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Chapter 8: Within The Dark

Chapter 8: Within The Dark

Rook descended first.

The cliff was not particularly high, but its slope was steep enough that loose stones rolled beneath his boots. He moved sideways to keep the coffin from dragging him backward, one hand braced against the ground while the other held the lantern ahead. Its blue light washed over the rocks and black grass, showing him where to place his feet without announcing their presence to anything waiting below.

Mara followed far less gracefully.

She crouched low and used both hands to steady herself, sending pebbles skittering down the slope whenever her shoes lost their grip. Each tiny sound seemed impossibly loud now that she knew what waited at the bottom. She watched the nearest Abominations for a reaction, expecting a dozen misshapen heads to snap in her direction.

None did.

The lantern’s glow passed across their bodies, yet they remained oblivious to it. One lumbered through the grass with its face turned elsewhere. Another crawled so close to the base of the cliff that Mara could see swollen joints bending beneath its skin, but it never looked up.

Rook reached the bottom and glanced back.

He raised one finger to his lips.

Mara nodded.

Her foot slipped immediately afterward.

A stone broke loose beneath her heel and bounced down the slope, striking Rook’s boot before disappearing into the grass.

His eyes lifted toward her.

Mara froze with both hands pressed against the rock.

Rook looked at the place where the stone had vanished, waited several seconds and then returned his attention to her. Even in the weak blue light, she could see the contempt on his face.

She mouthed, "Sorry."

He replied with a silent gesture that required no translation.

Mara carefully completed the descent.

Once she reached level ground, Rook drew a crooked sickle from the side of his coffin.

The weapon appeared almost unimpressive compared to everything else he carried. Its handle was wrapped in old strips of leather, and the blade curved forward like a blackened claw. Countless scratches covered the metal, though its inner edge had been polished to a thin silver line.

Rook pointed at the grass, then lowered himself into a crouch.

Mara understood.

The black grass rose almost to her shoulders when she stood upright. Once she hunched forward, it swallowed most of her body. Rook was considerably taller and broader, especially with the coffin rising above his head, but even he could keep most of himself concealed by bending low.

The Abominations roaming the field looked above the level of the grass.

Whatever passed for their senses had adapted to search for travelers standing upright or running openly across the wasteland. Their distorted heads turned from side to side while their eyes and mouths remained angled toward the empty darkness overhead.

Rook began moving.

He did not follow anything Mara could recognize as a path. He wound between the creatures, changing direction whenever one drew too close and pausing whenever the grass ahead moved against the nonexistent wind. His sickle remained raised in one hand, ready to hook into flesh, while the other occasionally pushed the lantern forward to inspect the ground.

Mara stayed close enough that she could almost touch the coffin.

For once, she felt grateful that her heart no longer beat.

If she had still possessed one, it would have been hammering hard enough to alert every Abomination in the field. She could imagine the pulse battering against her ribs, each frantic beat growing louder as another creature passed nearby. Her lungs would have burned from holding her breath. Her knees would have trembled until the grass shook with them.

Instead, her body remained unnaturally silent.

Fear still gripped her, but it had nowhere physical to go. No heartbeat betrayed it. No desperate need for air forced her to gasp. She could hold herself perfectly still for as long as Rook required.

Death had finally given her something useful.

She would have preferred the benefit under different circumstances.

Something massive moved to their right.

Rook immediately lowered himself and pushed Mara down with one hand. They crouched beneath the grass as a towering shape passed several yards away. Its body resembled an enormous rib cage turned upside down, with long legs growing from the spaces between the bones. Every step drove its limbs deep into the earth. Pale shapes squirmed inside its hollow torso, grasping between the ribs before disappearing again.

Mara pressed both hands over her mouth.

The creature’s head hung beneath its body, dragging through the grass like a heavy sack. It turned slightly as it passed, revealing a human face stretched across something much larger than a human skull.

Its eyes remained closed.

Rook waited until the tremors faded before moving again.

Mara followed.

Minutes lost their meaning inside the field. There was no sky by which she could measure time and no distant landmark beyond the occasional glimpse of the city’s dying glow behind them. The lantern showed only a small portion of the ground, while the grass prevented her from seeing more than distorted silhouettes drifting around them.

Every few steps brought a new horror.

A long-backed creature crawled past on the knuckles of dozens of mismatched hands. A swollen torso hovered above the grass, supported by thin legs that disappeared into the darkness beneath it. Something shaped like a naked woman stood with her back toward them, humming through a mouth in the center of her spine.

Rook avoided them all.

He moved slowly, yet never hesitated without reason. Whenever he stopped, Mara stopped. Whenever he crouched, she lowered herself. When he placed his foot somewhere, she aimed for the same patch of earth.

The coffin remained the greatest inconvenience.

Even while hunched, Rook had to account for the enormous mass chained vertically across his back. Grass brushed against its scratched surface. Iron hooks occasionally clicked against the wood, and the weapons inside shifted whenever he changed direction too abruptly.

Mara remained close enough to use it as a wall.

Then Rook stopped without warning.

Mara walked face-first into the coffin. That sounded awfully loud in this place. Enough that nearby Abominations stopped for a moment, then continued their growls and groans afterward.

Rook slowly turned his head.

Mara’s eyes widened apologetically.

His expression promised that if an Abomination did not kill her, he would petition the contract for permission to try.

Then he looked forward again.

The grass ahead had parted.

Two large Abominations were moving toward them.

The first consisted almost entirely of a round face. Its bloated features formed the entire body, with too many eyes embedded across its cheeks, forehead and chin. A long vertical slit ran through the center. Each time the slit opened, rows of thorn-like teeth emerged from folds of wet flesh before snapping closed again.

Short arms and legs protruded beneath the face, carrying it forward in an awkward crawl.

The second creature had no stable shape.

Its body was a glistening mass of dark slime standing twice Rook’s height. Several human heads bulged from within it, pushed outward as if attempting to break through a thick membrane, only to sink back into the body before their mouths could open. Others emerged in their place, stretching the slime into new expressions of silent panic.

The creature flowed through the grass instead of parting it.

Slime spread from beneath its body in long strands, coating the ground before drawing itself back toward the central mass. Each retreating tendril left the grass untouched, as if nothing had passed over it.

Rook dropped even lower.

Mara followed until one knee pressed against the earth.

The face-creature crawled toward them.

Its many eyes moved independently, each searching a different part of the field. One stared directly over Mara’s head. Another rolled toward Rook and remained there long enough that she became certain it had found him.

The lantern hung between them, glowing blue.

The eye passed over it without seeing anything.

The creature continued forward.

Rook did not move.

Mara watched the mouth in the center of its face open and close. Each wet snap of its teeth sounded like branches breaking. It came near enough that she could smell something foul leaking from between its lips.

If she extended one arm, she could have touched it.

The slime creature moved behind it.

Mara lowered her head as another face pushed from the dark mass. This one belonged to an elderly man. Its mouth opened in a silent plea before the slime folded over it and erased the features completely.

A tendril crept through the grass near her shoe.

Rook watched the bodies of the creatures.

He did not look down.

The face-creature passed them first. Its short limbs carried it deeper into the field, thorn-like teeth still opening and closing as it searched for something to bite.

The slime creature followed.

Its body shifted around the edge of the lantern’s glow. Several heads turned blindly toward Mara, but none of them reacted. The mass flowed onward, gathering the slime it had spread behind itself.

Rook remained still until both creatures had travelled several yards away.

Then he leaned toward Mara.

"Move," he whispered.

It was the first word either of them had spoken since entering the field.

Mara nodded and carefully raised her foot.

Her shoe did not move.

She looked down.

A transparent strand of slime stretched between the sole and the grass.

Her stomach tightened.

She pulled harder.

The strand clung to the shoe, stretching with it. The movement disturbed the substance still connected to the retreating creature. Every face inside its body opened its eyes at once.

The slime creature stopped.

One of its many heads pushed out through its back and stared toward them.