Darkfall: Shadows of the Deep, page 15
‘Max!’ he shouted.
‘You’re alive?’ the Shadowhand responded in obvious surprise. ‘Where’s the lyshen?’
‘Help me!’ Jack shot back in panic.
‘Where is it?’ Max insisted.
‘Down there.’
Jack saw Max look past him and his eyes then widened. ‘It survived the fall?’
‘Apparently so.’
‘Where’s it going?’
‘Max!’ Jack snapped. ‘Can you just help me first?!’
Max studied the wall. Jack was too far down for Max to simply reach over and take his hand, but Jack desperately needed help—his fingers and arms were on fire. He dug the toes of his feet into the wall as best he could, but it didn’t help much.
Max pointed down. ‘Can you reach that rock?’ he asked.
Jack looked to where the Shadowhand was gesturing. The rock in question, which jutted out from the face of the earth wall, was up to Jack’s left. He tried to reach out an arm, but had to quickly pull it back.
‘It’s too far,’ he shouted back.
‘Use your feet to push off,’ Max said. ‘Jump up towards it.’
Jack looked up at the rock. There’s no way. He shook his head. ‘I don’t think I can.’
‘If you don’t,’ Max replied, ‘then you fall and die.’
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
While Jack knew Max was right, he still didn’t like it. But it was his only chance. He took a breath to calm the panic threatening to take hold. Keeping his eyes focused on the rock, which was less than a foot away, Jack tried to visualise the leap. The distance wasn’t huge, but he didn’t have a great hold on the outcropping, and getting the height needed from pushing off the wall would be extremely difficult.
He drew in another breath and held it.
Jack bent his knees, pushed his toes deeper into the wall… then leapt.
He reached his arms up desperately, and a split-second later Jack’s hands found the rock. Though his fingers slipped slightly, he managed to maintain his hold; his body dangled for a moment before Jack again pushed his feet into the cliff face.
Thank God!
‘Well done!’ Max called down. ‘Now, there is a root just above you, and the section of the wall above that has lots of footholds. Look, just a little farther to your left, can you see?’
After taking a moment to breathe, Jack looked up and saw the route. Considering the leap he had just made, he felt the rest of the climb would be much easier, so he wasted no time in starting. He grabbed hold of the roots, as Max had suggested, before taking a moment to make sure they would support him. He then continued up. His arms and legs ached, but the closer Jack got to the top, the more he began to relax. Max reached down an arm, which Jack was eventually able to take, and after a bit of effort he was heaved up over the lip of the plateau above. He rolled over to his back, gasping for air, thankful for the grassy ground beneath him once more.
‘Thank Christ,’ he uttered between panting breaths.
Max was still peering down over the edge. ‘Where is it going?’ he asked.
After taking a few more moments to recover, Jack rolled over again and looked down to the beach below. The lyshen made its way across the rocky ground under the moonlight. It moved gingerly, but still with surprising quickness as it carried on in a north-western direction while keeping adjacent to the cliff. But Jack was confused… there was nowhere for it to go.
The only thing ahead of it was the point where the River Esk cut into the town, and the two piers jutted out into the sea with multiple boats stationed between them. The lyshen would reach the piers, then come to a point where it could either follow the river back into town, or try to cross it. But there was no bridge that far out.
The lyshen reached the intersection and paused. After a few moments, it headed up the pier.
‘There’s nowhere else for it left to go,’ Jack said. ‘Unless it’s going to swim.’
‘Lyshens don’t do well in water,’ Max told him. ‘They’re too heavy. Their claws are good for ripping flesh, not paddling.’
The two men continued to watch in confusion. ‘Wait,’ Jack said as a thought occurred to him. ‘Is it going to jump onto the boats and keep feeding?’
Of the many boats that were anchored within the arms of the piers, some were lit with lamps, showing small crews on board. Jack knew some sailors slept in their vessels at night, and if the lyshen could leap across to one of those, its prey would be trapped.
The beast soon reached a point where the pier curved and was a bit closer to its western counterpart. There were two boats roughly in line with that point, both of them smaller ships. The lyshen paused, backed up, then ran forward and leapt. Its movements weren’t graceful, but it managed to land on the deck of the closest small ship, stumbling and falling as it landed. It quickly scrambled back up, and it ran again, making another mighty jump. The few men on the boat barely had enough time to emerge from the doghouse enclosure before the creature had jumped from their vessel.
The lyshen’s landing on the next ship was just as clumsy as the first, but that boat was a larger one. There were men on the deck, and they’d heard the commotion and watched the creature jump towards them. After landing, the monster ran forward and swung a claw, easily decapitating one of the fishermen.
This is it, Jack thought, it’s going to feed.
However, instead of feasting, the lyshen carried on and leapt yet again, this time aiming for the other pier. It was a much farther leap, and the pier was a bit higher up, so at first it looked like the lyshen wasn’t going to make it. However, Jack soon realised it had been aiming for a ladder, which ran up from the sea to the top of the pier. Though the monster was too big to use the ladder gracefully, the beast was able to snag its feet on the metal rungs and use its claws to dig into the wall. It then quickly scrambled to the top. Once up, it continued to run down the other pier and towards the shore.
‘I don’t understand,’ Jack said as they watched it move up the beach, growing smaller and smaller in their view.
‘It really wants to continue up the coast,’ Max said. ‘I don’t understand why. It could have just headed south. There were no obstructions that way and it could have just kept going. But it didn’t.’ He paused for a moment. ‘It’s heading somewhere specific.’
‘Where?’ Jack asked.
Max could only shrug. ‘I don’t know.’
Jack pondered on it. ‘Isn’t Kettleness that way, north along the coast?’
‘It is.’
‘Seems to be too much of a coincidence, don’t you think?’
‘Possibly,’ Max said. ‘Though there is a village called Sandsend a few miles before it. If the lyshen hits that town first, there are going to be a lot more dead bodies.’
‘Do we go after it?’
Max hesitated. ‘We’ll never catch it, but yes, we do need to follow. Everything points to Kettleness, so that’s where we need to head.’
‘And if the lyshen is actually going somewhere else?’ Jack asked as the creature finally became lost to the darkness of the night.
‘Then we’ll have done all we can,’ Max said.
‘Fine,’ Jack replied, finally feeling his strength return. ‘Then let’s go.’
However, Max put a hand to his chest. ‘I need to be truthful with you,’ he said.
‘How so?’
A pause. ‘When I saw you standing here with the monster running towards you, I didn’t come back here to save you. I was on my way to the steps. That’s what the mission dictated—that was what you should have done when you had the chance.’
Jack considered his words. ‘You sound angry that I came back to save you.’
‘It was a mistake,’ Max said. ‘Don’t misunderstand, I appreciate that I’m standing here because of you. So… thank you for that. But it all could have gone wrong very easily. If we both died, then we’d have failed.’
‘But we’re both alive.’
‘By luck,’ Max stated. ‘Again, I’m impressed with what you did here. But it was dangerous. And, again, I want to be clear that I wasn’t returning the favour when I came back. I only did it because I saw both you and the lyshen go over the edge. I needed to see what happened. Before that, I had no intention of returning.’
Jack just nodded. ‘Fine. You’ve made that abundantly clear. You were going to leave me for dead. What’s the point you’re trying to make?’
‘I want to make sure you are comfortable with the situation.’
‘What situation?’
‘Between us. That you don’t expect me to put your life above what we need to do.’
‘Yes,’ Jack snapped. ‘I’m fine with it.’
He quickly realised, however, that he wasn’t fine with it. Back when he was struggling for his life hanging from the cliff, Jack didn’t have the time to question where Max was. But… being told he’d been left to die didn’t sit well with him. Maybe he’d subconsciously expected more from a man he’d tried to save—and hoped his life was worth a little more than it had been when working with the Deathborn.
Maybe, despite what he’d told himself since Samuel’s death, Jack was actually seeking something to live for.
‘Good,’ Max replied after studying Jack’s face. ‘Then let’s go. We need to get our horses. Kettleness awaits.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Twin sisters, Sara and Lemmy, sat on the beach. The night was cool, but the fire they had going helped ward off the chill.
Sara listened as her sister talked about how difficult her week had been, and how good it was to get out of the house for a few hours. The sisters tried to make time for each other at least one evening every couple of weeks; they usually chose to spend some time out on the beach. It was a place they always used to play together as children.
The sand beneath them was relatively dry, but they had still set a blanket down.
As she listened, Sara absentmindedly dug the toe of her boot into the sand and shifted it around. The clear night sky above them made it a perfect evening for a catch up. Sara always looked forward to seeing her sister—talking with Lemmy soothed her soul without fail. She didn’t need to ask if Lemmy got the same from them, because they were twins… Sara just knew.
‘So how are things with you?’ Lemmy asked.
Sara just shrugged. ‘Life in Sandsend is always the same,’ she replied as she continued to toe around the sand.
Lemmy gave a sad smile. ‘That it is.’
The sisters were almost identical, though Sara’s blonde hair was a little lighter than Lemmy’s.
‘Hey, what’s that?’ Lemmy then asked.
Sara lifted her head and looked down the beach. She squinted and eventually saw a tall, lumbering figure in the distance. It was just about visible thanks to the light from one of the streetlamps on the nearby road behind them. Whatever was running towards them, it didn’t move like a human, and was hunched down and advancing with long strides.
‘I… have no idea,’ Sara replied as both girls got to their feet. An uneasy feeling started to worm its way up from her gut.
The closer the strange thing got, the more obvious it became that—despite being of humanoid appearance—it was clearly not a man. It was much too tall, with limbs that were far too long.
‘We need to go,’ Lemmy said. Sara wasn’t about to argue. She heard a snarling sound come through the air, just barely audible over the noise of the sea.
Sara reached down and quickly bundled up her blanket. When she looked up, her body froze—it was almost on them.
‘Run!’ Lemmy shouted.
The two girls turned and started to sprint across the sand. However, their progress was slow, and their feet kept sinking into the sand. Sara’s heartrate and breathing quickened. She turned to look over her shoulder—it didn’t look like their pursuer was having any trouble at all. Moreover, it seemed to be heading straight towards them. She had no idea what it was, but it looked somewhere between human and animal, with antlers on the side of its head, but human-like limbs that had been stretched out. It was a monster. There was no other word for it.
Nothing about it made sense.
‘Keep going,’ Sara urged her sister through laboured breaths.
As they sprinted, Sara made a decision and pushed Lemmy onwards. Panic, fear, and confusion rippled through her. She heard growling and snarling and quickly approaching footfalls, which sounded heavy even on the sand.
We aren’t going to make it.
Sara chanced a look over her shoulder again—and couldn’t help her horrified shriek when she saw how close the monster was.
Sara had always been one to believe that there were things out in the darkness that went bump in the night, but still, seeing it in the flesh brought a new level of fear with it.
‘Run!’ she shouted to Lemmy. ‘Faster!’ Her voice was shaky and cracked.
Thump, thump, thump.
Those heavy, thudding footsteps closed in. She could hear the monster’s breathing. Again, she looked back. It was too close now. Almost on top of them, hunched low and scooping the air with its large claws. Sara noticed the beast limped slightly, the gait on its left side not as strong as its right. Even so, it was far too fast.
‘Keep going, Lemmy!’ Sara shouted again and slowed a little. I love you, she thought to herself. Then, feeling fear like she’d never known, Sara suddenly turned and faced the huge, nightmarish creature head on. She screamed and dove forward.
She thrust her shoulder hard into its chest—but her shoulder immediately exploded in pain and popped out of its joint. A gigantic, clawed hand took her by the neck, and Sara let out as much of a scream as she was able. The creature continued moving forward, easily lifting Sara into the air by her throat as it ran.
‘Sara!’
After hearing Lemmy scream her name, Sara flicked her eyes to her side and saw that her sister had stopped as well. No! Run!
The monster that held Sara halted, then let out a screech. It jammed the long fingers of its hand into Sara’s open mouth. She felt a horrible pain as the claws thrust through the soft palate at the back of her throat. The fingers of its other hand worked their way inside her mouth as the beast let go of her weight, letting Sara’s feet touch the ground. However, she couldn’t get away—the monster was far too strong. She gargled out another scream. Intense pressure bloomed as the monster yanked her jaw down with one hand and pulled the top of her head back with the other. She felt her jaw dislodge as her cranium was pulled farther and farther back, with the skin of her cheeks splitting. The agony was immense. Then she felt the spine at the base of her skull snap with a final savage yank. The world around her spun wildly before her vision faded to darkness.
Lemmy cried her sister’s name over and over, tears blurring her vision, failing to notice what the monster threw at her. It wasn’t until the object struck her painfully in the head and dropped to the sandy ground that Lemmy realised what it was.
The top half of Sara’s head.
Lemmy saw Sara’s long blond hair drape across the sand behind the head; her sister’s lifeless eyes were splayed in different directions, one looking up, the other out to the right. The sides of Sara’s face, where they had been pulled away from the jaw, were a ragged mess, the flesh torn and bleeding. Lastly, Sara’s top lip and teeth rested against the ground, as if the sand were water that had risen up and covered her lower jaw.
Thump, thump, thump.
The monster tossed Sara’s body to the side, then started to run again, directly towards Lemmy. She stood frozen for a second—but only for a second.
She knew she couldn’t escape it. But, along with the fear she felt, there was also a white-hot fury.
‘You fucking bastard!’ she cried. Lemmy then balled her fists, clenched her teeth together, and ran towards the lumbering creature. Not knowing what else to do, she swung a boot forward and struck the monster squarely between the legs, with such force, her toes stung with pain as they snapped within her boot.
The monster quickly grabbed her around the waist with both hands and pulled her towards its torso. She felt its breath, which smelled like rotten meat, roll down over her. Lemmy continued to strike against it with the pads of her fists, even scratching it across the chest, pulling back and tearing off a few of her nails. The pain didn’t deter her—she was pushed on by the anger that consumed her.
Then Lemmy suddenly stopped. A debilitating wave of agony washed up from her stomach. She slowly looked down to see the claws of the monster buried in her gut. Blood spilled freely from around its long fingers. She coughed up more of the crimson liquid as the hands pushed their way farther inside of her. Lemmy looked up to the skeletal face of the monster and met its wild eyes. There was something almost… human about them.
She let out a cry of pain as she felt her stomach ripped open completely. After bringing up her hands, she was forced to catch the intestines that slopped free from within her. They felt warm and wet in her arms, but there was too much ropey flesh to hold, and most of it slipped free and fell to the sand, dangling from the huge opening in her body. Lemmy was able to lift her head again as she tried in vain to force out another scream, but she found her throat only filled with more blood. The creature regarded her with what she was certain was disdain.
Lemmy felt her strength quickly drain from her legs and she fell backwards, slipping free from the claws and landing on the sand while still holding her guts. She looked up to the night sky. The monster stepped into view, raised its knee high, then brought its foot down with such force it punched straight through Lemmy’s chest. Her body convulsed. The beast above her pulled its foot free, caked in gore like it had stepped in a muddy puddle. It then quickly lowered its head and pushed its face into her open stomach. She felt it eat. The pain was unbearable. All Lemmy could do was stare up at the infinite darkness of the night as she slowly died.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
