing occasionally, and telling everybody about their summers. With a smile, he remembered what he had thought earlier. No drama, this was just going to be a nice, wild, and hilarious party before they went their separate ways. If those two had fallen for each other, then he would let them, it wasn’t any of his business. If Nella was happy…. So was he. Right?
“Hey Nile!” Milo shouted, hopping over and grabbing him the arm to pull him over to the middle of everybody. “What’d you do this summer?”
After Milo bounced back to the rest of the group, Nile gulped and began to talk about the few things he’d done, most of it being stories about work.
Quince Owens shut the door to his room and sighed. It was best to leave those kids alone for now, they’d been through quite a bit, and had a lot of catching up to do. But then again, what bad could happen with all of them together for a while? Let them enjoy their time together while they could…Things after today would be much different, he was sure of it. Of course, they had a few days, three to be exact, and they would have plenty of time to catch up. So why wouldn’t he wait until everything was over and everybody was leaving to tell them? He didn’t know, but he was hoping they would take it a bit better if they heard it earlier from his mouth, and his mouth alone. Okay, maybe his wife’s as well.
“Quince?” his wife asked, closing the door behind her and putting the lock on it securely in place. She looked rather worried, and despite her perfectly tied hair, she looked a bit disheveled.
“Yeah Mayle” he sighed, closing his eyes as he plopped himself down on the bed with a thump that would probably be heard by the two floors beneath him.
“I’m… Worried about them” she awkwardly stated, trying to sound supported and confident, but only succeeded in sounding meek and underspoken. “You… You are going to tell them tonight, right?”
“Yes hon” he said with a sigh, turning his head to the side and looking over at her. Even though they were into their early forties now, she still managed to look like she belonged on a movie set. He grinned.
“That’s… Good” she said softly, her tail flicking behind her as she sat on the bed before her, propping her chin up in her paws. She bounced a few times on the mattress.
“So we’re just going to let them roam around until then, right?”
“Yeah…”
He had to get everything perfect; he had to make sure everything was in place. But he couldn’t go around looking like a hectic and overwhelmed fast food worker, all of the kids would be asking what was wrong with him. If they got curious about him, things wouldn’t fall into place like they needed to. And they desperately needed to. Sure, he was a psychiatrist, but he couldn’t solve every problem by himself. Half of the time he depended on his wife’s advice, but she was a pharmacist.
If everything, absolutely everything, wasn't perfect, then he knew there would be mor trouble than he could ever dream of. If everythign wasn't perfect, then this innocent and restful vacation was going to turn into a nightmare that would make their earlier troubles pale in comparison.
This had to be the best idea he had ever cooked up.
This had to be the worst idea ever…
Milo stepped cautiously down the empty street. He could barely see a few feet in front of him thanks to the fog that had rolled in while they were talking inside. A few more minutes and the sun would fully set, and it would become even harder to see than it was at the moment. As it was, Milo couldn’t even see the sidewalks that lined the street he was wandering down. If he was going to find anything at all, it would have to be right in front of his face before he even realized what it was.
Well, so far, he had been out wandering for what seemed like an eternity, but a quick look at his watch told him it had only been a half hour. Since he ran out the door into the thickening clouds, he hadn’t seen another living soul around. After a minute or so of running around giddily through the fog like a little adventurer, he had gotten a bit frightened. He called out to see if anybody was around, and there had been no answer. He was truly alone in a deserted city where he could barely see the road ahead of him.
Every store he had tried to go into was locked tight, strange enough, even though it was only around seven twenty when he had tried most of them. The first ten minutes he had spent trying to get into any of the stores without breaking a window, and the last twenty had been spent trying to find his way back to the hotel. From the road, this place had seemed rather small and homely, but when there was no end to the road in front of him, things had a way of seeming a bit larger than life.
Maybe… Maybe there was somebody around him now, or he was near the hotel. He could call out again and hope somebody heard him, but his hopes were dismal.
“HEY!” he shouted at the top of his lungs, which, unfortunately, only sounded like a frustrated little kid.
He hated being so small, he hated being so cute and cuddly. He wished somebody would take him seriously for once, and-
His train of thought not only derailed, but crashed and burned as his eyes turned towards the left end of the street. He could have sworn he just saw some movement over there, most likely one of his friends hoping to scare the flaming bag of dog doo out of him. They had always done pranks like that on him, like hiding in his house and waiting for him to get home from school… They still hadn’t changed, had they?
Stifling a chuckle, he turned and silently made his way out of the street, only seeing the curb a second before he tripped right over it. d**n this fog… But then again, if he was having trouble seeing, that meant that his friends were having the same problems as he was. This was turning out to be fun after all…
His eyes lifted up, and right in front of him was a pharmacy. He couldn’t make out the name on the cracked wooden sign that looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in decades, but he could make out the shape of a pill at the bottom. His eyes made their way towards the door, and much to his surprise, it was closed.
Well, might as well check to see if it’s locked, maybe he could bring back some drugs and get a good laugh from everybody. That’s something interesting right there… Better than nothing. So much for his hopes of finding some kind of historic treasure… That would have been the ultimate find.
His paw found the surprisingly polished handle on the glass door and he pulled it gently, hoping not to set off any alarms. Much to his surprise, it came open without even the telltale creak of an unused door. Flattening his large ears the best he could, Milo ducked inside, pulling the door silently shut behind him. Best not to let the prankster out there know he was inside.
After taking a deep breath, he turned to see if anybody was at the counter. As he suspected, the place looked like it had been abandoned for a good century or so. A thin layer of dust coated the ground, and the wooden counter was cracked in several places. In Milo’s mind, this pharmacy was ancient, and that front desk proved it. It was unpainted wood that looked like it had come directly out of an unused tool shed, sawdust and all.
The layout of the small pharmacy was rather basic. There was a desk in the front with an old “Welcome” sign imprinted into the front of the wood. Behind that four-sided desk were aisles of assorted things hanging from the two shelves that split the back of the store into three aisles. The shelves were made of the same kind of backyard wood that the desk was comprised of.
Milo cringed slightly at the unwelcome feeling that the store presented. If was almost as if the place was telling him to get out of there, like there was some apparition hunting the pharmacy. A shiver shot down his spine at an alarming rate.
He felt like he was on some kind of childish dare, like spending the night at the old haunted mansion just to prove he was a man. But this was just for fun, right? Nobody would blame him if he came back with nothing, right? So he would just turn around, walk back out into the lonely fog, and… Okay, maybe it was better in here.
Okay Milo… This isn’t so bad, as long as you don’t get a claustrophobia attack while you’re here… His parents had always warned him that enclosed spaces would make him lose his cool, but he was mostly positive he could handle anything that came his way. Hell, if that dense fog didn’t make him freak out, there was nothing he couldn’t accomplish.
And now to get those pills, the ones that would probably get his parents mad-
Wait a second. His parents. Everybody but Nile had gotten here about an hour before, with their parents. Milo’s had told him they were going out to go shopping in the antique shops here, but they still weren’t back. Maybe they were lost in the fog as well. Maybe they were just pulled off on the side of the road, waiting for the conditions to clear. Everybody else’s parents but Nile’s had gone with them, and by now, they were probably more than lost in the few roads this town had.
Well, they could worry about themselves, it was time to get the good stuff. He sure as hell wasn’t going to try any of it, he had learned that much from some of the screwed up druggies at school, but he wasn’t so sure about some of the others if they were left alone with the pills. Ah well, it was their fault if they wanted to screw up their minds. He was going to stay sane. Perfectly sane.
With a resigned sigh, Milo began to plod forward, his tail flicking nervously about behind him with a mind of its own. Around the desk, down the middle aisle… On the shelves, there were plenty of boxes for assorted drugs, but Milo didn’t recognize a single one. Almost every single box had the same exact number of specks on it, and some in the same places. Milo, being as curious as he was, crouched to get a closer look at one of the boxes. He didn’t recognize the name, but it said ti was some kind of birth control. Milo grinned. This would be perfect for Ren and Yani… Everybody would get a crack out of this one. So he leaned over and picked one up in a shaking, but eager, paw. Instead of the finely coarse texture he expected, it was as smooth as wax, and none of the dust specks loosed or even fell on the box. In fact, they were printed onto the box itself, which felt like it had just been manufactured yesterday.
If the dust on these boxes was fake, then… He slowly turned around, wide eyes barely believing what he saw. The dust on the floor was fake also, printed into the tiles he had slowly walked across. There were no footprints from his sneakers, and no dust in the air. What kind of a place was this…
In his confusion, he dropped the box to the floor with a clatter, staring straight ahead at the door. Maybe he was just getting paranoid, but he wasn’t believing that the figure outside in the fog was one of his friends. If that was the case, he needed to get out of there, and quick. But if the movement he had seen came from the direction of this pharmacy, and there was nobody in here, that meant he was still out there. Oh… This was not good at all.
Something broke the silence though, a slight groaning sound from behind him. The first thing that popped into his head, besides panic, was that this was some kind of zombie infested town that was about to reach out and take over the world. Call him paranoid, but when faced with the situation he was in, he wasn’t quite thinking completely straight.
Slowly, he turned around, facing the back wall now, covered in that misleading speck pattern on it. Now that he knew it wasn’t real, it was painfully obvious. But he saw nobody behind him. Not exactly what he was expecting, but still unnerving. Hearing sounds and seeing nothing was much worse than hearing sounds and then seeing something there. This just left his imagination to run wild on its own, and Milo’s mind ran wilder than an out of control train. What if it was some kind of invisible zombie that people couldn’t see until it was too late? What if it was some kind of-
There it was again, not exactly a throaty groan, but more like somebody who was just shifting around in their sleep. And then a slight rattling sound, like metal hitting a wall over and over.
Milo just stood there frozen. He could tell where it came from, and it sounded like it came from behind the back wall. But there was no door back there, was there? Granted, he was still about twenty feet or so from the back wall and his vision wasn’t the best, but… Well, he might as well check it out. He wasn’t about to go back outside into the stifling fog.
The sounds continued, and they drove his feet slowly towards the back wall, making sure he was as quiet as possible. Every step he took could be his last… No, why the hell was he thinking like that? He truly was getting paranoid. This place probably wasn’t a ghost town, their parents probably went out together and had all of the shopkeepers make everything look old fashioned. This was all for the party, and Milo had fallen for it. Everybody had fallen for it. That figure outside was probably one of their parents making some last minute preparations with the sound device hidden in this back wall… Ha, this was perfect. They truly did an amazing job… They went to such lengths to do this, and the fog was probably in the weather forecast for the area. Wow… Milo wished he had the kind of creativity his parents did.
Mentally saluting whoever put all of this together, he walked casually back towards the wall, trying to find the tape recorder hidden in there. He put one of his large ears against the wall, hoping to get a better idea.
Genius, this was pure genius.
He slowly made his way over to the right side of wall, hearing it strongest over there. Sure enough, there was a little break in the marvelously dusty paint job, just like a door. Milo smirked and slipped his tiny fingers into the crack, slowly pulling it open.
Their parents were great.
Light slowly began to show the hidden room as it spilled into the darkness that had apparently been camping in the room for a long time now. Slowly, the darkness receded to the foreign light, and the door opened further, showing the contents of the room. Actual flecks of dust danced about in the invading light, sparkling and doing a dance that Milo didn’t understand.
The room was bare, the walls were a blandly gray cement that looked unevenly poured, and the ceiling and ground were exactly the same. There were a few glass cylinders on the ground that Milo could see, scattered about in a brainless fashion. Milo only then recognized what those were on the floor.
Syringes.
His eyes went wide and his pupils dilated so far that his eyes almost seemed like little black dots with a gradient of hazy color around them. What the hell… What the hell were syringes, shattered and whole, doing in a back room of a pharmacy… But then again, since what’d he’d seen in this shop so far, he wouldn’t be surprised at anything anymore. Nothing at all would scare him now. This was the final straw.
Sighing a bit, he began to turn around.
Clank.
Milo froze. His back was to the darkness that was slowly becoming light.
Mmmmmmpppph…
He needed to turn around. He needed to.
Clatter. Clank.
God, do something. Run. Legs, dammit, do something!
Nnnn… Mph.Clank. Clatter.
Run Hide. Something. Don’t just stand there.
The sounds continued. He didn’t want to turn around. He just couldn’t move.
“Okay…” he whispered to himself, closing his eyes and turning around. He had to face this. This whatever it was. Zombie or something.
But when he opened his eyes, all of his expectations were shattered by something far more than he had anticipated.
Chained. Chained to the wall like that… How could they?
Rellian stepped out of the room, Nella close in tow behind him. Things had gone well, and as it was going now, he might actually have the courage to do it now. But then again, he had always had trouble with this kind of thing, so he wasn’t about to mentally punish himself for it yet. He… That was it. He just needed to talk to somebody who knew about his problem, who knew about what he was going through.
“Rellian?” Nella asked, sliding alongside him with an annoyed look on her face. “Earth to Rellian?”
He snapped to attention swiftly, his posture instantly becoming that of a soldier’s. “Y-Yeah?” he stumbled, trying to keep his cool as well as he kept it around everybody as a group. When he was talking alone with somebody, no matter who it was, he always found conversation difficult.
“You feeling okay?” she asked softly, tilting her head to the side and letting her hair fall aimlessly over a bit of her face. “You seem… Distant. More than when we were talking”
It was true, and Rellian would be the first to admit it. For one, it was beyond awkward going into a room alone with Nile’s ex, but he needed a few answers, a few only she could give him. Strange enough, though, the rooms didn’t have keys, they were all unlocked. Maybe the manager of this hotel was on vacation, and all of his staff was on strike for better conditions. Or maybe the Dancing Raven had gone out of business a bit ago, and nobody had ever come here to bulldoze the place. Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen anybody but his friends and their parents this entire time… Was this place some kind of abandoned city? He couldn’t tell.
“I’m okay” the yellow snaked returned after a while, smiling as they walked down the hallway. In truth, he was actually feeling better than before. Sure, he had been left out of a massive group hug, but that didn’t matter to him anymore.
The hallways in the hotel were beautiful, the rugs that they walked on were covered in various and intricate patterns that looked like they belonged in a royal palace instead of a rundown inn. There were silver fabrics mixed with a deep red, and then a pattern of gold mixed in that looked like a stalk of corn before it had been peeled. The silver made seemingly random lines around the gold symbols and mahogany backdrop.
“Well, everybody should still be-“ Nella began as they rounded the corner, but stopped midsentence. Everybody was gone.
The lobby stood empty where there had been, moments ago, a thriving crowd of his friends. But, unless his eyes lied to him, the high-roofed entrance was as empty as it had been when they first arrived.
“Wha…” Rellian mused in disbelief, taking a hesitant step forward into the lobby area. His footstep sounded like it would echo until the end of world in the emptiness that seemed to encase the entire city.
“I gues… They went out somewhere?” Nella suggested, walking slowly past Rellian and keeping her eyes peeled around the room, just in case they were playing a prank. “They had a right to leave us, I mean, we just kind of walked out, and…”
Rellian was no longer listening, but staring out the window at the top of the double doors, his eyes completely transfixed there. He couldn’t see anything but gray behind the window. Nothing but a never ending expanse of dull and bland gray. It was almost like somebody had taken a can of paint to the window just so they couldn’t see out. But there were variations in the monotonous window, some parts lighter, some parts darker, and the both of them shifting back and forth endlessly. He then realized what it was.
When had the fog rolled in?
“Uh… Earth to Rellian?” the wolf chided, placing both paws on her hips and letting her tail stand on end with irritation. “Are you even listening, to me?”
He didn’t respond for a second, lost in his own thoughts. But after snapping back to reality, he turned his eyes towards her. “Nella… When did the fog roll in?” he asked blankly, his face showing nothing but confusion.
Her eyes went out the window as well, and she blinked in disbelief. Apparently she was having the same thoughts as he was.
They both stood frozen there for a second, and eventually Rellian had to break the silence with something. “Look…” he sighed softly. “They probably went outside to go exploring or something, and are now lost in the fog.” He took a step towards the door, but stopped. “You coming?”
She didn’t budge for a split second, as if she wasn’t really there. Her eyes were slightly glazed over, as if she were in some sort of deep daydream, but before Rellian could snap the wolf out of it, she shook her head and nodded. “You’re right” she chimed in, walking briskly towards the door. “C’mon”
Rellian couldn’t argue with the way she negotiated. Silently, he jogged to catch up with her as she opened the door. It creaked loudly every inch she opened it, and she sure took her sweet time inching the door inwards.
Fog began to seep in through the doorway, and just as she stepped out, the fog seemed to envelope her. Rellian blinked, wondering if what he was seeing was real. She was gone, just like that, out in the densest fog he had seen in his entire life. Yet there it was, in front of his eyes, seeping into the foyer as the door began to automatically close behind her with the same creaking symphony that had accompanied its opening. Without a moment’s hesitation, he ran out after her, slipping through the door as it slammed close behind him with a resounding crash.
He was immediately surrounded by gray and white. Nothing but monotonous endlessness, stretching out as far as he could see. Of course, he could only see a few feet in front of his face, which he had just figured out by putting a paw in front of his face. If he hadn’t just left the hotel behind him, he would have no idea where he was. There were a few shadows here and there, a few cars in the parking lot, a figuring running towards one of them. That had to be Nella.
“Nella!” he shouted out, taking off running after the figure who darted towards the car. When he got closer, he began to realize that it was, in actuality, a large truck. That was TK’s father’s truck, the bronze paint job beginning to add color the bleak surroundings.
“There you are…” he panted softly, walking up towards the truck. But there was more than one person by that truck. Some were sitting on it, some were leaning against it, and some were sitting in the bed… A few steps closer and he realized exactly who it was leaning there. TK, Nile and Leena all sitting in the bed, Nella leaning against the door, and Ren and Yani sitting on top, arms around each other.
All of their heads turned as soon as he got close enough to tell who was there, and he smirked. “You all go out there exploring or something?” he chuckled, slapping a hand against the car and making sure his fingers didn’t scratch the paint job. He had to be sure of that. “If you did, you certainly didn’t get too far…”
His comments were met by silence and unblinking stares from the other six that waited for him, even Nella. It was then that he began to think. Something was out of the ordinary here, besides the fog. Oh.
“Where’s Milo…?” he he asked warily, trailing of at the end to nothing.
Again silence. Nella turned her gaze towards the gravel.
“No idea” Leena groaned dryly, grabbing her forearms and rubbing them gently like she was cold. It was actually a little bit warm despite the fog, warm enough to make Rellian uncomfortable. “We went out exploring to see who could find the most interesting thing to bring back… He should have been here ten minutes ago at least”
Rellian was more than worried now, and most of the group shared his worry. Except for Ren, who was too busy trying to grope the annoyed albino dingo next to him, who seemed to melt into the fog around the truck.
“I…” TK said softly, turning his head hopefully up towards everybody else. “I found a map of this place at the tourist center”
Everybody nodded and there were a few mumbles, but everybody else began to pull things out of their pockets.
Yani had found an antique camera sitting in the middle of the road with a flash bulb as big as the camera itself. She had no idea if it had film in it or not. Ren had found a naughty magazine from one of the adult stores, Nile had found an oversized knife that looked more like a sword stuck in one of the restaurant’s doors, and Leena had found what looked to be a blank white credit card in the gravel at the edge of the parking lot. None of them had gone particularly far, according to TK’s map which everybody studied. The corn shop was right next door to the hotel, the restaurant was behind the hotel, and the visitor’s center where TK had gotten the map was directly in front of them. The only thing missing was Milo, and Rellian was beginning to get a little worried about the pint-sized coyote. The poor guy was probably lost out in the fog, curled up in a little ball. There was nobody here but them, so he wasn’t in any kind of trouble, right?
“Hey…” Nile suddenly spoke up, turning his head out towards the fog. “I never really got to ask, but where are you’re parents?”
Rellian blinked a few times. He could hear the worry in Nile’s voice, and he understood it all too well. If the parents had gone missing, and then Milo… Now Rellian was just getting paranoid.
“They went out to go shopping at the local antique stores…” Rellian replied firmly. “Right after we got here, they said they would get out of our way for the surprise”
“TK” Nile said, his voice teetering like he was balancing on the knife-edge of a cliff. “Let… Give me the map” He held out a paw.
TK was more than happy to oblige, and placed the folded piece of paper in Nile’s outstretched paw. Nile studied it for a few few seconds, and his eyes suddenly sank as some kind of realization hit him. Rellian knew all too well exactly what he was going to say before it left his mouth.
“There are no antique shops here”
The statement echoed through the air, reaching unbelieving ears. Everybody was still, nobody said a word, and the sudden silence was instantly as thick as the fog that drifted around the truck.
“O… Okay” Nella quickly recovered, pushing herself off of the side of the truck with her shoulders so she could stand upright. “Maybe they just went out sightseeing, and got stuck in this awful fog without a map”
There were a few nods of agreement among the seven, but the agreement was quickly undermined with murmurs and undertones of unease.
Yani was the first one to disagree, her tail hanging off the edge of the truck lifelessly. “Then why is TK’s truck still here?” she challenged, leaning slightly forward towards Nella.
Nella nodded in agreement, looking daggers back at Yani. Rellian could feel the electricity pulsing through the air around them, and made sure to stay well back before the fireworks began to go off. “Maybe they all piled into one car to save gas” she smirked. “Milo’s parents have a minivan”
“Lies”
Everybody blinked again, wondering where the omnipresent voice had come from. Rellian already knew, and just turned towards Leena and smirked. She had to have practiced throwing her voice around during the summer break. She was d**ned good at it.
“I saw Milo’s parents’ van while I went to find this card” she said in her normal voice, leaning against the back window of the cab, closing her eyes calmly like she hadn’t a care in the world. “So in other words, they just didn’t drive, they walked around, and are now as lost as Milo is. Hell, they probably ran into each other on the way and are having a good laugh in an abandoned supermarket eating all the ice cream they can handle”
Well, she had thought that one through very thoroughly, and Rellian knew that wasn’t the case. “Again, not the case” he interjected, walking unsteadily towards the cab. He was trying his hardest to not panic and be the stoic, but he was finding that very difficult. “My parents, on the way out, said that Milo’s father would drive everybody around, since they had the minivan.”
More silence ensued, only made worse by the suffocating fog that seemed to creep closer whenever Rellian looked away. Everybody just seemed… Lost. Not scared, not confused, just… Lost.
“Okay, okay” Rellian finally groaned, stuffing his gloved hands in his pockets and praying he didn’t rip the fabric. “Look, here’s the deal. They probably saw the fog rolling down the hill and decided it would be safer to walk instead”
Judging from the skeptic response he received from the other six on the truck, he was positive that nobody else believed a word he had just said. Hell, it was a possibility, and probably the most likely possibility he had heard all day, yet they were rebuking it like he had offered that they had been abducted by aliens. Well, it was their own fault if they went crazy believing there was some ulterior and supernatural motive to this.
“Fine, fine” Rellian growled, curling his upper lip a little bit and walking towards Nile. “Give me the map, I’m going out to look for them…”
Nile just stared back blankly, his face completely unreadable like an empty page. With a roll of his eyes, the snake hopped up into the bed of the truck, jacket flapping behind him, and he literally yanked the map out of Nile’s paws. He felt rather guilty treating Nile like this, but he was doing what had to be done. If Milo was lost, he probably wouldn’t be able to find his way for hours, hell, maybe even until the next day. This place wasn’t that big, but with the fog as it was, Raven’s Hollow suddenly seemed monstrously gargantuan.
Silence followed him into the foggy streets. The shadows of unseen things danced around him as everything disappeared from view, and he began to growl to himself in irritation. They were just going to sit there and grow mold, so he had taken it upon himself to find Milo and their parents. If they wanted to do nothing about it, that was their problem. Not his. He can’t believe he even considered that…
“MILO!” he shouted, cupping his gloved hands around his mouth to project his shotu as far as he could. But it seemed like the fog was swallowing up his every word into its endless expanses. “MILO!”
Echoes came back at him from the streets on the side, and he knew that the sound was carrying somewhere, if not throughout the entire town. But if he was going to find his way back, he would just rely on the map. Now if only he had a pencil he could mark his path and take every crossroad so he could cover every inch of the d**ned town.
He traced the turn he had made this far from the hotel, and found he was right next to the visitor’s center. So on his right, there it was. He saw the silhouette of what looked like an information kiosk, and turned to head towards it.
Every step he took was rather shaky, as if he was expecting somebody to be there waiting for him. But it was empty save a few scattered papers that had fallen aimlessly around the old wooden structure. It was only an eight-sided wooden counter with a tent-like roof to it, nothing more. Rather boring.
"This place sucks” he chuckled under his breath, placing hands on the counter to launch himself on the other side. Once inside of the kiosk, he took a quick survey of the dump. The only things on the ground were scattered maps, but on top of the counter was a cup filled to the brim with pens and pencils.
Score one for me! Quickly, he found the only sharp pencil in there, and made a few scribbles on the paper about where had been and where he hadn’t been. Without the map and pencil, he would be in the same situation as Milo and the parents, lost without a single clue even though he hadn’t walked too far from the hotel. Closing his eyes and sighing, he vaulted himself over the kiosk without even thinking about it.
The fog was unbelievably thick; he couldn’t even see the other side of the street from where he was. He could definitely understand Milo losing his sense of direction in here. Rellian was now beginning to wish that somebody had come with him, even if it was just for the sake of somebody being beside him.
As if on cue, he heard somebody calling his name a bit further away and tried to place the voice. It almost sounded like-
“Nile!” he shouted back into the fog. He couldn’t even tell where the coyote’s call had come from, but he knew that they would find each other soon enough. As soon as he saw a silhouette running in his general direction, he sighed with relief and waved his hands above him in the air, hoping to get his attention. Sure enough, the figure turned towards him and began to walk out of the shroud of gray that obscured him.
“Thank God” the snake sighed with relief, throwing his arms back down to his side and letting them hang there. His prayers had been answered perfectly. “I was getting a bit jumpy out here…”
Nile just laughed a bit and walked right over to the counter, peering over the edge and seeing that he hadn’t missed anything so far. “Yeah” he said, rubbing the back of his head. “Everybody else voted to go back in and wait except for TK, who’s still sitting in the back of the truck and listening in case he hears Milo shouting.” Nile turned his head a bit to the side, his eyes focused intently on the ground. If he was staring any harder, he would probably bore a hole straight towards the center of the earth. Nile really did care about Milo that much, huh? He never would have guessed, nobody said anything when they played a prank on the little guy, but he remembered Nile refusing to take place in them. Now Rellian was beginning to feel bad about everything they’d done to him…
“That’s good” Rellian responded, but he wasn’t fully there. He was half inset in his own thoughts, going back a while. Milo… The worst prank they had done was by far they’re elaborate one over spring break…
He shook his head. That had been a mistake, a bad idea, and he knew not to do something like that again. Poor guy. “Alright, let’s get looking then!” Rellian exclaimed out of nowhere, spontaneously raising a gloved hand above his head and pointing out into the fog. Before Nile could say anything, Rellian made to sure to get some space ahead of him.
Nile could only blink as Rellian started acting like a nervous kid with ADD. He had been acting strange before today, but this was just something else. But before he could even get in another thought, he saw the black and yellow snake begin to fade into the darkening gray. It must nearing sunset, or maybe the was already down. He couldn’t tell…
So he charged after the yellow shape, yelling at him to slow down and hold up. He wasn’t about to get lost himself in this hellish town. Eventually, he caught back up with the strangely acting snake, still shouting. Rellian stopped where he was, taking a few extra steps so he wouldn’t lose his balance. As he turned, his blurry shape seemed rather confused as to why Nile had made him stop.
“We’re you… Just going to run until you lost me or something?!” Nile shouted, his voice plagued with annoyance with the snake. If he was going to run off randomly like that, he should’ve just stayed with TK.
Rellian looked… He looked surprised and shocked that Nile was yelling at him like that. His eyes looked a little bit more sunken than before, and his slightly limp ears seemed to sink slightly. He reminded Nile of a little child who was being scolded by his mother for straying too far from her side.
“Sorry…” he glumly responded, keeping his eyes glued to the pavement, or what he could see of it.
“No worries, man” Nile grinned, walking over and giving him a friendly pat on the head. Nile wasn’t too much taller than the snake, but he definitely had more of a presence than Rellian.
Nile could have sworn he saw a little blush in Rellian’s cheeks, though it was hard to tell, since he wasn’t exactly a mammal. Blowing it off as a hint of covered fear, he turned his gaze back towards the fog again. When was this horrendous weather going to go away? He wished everything would just calm down for once. So much for avoiding drama…
“C’mon” Nile said uneasily, and with a flick of his tail and a bounce in his step, made his way down the street, not yet checking to see if his friend followed him. He had enough things to worry about, and he was sure Rellian would be a bit offended by being treated like a little brother.
“Hey… Nile?” Rellian asked meekly, his voice barely cutting through the light fog that was between the two.
“Yeah?” he asked, looking to both sides of him. Nope, no sign of anybody… This place truly was empty.
“I wanted to ask you… Ar-“
“It’s okay” Nile said, stopping dead in his tracks. He knew exactly what Rellian was going to say, and in fact, instead of being angry, was more than happy. His best friend was asking him… Telling him the truth. “It’s okay… You and Nella would be great together”
The footsteps behind him stopped dead right behind him, and he was surprised he couldn’t feel the snake closing in behind him. “I…” he started, and shook his head. “It’s not that, I don’t have a crush on her”
Wait, what? Nile turned slowly around, thingying his head ever so slightly to the side to show that he didn’t quite understand. If it wasn’t that that was making him so underspoken, then what the hell was it?
“Nile… I-“
“RUN!”
Who… That almost sounded like…
“Milo!” Rellian shouted, taking a step forward as he saw the tiny shape begin to appear in the fog. From what Nile could tell, he was running headlong towards them, not even caring that with the lack of visibility, they’d probably crash right into each before they could blink.
But why should they run? Milo was probably just playing a prank on them, but… Wait, there was another shape running behind him, no almost right beside him now. A dark patch in the fog, the way the other shape moved was chilling haunting, like it glided over the ground instead of ran. It almost reminded him of Rellian sneaking around, he seemed to just slide along with floor…
“RUN!” Milo repeated, coming into full view as he dashed right past them, leaving them in the dust. By the time Nile turned around to see where he was going, the other figure behind him had already gone by, and he didn’t catch a good glimpse of who it was before they both disappeared into the fog again.
“Crazy kid…” Rellian chuckled, scratching the back of his head gently. “Probably stole something and got in trouble”
Nile blinked a few times, his ears perking up. Besides the constant shouting of Milo, there were more footsteps behind them, where the little coyote had just come from. “Rellian…” Nile said cautiously, not daring to turn around and see if anybody was there. “This place… We’re the only ones here, everything is abandoned…”
Rellian seemed off of his rocker for a split second, and then he turned around. “Then…” he said softly, his eyes focused completely on what Nile couldn’t see. And from what the coyote could see, Rellian didn’t like it. “Oh… nuts!”
Before they even knew what they were doing, they were dashing headlong in a desperate rush. He wasn’t sure why, but Nile could tell that whoever was running after them wasn’t their parents. Their old parents could never run that fast, and they wouldn’t be so d**nably quiet with every step. Nile could barely hear anything, but when he turned his head back for a moment, he saw them. Black shapes a bit back in the fog, barely visible, but only a few of them. And from the way they moved, the way they barely jostled while running, Nile knew they weren’t there just for a pleasant visit.
He snapped his head back in front of him, tearing his eyes away from the aberrations chasing him so that he could see where he was running. But with the blank expanse in front of him, it was impossible to tell exactly what he was running into at all. For all he knew, there could be somebody standing in front of them only a few yards away, and he wouldn’t be able to see them. Panic coursed through him like lightning, and his feet quickened, the tempo of his footsteps accelerating as quick as his breathing was. His pants came in short, small gasps and his eyes began to widen, squint, and widen again, trying to find his way through the now massive town.
Where was he now… What was happening? He turned to make sure Rellian was beside him, but… He was gone, there was nobody running at his side now. But wait, there was a slightly shifting figure in the fog running ahead of him… d**n, when had Rellian learned to run so fast? Nile couldn’t think of that now, he just knew that he had to find the hotel, get inside, and lock all of the d**ned doors. Block the windows. There was somebody there. In the fog. After him. And everybody else. Milo too.
But Milo- Oh god, Milo probably had already been caught by whoever was after them, one of the figures had been running almost beside him this entire time. But was Milo… No, he had to think about himself now, the rest of them could only help themselves, like him. If Milo had a good reason to be running in a panic, so did he.
He was leaning too far forward. His balance got thrown off a bit. He stumbled. Recovered. Kept running. Running. That was all he could do now, run for his life. The shops on his side of the street were passing by too quickly for him to tell if he could take shelter in them. d**n. He wished he had Rellian’s map, with that, he could probably find his way back to the hotel. d**n.
His eyes turned again towards the figure in the fog running in front of him now. Rellian. All he had to do was follow the snake, he had the map. The map that would lead to safety. Yes, he would make it. They would make it.
But Rellian just kept running straight forward, and Nile knew that the path they had taken down the street had only been straight for a while before they turned to go off another street from the hotel.
The visitor’s center, yes. That should have been on his left. He began to hug the left side of the curb, not knowing how much longer he could hold up at the pace he was going. Right as he checked for it, there it was, coming up right in front of him.
Without a second thought, he dove headfirst into the kiosk, barely clearing the coutner, but rolling and crashing against the back wall. This was… This was as good of a place to hide as any. This was right across from the hotel, so if he needed to make a run for it, he could probably make it. Right as he dove in though, the extremely light footsteps, he couldn’t tell how many, a dull thud somewhere close, then they passed him right by, continuing down the street after Rellian, and…
Milo… Was he okay? He was never too good of a runner, but Nile was amazed that they didn’t catch up to him while he and Rellian sprinted down the street after him. He hadn’t had that far of a head start, had he? Everything was blurring together now, nothing was making sense…
Heh. Their parents, that was it. Just playing a joke on them, trying to freak them out. Great idea, he was surprised he had fallen for it so easily.
It took all of the restraint he had inside of him not to start laughing right then and there; he had fallen face first into their little prank like a blind kid into an elevator shaft. They had planned it very well though, getting Milo to join in with them… Nile guessed he deserved this though. Milo had always been the blunt end of everybody’s tasteless jokes and pranks, and now he was having his fun with them. He envied Milo right now.
Nile sighed, smirking as he started to get, but his head touched something sharp, just above where he had been sitting. Either the corner of the desk had been very pointy, or…
He shrank back down and slid out from the side of the counter before turning his head back to see exactly what he had hit.
He panicked. That shouldn’t be there, it shouldn’t be there. Why was there a throwing knife sticking out of the wood just above his head? His parents wouldn’t throw anything like that, not anything that was real. Maybe it was one of those fake ones people bought at the novelty dollar stores. He reached forward with a hesitant paw to run a finger along it, and winced. It didn’t break the skin, but that blade was sharper than any knife he’d seen at home in his kitchen.
No, this wasn’t a prank. There truly was somebody out there trying to kill him. Kill them. The fog had saved his life, maybe since the attacker couldn’t see too well, the knife missed him by an inch. That blade probably gave him a nice haircut before it stuck into the wood though…
Rellian. Milo. His thoughts returned to them and he instantly shot up to his feet, looking around in the fog. There were no more shouts, no more footsteps, and no more shapes in the fog. Dead silence. Deadly silence.
“d**n…” he swore, furrowing his brow and trying not to cower back under the desk. It took everything he had not to just curl up in a ball and whimper for a few minutes. He had to be strong, he had to be aware, alert…
Wait, the knife he had found… He had left it with TK and everybody else when he had gone off to find Milo. They didn’t have firearms apparently, so he would be on a level playing field with them. It was at least something to defend himself with... If he could unstuck the knife from the wood, that would be another weapon he could use, even if he couldn’t throw a baseball worth anything, much less a knife.
Placing a foot on the wood beside the knife, he placed both paws on the hilt and pulled. Surprisingly, it came out rather easily, since he apparently had the right angle. Holding in his paw, he winced ever so slightly. He had never held any sort of thing before that he intended to use as a weapon… And having the power to kill somebody was… Scary.
He wasn’t sure if he could do it. Even to save Rellian and Milo, he couldn’t kill anybody else, could he? No… He couldn’t… But he would have to force himself to.
With a nervous and uneasy chuckle, which he hoped would set him at ease, he hopped over the counter again. He kept a wary eye peeled for any kind of shift in the fog. He had to be careful. First off, find TK, get the knife. That was it for now. Save thinking for later.
He started off at a comfortable and quiet jog, watching the ground to make sure he didn’t kick anything or trip. He had to be completely silent. A few steps later he was on the gravel parking lot and he had to walk slowly so the crunching noise didn’t carry through the entire town. Even though he walked as slowly as he could, the small rocks crackled beneath his feet each step like he was walking on snap and pop fireworks. Every paced step could give him away, every-
“Nile?” came a voice from his right, and he instantly swiveled around to see who had called his name. There was the truck, right next to him, and he guessed it was TK who was still sitting in the bed. “You starting a knife collection?”
Remembering the knife, he made a shushing sound and put his unarmed paw over his mouth, walking slowly towards the truck, barely daring to breathe. They had probably heard that… Dammit TK.
A look of confusion spread wildly across the large tiger’s face, but he didn’t say another word until Nile was sitting in the bed with him. “TK…” he whispered, his voice shakier than he would have preferred. He probably sounded like a scared little girl. “You have to listen… Get inside the hotel, lock the doors, and keep everybody inside”
TK’s face was blank, it was as if he hadn’t heard. “Are we locking out Milo again…?” he groaned softly, his tail flicking behind him in annoyance. “You know I’m against-“
“No” Nile interrupted him, his eyebrows lowering a bit further so they rested on top of his eyes. “I’ll tell you this once, and you’d better believe me” TK had to believe him.
He explained what had happened after he left, the empty visitor’s desk, Milo running by and yelling, the shadows in the fog… During the whole explanation TK’s face was as solid as a boulder, as if Nile was talking about the weather. But when it came to the knife he had found lodged above his head by a few inches… Then the tiger’s eyebrows raised in surprise, and he almost looked afraid for the first time since Nile could remember.
“You’re… Serious?” came the choked reply from his friend, but Nile nodded grimly. “Yes… Now get inside and keep everybody in there. Now”
TK was rather surprised as being commanded by somebody who was only six feet tall, but he shook his head. “Alright… I take it Rellian and Milo made it back?”
Nile’s face twisted a bit. “I… Haven’t seen them” he whimpered softly. He felt that urge to just curl up in a ball again, and fought against it.
“Then no”
Nile blinked a few times, his eyes wide. “But-“
“Can it” TK snarled, but put on a smile afterwards. “You truly think I’m going to let my best friends get locked out with some killer on the loose?”
Nile was taken instantly aback by the sudden courage that TK was showing. Sure, he was monstrously tall and well over six and a half feet now, but how could he so calmly walk into a blinding fog unarmed against somebody with a knife? But… Nile had his knife, and he could give TK the one he had pulled out of the desk, and maybe the figure only had one weapon. But there had been more than one person out there, he was positive of it.
“Alright…” Nile nodded, closing his eyes to think. Rellian had run to the side of the hotel, maybe even passing it up. But he had the map, so he probably found a good hiding place. Milo though, Nile had no idea about.
“Here” Nile offered, handing him the knife he had. TK just stared at it, but after a slight hesitation, reached out a paw and took it. “But where’s the knife I found earlier?”
TK silently motioned over towards the tailgate, and sure enough, there it was. A little bit rusty on the blade, and probably unbalanced thanks to the large blade, but it was better than nothing. Much better than nothing.
Once they were both armed, they nodded to each other in silent agreement. There was nothing to say, except that this was a very bad idea. And anything else that could be said would be grossly inappropriate.
They walked into the gray night side by side.
The book store was rather large for a town so small. The tall shelves almost reached the ceiling along the walls, while the shelves in the middle were only about five feet tall. Row upon row of books sat upon dusty shelves that seemed to serve no purpose at all. Some of them were so worn that they didn’t seem fit to even hold the volumes upon volumes of books they housed. Rellian couldn’t tell which books they had, or how many there though, but he didn’t care in the least. The only thing on his mind was hiding, and thanks to the tall shelves and the bell on the door, this place seemed as good as any other. Luckily it was unlocked.
He tried to control his breathing as he made his way to the back of the bookshelves, hoping to find a small space in between the wood and the wall. That would be the perfect place to hide. All he would have to do was slide some books to the side, and he could watch the entire shop without being seen.
Luck struck again, and the bookshelf that looked like it was pressed against the whitewashed back wall was pushed out just a little bit. Just enough space for Rellian to squeeze into… Thank God.
Silently, he slipped inside, his tail intertwining with his own leg. What the hell had just happened back there… Milo had charged by, and then those shapes in the fog… He had just run as quick as he could, his eyes locked straight ahead of him. By the time had turned to see if Nile was there beside him, his friend was already lost in the fog. Or he had already been caught… Rellian knew that nobody could ever keep up with him in a footrace, and for some reason he never had to try. But now that he was running for his life and there adrenaline pumping through him… He had no idea how far he had run or how fast he was going, he just knew that his feet just wouldn’t carry him fast enough. After what had felt like an eternity, he had stopped and tried for the nearest door, hoping to find a place to hide. The second door he tried opened, but the first was locked. That was understandable, seeing as there was nobody in any of the stores he had seen.
Nile probably didn’t make it as far as he did. Whoever was chasing them was obviously after Milo as well, but there had been somebody running right beside Milo, but he didn’t get a close glimpse of him. The speed at which that stranger had sped by with Milo in tow rivaled Rellian’s own… And that in and of itself frightened him. Nobody had been able to match his one hundred meter dash in high school… He had made it all the way to nationals without trying too hard. But that person looked like he was dragging Milo along behind him instead of Milo running from him. It just didn’t make any sense.
But now wasn’t the time to think of how Milo was doing, he had to work on his own survival. But then again, how did Rellian even know they were after him? He couldn’t be completely sure, but the way they chased them down like that… They had to be after something. It definitely wasn’t their parents, he was that sure, none of them could keep up with Rellian… None of them.
So this place really was some sort of a ghost town, except there were a few people roaming the streets and chasing everybody else down. Maybe this place was a gang’s hideout and they accidentally stumbled upon it. If that was the case, then he definitely had to fear for his life, and everybody else’s.
But now he had to set up his hiding place so it was the perfect vantage point. That meant moving a few dusty books out of the way so he could keep an eye on the doorway. So with a shaking gloved hand, he reached out and went to remove one of the blue books covered in a gray dusty powder. He was wearing gloves, so he didn’t expect to feel the book, and he pulled it back without a second thought. Trying to be quiet, he let go of the book since he didn’t exactly have enough room to bend down and set it down silently. His eyes followed it to the floor as it landed, but for some reason, the gray dust didn’t raise a small cloud around the book from the impact. Maybe it had been there so long the dust stuck to it. Or maybe-
Ding…
That was the bell, the bell that was on the door to sound that somebody was either entering or leaving. And there sure as hell wasn’t anybody leaving the store.
There, standing in the doorway, she stood. The living contradiction, the person that shouldn’t exist. He gaped openly, hoping that she didn’t see him hiding there behind the shelves.
She was like him, almost exactly like him, but she was… Different. Her skin was a light teal that reminded him of those clear waters off of the shore of a tropical island. But where the change in coloration on her chest and stomach should be there was none, her skin stayed the same reflective teal. Her snout, unlike Rellian’s, was moderately short, and was more pointed at the tip than anything else. Her ears were also different: they shot straight backwards from her head in a hornlike fashion, ending at what looked to be a sharp tip just above her blue-green hair. Rellian had never seen hair that color unless it was dyed, and hers… It looked oddly natural, almost matching her skin color. It fell in slight layers that were nearly unnoticeable, reaching down to her lower back just above her butt. Not that Rellian was staring there, he was just looking all around, trying to figure things out.
Mostly, what species she was. With all of that, she almost looked like… No, that just wasn’t possible, not at all. There had to be some other explanation, but his eyes were locked on her. She was wearing strange clothing. That much was for sure. And in the middle of the summer no less? She was more confusing than anybody he’d ever met. She had on a bleached white shirt that buttoned up in the front, and had a collar that stayed down relaxed around her neck. There was some kind of necklace around her neck, a small silver chain that looped liberally off of her neck and ended in what seemed to be a tiny silver box. Where the shirt ended, which was halfway down to her knees, her pants, if they could be called that, hung loosely off of her hips. They were obviously a size or two too big, and barely managed to stay up on their own. Not only that, but they were definitely in disrepair, the bright purple fabric torn in random places making them seem even looser as the ends trailed down aimlessly behind her clawed feet. Her feet… They were clawed, three digits in the front and one in the back, that meant…
Holy hell. She was a dragon. A real life dragon, standing right in front of him, but she didn’t even know she was there. He had to get a picture, get something… He couldn’t believe his eyes. Either the fog was playing tricks with his eyes, or he was seeing a true paradox.
“Nobody here…” she said with a sigh, lowering her head in shame and letting a few strands of her hair fall in front of her slightly angled face. “C’mon”
With a motion of her clawed hand, one like Rellian’s, she waved and walked out the door and back into the blurring fog. The snake tried to wedge himself from behind a bookshelf, and eventually got out, looking to see if he could follow her shadow through the fog and maybe figure out where she was hiding. If she was really a dragon, then he would be famous, he could be the one who found the extinct race…
He gasped suddenly, seeing movement out of the corner of his eyes. There was somebody else in the shop, somebody else who was hiding…
With a strain of his eyes, he began to make out the shape. And his eyes widened a little bit. What kind of person was he, dressing up like that?
But he knew that whoever it was couldn’t be friendly, and seeing as the only other people he’d seen in this d**ned town were trying to chase him down, he wasn’t about to trust him.
But then the figure turned, the fear inducing gaze making Rellian freeze where he was. It was like his feet were planted to the ground. His mind was screaming wildly at his legs to get going, but his legs wouldn’t listen to a single word.
Run, dammit, run. Run. RUN!
His legs finally listened as the figure was halfway there.
More fake dust collected everywhere, just like every other store that had been open. Every place that wasn’t shut down or locked had this coat of paint with the tan speckles, and every item had the same thing. In this case, the shelves that were lined with CDs and old records were no different. And from Milo’s height, he couldn’t even see to reach the top shelf to see over and check for anybody.
It didn’t take a scholar to figure out nobody else was in this building, not Rellian or anybody else. With a silent sigh, he turned towards the door and began to become entranced in the endlessly repeating pattern of gray that waited just outside the door. They were out there, outside, waiting to find them. Waiting to kill them. Waiting for them to show themselves so there would be nobody to know. All Milo had to do was find somebody else, preferably Nile, and get a group together in the hotel so they could hide out together.
A shiver rolled down his spine, taking its time to make him feel as uncomfortable as possible. But he had to keep going. He had to persevere. Nile would be proud.
His legs carried him to the front door and he stopped just in front of the glass, hesitating for a second before placing his paws on the handle that was slick with condensation and pushing it open.
The thick air greeted him with its embrace. The small drops of water began to mat in his fur again like before, but this time he wasn’t sweating from fear and exhaustion. He had cooled down a little bit in that store, and now he had enough energy to probably make a run for the hotel. But he had to get her first before he made his way back to the safe haven. Her and Nile.
He wasn’t about to call out for them though, he had some more common sense than that. Anybody could hear him throughout the entire town, and everybody would know exactly where he was. And if somebody was close by, he was more than out of luck, he was screwed. But he had to find somebody before he headed back, so he wouldn’t end up alone again… Being alone in this d**ned fog was worse than anything he had ever imagined. He already had problems with his claustrophobia at home, but this was beyond his unfounded fear. Well, it was founded somewhere, it had a definite base, but- No, he refused to think about that. He would just pretend like it never happened, like everybody else did, and it would just slide away into forgotten memories of the good days long ago.
He slowly began to make his way down the edge of the street, keeping close to the shops. She had carried him along all of this way since he couldn’t run near fast enough to get away from them, and for that, he owed her his life. If he had not found her there… He wouldn’t even be around to think.
She had been hanging there, chained against the wall. The dragoness. There were syringes all over the ground filled with some kind of chemical. The room had been bare, stark, Spartan, empty. She was unconscious, but when the light hit her eyes she woke up, and… He had found the keys in the register of the store and unchained her. Then alarms, running, shouting, knives darting past. She grabbed him and took off, but she had tripped along the way and he had rolled out of sight. They were separated.
He was truly alone again. There was nobody around him to comfort him in the fog, and the only people who might find him out in the streets were likely to kill him. He had to do this though, get back to the hotel so he could tell everybody. He could make it.
With a sigh, he plodded further down the road, hoping to catch sight of at least one person before he made it back into safety. If he made it back alone he would never forgive himself.
There, somewhere a ways off, he heard a footstep followed by a slight scratch. He froze where he was, not daring to move, not even daring to breathe. If he made even the slightest sound, whoever was there might notice him and give chase. But if he stayed still enough.
Slowly, the shadow began to shift, maybe turning to go somewhere? But then it grew larger and larger until Milo could swear it was right next to him.
“You’re…” the voice came, cutting through the fog like a finely sharpened razor blade. It was rather melodious in and of itself, but just the way she talked… He knew it was her without even having to look.
The dragoness stepped out into Milo’s range of vision, and with a slight swish of her hips, her tail followed close behind in the movement that seemed to keep Milo’s attention. Her face was a bit downcast and she had slight bags under her eyes form lack of sleep or something else. Milo wasn’t too sure about anything having to do with her, but all he knew was that she had saved his life. There was no way he could have outrun them…
“I…” Milo started, but was instantly cut off when the dragoness held out a sharply clawed hand in front of her to motion him to stop. Slowly, the hand dropped, and she looked at him, slightly down since she was at least a half a foot taller. Sure, she topped out at an enormous five foot five, but she was still tall compared to Milo. Then again, who didn’t?
“Don’t thank me” she grumbled softly, her still melodious voice cracking from years of misuse. “You save me and I get you into a near death situation… Now that’s being grateful”
“But I’m still alive thanks to you” Milo determinedly stated, staying where he was and putting his small paws on his hips. His tail swished a few times.
“Whatever…” the dragoness sighed, turning her eyes into the fog. She almost seemed like she was in some kind of trance, since her eyes weren’t focusing on anything.
The uncomfortable silence floated around, as thick as the fog that surrounded them on all sides. It was about as easy to get rid of as well. Eventually, Milo racked up the courage to say something. That something wasn’t philosophical and insightful, or even an assurance to her. It was just a simple “Wh… What’s your name?”
She turned slowly towards him, her eyes seeming to take in every bit of the fog around her, like it was telling her some kind of secret. But when her eyes locked on his, the coyote winced and drew back a little bit. Her stare was disconcerting.
“Don’t know” she replied curtly, as if being nameless was normal.
Milo could only stare at her in disbelief, wondering how she even managed to keep up any kind of hope when she didn’t even have a name. But then again, why didn’t she have a name? When she was born, was she just left on the street and never picked up? But then why would she be chained to a wall, and- No, this wasn’t the time to think about answerless questions like that. Now was the time to find everybody else and get the hell out of this shrouded ghost town.
“I’ll give you a name when we get back” Milo said, almost sounding confident for the first time in his life. Here was the adventure, here was the excitement, and he was second guessing himself every moment. He needed to be the hero, the protagonist; he needed to be the strong and stoic character that everybody looked up to. This was his time to shine.
Looking startled, the dragoness thingyed her head to the side, her hair cascading down the way she tilted her head. She looked lost, and the glint in her eye showed that there was still some kind of personality left in there. Maybe she wasn’t the kind of hollow shell he suspected her to be. Maybe she had a few feelings that he just couldn’t understand. Maybe seemed to be his favorite word at the moment.
“Regardless, come on!” he shouted, and began to walk off, but stopped, remembering that he had no idea where he was. Some hero he was, he couldn’t even find his way in a town the size of his high school.
“Where do you think you’re going?” came the dragoness’s voice from behind him, and he turned slowly around, lowering his head in shame. He can’t be the hero. It’s impossible.
“Back to the hotel… Hopefully everybody’s back there”
“The… Hotel?” she asked curiously, thingying her head to the other side. “We passed that a while ago, and if I remember correctly… It’s that way” She pointed with a sharp finger down the street in some direction.
How the hell had she remembered where they were? They had run and… Well, they hadn’t taken too many turns, only one, and that was near the beginning. But he was going to have to trust her, since he had no other information to go on. Not even a map. He instantly regretted coming up with this stupid game.
Without another word spoken, Milo glanced over and saw the dragon’s tail swishing away into the fog and he instantly scampered to run after it. If he got separated from her, he knew he wouldn’t last too long out here. Maybe his claustrophobia would kick in, and maybe he would just collapse in the middle of the street, or maybe the people would find again, and- No more maybes, he had to be definite.
Their footsteps seemed to go on into infinity, never ending and never dying out. Milo tried to walk as quietly as possible, but his sneakers seemed to crunch on loose rocks with every step he took. The dragoness didn’t seem to make any kind of noise at all though, she just walked through gravel silently with bare feet, not even minding that rocks were probably stabbing her with every step.
The walking gave Milo time to think, and with time to think, came a realization. If everybody was still waiting for him to come back with something, they would probably be unaware of whatever had happened and they could just stay in the hotel and wait until it was time to go before they stepped outside. Whoever was outside in the fog couldn’t hide on a clear day like the one that they had arrived on. That was it, they would wait it out, wait for the fog to lift, and drive out of there safely. And on top of that, he was positive he had just won their competition. Nobody could beat finding an extinct species alive. That was more interesting than any kind of souvenir they could get their paws on.
After a few minutes of uneventful and silent walking, he recognized the hotel parking lot. There were the cars, all of them still there where they were, and he sighed with relief. Everything was going to be okay. Nothing would go wrong now, everything was fine. Everything was finally-
“M-Milo!” came a shrill voice from out of the fog. It was high pitched, almost unrecognizable. Maybe it was one of them, maybe they knew his name, and maybe-
The figure came dashing towards them through the parking lot, and Milo started to run, but stopped short, the gravel skidding behind him. That… That was Rellian?
Milo couldn’t believe it, that emasculated voice came from the carefree snake that he had known for years. Sure enough, his figure finally came into view, and he was practically stumbling over himself with panic. His tail was flying wildly behind him with a wide arc like a ribbon that gymnasts used. But in an instant he stopped and leapt backwards, his knees bent. He looked like he was about to get into a fight with Milo, or- Oh no, he didn’t recognize her.
“Milo, get away!” he shouted, his voice still cracking every once in a while from wild panic that seemed to encase every inch of his being. Milo was getting scared just looking at him. “She’s one of them!”
Milo could only stare at Rellian, barely able to believe that he was the real deal. His eyes were barely normal, the black of his eyes was reduced to an almost infinitesimal spec. Milo could still see that his pupils were still the usual slits, but they were so thin that he could barely tell they were even there across the broad expanse of hazel. And his hair seemed an even spikier mess than before, some strands laying across his snout and dangling lifelessly down. His ebony hair almost looked like it had been splashed with water a few times, the way it hung down and clung to his head and ears, draping everywhere. Milo didn’t think his hair was that long.
“No!” the dragoness suddenly shouted, taking a step between Rellian and Milo. “I saved him…”
Rellian seemed to not like hearing this and took a slow step forward, the gravel crunching beneath his tough-soled boots. Slowly, his head tilted to the side, almost a bit further than Milo thought possible. Something was wrong with Rellian; that much was for sure. Either he was scared out of his mind or he had already lost it. “It’s true…” the small coyote managed to squeak out as he stared at the intimidating reptile in front of him. Rellian… Rellian had never scared him like this. Maybe it was just the strain of everything-
“Milo…” Rellian said, blinking a few times before turning his head towards the coyote. Milo couldn’t help but wince away in fright. “You saved her?”
Tucking his tail gently between his legs, the coyote turned his gaze to the ground and began to draw invisible pictures and patterns in the gravel with his sneakers. As much as he hated it, Milo was inherently bashful of anything he did right, and his parents always scolded him for eschewing form personal gratitude. “Yeah…” he said, hoping Rellian was just playing a joke, that he wasn’t scared. That he was going to be there and save the day, and make everything better. “I did… She was chained up in a hidden room, and when I eventually got the key and get her down, they staretd chasing us, and-“
He was cut off by a sigh of relief from Rellian. But what surprised Milo even more was that the snake suddenly ran up to Milo and, instead of laughing at him and saying it was a bunch of crap, wrapped his arms tightly around the small coyote and lifted him up into the air. Milo felt his feet leave the ground and instantly began kicking them, but wrapped his arms back around Rellian. He was warm, he was real… finally, he didn’t have to be by himself in this hellish town anymore. With a sigh of relief, Milo closed his eyes and let his tail fly around wildly behind him like a kite on a windy day. He was going to be safe.
“Thank God…” Rellian breathed under his breath, his clawed fingers running up and down Milo’s back gently. Finally, warmth, safety… He just wanted to break down right then and there, but he wouldn’t do that in front of Rellian. He had been scared out of his wits, and put on a fully prepared façade that even a comic book hero would be jealous of. But best of all… He had made it out alive. Finally…
“C’mon, let’s go” Rellian said softly, his gaze turning slowly to her, and his brow furrowed. Milo was resting his muzzle on Rellian’s shoulder, so he didn’t notice it. He was sure everybody was going to get along now, everything was going to be fine. Nile probably came back to the hotel already… The taller coyote could do anything, he was almost like an older brother to Milo.
After letting him go, Rellian began to make his way up the gravel parking lot towards what Milo thought was the front door. Of course, with all of the damend fog, it was impossible to see anything, so Milo followed blindly without saying a word. At least Rellian was okay, Milo had been worried about his sanity ever since he had heard his voice, but then again, he would have freaked out seeing a total stranger with one of his friends after almost being killed. On second thought, Milo was rather proud of himself for keeping such a level head throughout all of this.
“Wait…” Rellian said, and instantly stopped where he was, turning around and crunching more gravel beneath his boots. “Isn’t… Isn’t Nile with you?”
Milo blinked a few times, but then shook his head remorsefully. “I… I think he’s safe inside” he murmured under his breath, as if trying to convince himself that what he was passing off as the truth really was the truth and not just a hopeful lie.
The snake seemed completely and utterly shattered by this news, and instantly hung his head in shame. “Dammit!” he shouted, loud enough for everybody around to hear, probably even inside the Dancing Raven. With a flick of his reptilian tail and a flinch, he pivoted on his foot and darted headlong towards the inn door that was beginning to fade into view.
Before Milo could even utter a word, the snake had opened it and slammed it shut. Slowly, Milo turned around to see what the dragoness was thinking, but when he looked, she was gone. Like she had vanished into thin air…
But before Milo could say anything to himself, the door burst open with a thud and the snake came charging outside with a panicked look on his face. Milo couldn’t even get a word in before Rellian charged past silently on the gravel. Even in boots, that reptile sure was graceful. But enough random thinking, if Rellian wanted to get lost… It was his own fault. He had to get back in the hotel and warn everybody.
The Room around them was quite nippy, but the two coyotes managed to stay warm while they lay under the sheets, not quite sleeping, but not quite ready to sleep either. There was a lot on their minds, much more than their relaxation would show, and Quince Owens knew that things would eventually bubble to the surface. The sheets around them were wrinkled from hours upon hours of tossing and turning silently, not offering a word to one another.
Quince just simply couldn't stand it anymore, and rolled over to face his wife, and only ended up staring at her back. He knew their mairrage had been a bit shaky recently, but after these three days here, everything was going to be fine. They were going to tell all of the kids the truth, let them deal with it in college, and they would escape to a place where they would never be bothered by it again. As it was, he and his wife were the only two that stayed together through the incident, and they were going to fight through the ponderous and cumbersome thoughts and come out the other side a stronger couple.
"Jacqueline, hon..." he whispered, hoping to get a reaction from her. After a few moments of frozen time, she rolled over to face him, their muzzles inches apart from each other. Quince couldn't resist giving her a kiss on the lips.
"What..." she asked, sounding slightly irked by his interruption, but not all too opposed to it. They really needed to talk this out.
"Are you... Worried about the kids?" he asked, letting his paws snake around her form and bring her into a close hug so they could whisper qwithout being overheard.
"They'll... They'll be fine" she said, apparently trying to sound confident, but Quince didn't need to look at her to tell her voice was shaking. And with what they had gone through, it was no doubt.
Even now they had reason to panic and drive off, seeing as they were finally back in the place they had vowed never to return to. The others from their old group were out "antique shopping", so the kids thought, and he made himself chuckle a little bit at that assumption. They had thought of somethign right off of the bat, and that was what came out, since the kids would never want to go look at old stuff for hours. But they had been gone a long time, getting their closure and emotional therapy back at the site. Quince had been worrying for a while, but he now knew that his fears were groundless. There was nothing that they could do to keep them from attaining happiness. Nothing. They were going to be walking down a crystal clear road that only had one destination. They were almost free. Almost free.
“But Qiunce, hon…” She pleaded, her own arms wrapping behind his neck. “How long does it take Helia and the rest to get some closure…” she asked softly, the whisper only a faint trance of sound in his ear.
“They’re… Worse off than we were. We had it easy…” He shivered a little bit, asd almost in response, she did as well. He could feel her body shaking, shaking with a grief that penetrated into both of their bones. Their pain, their regret, it was all shared between them. A burden the rest had to take alone.
“You’re right hon… We’ve finally found some peace” his wife sighed, closing her eyes and laying a paw against his chest gently.
In silence they rested there, and Quince got more time to think. Of course, with more time to think, comes more time to question, and with more time to question, comes a deluge of doubt. It poured over him slowly as he began to think a bit more. It didn’t take hours and hours of sobbing and crying at the site for them to feel a little bit better. They should be back by now, shouldn’t they? Then again, they had been cooped up in this room for horus now, just trying to get some feverish rest from the reality that bombarded them from every angle. They were probably just down in the lobby, smiling and waiting for them, remembering the good days before everything crashed and burned.
Rap rap rap.
Quince’s eyebrows raised a little bit. Somebody at the door perhaps? With a turn of his hair his golden brown hair fell over his ears, some random strands draping from the tip. Sheesh, were the kids that bored already? Man, what he would give to be their age again, to not have to care about finances and other burdens that were instantly put on him as an adult. They were being pampered with college while he had to make discoveries on his own about how hellish life was… But-
RAP RAP RAP!
Well now, somebody was impatient… With a groan, he called out. “We’re sleeping… Or trying to” His voice was rather harsh and had a biting undertone to it, showing that he was rather upset at being disturbed.
RAP RAP RAP!
Whoever it was seemed to be a bit impatient, and Quince put bets on it being that heinous bitch Nella. That little bitch, literally, had nearly destroyed everything they had worked for.
“Go away!” he shouted irritably, the slight fangs starting to appear in his mouth. He could hear a little bit of whimpering from his wife Jacqueline, but he only responded with a low growl that the annoying very *friendly* person would probably hear on the other side of the door.
Thankfully, the incessant knocking ceased, and he breathed a sigh of relief, as did his wife. Instantly, he felt kind of bad for shouting and growling like that; poor Jacqueline was probably a bit scared now. After everything they had been through, it was her that had to bear the majority of the horrendous burden. She had been the one who had actually gone through with their idea, and the one who had finalized the selection. Pity rushed through his mind, and he patted her on the back softly.
“It’s alright, honey, sorry about that” He cooed gently, his ears flattening against his hair. His long muzzle gave the tip of her ear an affectionate lick. “I think I was a bit too… Forward about that”
“Everything’s fine…” she said to herself, her eyes shut tightly, and her paws pulled tighter against his neck, almost cutting off his air stream. “Everything’s fine…” She kept repeating that to herself, over and over, almost as if Quince was just a stuffed doll to squeeze.
After a few moments of that, she rolled over on top of him, seeming like she just wanted to be close to him. That was understandable, seeing as the heat in the room was solely coming from them under the blankets. But they were going to be fine, just like she said. Just like she said.
This was starting to discomfort the male coyote, and his expression slowly went from apologetic to sympathetic. She must be having one of those mental lapses that had been so rare with her. But he had helped her through each one, and this one would be no different. She had been through hell, experienced hell, and even created hell.
“It’s okay hon… It’s over, nothing’s going to haunt you anymore” he murred in her ear, bringing a paw slowly up her back to stroke her hair gently. Physical contact had always been something that calmed even the most nervous patients. Though, he had to admit, in some cases, it made matters much worse, but he knew his wife very well, and trusted his own knowledge.
“Just relax…” he continued, each individual finger combing her hair gently. “It’s all over, only a bright future ahead o-“
Quince shielded his eyes. There was a loud cracking sound, and then a little sound like rain hitting the floor. Light flooded into the room relentlessly and everything seemed to get quiet in an instant, almost as if some divine being had willed it so. Quince felt a sharp pain in his shoulder, followed by a barrage of small pinpricks that assaulted him on his side. The side that faced the door.
Or what was left of the door. When he turned his head to the side to see what the hell had just happened, his eyes met a rectangle of blinding light. He squinted. Slowly, the image came into focus. Standing there, in the doorway, was a figure silhouetted by a pure and angelic light that seemed to pierce into Quince’s bones. Pierce his very soul. It saw everything. It knew everything. That d**ned light.
His wife screamed, and yet he heard nothing. His eyes dropped down a second to his shoulder, and there, as he thought, there were pieces of shattered wood sticking out in a few places. Blood around the remnants of wood began to trickle out of his body to freedom, only to be caught and matted into his fur.
As his eyes returned to the doorway, he stared in disbelief. The figure had gotten bigger. And was getting bigger, and bouncing slightly up and down… It almost blocked the entire rectangle of light now. Almost as if he-
He felt a warm rush of water splash over his face. It was an insidiously strange feeling, having warm water poured onto his muzzle like this. But it was kind of sticky, and a bit thicker than the bathwater he thought it would be. Quite peculiar indeed. As he looked up at his wife though, he began to think. She looked rather strange, didn’t she? She had her mouth open, almost like she was screaming, and her eyes were kind of… Dull. It wasn’t until he saw the glint of metal coming out of the back of the throat that he began to realize what was actually happening. It was the blade of a knife.
Panic surged through his body, and he felt more of that revolting warmth splash onto his face. Blood. It was blood. His wife’s blood. Jacqueline’s blood. He heaved suddenly, his body convulsing spastically under the lifeless body. She was dead weight, just sprawled there…
Blood painted his face once more as the glinting knife slipped its way back out of her throat. With a silent flop, she fell flat onto his neck, like she been resting on him earlier. It was almost like she had fallen back asleep… She would have a good sleep, wouldn’t she? The best she’d had in a while…
But with her head out of the way, he could see the figure above him. The figure that was in the doorway. The figure that had just stabbed her. Killed her. Drained her blood onto him. Reality began to seep back into his mind little by little, and the shock that had enveloped him earlier slowly began to recede into the recesses of his mind. His head swam, and the light began to hurt his eyes a little bit. That d**ned light.
What he was, or who for that matter, just stood there with a black hand holding a kitchen knife that dripped a ruby red substance onto the lifeless figure below. It was straddling Jacqueline’s stomach between its thighs, and held the stained blade in both obscured hands. The blinding light hid all of the figure’s features from Quince, so the coyote could not get a very good look at the attacker. The killer. The murderer.
Quince couldn’t get a good look though, because without a word or sound, the figure raised both arms above its head, knife pointed straight ahead. Straight for Quince. But when it reared back, something came off of its head. The hood had fallen off. Now the light showed the murderer plainly. All too plainly.
Quince’s eyes widened and his pupils dilated to mere specks as he stared on the face of his wife’s killer. His killer. He didn’t believe it. There was no way it had happened already. Those eyes, the expression, the unnatural visage… It couldn’t be happening already, could it? No. Not possible. Everything was fine. Jacqueline had said so herself. Many times.
Again, reality hit him hard like a steam roller and he could only stare. Nothing more. He was trapped. Unable to move. “Y… You…” he managed to sputter as the figure froze, apparently aware that its hood was off now.
“Yes, me…” the killer announced. The voice was shaky, and cracked with every syllable, jumping inconsistent octaves and more. Quince couldn’t even tell if it was male or female just by the voice. “You won’t let me, will you? You’ll deny me happiness… Deny me bliss…”
Before Quince could put up any semblance of a response, the room was filled with a piercingly guttural shriek, and the figure reeled from his mount.
The blade shimmered in the light, still crying crimson tears, still begging for more. As the figure plunged downward, Quince’s eyes rolled up into his head.
The dagger’s thirst was momentarily quenched.
The lounge hadn’t changed a single bit since everybody had left in a mass exodus to get some futile weapons that probably wouldn’t even help them in the long run. Kitchen knives, baseball bats, whatever cliché they could pull out of a d**ned zombie film would most likely do them no good. If she remembered correctly, the maxim was “Bringing a knife to a gunfight”. That seemed an accurate presentation of the situation at the moment. A very accurate presentation.
Thankfully, the lounge was empty except for her, since she didn’t have anything with her that could even be classified as a weapon. Clothes and basic necessities were all she needed for college anyways, so she was rather confused why the others packed more than that. Well, unless they were going to be a culinary art major, in which case they would have a heavy load of knives…
Leena just lay there, lounging roguishly on the sofa. Her posture was reminiscent of a luxurious roman, eating grapes straight from a vine, but her attire didn’t fit the profile. One stocking covered leg was draping over the back of the burnt orange fabric, which covered the back of every piece of furniture in the room, and one arm was loosely hanging off of the front, her limp wrist bent from pushing up against the thick carpet. Her other arm was resting over her raised leg’s knee, the sleeve shortening a little bit and showing off her paws. At the end of the sofa, on the armrest, sat her head, looking up at the ceiling blandly, with a few strands of lacey hair obscuring her vision. A few of those loose strands were cascading off of her ears in a webbed fashion and any kind of spider would envy.
While pondering all of the pointless possibilities, a scent caught her off guard. Before she knew it, she was up on her stocking covered feet, and staring daggers at whoever was standing there. It was a foreign scent, one she barely even recognized, but the instant her eyes confirmed her suspicions, it was all too familiar.
“Hello again” the dragoness chided, sounding reminiscent of a mother preaching ethics to her child. “Remember me?” Her gloved hand came up and rested just above her bust.
The moments of crushing silence took a hold of her as her gaze locked in on the figure standing in front of her. Of course it was her, the dragon that shouldn’t exist. That strange female who came and interrupted this trip for the worse. “Of course” Leena replied dryly, not even bothering to humor her the joke. “Hard to forget somebody who bursted into the hotel just minutes ago”
The dragoness apparently got a chuckle out of this one, but nothing more than a few polite sniffs were given. “Funny” was her flat and drab response. Her tail flicked.
After their brief exchange of words, the underwhelming silence set in once more. This made Leena’s ears twitch a considerable amount, since staring down a theoretically extinct species wasn’t a normally calming experience. Minute after minute passed by, and she began to wonder if the dragoness standing calmly in front of her ever had to blink…
During this standoff, Leena thankfully had time to think about the situation at present. While, yes, they were in some kind of unforeseeable and paramount danger, she knew there was much more to this situation that met the eye, and this stranger in front of her was the master to key to unlocking every hidden door in Raven’s Hollow. If she could just keep her in the hotel this time, they could probably tie her up somehow, then either force the answers out of her or be polite about it. She was voting for the earlier one, because in her twisted way of thinking, the quickest and most convenient path to victory was always the correct one, unless there was an obvious trap. Why would she even consider bothering herself about what other people think, or what they feel for that matter? As long as everything turned out okay in the end, she was more than happy to walk down that path, no matter how dark and shaded.
The standoff ensued, and the relentless void between the two of them seemed to become actual matter. Leena almost swore she could reach out and touch the conversational black hole that had developed between the two of them. If uneasiness could be personified, Leena was the living embodiment of it.
As much as Leena wished that the silence would end, she wanted it to end gracefully, not broken by a heaving sigh that made the stranger’s shoulder’s drop. There were no words, no witty comments, just a painstakingly slow sigh that make Leena fidget a bit. Again, she waited in vain for a witty remark at how great of friends they were going to be, or how funny the silence was sometimes, but there was nothing but even more stifling nothingness. Just as Leena was sure that the lack of sound would drive her mad, the dragoness gave in. But she didn’t speak, no, she only began to walk towards Leena, nothing else.
But with the way that eerily self-assured gait made her look, Leena found her in a much worse mental state than before. Every step was perfectly silent, and in a perfect line in front of the other foot, which gave her a slight swish of her hips that transferred into her sleek and whipping tail. And when the dragon’s eyes met Leena’s, she could swear that she felt a surge of electricity course through her spine and to the rest of her body. Maybe it was just nervous shivers, but-
The next thing Leena knew, she was all alone in the lounge, just standing the same position she was in earlier. The dragoness had walked right by her towards the stairwell with that self-assured swish that she could only describe as thingyy. It was strange how she had just kind of frozen up like that in the one moment she had waited for her entire life. The one moment that she could never have again.
After giving herself a thorough mental slapping, she turned back towards the stairwell, where the strange dragoness had gone. Thankfully, she wasn’t standing at the bottom of the stairs and staring at her like Leena had expected, but what worried her more was the fact that she was going up to where all of her friends were tied up with the futile attempt at defending themselves. Instantly, her imagination ran wild like a train off of its tracks, and images began popping into her head. Images she wished she had never seen.
Bloody walls, bloody halls, and a crimson rug to boot. Thankfully, her imagination focused on the rug instead of the black shapes that lay upon in like slugs. With a little bit of a grunt, she made the image disperse into small bits, and in time it was gone all together. If she kept thinking like that, she was going to start losing her mind, and if something as vague as a hint of violence would most likely send her out of the deep end and into the ocean.
She remembered something though – something she learned in Biology class. Not that she had actually paid too much attention, but there was a fascinating subject that had kept her interest long enough for her to stay awake through an entire period. Behavioral reactions. The mere fact that a few simple chemicals could alter a person’s train of thought was something that both terrified her, and fascinating her beyond words. But these musings along were not the trigger that caused her to act rashly. No, it was a crucial point of information that seemed to rock her at her base.
Fear was a natural reaction to stimulus, and a basic instinct to survival. If she wanted to survive, she was going to have to listen to even her most paranoid fears. And the fear that drove her legs into motion was suddenly grounded by a sound that made her quake from the bottom up.
A banshee’s shriek that would make any Siren fall from the sky.
The top floor of the Raven’s Hollow Inn was by the far the most luxurious of them all, with its beautiful and soft rugs lying on top of plush carpeting. Even the wallpaper gave off a sense of ornate grandeur. The gold and brown patterns weaving their way down the hallway intertwined with each other indefinitely and tangoed to the end of the hall, making a sharp turn and returning down the other side of the room in a never ending circle. Branching out from the walls were candle holders, each one with a glittery silver finish that would make anybody’s eyes sparkle in awe. Every candle in the hall was lit, but the dancing flames were slightly distorted by the curved glass cylinders that surrounded every one of them.
That was why Milo had chosen this floor to stay in, even though it was the hardest to get his luggage to. Lugging all of those heavy suitcases with his father had been quite the chore, but at least he got to live a life he had always dreamed of, if only for a few days. He felt like a king.
Milo’s eyes reflected pure amazement as he took measured steps down the hall, taking his time. Maybe he was playing up his role as king of the fourth floor, but as long as nobody was around to see him prance around like a pompous noble, he was perfectly content playing pretend. His chest was pushed out ever so slightly, and his ears were perked up above his head, and his tail was lifted high in the air behind him, almost reaching the top of his neck. Ever step he took was smooth and even, and his head never bobbed up and down like those of the lower peasants. Infidels, rebelling against him…
He began to play an entire scene through in his mind, of the wicked king suppressing his people and making them work for nothing more than a haystack to sleep in at night. Eventually, the peasants have had enough, and they’re going to rebel! But King Milo the Wicked will not stand for such blatant effrontery! They must be put down!
Milo heaved a sigh and let his posture slacken, like it was the air that had been holding him at his regal position. His self-consciousness instantly reprimanded him for being such an immature little kid, daydreaming about exciting fantasies coming to life. He now knew that the characters in storybooks had it easy. They had a guarantee that the good guy would always prevail, that justice would triumph over evil and create a better world for everybody to live in. Milo envied that. With the situation as it was now, he was scared out of his wits. There was no such thing as the blind courage and self-confidence that storybook protagonists carried with them, there was only self-doubt and fear. Fear that everybody might get hurt. Fear that it would be all his fault.
The pressure building up inside him. What if something happened, and those people figured out they were in the hotel? Then it would be all his fault for leading them here. What if somebody thinks he’s kidding and goes outside to see? His fault again for telling them.
But why was he worried? The only things that could go wrong just involved simple human error, and if that could somehow be removed from his calculations, things would be perfect. So he finally consoled himself, thinking he had done the best he could, given the circumstances. The only problem that existed at the moment was that everybody would now look to him for answers. And if he was unofficially elected the leader, how would he handle that pressure? It wasn’t bad enough that he had alerted a group of a knife throwing psychopaths about their presence in Raven’s Hollow, but now he had to guide everybody he had ever called a friend safely out of this.
He could do it though. Stoic confidence or no, he was going to have to deal with everything one step at a time, and if he got bogged down over future details that might not even exist, he wasn’t doing any of them any good.
“Time to find myself something useful then” He stated monotonously, trying too hard to sound like a confident leader, which, with his gratingly peppy voice, only made him sound like a kid playing pretend in a sandbox. Milo realized his inadequate voice, and hung his head in shame while heading towards room 409, the room he had personally picked out without help from his father. Upon request though, his father had taken the room next door to his, so Milo could taste a little bit of independence before making his way in a dormitory where independence was shared between two roommates.
After a small walk towards the end of hall, since each hall had only ten rooms, he spotted the golden plaque on the door that announced the room number to him in bold and emblazoned black numbers. Room 409. Beyond this solid door, to which only he had the key, was a safe haven for Milo: a realm where he was in sovereign over everything. Finally, a place of peace, and a place of comfort… Maybe he should just relax in his own room for a while before heading back down.
Slowly he sighed areached for the handle. That single sigh contained every bit of stress and tension that had been taking up shop in his body ever since he had walked outside into that fog. No, even before that. For his entire life. He had been longing to have some completely alone time, with no interruptions, no father telling him to finish practicing his piano, and most of all, nothing to get done. Now that he had the chance to lay down and be alone, he cherished the anticipation of it. His paw stayed clenched around the doorknob, like a small kid who just licked a frozen light pole. With painful deliberation, he began to twist the knob, and-
Click.
“Oh, heh…” Milo chuckled, reaching into his pocket to get the keycard his parents had given him. Luckily, since Milo hadn’t even seen a single staff member for The Dancing Raven, his parents had apparently found somebody at the front desk when they first got to this place. Propping the decorated plastic card in between two fingers, he slipped it into the slot, and waited for the beep and a green light. The green light came, but the beep didn’t. Instead, he heard something else.
A scream.
His blood seemed to curdle right then and there, and shivers raced relentlessly through his body at mach speed. What… Was that? That sound… It didn’t even sound like a person! His tail froze behind him in mid wag, and with a slowness that made him seem like he was underwater, he turned towards the stairwell. It wasn’t on this floor… For that, he was thankful, but in an instant the floodgates of his mind opened. Before, it had only been a slight trickle of fear in the dam that held back an ocean of paranoia, but that shriek began to crack the wall ever so slowly as it replayed over and over in his mind. The barrage on the dam continued, and in a few moments, he was lost in a deluge of panic and dread, swept off of his feet by a tidal wave of terror.
His feet acted without him, and without even sliding the card back out of the slot, he took off charging towards the stairwell. But the one thing he himself did not know was where he was going to go. Was he going straight down to the first floor to see if anybody was back there yet, or was he going to search the other floors for the source of that banshee’s cry? He only wished he could make decisions this quickly. Before he could even think, he had thrown open the door and was tearing noisily down the stairwell. Everything seemed to blur together, and his mind was already on autopilot, with his course set for what could quite possibly the worst possible place to be at the moment. Regardless, he was driven blindly down a flight of carpeted stairs, wondering how an echo could seem so deafening.
Milo stood in the hallway of the third floor, not remembering opening or shutting the door behind him. His eyes made a quick sweep of the area, just to make sure everything was okay. Yani was nearly tripping over herself as she ran wildly towards the stairwell, and even with the quick and cursory glance Milo had given her, he could tell she was afraid. And with good reason. Her eyes were plastered with panic and worry, but Milo didn’t need to see her eyes to tell that she was in the same state that he was.
A shirtless Ren was emerging from his room, a blank expression spread across his face like butter on bread; it fit his slackened posture perfectly. His black furred paws were jammed in his jean’s pockets all the way up to his forearm, and his back was slanted ever so slightly backward. Milo had no time to pay attention to him, and since there apparently wasn’t too much of a problem on this floor besides ignorance, he turned silently around and ran ahead of Yani to the next floor down. Tail flying behind him, he burst into the second floor hallway, opening the single windowed door so quickly that it smacked the far wall and nearly hit Yani, who was trailing behind him and asking questions that he couldn’t answer. He had no time to answer these questions, he had no time to even tell her that he didn’t know the answers. All he knew was that somebody was either in danger or had a sick sense of humor.
He knew something was wrong the instant he put a foot onto the carpet in front of him. A scent slowly made its way towards him, and he winced ever so slightly from the caustic smell. It...
It smelled like blood.
So it wasn’t a joke… Somebody was hurt. Badly. If it smelled this strongly already, then somebody is either dead… Or dying.
His legs felt like jello. Or maybe like thin sticks, threatening to snap at any moment and leave him there. Even his arms felt like they were holding twenty pound weights, and his paws were clenching and unclenching every second.
When his eyes finally focused on the hallway, what caught his attention surprised him. There was nothing out of place in the hall. Not even a single candle was out. The ornate carpet wasn’t stained with red, the wallpaper was as clean as if a maid had just finished hand washing it. The perfection in the room bothered Milo more than the smell did.
As he looked around, he caught Yani out of the corner of his eye, completely stationary. She smelled it too, did she? He closed his eyes for a moment, and tried to focus. Who lives on this floor…? Me and dad and the only ones on the top floor, and on the third floor is… Ren and Yani, I think. First floor is Nella and Rellian… Nile and his family are both here…
An infantile fear rushed through him, and nearly forced his body into action. He thingyed his head to the side and sniffed a little bit more than before, hoping to catch a direction of the scent. Nile’s parents, according to Milo’s father, were in room 204 by themselves, apparently having the same idea of letting their son get a little taste of freedom before being ensnared by college. The smell…
It came from room 204.
As the realization hit him, Milo’s eyes began to widen, and he took a measured step forward, feeling like he had just finished running a marathon. Nile… Nile was okay, of course he was. He was Nile, he was perfect, he had everything going for him… He couldn’t die. That wouldn’t be fair.
Another step, and Milo began to pick up his pace, trying to be as quiet as possible. Since that shriek was only a few moments ago, he was positive that the attacker would not have enough time to make it to the stairwell before Milo did. Yes, Milo was at the end of the hallway, but he was already out of his room; since he didn’t see any gore out in the hall, he was positive the act had taken place inside of the Owens’s lodging. And then, since a scream meant the victim was still alive, he would have had to murder them, as well as make his way out to the hallway, which put him at a major disadvantage to Milo.
Milo knew, though, that he was the one at a disadvantage here. Since the attackers couldn’t have left by means of the stairwell, he must be hiding in one of the rooms, or still in the original room. Once Milo thought about it though, he realized that unless the killer had a master key for the entire hotel, he could not have opened any of the other doors. But if the killer did not have a master key, then how did he get into the room in the first place? Had Mr. and Mrs. Owens left their door open for some reason? Or did they invite the killer in on accident, thinking that it was one of the kids, or maybe the other parents coming back from shopping?
It alarmed Milo how calmly he was thinking under this much stress and pressure. Quickly, he flushed fear out of his mind and steeled himself for what might lay ahead of him. It could be Nile himself lying in there, already gone… No, he wouldn’t allow thoughts like that to creep into his head. He was going to stay strong, stay positive, and make sure everybody was okay. He had hopped into this leader position, and now he was going to live with it.
After what seemed like an eternity of walking, he found himself in front of the door to room 204. As he expected, the door was cracked open, and there was no light on inside of the room.
The stench of death hung heavy in the air beyond that door, and like at his own room, his paw clenched the doorknob crushingly and refused to turn an inch. He was going to do it. He was going to confront this killer, if he was in here… His gaze travelled back to the frozen Yani, who suddenly seemed a lot shorter than she usually was, seeing as her posture had dropped to that of a drunkard. She was slightly hunched over, leaning back on her heels, and hugging herself while clutching her shoulders tightly. A bit of pity rushed through Milo and he fought the urge to make his way over and comfort her, but he kept his stolid façade on like a mask, and furrowed his brow a bit. Ever so slowly, he pushed the handle inwards. The instant he did, he was indeed very happy there were no lights on in there.
He could smell it. It burned his nose and made his senses reel. The smell of fresh blood, warm and wet, crept through the room stealthily. Milo swore he could almost taste the irony taste on his tongue.
Everything was almost pitch black though, and the small sliver of light that pierced the darkness came from behind him, so his own shadow was an obstruction to his observation. And in truth, he wished his shadow was bigger than it actually was, if it was, it would have blocked something horrid. Something he wished he had never seen. Something he would never forget.
Piercing light shot from the doorway and invaded the dark room, showing Milo exactly what he did not want to see. The first thing that came to his mind was how the different the carpet looked in this room, but that thought was quickly replaced by the grim reality that stared him aggressively down.
At the foot of the bed, was a half lighted figure on his knees, its paws clasped above his lowered head almost like he was praying. Milo didn’t need to look twice to know who it was. There were no other coyotes in the entire hotel besides his parents, and Milo was positive that Mr. and Mrs. Owens didn’t wear gray cargo pants. But if Nile was the only one in here, then that meant that he was… Already…
Thankfully, Milo heard something. It was a whimper, barely even coming from the kneeling figure as she shook, followed by a few inconsistent sobs. Slowly, Milo’s hopes began to raise, and he squinted his eyes little bit to try and get a better look at the scene in front of him. From what he could see, the room was just like his upstairs. Starting in a slightly narrow hallway with a bathroom door to the left, and it abruptly opened up into a two room bedroom. There was an ornate desk shoved against the sunset themed wallpaper. The desk itself was a dark mahogany color, and the chair in front of it matched it flawlessly. There seemed to be nothing wrong with the right side of the room. But thanks to the walls around the bathroom, he could only see the feet of the beds, and barely even that.
As hesitant as Milo was to go through the doorway, he took a bit of consolation that Nile was in there, and hopefully unharmed. If the killer truly was in there, then Nile wouldn’t just be kneeling there, he would be charging out the door. But he had to make sure of everything, and he reached out with a paw to find a lightswitch. Thankfully, it was close to the right side of the door, and he found three switches. Right as he was about to flick his wrist upwards, he stopped, hearing a voice.
“Keep… Keep them off…” Came a choked voice that Milo almost didn’t recognize. But as he turned his head back to the middle of the room, he noticed that Nile’s head was tilted towards him. Milo didn’t need to turn the lights on to tell that the other coyote was looking him right in the eyes.
“N… Nile…” Milo managed to cough out, dropping his paw reluctantly back to his side. They were safe in here apparently, even though the overwhelming smell was making him sick to his stomach. He felt exactly like he was in an endless freefall, and his stomach was left far behind.
“Why…” Nile asked, obviously directing the question towards Milo.
The only answer Milo could give was a somber shake of his head. It didn’t take a brilliant scientist to figure out what had happened in here. But he had to make sure before he made any other decisions, so he made his way forward into the odd smelling room. As he rounded the corner far enough to see the beds, he finally confirmed the truth of what happened. There were two black lumps lazily laying underneath the covers, and the white sheet s all around the two were discolored with something dark. Something that smelled like death. The discolored sheets had plenty of rips in them, and Milo didn’t even have to think about how they happened.
“N… Nile…” Milo whispered gently, hoping to at least give the other coyote a bit of comfort. “I’m sorry…” Milo turned his attention back to Nile, who was staring at him with hollow and sunken eyes. Milo couldn’t bear to even look at the hollow frame that he thought was his friend, and quickly averted his eyes to the splotched floor.
“Milo…” Nile croaked quietly, his eyes drilling into Milo’s skull. He could feel it, the constant glare that made him want to crawl into a corner and hug himself for a while. “You… You should be sorry!”
Milo’s head jerked towards Nile from the sudden shout, and saw that the coyote was already on his feet, shoulders raised and paws balled into tight fists that clenched and unclenched constantly like a nervous habit. It was oddly unnerving, the way his friend stared at him. The formerly empty stare was replaced with one of rage, where his eyes looked a little bit smaller. Milo didn’t need any light to know that his friend was on the verge of a violent breakdown.
“Nile…” Milo started, tilting his ears a bit backwards so they were flush against his hair. This wasn’t like Nile at all… He had always been perfect, absolutely stoic against everything that had come his way. He had endured every hardship and pushed through every obstacle without even making a single complaint. To think that his very own role model was-
“Why did you lead them here…” Nile coughed, putting a fist in front of his mouth to cough a little bit more. “You knew they would do this… It’s all your fault Milo!”
“Nile, I-“
“Shut the hell up!” Nile shouted, interrupting him once more. Slowly, the larger coyote took a step forward, making his way towards Milo with great deliberation. It was then that Milo noticed exactly how much blood was covering his friend’s clothes, and even his paws. With the light in the door showing him for what he really was, Milo wasn’t sure if he should run for it, or try and console him. With the dancing shadows from the candle leaping around his body and forming unnatural shapes across his face, Milo wished he didn’t’ have his glasses on.
“Bu-“
“I said, shut the hell up, squirt!” Nile snapped, biting the air to the side of with an audible crunch from his teeth. This wasn’t like Nile at all… This wasn’t the same person he had looked to for guidance, and looked to for comfort when things went wrong. It used to be that all he had to do was look at Nile, and he would be filled with inspiration and drive, with enough energy to overcome whatever problem would come his way.
Milo took a step back, his head lowered so that he couldn’t see Nile’s face. He couldn’t bear to look at his former role model anymore. I’m not a squirt… He’s just angry. He’s just looking for somebody to blame… But Nile was better than this, wasn’t he? He was above these mental breakdowns that Milo was so prone to. He was better than this.
Milo gulped softly, and steeled himself. Just show him pity, let him know that he cared. Slowly, his foot made its way forward into the room, and he was only a step away from Nile. “Look, Nile, I’m-“
The air left his lungs, and the next thing he saw was the ceiling dancing above him, laughing at him. Mocking him. He had been gullible.
His chest heaved up and down, and his vision was focusing and unfocusing at random. There were multiple overlapping pictures on the ceiling, and the walls seemed tilted inward, then outward, then-
He felt something welling up inside of him, and before he could blink, the carpet next to him smelled like bile, and he winced, closing his eyes and looking up. It had tasted awful… It still burned, and he looked up at the face above him. The multiple faces slowly merging into one. The one face that he didn’t want to see, that strangely contoured face of a stranger. He wasn’t Nile…
“I sai… I said…” Nile shouted, his voice hopping random intervals. “I said… S…” She couldn’t finish it, and he instantly knelt down next to Milo.
Milo winced away, wishing he could get up, but his body was so out of balance that he could barely move at all. His gut felt like somebody had just taken a sledgehammer, and… He winced, feeling his stomach heave again, but could only gasp for air dryly as nothing happened.
“M-Milo… I…” Milo heard him say, but everything but the pain was far in the back of his mind. He said something else, but with the world spinning as it was, there was no way that he could understand him. Slowly, the lights began to dim, and the last thought he had before passing out was why there was a power outage without a single strike of thunder. Things seemed to have no cause or reason in Raven’s Hollow.