Myths: The Folklore Trilogy

Chapter 21- In Which We Get Attacked. Again.

My first thought: Again?

I was confused, almost annoyed. Had it come back to attack us AGAIN?

But when I turned to look at what Sophie had seen, it wasn't the same one. This one was much smaller, about the size of my shoe. It was bright red, and it's bat wings were smaller, but darker, than the guilt tormentor. It had horns that stuck straight up and came to a point, two rocks jutting out of the ground. Its eyes were closed, and I was afraid what would happen when they opened.

It buzzed in front of me, and I say buzzed because its wings were probably going 80 miles an hour. It kept twitching every few seconds. I felt jittery just looking at the thing.

It swerved to a stop a few feet in front of our faces, still jerking back and forth. We stared at it. It kept jerking around. I waited for something to happen.

"It's kind of cute," Sophie whispered.

"Seriously?!?!" Audrey exclaimed. "It might kill us, and you thing it's kind of CUTE?!?!"

Sophie shrugged. "It's tiny."

"Just because something's smaller than you doesn't make it cute," Audrey muttered.

We waited for a little longer. It jerked back and forth, and its wings buzzed incessantly. I began to get impatient, and a little anxious. My muscles were tense. I kept expecting it to dive at us, to screech, ANYTHING. But it didn't.

It just buzzed there. Back. And forth. Jerk up. Twitch. Jerk left. Twitch. Twitch. Long period of stillness.

Twitch.

"OH MY GOODNESS CAN I KILL IT ALREADY!" Audrey screamed. She didn't wait for my response. She transformed into warrior and took out one of her throwing knives. I suddenly knew something was wrong. "Audrey, wait!" I protested.

It was too late. She drew back her arm and threw the knife.

And warriors never miss.

(Well, I missed when I threw my axe at the last one, but I'm kind of a fail at the whole fighting thing as a general rule.)

The knife hit right in the middle of its bright red chest, puncturing its rib cage (if it had one) and coming out the back. Almost immediately, its wings stopped moving. It froze in midair. But it didn't fall, simply sat completely still, suspended in space.

Right. Because that wasn't creepy at all.

The world seemed to stop, all but my heart, which was pounding like it was given one last day to beat and was trying to do as many as possible. Adrenaline coursed through my veins and questions filled my head. What was about to happen? What was wrong with this thing? Did I do something wrong? What was I supposed to do now? Was it dead? Do tormentors die? What do we do, what do we do, what do we DO???

I heard labored breathing to my right. Sophie. She seemed to be having similar thoughts. To my left, Audrey was practically hopping up and down. I'm pretty positive that girl was minorly ADHD, so this suspense must be awful for her.

Then the tormentor opened its eyes.

You know how when some people cry really hard their eyes get bloodshot? Well, this tormentor's eyes were red--completely red-but bloodshot with streaks of black. And it was staring right at me.

"Um, I don't think it's very cute anymore," Sophie whispered, her voice trembling.

A full on wave of anxiety hit me. What was about to happen? What did it want to do with me? Was it going to hurt us? How do we defeat it? It can't be killed! The questions wandered from my mind and skittered down to my stomach, making me want to throw up and scream at the same time. My heart pounded faster. My thoughts began to buzz, so fast I could barely process them. My mind went blank. A scream started to build up deep in my chest, rising, pressure increasing. It rose to my throat, and I suddenly I knew, if I didn't open my mouth and let the scream out, I was going to explode.