Surrounds (Bonds) (7 page)

Fear hits her hard in the chest, nearly suffocating her, stealing her air. Her legs buckle, Henderson holds her up, by wrapping his now free arm under hers. Silently he begins pulling her out.

In her fear, Lacey disremembers the blade in her hands and it falls from her fingers, clinging against the iron siding of a display. Henderson freezes and once again that awful silence wiggles its way back into her life again. Henderson’s head bends back, dark brown eyes on the ceiling. She cannot even bring herself to breathe, let alone look her end in the eye.

Barks, loud and shrill begin. Air inside the mammoth room grows stifling and burning, something bursts inside of her ears, and something shatters. She’s being yanked out by Henderson a second later, both of them bolting out and slamming into the opposite wall as a body slams into her back.

Her flashlight is gone, lost now, sinking them into darkness and scary chaos. Henderson cries out and something sinks its fangs into her right arm, painfully hot. Henderson pulling her again and she’s slipping and sliding on things she cannot even see.

Another body slams into her, sending her flying through the inky darkness, her fingers slipping from Henderson, her body slams into the floor.

"Lacey…" A gurgled hiss reaches her and Henderson’s panicked yelp.

Something lands on top of her, a second later something sharp and begins clawing at her neck and arms. She hits with her hands, screaming, tugging at oily flesh, digging her own blunt nails into it. Then the weight on her neck is gone and she’s being yanked onto her feet.

Henderson haggard wet breathing, barks, bodies slamming into the walls and wings flapping are the only things she hears. She has no idea how he manages it, but Henderson finds his way to the backroom, sunlight filtering through open backdoors.

Dangerous hope begins filling her upon seeing the light. Her fingers grips, with renewed vigor, Henderson’s, ignoring the wetness of his flesh. When they reach the opening, Henderson helps her down, only for a swarm of the tiny black monsters to hit him off the opening, covering his whole body completely.

All she can do is stare at first from her position on the ground after falling, staring at the black, gray and white creatures, hairless, with oily leathery skin and long bat ears. Bodies withering as all of them attacking Henderson.

Lacey only snaps out of it only when Henderson cries out in pain, an arm, covered with the creatures appears from underneath the herd, batting them away fruitlessly. Blood was pooling around him.

He was being eaten. They were going to kill Henderson.

Lacey hit her peck of fear at the thought. "No…" Utter panic built up inside of her as she bolted forward without thinking, hands scooping up Henderson’s discarded machete and began batting the creatures away.

No flashing light, not even spiritual glow happened, but there was something that without a doubt happened. Ash, her hands pricked and began to tingle, ever single creature that came in contact with the blade turned into black ash.

Lacey continues batting away the creatures until all of them were gone from Henderson’s body, leaving the boy covered in blood, wounds, and ash. More barks reached her hearing and she quickly turns around holding the weapon out in front of her and Henderson, she comes face to face with a sea of bloody eyes.

Hundreds of the tiny creatures floated inside the open doorway, staring at her, glaring at her, unmoving. They weren’t attacking. A whisper begins up like a wave in itself. They were talking to one another… in a language without a doubt not human.

She can only stare back, breathing haggard, and body shaking. They eyed her and her weapon.

They are afraid, if not that, then uncertain, she quickly realizes. It was why they weren’t attacking, they were afraid she would reduce them to ash as well. She would, if she can figure out how again.

Lacey begin backing up, keeping her brown eyes locked on the monsters. She bends over Henderson’s still form, never removing her gaze from the creatures before her, she awkwardly places her arms underneath Henderson’s, being careful with the machete in fear of adding more injuries.

She begins pulling him back, away from the herd of tiny creatures.

Sweat has drenched her and she can no longer feel her left foot when it comes plainly palpable that they weren’t being followed. Her head aches and her brown eyes burn with exhaustion from staring for so long. Her back is sore, throbbing with pain.

It’s dark when she finds a house which she can drag Henderson into.

()

Chapter 18

Lacey

Lacey rings out a rag into a small yellow bowl, wiping the blood from Henderson’s scratched and bleeding upper half. Deep wounds ran up and down his body, from tiny bite marks up into deep gaping bloody messes. It wasn’t at all looking good.

Both of their packs had been lost back at the hellish grocery store and she only had what was inside the abandoned house to work with. She had did a quick search when they had first gotten there after laying Henderson down onto the floor. It hadn’t been easy considering her lack of light, but a candle found in the home’s kitchen drawer saved her from fumbling around blindly.

She had only found half a bottle of rubbing alcohol, a couple of semi-clean rags, working water, and a couple of shirts she was using as bandages.

Finishing wrapping up what was worse of Henderson’s wounds, Lacey cleans up her mess in an attempt to keep busy, guided by the flickering candle light. It was already mostly gone, wax seeping off the tiny plate it was sitting. Soon, it would vanish and both of them would be engulfed in darkness.

She glares at the flickering flame instead of Henderson, unhappily, the candle leaked onto the hardwood floor in response. A low wheeze from Henderson startles her into crawling to him again, peering into his scrunched up face worriedly. His face was flushed and sweaty, his breathing haggard and quick.

Her fingers find his forehead, nearly crying out when she felt the heat he was emitting.

"Oh, Henderson…" She whispers under her breath, slowly taking her hand back. Sitting back, she bring her legs against her, hugging them. She would have to look for something to help him in the morning. She only hoped he would survive the night.

Her blunt teeth sunk into her lip, harshly chewing and watching Henderson’s face.

"You have to be alright…" Her voice cracks as she continues speaking to the unconscious boy. "It’s your fault were in this mess. You can’t give up yet…"

A frown settles on her lips. It wasn’t his fault at all. It was hers. She went in to save him but only ended up being saved by him again and being the very reason he was hurt anyway. "Some hero I am…" She quietly says. "What on earth would I do without you, Hender? Huh?" She questioned his silent form. "I’m way too dependent on you, Henderson. That’s your fault… I… I… I don’t even have a clue how to get to Mexico and find my dad." She thinks of those creatures and how they had been turned into dust. "It was weird… your machete turned all of them to dust, then the others were afraid of it." Her fingers find one of the two water bottles she has left and wets a rag, gently placing it onto his forehead. She honestly didn’t think it was Henderson’s machete that had did it, but the truth made even less sense. "You ha-have to wake up… because I’m really confused and you’re a smarty pants… You can explain all of this and stuff… and…" She falters, staring at his washed out features and hollow cheeks. He’s silent. "I’m afraid." She yells desperately, unable to look at Henderson anymore, her face finds her legs. "So you can’t… vanish on me… I won’t if you won’t." Her voice is muffled by her pants. "It’s a promise."

()

Chapter 19

Alasa

She thought he was alright at first, but now it’s now obvious Wolf is not alright.

Alasa's adrenalin found her once they were back at the main cave, forcing the girl onto her feet and into pacing the length of the cave. Her mind works over-time, attempting to work out what was going on, trying to make any sense to what happened. But none of it was fitting, none of it was making sense.

She even considered it hadn’t happened at all, she considered her mind her finally snapped after being taken hostage by this man…thing…

But there was no way she could ignore the odor of Wolf’s blood, which is red – she had been expecting black. Hey, why not? It wouldn’t be the oddest thing to happen around here. It became impossible to ignore when Wolf began wheezing softly and whimpering like a wounded animal.

Alasa stops her pacing and stares at his form against the cave’s wall, bloody and shivering.

He had saved her.

Alasa bites her lip before nodding a little. "I can do this…" She forces her hands still before walking to the bucket which held her water and strips of her ruined shirt. Wetting a few strips before her bravery could fail her, she quietly sinks onto the floor and slowly moves forward with them clutched against her.

Wolf doesn’t notice when she takes a seat beside him, barely a foot away. She ignores her dry mouth. Alasa sets her strips into her lap, bringing one up, barely touching his face with it before he loudly snarls, grabbing her wrist in a bone-crushing hold.

She whimpers weakly, eyes going wide and meeting his. Blue clashes against black as a stare off begins and an apprehensive quiet in born.

"I…" Alasa whimpers again, "I’m only trying to help." She quietly says. "See…" She waves her strips of shirt a little, wincing. "I’m not going to hurt you." She tries making her voice appear calming. "I want to thank you for saving me."

Her fingers begin to tingle and seep red and purple underneath her skin when Wolf finally lets her go, still watching her with pitch black, unreadable eyes. Gooseflesh springs up across her arms and legs and she thinks he may attack her if she hurts him.

She tries remembering how any of this was a good idea.

Carefully, slowly, she brings her still aching wrist up, damp rag, lightly pressing against the bloody wound on his shoulder. It was deep, and stiches were obviously going to be needed, if the amount of blood pooling around her and him was any indication.

She glares down at the tiny rag gripped in her dirty hands. It wasn't enough. Wolf would bleed out. Her rag wasn't going to be enough to stop it. Her hand stopped moving.

He would bleed out and she would be alone, finally free of her kidnapper, but, also, she would be alone. Alone in a cave hidden deep into some forest which was swarming with... monsters? Alasa shakes her head, a chill runs down her stiff back as a flash of the flying beast blinks across her mind.

She forces herself to look up at Wolf, finding the man-beast watching her still. His face finally finding an emotion and its... curiosity. Like a dog, maybe even a young child, Wolf watches her, his head leaning in an angle, curious.

She bites her lip, unsure what exactly his look was for. She breaks her gaze from his and settles into on the bloody floor, watching as his long black hair brushes against his own blood. She frowns.

Alasa realizes keeping him alive, that it's important to her and not only because if he were gone, then she would be alone. He had saved her life. Yes, when she had first woken up here in side this horrible cave, he had beaten her, hurt her, desperately and harshly inserted his dominance over her, but, he had saved her.

But there wasn't anything she could do. The thought had her oddly spiking up in panic and she found herself looking back at Wolf quickly, to see if he understood she couldn't help him. Her insides squirmed, he was simply still watching her. Waiting.

She couldn't help him. It was sad, so sad, Alasa finds herself rubbing at her stinging eyes with bloody fingers. A sob slips by her lips and rattles her insides and loudly echoes inside the cave, nearly frightening her. She quickly looks up at Wolf to see if he was annoyed by her actions, only to find him still staring at her with more of a quizzical look now.

Alasa swallows, shaking her head again, her blue eyes focuses on her rag and hand, still pressed against Wolf's white and red shoulder. She could at least try. Again she begins working, forcing herself to remain strong, not to gag at the odor of his blood and not to be heavy-handed.

But none of it's working and panic once again spikes up inside of her. She cannot allow Wolf to die.

Her fingers begin to tingle. It's not anything great, not even noticeable if she hadn't noticed a spark of blue flash beneath her flesh only to flash beneath Wolf's a moment after. She watches with a mix of horror and fascination as his shoulder wound mends itself together, it was disturbing, yet amazing.

Alasa blinks, startled, at the now woundless flesh. Her blue eyes dart to Wolf, finding him staring at his now healed shoulder as well. His black gaze finds her blue one after a few seconds before his body shift and he leans over, offering her his other wounded shoulder.

He's not very surprised, if he is, he got over it fairly quickly. Something about his open, expectant gaze and his flippancy about her apparent 'healing' capabilities is highly amusing to Alasa. As if this was normal.

A snort of disbelief and amusement escapes her and a smile tugs at her lips. Alasa cannot help her giggle. The twitch in Wolf's pale lips interests Alasa. His half smile is honestly the most amazing thing Alasa had seen in a long time.