The Desolation of Light

Chapter 6~ Death in Shadows

                                        Chapter 6~ Death in Shadows

       

        "Evelyn! Evelyn, can you hear me?" Wite was shaking her by the shoulders, not violently, but enough to jolt her back to consciousness. The fall had knocked the air from her lungs and she could feel pain lace up her back as she sat up. Yells and the sound of swords clashing echoed down from overhead.

          She grimaced and put a hand to her head, feeling the hot sticky trail of blood streaking down from her forehead. What had happened?

          "Evelyn, get up, quickly. They're closing in on us." That's when she realized Wite was standing above her with the torch in one hand and his sword in the other. The clothes covering his shoulder had been torn and she could see the reddish gleam of blood on his skin. He had been wounded..

          "Nnh.." She grimaced as she stood when the pain traveled down her back to her legs, but she wasn't going to make Wite fight on his own.

        In the dim torchlight, the most she could tell was that they had fallen down into some abandoned mine shaft, and out of the darkness-- darkness so thick that the torchlight could barely even touch it-- was dozens of sinister, crimson eyes. They watched her and Wite from the shadows with pure malicious. They wanted death. They wanted to tear through flesh and rip open every frantically beating heart. She could feel it in their gaze.

          She fumbled to draw her sword as one of the beings slithered closer. Then she whirled so she and Wite were back to back. The torchlight, kept a protective circle around them.

          A soft hiss came from the darkness, followed by even more of the creatures creeping closer. Her heartbeat increased to a rapid roar in her ears. They were going to die.

          "Evelyn…" Wite brushed her hand with his, sparing a briefly glance back at her. "If… If we die down here and this is the last time I ever get to speak to you..."

          "No…" She held back the tears that sprang to her eyes at the thought. They couldn't die down here, they just couldn't. They had to make it out. "Wite, please, don't say that."

          "No, please just listen." He paused to brandish his torch as one of the creatures made a darting lunge for them. The moment the firelight fell on it, it gave an ear-splitting screech of pain and sank backwards into the darkness. Evelyn gripped her sword tighter in her hand. "If this is the last time I ever say anything to you, I just want you to know that… that… I…--"

          He broke off as a crash of wood cascaded down upon them, slamming into her and Wite just as a deafening scream split the air.

          "No! Smidge!"

          Something hit the ground next to her and Evelyn screamed, gagging as Smidge's decaying body came into view. His skin was melting from the bone, pooling into a pile of charred blackened meat and leaving behind bubbling sinews and gore. He was clearly dead from the deep, bloody slashes across his neck and chest, but there was no time to investigate further.

          Wite gave a cry of pain as the heavy wooden beam crashed down on top of him and the torch fell from his hands.

          Then in a frenzy of delighted hisses the Shadows rushed forward at them and Evelyn was buried beneath the fray. Red eyes flashed before her at every turn of her head, and the sword in her hand became a blur. She knew she was being reckless, swinging and slashing with wild desperation, but she couldn't let a single one of them bite her, or she'd be melting into a pile of ashes next to Smidge.