I was getting dragged to my room, getting pushed inside the closet by my mom. I did not know what was happening that made her do this; her face was smiling, but even I could see she was faking it.
"It will be all fine, honey. Just stay in there and don't make any noise, okay, Lier?"
She said while closing the doors. Right before she fully closed it, tears were already streaming down her face. Why was she crying?
I couldn't ask because I remembered her telling me to stay quiet. I heard her run out of the room and into the hallway, her footsteps loud and clumsy. It was like she was afraid, but why would she be scared?
Suddenly, I heard a loud crash. It came from downstairs, and whatever had just burst inside was big — too big. My ears caught the sound of it moving slowly, each step followed by a sharp, loud click.
My mother's footsteps were also gone; she had presumably hidden too. What I don't understand is why she didn't just hide with me.
Whatever that thing was, it was getting closer and closer. Suddenly, I heard the doors to my room opening slowly as the floorboards creaked.
My premonition was telling me it was just right next to me. Suddenly, I heard a loud scream coming from another room.
The creature, picking up on the noise, rammed itself right through the walls. It was tearing through everything in its path like paper, and it was a scissor.
The screaming grew more intense. I suddenly recognized that voice as my mom's. I peeked through the small gaps there were on the closet doors, and what I saw made me throw up and cry.
I saw my mom being ripped apart by whatever that thing was. It was eating her alive. Suddenly, it had stopped, the only noises being heard were the screams from other people — which I now just noticed — and my mom's blood spewing on the floor.
I heard a sudden crash. Had that thing just thrown my mom? I heard it slowly creeping toward the closet, its clicking growing louder and louder.
Suddenly, I was thrown alongside the closet like a ragdoll, my face crashing on the closet doors. I heard it approach my hiding area, and using whatever strength I could muster, I backed myself into the corner.
Suddenly, massive claws pierced the middle of the closet, blood still dripping on them. It felt like time had stopped. I was momentarily frozen by fear, my heart racing so fast and hard I could hear it.
Suddenly, I noticed its claws were retracting. Knowing what would happen next, I weaved to the other side. This time around, its attack pierced the floor itself.
Out of desperation, I decided to roll into that hole, trying to escape, but while in the process of escaping, it — having predicted what I would do — attacked the center, piercing the side of my arm and tearing out a huge chunk of my flesh.
"Arghhh!"
I screamed in agony, and the fall did not make it any better. At least this time, I had more time to escape. I could not waste my mother's sacrifice.
Crawling as fast as I could, I dragged myself. I wanted — no, I needed — to survive. There was no other way.
As I was crawling, I heard the creature screech loudly as it started to pierce continuously. The floors were being wrecked, shredded like meat being thrown in a shredder.
Unfortunately for me, it landed right behind me. Was this the end of it all?
Was my mother's sacrifice for me now to mean nothing?
The creature loomed over me, its silhouette blotting out what little light remained. My arm was useless, but I still had one good hand. My fingers brushed something — a shard of wood from the broken floor.
It wasn't much, but it was something.
When it lunged, I jammed the splinter iside their mouth or what should have been a mouth instead it looked like a hole with sharp and pointy teeth. It screamed, the sound like metal grinding on bone.
Mustering up strength in my legs, I stood up — for what felt like the first time in forever — and ran outside through the massive hole it had left.
While running outside my mom's body was on the floor her head was most likely inside the ground, her upper body was grotesque and most of her body parts were eaten already.
Outside wasn't any better; in fact, it was way worse than inside. The streets, usually busy and bustling, were filled with blood and human remains.
Those same creatures, attracted to the loud screaming of the one I had just stabbed, immediately started rushing — perhaps they were hungry and decided to kill one of their kind who was useless.
I couldn't dwell on that right now; there were still plenty left. They too were running toward the gate where we could escape from.
There were still a couple of the creatures running around, killing anyone they could find. Earlier, I couldn't focus on their appearance — but now I could.
They moved on four limbs like twisted crabs, their pale skin stretched thin and twitching with every sharp click. Where eyes should've been, there was only smooth, pulsing flesh. The clicking wasn't random — it was how they saw, using sound to hunt through the chaos.
When one caught a screaming man, its head split open like a flower made of blades, teeth grinding as it tore him apart.
I was nearing the gate when I noticed multiple creatures — the same as the ones that were attacking us — rushing toward here.
Realizing that I was going to die either way, I decided to move in the other direction, heading toward an alleyway where I rested for a bit. I needed to buy myself some time so that reinforcements from the capital could arrive.
My mother and I always wanted to move there, but it was a dangerous journey. We could have always just bought an escort toward the capital, but even then, safety wasn't guaranteed.
"I'm only ten, so why was I experiencing all of this? What did I do to deserve this?
I barely even care about the fact there are dead bodies right next to me — it's sad. The only reason I even threw up was because it felt like the only right thing to do.
I don't think I'll ever get my innocence back. Why me, of all people? The fact is, I'm not normal — not because I was born like it, but because I was born into it,"
I said, my voice cracking every few moments. My voice was hoarse. My injury from earlier wasn't that bad — sure, a chunk of my flesh was missing, but luckily my mother had bought a decent healing artifact that was shipped here from the capital.
My flesh was already healing slowly, and the bleeding had stopped. I decided the moment of rest was more than enough and started walking slowly, trying not to make noise as much as possible.
As my footsteps weren't being covered by other people, there were still screamings, but they weren't that close anymore. I'd only be able to properly move when more people started to panic after they saw the massive group of those creatures heading toward here.
They would most likely panic, not knowing what to do, and run back inside — then I'd start running so that my steps were somewhat hidden.
I knew my way around, as my mother had made me memorize the large town of Nareth.
I decided to head toward Vera's place. I knew she and her father were hiding inside their basement — it was quite durable.
Suddenly, I heard panicked screaming grow louder, and I knew that was my cue to start running.
I headed out of the alleyway. Their house was quite a while away, so while heading there, I should pick up some stuff that would seem useful.
Suddenly, I saw a large crowd of people running away from the blind creatures. I halted my movement as one person decided to go this way but unfortunately tripped and got mauled by them.
I knelt down slowly, looking at my surroundings. I noticed rocks, which I promptly picked up, and slowly crawled, ever so slowly. Noticing a house that had glass that hadn't been broken yet, I decided to take the risk.
Picking a stone from my pocket, I aimed above the window, calculating in my mind if the trajectory was correct and it would hit the glass and not miss.
Noticing they were almost done with the body, I threw it with all that I had. It broke the glass — a direct hit — and their attention focused on the house, which they started wrecking as I started running away immediately.
My arm was slightly better from earlier. Now there wasn't a huge chunk of meat missing, just a biteful amount.
I continued running, not wasting any more of my very precious time. There wasn't even anything useful. The rocks were heavy, so I dumped them all while running.
I already saw their house in the distance; it wasn't that far away. And to my surprise, their house wasn't even broken into — which was weird, because my mother and I were very quiet actually, so it obviously didn't make any sense why we got attacked.
I ran even quicker, noticing multiple of those blind creatures were busy eating and could probably not hear me. I finally reached the door. Unfortunately, it was already locked, but fortunately for me, their key was hidden under the wooden floor of the patio.
Unlocking the door, I gently closed it and remembered to lock it afterward. I walked slowly toward their basement and knocked three times.
A quiet yet sharp voice answered my three knocks.
"Who is it?"
The man was obviously Vera's father, Theron. He might sound like a rude old man, but he is quite nice once you befriend him.
"It's just me, Lier. I'm alone."
Nobody answered back, but the door's lock did get undone. Finally, I could rest properly. I walked inside, smiling politely at Theron as he stared at my slowly healing arm.
Vera was also staring at my arm as they both said in unison
"Ouch."