Dissonant

The crypt was far too quiet.

The loud hissing sounds that had been audible all around the underground complex yesterday were absent now. Had the boiler stopped? Or… did the wall crashing down break something in the system?

It didn’t matter though, anyway. It wasn’t like I was planning on coming back here anytime soon.

The lights above me flickered on and off as I walked from room to room, those strange white panels that blared down like the sun. I wished I had brought a lantern, though. It would’ve made exploring the underground laboratory so much easier.

Instead I just had to rely on the constantly flashing lights, and the soft shine of the flask in their absence.

I staggered as a throbbing pain assaulted my head. Every time the lights turned back on, they felt like they were blinding me. As good as my night vision seemed to have become, it wasn’t useful unless the lighting of the crypt stabilised.

I had to escape from here.

I hurried forward, less worried about the noise my frantic footsteps were making, and more focused on getting to a place I could rest. Actually rest, not the fitful sleep I’d had while hiding in the researcher’s room, the sleep that had left my body aching in more ways than one. It wasn’t safe for me here, in the crypt. Not until I could figure out what had happened to the monster.

My foot caught on a fallen shelf and I stumbled, almost toppling over.

I needed to concentrate. 

Shielding my eyes from the bright lights above, I picked up the pace, ducking through more doors and corridors on the way to the exit. I had to be close, right? It felt like I had been down here for so long, and I was starting to miss the sunlight. 

What would I even do when I got out of the crypt? 

I didn’t have the cloak, and I couldn’t hide my ears and tail with magic like my mother could. My only option was to either stay in the forest, or somehow get to Colette’s place without being seen.

Or… wait until I turned back. And who knew how long that would take.

Not that I wanted to turn back, anyway.

It wasn’t just that I needed to get back to Colette’s place for my cloak, either. I needed something to eat, too, considering how empty my stomach felt. If I had to, I could eat some fruits and berries from the forest just to get me through the day, but it wasn’t as if I was that desperate yet.

The lights flashed a blinding white as I entered the next room, before completely shutting off.

I halted, trying to get my bearings in the pitch black room. As much as the flask at my belt might have been glowing, it still didn’t provide very much light. If the rest of the crypt had been pitch black, then sure, my eyes would’ve adjusted and I’d be able to make my way through without any problems.

But after the intense bright white of the lights down here, the shine of the flask just wasn’t enough.

I nervously stepped forward, hoping that my eyes would soon adjust.

As I took that step, however, my shins bumped into something metallic. Another fallen shelf? It clattered forward, landing on the floor with a loud crash that made my ears ring.

I clutched my head as the throbbing returned, struggling to stay upright.

Frustratingly, the lights still hadn’t come back on, and as I regained my footing, the soft shine of the flask started to illuminate the surrounding walls. What had I tripped over? I couldn’t quite make it out in the darkness, I couldn’t tell where its edges were, where it was safe to walk. 

And then something on the other side of the room caught my eye.

A clump of what seemed like stars glowed in the corner of the room, the tiny dots of light reflecting off the surrounding walls. The same glow as the black liquid in the flask… It slowly stirred, the stars sparkling as it rose. I stared at it, my swirling thoughts skidding to a halt at the sight of the twinkling mass.

The lights in the room suddenly flicked back on. I covered my eyes, recoiling back a few steps. It was far, far too bright in here. I needed to get back outside.

As I lowered my hand, I found the monster standing at the other side of the room, its featureless face staring at me.

My blood ran cold. Of course the fog wouldn’t have killed it, my father only said that it drove off monsters. But this crypt was the monster’s home — it had nowhere else to go.

The monster took a heavy, thunderous step towards me. While it didn’t seem quite as big as before, it still towered over me. And I was in no shape to fight.

It took another step, crushing a half-destroyed wooden cabinet with its foot with a loud crunching, snapping noise. I needed to run, I needed to get as far away from the monster as I could, but still my legs refused to move.

It took a third step, raising its long, thin neck and letting out a guttural howl that shook the walls, sending me stumbling back and forcing my furry ears down flat in an attempt to block it out. 

Would I even be able to escape from this beast? 

My foot collided with something on the floor behind me as I backpedalled, and I tumbled backwards, falling onto my rear. Was there anything I could even do? It was huge, still, and it was fast, and I had no idea where I was going, and I was sore, and at that moment I couldn’t even move... And the monster didn’t seem to care, either — it kept lumbering towards me, showing no signs of stopping or slowing its approach.

I needed to run.

The black beast had almost reached me, one of its long, inky black legs landing on the floor just an arm’s length away from me, startling me out of my stupor and finally getting me to move. I pushed myself away from the collapsed shelf next to me, scrambling away on my hands and knees. As I did so, another heavy foot slammed down at the spot where I had just been, crushing the shelf with a metallic-sounding creak and a painful squeak as it scraped along the floor. 

The monster lost its footing, then, sliding with the shelf and awkwardly twisting one of its legs to regain its balance. As it did I clambered to my feet and kept retreating, trying to scan around the room for a way out when my tail brushed against the wall behind me.

I had nowhere else to go.

The way out was on the other side of the room. For me to escape, I’d have to somehow get past the monster. The monster that was still approaching me, still staring at me with its blank face, dripping with the strange black liquid. 

The black beast raised one of its front legs, winding back for another strike. It was huge, it was bearing down on me, and I had only a moment to dodge. How could I avoid this? Where could I go? 

…Karla taught me exactly how to avoid an attack like this. In a moment of clarity, as I watched the beast begin to swing its front leg, her teachings popped back into my mind.

“The villagers are all predictable,” she had said, making exaggerated motions as she swung one of her daggers. “They don’t switch things up at all, they don’t try to fake you out. They just swing at you like a monster.”

I was close to the wall, and the monster was swinging its right leg towards my left side. I dashed to my right out of the way of the swing, a few drops of the black fluid splashing across my body. The beast was strong, but just as Karla had said, predictable. Its foot collided with the wall just behind where I had been standing, this time making another crunching noise as it did, one that sent shivers down my spine when I imagined failing to dodge.

It was a good thing the monster was predictable, otherwise I stood absolutely no chance of surviving this encounter.

As I shot to the other side of the room, I chanced a glance back at where I had been standing. The monster’s leg had punched a hole through the wall, and it struggled, shaking back and forth as it tried to wrestle it out.

The way was open. This would be the only chance I’d have to escape from the monster.

I ran forward as fast as my aching legs would take me, bounding over the trail of liquid that had dripped in the wake of the monster’s approach. As I rushed through the door and into the next room, the harsh sound of shearing metal echoed out behind me, stabbing into my ears.

That had given me time, but not much.

Luckily, the room I had just entered looked familiar to me. A tall mirror was mounted on the wall, surrounded by a strange pattern at the edges. Just a short distance away from it, a small switch had been set. And across the other side of the room were the tattered remains of a few wooden cabinets.

This was the room that Alvin and I stumbled into, the first time we were here.

I was nearly out!

I kept running, dashing through doors towards the exit. Even now in its slightly shrunken state, the monster looked to be much too big to fit through the small entrance to the tunnel. So as long as I could make it to the cave, I’d be home free.

I stumbled, almost losing my footing as my shoes collided with the fallen door that marked the start of the crypt. Just a little bit further… I pushed myself forwards, trying to keep up the pace through the rocky tunnel even though my legs didn’t want to cooperate any longer. 

Soon enough, a pinprick of sunlight became visible in the distance of the winding underground path. I could faintly hear the thunderous footsteps of the monster behind me, slowly getting closer. As I reached the entrance, I hunched down, crouching through the last little stretch of the tunnel to freedom.

Just a few more steps, and…

As the dirt underneath my feet gave way to soft grass, I breathed a sigh of relief. I was out. I stumbled a few steps forward before my legs gave out from under me, and I fell down onto the grassy woodland floor.

I had escaped the crypt. I had avoided the fog, and I had escaped from the monster. I rolled onto my back, breathing heavily as I stared up at the canopy of the trees above me. My legs felt like they were burning, and my head throbbed from the noise of my laboured breathing. 

I was safe now… At least I thought so.

As my breathing stabilised, the sounds of the forest began to filter into my ears. The scurrying of woodland creatures rushing about, the rustling of the leaves on the swaying branches above me, they were all comforting noises after the chaos that was the underground laboratory.

But still, behind all that, a thunderous noise still rang out from the tunnel. Hurried, pounding footsteps of something heavy. Surely the monster wouldn’t follow me out here, right? It wasn’t small enough to fit through the tunnel, so it would be stuck in there.

I lifted myself back upright as the rumbling grew louder, the footsteps getting closer and closer. What if it could escape? It was a little bit smaller now… So what if it could fit through the tunnel? What if I had just… let the monster out?

The thunderous sound of the running monster kept growing louder, until… a loud thump echoed out from the entrance to the tunnel, and the hillside above began to give way.

A cloud of dirt burst forth from the tunnel as the ground collapsed in on the entrance, sending an avalanche of dirt down the hillside towards me. The tunnel just caved in… didn’t it? The monster had sounded like it collided with the roof, making the entrance collapse and… sealing away the crypt.

Was the monster still inside? I watched as the dust slowly settled, my worst fears being realised as a long, black neck stretched above the falling cloud of dirt.

It was out.

The outside of the monster had been caked with dirt, the brown clumps soaking into the liquid body of the beast. It glanced around, looking at the surrounding trees before its gaze firmly settled on… me.

I turned tail and ran.

What was I supposed to do? I pelted through the forest as fast as I could, dodging and ducking between trees, my sore legs and lungs burning in protest. There was no way I’d be able to fend off the monster since I didn’t have any weapons. My only hope of fighting it was… the fireball I had somehow managed to conjure the first time I had seen the monster, the fireball I’d thrown at it during my first-ever transformation into this form.

And I had no idea how I did that.

I didn’t have any weapons. Well… I had my two wooden practice daggers, but they were useless against a monster. They didn’t have a sharp edge, and they were light enough that you could hit someone with them at full force without doing any damage.

In a real fight, they were worthless.

Another loud crash echoed out behind me, accompanied by rustling leaves and the sound of cracking wood. What had the monster done? I didn’t dare chance a look behind me, in case it was too close for me to escape from.

If I couldn’t fight the monster… who could? The mercenaries were gone now, and the village was so peaceful that barely anyone there had any proper fighting experience, especially against a monster. Maybe one of the adults did, but it was a gamble no matter what.

In the distance in front of me, between the trees, I caught a glimpse of the houses sitting at the edge of the village. I was… leading the monster right to the village. Right to where everyone else lived.

But there was no other choice. I couldn’t escape from the monster on my own, it was just far too fast. My only option was to lead it to someone that could fight against it, and have them defeat it.

At that point, I remembered what my father had said the first time he’d talked to me about the monster.

“Besides, you don’t even kill these things. Best that anyone here’d be able to do is drive it off.”

I broke through the line of trees, finally making it into the village. I had to find someone, one of the adults. Someone who had fighting experience. That was the only way the monster could be driven away.

I screamed for help.

Right as my voice rang out from my throat, my foot collided with a rock that was jutting up out of the ground. I fell forward, my exhausted body crying out in pain as the momentum of my sprint sent me tumbling across the ground. 

As I strained to lift myself upright, the thunderous footsteps of the monster kept getting closer. I glanced back towards the edge of the forest, and saw it galloping towards me at full tilt, its head turned towards me as if exclusively focused on me.

I had to keep running, I had to get up off the ground and keep going, but… I had so little strength in my arms that I couldn’t lift myself upright.

What was I supposed to do? Was I going to be trampled by this monster? As it got closer and closer, it began to slow down, its gaze seeming to pierce right through me despite its featureless face.

It halted just in front of me, raising its long neck and letting out a howl that grated on my ears like a blade. I collapsed back onto the ground as my head throbbed once more, my arms struggling as I tried to lift myself up again. Looking up at the monster, I watched it raise its front leg in the same way it had before, getting ready to swing at me once more.

Only this time, I didn’t have the strength to move out of the way.

This black beast, this monster… it really wanted me dead, didn’t it?

As the monster brought its leg down onto me, I flinched, looking away and closing my eyes. But… the impact I was expecting to feel never came. Instead, as a loud crashing sound rang out just over my head, I felt a few splashes of liquid spray across my face and my clothes.

I opened my eyes, wondering what had happened.

Standing just in front of me, holding a large broadsword that had been stained with the black liquid of the monster, was my father.

“...Dad?” I mumbled.

He glanced back at me for not even a moment, keeping his attention locked on the lumbering beast.

“Get back!”