XVIII - Henry
They were
truly everywhere. Every direction Henry
turned, there they were, advancing slowly, with menacing posture and a
disturbing, unnatural gait. As tired as
he was, all Henry wanted to do was to run, but there was nowhere to go. Every exit had been covered. It’s all over, he thought.
Then
Charlie bolted, leaping away from Paige in an instant and running towards the
gap between two of the monsters. There
wasn’t much room and Henry knew that he would surely not make it, but perhaps
the boy could. It felt like his heart
had wedged itself in his throat as he watched in horror and hope.
“Charlie!”
Paige cried, but Henry remained silent, only watching and waiting for the
outcome.
The boy
was fast and agile. As one of the
monsters lunged towards him he darted to the left, then almost immediately back
right so as to weave between two of the creatures, and then suddenly,
gloriously, he was free, vanishing into the fog even as the creatures turned to
chase him. And as they did that, the
way became clear.
“Paige,”
Henry said firmly, “now!”
He
reached for her arm, grasping it as well as he could and then he began to
run. It was hard going and painful
thanks to the blow he had taken to his hip and he was out of breath within
seconds, but there was nothing else for it: they had to move.
Paige had
taken a moment to really move with him, stunned as she was by all that seemed
to be happening, but now she was at his side and together they were making a
beeline for the point where Charlie had disappeared, weaving through the fog to
dodge the hideous creatures that stalked the Kirkyard, stumbling past graves
and nearly tripping on some of the lower monuments.
“Charlie?”
Paige called out again, “Charlie, where are you?”
They kept
moving and all around them the mute night came alive with the moans and sighs
of the monsters and their own heavy footfalls, but there was no sign of Charlie
“Oh God,
where is he?” Paige demanded as they stumbled to a momentary halt whilst Henry
tried to catch his breath, “Where can he have got to?”
“I… don’t…
know…” was all Henry could manage, but he was scouring the darkness and fog
around them, looking for some kind of clue, and then there it was: a light in
the darkness.
“Over
there!” he said, pointing and then Paige was nearly dragging him forwards
leading on towards the slight, flickering glow.
It’s a
candle or something, Henry thought as they approached it, but where
would Charlie have gotten one of those?
And then
he saw that there was not one person by the flame, but two; one taller and one
shorter. Could it be Josh? he
wondered, but as they got closer still he saw that, just on the edge of the
candle’s tiny circle of light, there lingered the monsters they had been
running away from, forming a crude semi-circle and waiting; twitching and waiting.
They
stumbled to a halt a few feet away from the figures and watched warily.
“Charlie?”
Paige asked one more time, “Is that you, Charlie?”
The
figures stepped forward and resolved into the boy and a young woman holding his
arm in a tight grasp with one hand and the candle in the other.
“He’s
quite fine,” she said, “but time is running short and I’m running low on
patience.”
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