Into The Vale of Shadows // Max Mayfield

xii. evening gone cray

chapter twelve
evening gone cray

     EVERYTHING AROUND RAVEN was peaceful, the night was filled with the chirps of resting birds, the cricketing sounds, and the wind that blew from the north, it was peaceful, not until the sound of a cry for help reached Raven's ear, a cry so familiar it made her feel like her heart dropped from the peak of mount everest to the depths of Mariana trench. Raven's movements froze, feet glued to the ground, limbs numb from fear.

     "Did you hear that?"

     Yes. Gorgon's voice was soon followed by the sound of radio static from the super-comm inside the tree house, the voice of Dustin Henderson echoing to her ears.

     "Is anyone there? Mike? Will? Raven? God! Anyone!" Dustin called ever so desperately, voice filled with cracks and fear. Besides his fearful voice, she also heard the familiar yells and screams of three or two other people that was with him, followed by banging and growling, making Raven worried to her core. "We're at the old junkyard and we are going to die!"

     The bus shook aggressively when one of the dogs threw itself on it, followed by the sounds of thumping from above. Everyone inside the abandoned vehicle had gone quiet, the only thing that can be heard were their shaking breaths, and the loud thumps from the top of the bus. The ones throwing themselves to break the bus had stopped, like waiting for what the one of above might do.

     Tension and fear filled the bus, everyone praying to live, but unmoved like they were waiting for death to come and take them along. The thump grew closer to the hatch above, and as it grew closer, Max slowly looked up, for a brief moment she was greeted by the beautiful night sky, not until a petal like head revealed itself on the hatch, it's goo like drool dribbled on the bus floor. Max's mouth opened, a petrified scream soon came out of it, reciprocated by the entity with a roar.

     "Out of the way! Out of the way!" Max was then pulled by Lucas away from under the hatch, hugging her away from the opened hole on the ceiling. "You want some?! Come get this!"

     Steve sent his spiky bat to the dog's direction, hitting it straight to one of it's petals, the creature hunches down to attack, Steve gripped tighter on his bat, ready to swing on it once it gets down. The creature was ready to attack when a louder thump shook the bus, the creature being dragged away from the hatch, and Steve saw it being thrown away to a direction away from the bus.

     "What the hell was that?"

     The kids and Steve looked at one another, both relieved and confused by what or who was it that dragged the creature. They then heard screeches and grunts of pain from outside the bus, all running to the window, trying to take a peak of what's going on outside. There stood in the middle of the fog was a a faded outline of a tall humanoid figure, surrounded by the creatures who looked ready to pounce on the silhouette.

     Silence fell upon the yard, not until one of the creature's were brave enough to jump first, only to be punched mid air and sent flying away from their view, drowned in the thickness of the fog. After the one was punched, the other started attacking too, it was hard for them to distinguish what was happening outside for the fog had clouded their vision, preventing them from witnessing the gnarly looking fight outside.

     They were seeing nothing, only hearing out-of-the-worldly screeches, thuds and thumps, the clattering of metal, and finally, a roar that sounded like a celebration of victory, showing the enemy who's bigger and stronger, that they should be feared.

      No one dared to speak a word, breaths held and eyes watering from not blinking. The fog had subsided, all looking stunned to see the familiar figure of Raven standing near where the violence between the unknown and rabid creatures took place. She was panting like she was just running, the faint light from the moon illuminated her adrenaline filled face, sweat from her neck and face reflecting the light.