14 – Wraiths
The Sinclair mansion was huge. I wished I had two extra pairs of eyes just so I could see all the details.
The corridors—dimly lit by bowling pin-shaped lamps made of mother of pearls—turned left and right like a maze. Dozens of wooden doors lined the hallway, each with a different design carved on them. Some doors were wide enough to fit a fire truck. Some were normal-sized. A few were just large enough to let a five year-old in.
Mei treaded gracefully ahead of me, our silent footfalls echoing eerily against the dark granite walls. I was about to ask her about the doors when we arrived into a brightly lit drawing room.
Like the rest of the mansion, the walls were made of dark, polished slabs of marbles. There were no decorations except for four renaissance oil paintings of noble-looking men and women at the rear of the spacious room. To my left was an old-fashioned brick fireplace where two grandfather chairs made of heavy dark wood and purple velvet-swathed cushions were situated. A magnificent crimson crystal chandelier hung from the ribbed, arched ceiling, illuminating the spacious room with a slightly ruddy hue.
In the center of the room was a set of bronze-framed cushioned chairs. Amyr sat there lazily, his feet propped on the solid black marble center table in front of him.
"Here she comes," he turned to Mei and me, a grin spreading across his strong face.
Standing in front of the tall glass windows was Archie—the silver-haired man who apparently was not Vincent's real Dad. He pushed the curtains with a gloved hand as if to check if someone was spying on us from the yard before giving me a slight nod, barely turning his head to my direction. His clothing and appearance reminded me of Alfred in The Batman animated series.
Vincent, like Rosario, was nowhere to be found.
Mei flopped beside Amyr, letting out a sigh. Before I could even follow her, I heard a low ominous growl from behind me. I pivoted, jumping back in panic. Then I saw him.
"Aramis, meet Byron Flynn," said Amyr from the sofa, sounding nonchalant.
It was a huge dog. And by huge, I mean not your average three hundred-pounder mutt. Byron Flynn had pointed ears, narrow slightly elongated snout and shaggy chestnut-colored fur except for the tip of his tail which was white. His tail was like a tree-feet feather duster. All in all, he looked like a fox—slender, sinewy and lithe—but the size of a full-grown Saint Bernard. Maybe even bigger.
Byron Flynn regarded me with big menacing amber eyes as he crouched low, baring a set of sharp canine teeth almost as big as paring knives. He advanced cautiously toward me, a deep rumble coming from his throat.
I wanted to run but it was as if my feet were superglued onto the carpeted floor.
"Relax," Amyr muttered from behind me. "He's just... getting to know you."
I froze, my breath hacking in my throat. I didn't know you had to get to know the food before you eat it. Surely, with the size of those choppers, Byron Flynn could easily gobble up my head and snap my body into two. As easy as cutting butter. If I was really lucky, maybe he would save my lower half for lunch.
Carefully, Byron Flynn sniffed the air and raised his head until his cold, clammy nose touched my chin.
I winced and let out a tiny "Eeep!"
And just when I thought he was over sniffing me, he let out an earsplitting bark that made my whole body tremble. The dog's breath smelled suspiciously of tuna fish.
Stumbling back, I glanced at Amyr and Mei who didn't seem to mind that I would be dog food in two seconds. "I think he doesn't like me," I muttered shakily.
"He doesn't like pretty much everyone," Amyr shrugged.
When I turned to face Byron Flynn again, he was crouching low, ready to pounce, his amber eyes glowing with pure hatred. I should've remembered to spray on some anti-psycho dog eu de parfum before going out.
"Guys?" I called out to them without tearing my eyes away from Byron Flynn. "I... think he's—"
Amyr scooted up from his seat, seemingly alarmed now. The dog roared and sprung to my direction.
"Run!" Amyr shouted.
Like I needed him to tell me that. I scrambled to my feet and sprinted out of the dog's way as fast as I could. My left shoe flew off my foot as I run like hell, heading for the huge wooden double doors leading to the front yard.
Oh God, Oh God. Oh God!
"What's wrong with him?" I heard Mei's tiny voice before it got drowned by the banging footfalls of Byron Flynn's paws against the floor.
With all the force I could muster, I flung the double doors open and darted out to the yard. I was panting and terrified out of my mind.
"Aramis! Don't!" Amyr yelled after me.
I didn't turn back to ask why. All I could think of was to put distance between me and the dog but that didn't seem possible. He was superfast. I wasn't.
My foot almost slid near the edge of the huge gaping hole just ten yards away from the porch before I skidded to an abrupt halt. As I skirted the hole sideways, Byron Flynn was already loping to my direction. He slowed down when he was just an arm's length away from me. He didn't lunge at once. Perhaps, he saw my predicament and was savoring his moment of triumph.
Behind me was a bottomless pit that led to God-knows-where, while in front of me was an abnormally large dog who wanted 'Filleted Aramis" for breakfast.
"That's... a... n-nice doggy," I murmured in a pathetic attempt to change his mind.
Amyr appeared at the front door with a hesitant look on his face. At first, he looked wary of going after me but seeing as he had no choice, he yelled "The heck with it!" before running across the front porch and to the yard.
Mei ran for the door, calling out to him from the porch's steps. "Amyr! Come back here! You know we're not allowed!"
Ignoring Mei, Amyr lowered his stance, ready to jump at Byron Flynn. Instead of attacking me though, the dog's ears pricked. Then he looked up at the sky and whined, lowering his head, tail falling in between his legs. All of a sudden, he let out a warning growl.
Amyr stopped in his tracks. "What is it, Flynn?" When he saw what made the dog scared, hesitation flashed on his face. "Oh, hell..." he muttered, wide-eyed.
Next thing I knew, he was already doing a mad dash to Byron Flynn. He grabbed the dog by the collar and tried to yank him back into the house with not much success. Byron Flynn thrashed wildly out of Amyr's grip, flashing his teeth and growling furiously.
"Come on, you stupid dog!" Amyr yelled angrily as he pushed and pulled the enormous dog. He might as well be trying to lift an elephant.
Turning around, I looked up and saw what made Amyr panic.
The sky was clear and blue except for the black lone cloud that seemed to be approaching us at a fast rate. As it got closer, I realized it was no cloud at all. It was a swarm of flying dark creatures. Like those that chased after me last night.
The creatures writhed away from the swarm, scattering in the air overhead. Ravaging wind ripped around us and it was howling with the shrill shrieks of the creatures.
They were back.
"W-what on earth are those?" I gasped.
"Let's go." Amyr tugged on my arm.
I couldn't move. Fear seemed to have turned my feet to stone. I couldn't tear my eyes off them.
"Wraiths." It was Mei who answered me, putting a hand on my shoulder. I was too terrified to even notice how she got there. "Stand back. This is going to get messy."
With that, she advanced, snapping her fingers before her left hand smoked and twitched awkwardly. It seemed to move on its own, twisting in all directions. The skin on it bulged and shifted as if some small creature was moving under it. A bone-like shell appeared and covered her wrist, down to her dainty fingertips which elongated and tapered until they looked like razor-sharp eight-inch needles.
With one quick leap, Mei shot up the air. Her raven hair and long black dress billowed against the yowling wind. Easily, she skewered a couple of wraiths that hovered too low.
Wraiths. Hundreds—no, thousands of wraiths in all shapes and sizes hovered some thirty feet overhead. Just looking at them made my nape prickle.
Most had two empty holes were their eyes should be. Some had none at all. A few tufts of hair stuck out from their lumpy, contorted heads. Their bodies were like black tattered cloaks that dissipated whenever they moved and reformed when they stayed still. When I looked too closely, I could see wriggling things—slick, worm-like protrusions the color of petrol—clinging to their bodies.
They floated in midair, waiting for the right opportunity to attack.
My head was throbbing and I felt faint for some reason.
"Whoa!" Amyr caught me on the waist just as I was about to drop to the ground. There was a wild look about his clear brown eyes as he looked up at the wraiths with a smile. "Smells awful, right? You'll get used to it in no time. But for now, could you look after Flynn for me?"
I was about to argue with him but he had already darted after Mei, his left hand smoking as he did. With just a blink of the eye, his hand transformed into a bulky set of claws more than twice the size of his ordinary hand. I stared at him stupidly for a while, watching him flex his huge gnarled fingers, wondering how on earth he could lift such a heavy-looking thing.
As the wraiths began to circle above us, they opened their mouths as wide as the stitches could stretch. There was a moment of expectant silence before the wraiths let out a chorus of sickening wails. The shrill, grating voices came in different pitches all at the same time, it made my teeth hurt. Then they swooped down on us. And all hell broke loose.
Byron Flynn charged to the left, leaping deftly in the air. He managed to reach two and snapped them in half with his teeth.
Because they were technically some kind of ghosts and were already dead, I thought they couldn't be touched, much less killed. Again. But as I saw Byron Flynn drop the lifeless bodies of wraiths on the ground in a crooked disarray, it just proved my theory wrong.
"Get back in the house!" Mei's tiny voice almost got drowned by the shrieks of the wraiths that dove over me.
Instinctively, I ducked and shielded my face with my hands. One of the wraiths clawed me on the shoulder. I stumbled to the ground, rolling over in pain. There was no time to wait for the pain to subside. Quickly, I looked up and realized that they were aiming for me again.
Scrambling up to my feet, I staggered to the front porch. The creatures kept lunging at me, knocking me over twice before I could reach the first step of the stairs.
At the door, Archie stood, casually eyeing at the commotion.
Some of the wraiths dove to my direction in speeds I could only imagine. But before they could even reach the porch, they crashed one by one against an invisible wall. A protective barrier of some sort, I guess. The creatures twitched as though they were being electrocuted. Then, their crumpled bodies dropped to the ground smoking.
"Aren't you going to help them?" I asked Archie.
With a gentle shake of his head, all he could give me was something close to a look of sympathy. "The Master clearly ordered not to go outside. They would be punished."
"What?" I couldn't breathe. "But—"
That was why Amyr looked hesitant to follow me.
I bit my lip. "There must be something I can do to help."
To my left, Amyr had taken the battle a little deeper into the woods. Several wraiths circled him. He snatched one on the neck, bashed it hard on a nearby tree and let go when he was sure it was dead. Tensing his legs, he started to run with inhuman speed, capering off the ground at the right moment, bashing his hammer-like claw at the hovering creatures in his way.
Each blow was so forceful the old trees around him shook. More dead wraiths with smashed heads fell onto the ground.
Not too far away from the porch, Mei was in the air, swiftly stabbing tens of wraiths like a fencer would. A wraith was still skewered like a shish-kebab on her talons when she landed on one of the branches of the ancient willow tree. She shook it off her claw and turned to my direction.
"Aramis! Get Byron Flynn inside the house! There are too many!" she shouted.
As I was about to ask how on earth I could do that, several creatures swarmed on her. Mei gracefully danced and parried every blow. But even with her speed, she couldn't possibly dodge all the attacks thrown at her, being that heavily outnumbered and all.
A tiny lock of Mei's raven hair flitted to the ground. One of the wraiths waved a few more strands of black hair in its gnarled hands. And the lucky creature who did it seemed to sneer at her.
Seeing that, she stood on the tip of a branch, running her remaining normal hand through her hair. For a split second, she stared at the unevenly cut strands. When she lifted her gaze, a warm smile played on her lips.
"You will pay for that," she trilled happily. Then she kicked off the branch and charged the wraith goading her. She stabbed blindly at the certain wraith, not stopping until it was ripped to pieces.
Sweet but scary.
I looked around, searching for Byron Flynn. The dog was having his own battle not too far from Amyr.
"Okay, Aramis! You can do this!"
I took a few deep breaths before plunging back into the chaos. The grating noise and the turbulence were even louder outside the barrier. It made my head pound violently, making me stumble on my way.
Steadying my gait, I ran to Byron Flynn's side, ducking as more wraiths pounced over my head. One of them crashed into me. I was smashed against a tree and fell head first to the ground.
While trying to shake off the daze, I saw a huge wraith looming over me. It was gigantic, about twenty feet tall and the largest of them all. The worst part of being faced with a giant wraith: all of its features were magnified.
I could literally see the worm-like creatures clinging on its body. They were like thousands of gnashing centipedes smothered with black slime. It smelled like a decomposing animal. From the middle of its bristly head, slightly angled to the right, a huge calf-eye glowered at me.
What word was I looking for?
"Run!" Amyr yelled, not too far to my left.
Uh... yeah. That was it.
I sprinted, not minding the gnarled roots of the trees grazing my limbs as I stumbled against them. The wind whipped angrily on my face and I couldn't see where I was going.
Byron Flynn's loud roar echoed from my left.
I veered towards the sound until I found him. He was smashing his body against an ancient spruce to shake off the wraiths that clutched all over him. There must be a dozen of them. The dog bucked and gnashed on the creatures but they were overwhelming him in numbers. He lashed his huge foxy tail and knocked over several of them but they just kept getting up.
I jogged to the dog, ignoring the exhaustion and the pain all over my body. Without thinking, I lunged at Byron Flynn's side and tried to pry a wraith from him. My hand just passed through the wraith's body and it dispersed like mist.
The smell of something rotten wafted to my nose. My stomach lurched but I tried again, grabbing it with both hands. Still, I couldn't even hold it.
The wraith turned its eyeless face at me and shrieked. It flailed its a skeletal arm against me.
I was sent flying a few meters before I hit the ground. Blood trickled from my nose. I wiped it on the back of my hand and got up.
How come Amyr and Mei can kill wraiths but I can't?
Find it. The gentle calming voice of a woman reverberated inside my head.
I just about back-flipped when I heard that voice again. Especially now that I knew it was the Bind. It was an ally. Not an enemy.
Find what? I asked the voice.
Instead of answering with words, she showed me flashes of images—the insignia on my neck, my Mom smiling at me, the hidden diary inside the old cupboard in Dad's house and finally, Vincent's metallic gray eyes.
Next thing I knew, I was standing in the midst of the afterlife paradise once more. Red flowers were strewn at my feet and all over the place. In front of me, I saw a lone white flower that glittered against the red sun. When I picked it up, it brought me back to reality in an instant.
I felt my heart beating louder, more vigorously, accelerating beyond normal limits. It never did that before. Not since I had woken up in the hospital.
I was surprised to see the white flower still in my hand. But slowly, it started disintegrating, glittering as it was blown by the wind. Suddenly, my left hand started to twitch uncontrollably. It burned. A seething, raging pain spread from my wrist, down. My fingers bent awkwardly in different directions. Bones snapped and shifted under my skin until my knuckle bones poked right out of my flesh and started crawling all over my left hand, covering it with a stark-white spiky shell. From my fingertips, the shell grew longer until they transformed into razor-sharp claws.
After managing to get up, I ran to back to Byron Flynn's side and tried to snatch a wraith with my claw. I grabbed it by the neck. As I tightened my grip, it felt mushy and slick inside my newly formed claw. The sound of snapping bones made me cringe.
The creature slackened, its head lolling backward. Once I let it go, the wraith fell lifelessly onto the ground.
I clawed on one wraith after the other, prying them off Byron Flynn as fast as I could. Every time I snatched and threw a wraith, the dog automatically caught it with his mouth and tore it to pieces.
Then I noticed that Byron Flynn was starting to follow me. I snatched more wraiths and threw it to him one by one while jogging toward the house.
"That's it. Come here," I encouraged him.
I wiggled a dead wraith and threw. He caught it again. If this kept up, I might just succeed on getting the dog to return to the house.
We were halfway back when the giant wraith found us. It screeched at us, revealing the maggot-filled insides of his mouth. Unlike the other wraiths, its mouth didn't look like it had been stitched on by a three year-old. But it sure smelled a hell lot worse.
Byron Flynn charged the Lord of the Wraiths and sank his teeth into one of its contorted arms. The wraith flailed and thrashed, sending the dog flying across the yard. As Byron Flynn was trying to get up with a pronounced limp, the monster lunged after him again.
I raced the wraith to the dog. With some luck, I got close to the creature and caught its arm before it could split Byron Flynn's head open. The blow shoved me backward, my feet burrowing into the ground. I slammed against a tree, my back hitting the trunk hard. My ears were ringing as I dropped onto my knees.
Before the creature could pounce again, Amyr jumped lithely onto its shoulder and clobbered his claw witless on its ugly head.
The wraith shrieked and hit Amyr with one of its writhing tentacle-like limbs. The impact sent him flying backwards. He did a flip in midair and landed on all fours, turning to wink at me before kicking off the ground to tackle the enormous wraith again.
Something told me that he was enjoying it.
I coughed. Blood sputtered from my mouth. I fell limply to the ground, face first. Only then did I begin to feel it in my chest, radiating to my back. My body twitched awkwardly with every labored breath. And the pain; I couldn't even begin to describe it. The creature must have smacked me a bit too hard.
I squirmed, mist forming in my eyes. Desperately, I gasped for air. The unimaginable stabbing pain worsened.
I coughed again. More blood came out.
Byron Flynn gnawed on a couple of wraiths that strayed too close to me. Once they were all dispatched, he nudged my flaccid arm with his wet nose. He circled twice and curled around me, whining.
"G-good boy," I choked out in a raspy voice. If only I could move, I would give him a pat on the head.
My surroundings were getting hazier. Must be the lack of air. With stupor overwhelming me, I stayed on the ground, blankly watching Amyr beat the crap out of the giant wraith.
Damn, was he good.