Frostbite (Bk 1 of the Elementals)

Chapter 5

Ariel turned to look at Aaron; without even speaking, they both walked cautiously to the barn. Aaron paused at his bike, pulling another of his “poppers” before continuing into the barn with Ariel. Aaron grabbed a sledge hammer, and then tossed a pitch fork to Ariel. The duo slowly approached the house. Aaron had already gone inside, but only briefly; they had almost no idea what could be waiting for them on the other side of the door. As they reached the door, Aaron looked over at Ariel. She could see the smallest hint of fear in his eyes, but it was mostly masked by determination. Aaron cracked the door ajar, and threw in the popper, waiting just a moment for it to detonate, before bursting through the door. 

At first, the room looked pretty normal, undisturbed, but as they crept around they saw small clues, disturbances that told otherwise. The window was covered in thick a blue liquid, with the floor below dotted with drops of the same substance. A vase was knocked off a dresser, broken in large pieces on the carpeted floor; not shattered, but the carpet was not soft enough to stop the blow from breaking the vase. As Ariel looked around, she couldn't see anything else out of place. Maybe the Acuru had found it too hard to get in, and had left? Ariel was almost starting to believe this, but as she bent down to investigate the drops on the floor, she saw a foot print; the type created on carpet by slightly damp feet. The foot -or more correctly, paw- print was fading, the water evaporating, leaving no trace anything had stepped there.

“Aaron” Ariel called out. Glancing over her shoulder, she could see that he was staring at a picture on the dresser. Aaron turned around, and walked over to her.

“Take a look at this” Ariel continued, pointing at the paw print. Aaron squatted, looking at the paw print.

“Where do they go?” He asked, glancing around.

“I’m not sure” Ariel replied.

The pair shuffled along on their knees; had they been standing up, they wouldn't have been able to see the foot prints. Slowly, they inched their way along, until they found themselves at the bottom of a stair case. Ariel got up, and let Aaron pass her, taking the lead. They walked upstairs, and walked into chaos. Books were strewn everywhere, pictures knocked off the walls, the whole place was a mess. Out of the shambles, however, splotches of dark red stood out, splattered in several places; Blood.

Aaron continued walking through the clutter, while Ariel looked around at the hallway. The blood stood out starkly on the creme walls, soaking into the carpet, leaving the whole place with a haunted feeling. Thump! Ariel whirled around; Aaron had fallen to his knees. She rushed over fearing he had been hurt, but as she reached him, checking him for injuries, she realized he was fine. Ariel looked at Aaron, calling his name, but he wouldn’t respond. His face held only a blank expression, his eyes glazed over, a single tear slowly rolling, tumbling down his cheek, finally reaching its inevitable end, falling through the air, before hitting the floor. As Ariel turned around, she knew that something was horribly wrong; she couldn't have been more right, and wrong. Lying inside was one of the Acuru, dead, in a pool of it’s own thick blue blood. The Acuru had its jaws clamped on the leg of a men, his face a scene of agony, even in death. There was only one person who this could be; Aaron’s Father.