Favourite Attendant

May jumped off the cold stone floor, her heart pounding. She maneuvered into a formation to protect Murphy, her stance tall but visibly shaking, her arms splayed wide as a living dam to guard him.

Her eyes flicked toward the Chimera, dragging itself toward them deliberately and with grim determination. It wasn't that fear was a stranger; she'd tasted it, felt its grip. But this? This was a dread-raw, primal, and suffocating experience.

"Stay back!"

She barked, voice wobbling. Her knees threatened to buckle, her fingers itched as though she wanted to flee.

But she didn't. She couldn't.

The soft, sculpted walls of the cave undulated nervously around her. Panic was contagious. Clumsily, a few of the bloodied survivors yelped and scrabbled away, only to lose control of their limbs somewhere in their midst.

A few others curled up in a fetal position, arms clasping their knees, which had become clawed shells. One woman with an arm twisted collapsed next to a small and bleary-eyed girl, not more than six. She hugged the child tight to her bosom with frail but fierce tenderness.

"Close your eyes."

Murmured the mother, whose voice had broken.

"Cover your ears."

The little girl whimpered, her lips quivering.

"Is it happening again?"

She croaked, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes like shards of broken glass.

"No, no, no,"

Her mother begged, cradling her.

"Mommy's going to wake you up from this nightmare soon. Just hang on, sweetheart. Just hang on."

Their conversation filled the cave with an intolerable silence, a silence that presaged destruction.

Derrion, who was watching now with sick delight, sneered. He was the rust in a new wound. His eyes zeroed in on May.

"You deserve to be taught a lesson, you little bitch."

He spat in disgust. There was no remorse. No shame. Only cruel satisfaction.

Unaware of what May had experienced, Murphy called out.

"May?"

He said, his voice low and confused.

"What's going on?"

She didn't break her stance. She never took her eyes off the Chimera.

"Don't you worry, brother."

She said, trying to appear brave, though her throat shook.

"You'll always be safe so long as your sister is here for you."

Its breath was heavy in the cave, and its footsteps ponderous. May stepped forward another half step, chin tilted in brittle defiance.

"Stop."

She demanded.

"I know you understand me. You need me. I'm important to you, your cause."

"The very least you can do is not to harm him. He won't cause trouble. I swear it."

Derrion huffed behind her, arms crossed, smile stiff.

"As expected of the bitch and her worthless brother."

He said, for nearby ears.

"One of them thinks she is some martyr, and the other one is just crawling around like a broken maggot. Pathetic."

Murphy's fingers traced on the hard floor. He was blind, in the usual meaning of the term, but he could sense the vibrations—whispers of movement through the rock. His toes tingled where they touched the tremors.

"What an odd way to see."

He whispered.

He focused, mapping the world through sound and shaking. A monochrome vision exploded into his awareness, like charcoal spread on fog.

He found May first, her silhouette fierce, but taut. Then the Chimera: massive, monstrous.

Its tri-heads bobbing. With the maw of the lion snorted, the tongue of the serpent licking the air, and the eyeless skull twitching like it was sniffing fate.

Fear swallowed Murphy whole. Reflexes kicked in. He scrabbled backward, paws scratching at the muddy base.

Derrion erupted in laughter.

"Look at them! One howls for an audience, the other scampers for his life. What a performance."

Then Murphy hesitated, not from the sarcastic remarks, but something stabbed through his chest, not physical, not immediate, but profound.

"Was this Murphy's fear? Was this despair inherited?"

"The agony of caring for a sibling … and letting them down. It rang within him like a bell that had been struck far too hard."

And in this hole were about thirty bodies. All broken, battered, breathing fear. And the Chimera marched as if it were death incarnate.

May's eyes widened. She couldn't fail, not again. Desperation flared.

She lifted a shaking hand to her throat.

"Stop!"

She cried.

"Don't come forward, or I'll kill myself! You know you can't afford to lose me. Not now."

The Chimera froze. Its heads swiveled together in an unnatural synchrony. Silence spread like ink.

All thirty watched.

A man grumbled from the rear of the crowd, tall, heavy-bearded, with eyes lined as though from survival.

George, another hunter. His coat was worn, but clean, patched with leather, and he was skilled in his craft. He shook his head slowly.

"No sudden movements."

He whispered to no one in particular, sighing.

"May's bluff is brave, but Newborn chimeras are built for control. They don't play fair."

Murphy's heart galloped. He didn't know how to feel, pain, terror, guilt. May was doing everything for him. Yet he couldn't remember her face. Just her voice, her warmth. She risked herself. She told him she'd protect him.

Would he have done likewise" for his Nairobi?

Of course. Of course, he would.

But May? She was a stranger he was somehow bound to. And that ripped something up inside him.

Then the Chimera sprang forward, in a blur of action.

Too fast.

May didn't scream at all, just gasped as its claw gripped her wrist and sent her flying to the side. She collided with the wall, blood spurting out of her mouth.

Murphy's breath caught.

Then the Chimera turned.

It was upon him.

Murphy couldn't move. He was blind and paralyzed from fear. His back was drenched with cold sweat, as though it was being soaked with poison.

The beast loomed. Every head appraising him, lion sniffing, serpent coiling, skull clacking.

May's smothered howl came from the wall, and there was coughing and choking.

"Don't… don't harm him…"

She wheezed through failing vocal cords.

Murphy sensed the creature moving around him. Round and round. Its limbs scraping, heads analyzing. Until...

WHACK.

A clawed leg snapped toward Murphy's shin.

Pain exploded.

He cried out, a guttural, helpless wail.

"M**********R!"

The beast paused, listening.

Then, without a word, it slinked back, retreating to its post as if satisfied.

No one moved.

They simply watched it go.

May collapsed gently to the stone, her breath shallow and tinged with blood. Her trembling hand reached out, and in her eyes glimmered a quiet refusal, to surrender, to give in, to let him be broken. And then… she collapsed.

George remained silent, shaking his head once more.

"As expected..."

He murmured.

"Crowd control"