The Emptiness
Elosa knelt in the dirt, her fingers tips brushing lightly through the coarse sand. There was only a small layer, the dirt having been packed tight through generations of training. She lifted her hand, rubbed a few grains between her finger tips, then brushed the sand back onto the ground.
Standing, she looked around herself. The squat buildings which once symbolized life and the excitement of a new day seemed so lonely now that they were so empty. Even the wind felt forlorn.
A part of her mind wondered if it were only her imagination. How could the wind be sad? Yet, there it was. A cool touch on her skin; hollow in its feel and purpose as it brushed through her clothing and long black hair.
Elosa rested her hand on the hilt of her sword and sighed deeply. After the sensei had disappeared so many rumors had replaced his vacancy. Eventually, the rumors turned to stories of odd things seen in the night. She had dismissed those stories.
Then the other students began disappearing.
One by one, each morning as they awoke to the rising sun another one of them were gone. No sign of struggle. No articles missing from their belongings. At first they could pass it off as a few amongst them losing interest or going out on their own with the disappearance of their sensei.
That explanation made no sense as more of the others began to vanish. The rumors spread amongst the remaining students like wild fire.
“Cammy would never have left! She loved it here, it was her life!”, Keisha had argued before she herself had vanished.
The voice echoed in Elosa’s mind. She could almost see her child-hood friend standing in sparring circle, her hair a mess down the sides of her face as she tried to convince the others that something was horribly wrong. That they should all leave, or possibly team together and go look for the others.
Eolsa had left to get supplies. It took her a week to get to the village and back.
The wind blew past her again, her hair blowing in front of her face as the dust at her feet blew into the trees and shrubs. It had never seemed so lifeless. Not a sound came to her ears. It was like a baby who never cried; just as unnatural.
No one had answered her calls as she approached
Why was she spared? And from what?
Elosa turned and walked the short distance to her old sensei’s humble building. With a few steps she was on the porch and stepped inside. It had a single, large room filled mostly with various weapons and decorated with the odd statue and his sleeping mat.
The double doors swung behind her on their hinges, casting the light into the room in odd patterns of shadow, light, then longer shadows. There was a distinct lack of incense in the air and a very thin layer of dust had come to settle over the interior.
It had been empty for some time.
She took a breath, finally accepting the fate of the others. Whatever that fate was.
Elosa let her breath out and suddenly shivered. Goose bumps appeared down her and an unwanted shiver passed down her back to her waist. It wasn’t just her imagination. Her breath felt colder and the room had grown cooler.
She drew her sword, the curved blade held loosely at the ready before her as her trained eyes darted around for any signs of movement.
Goosebumps formed on her legs as another shiver passed down her spine. This time she was able to suppress its physical effects, but she could feel it none the less. Still, her lips betrayed her with her shaken breath.
A mist clouded her vision, and Elosa suddenly realized that she could see her own breath. The hairs on the back of her neck raised and her breathing increased. This wasn’t natural! Something very wrong was there..
Thoughts of the others disappearing in the night came back to her mind. She looked desperately around for something, anything. Her mind tightened its grip on her body as the many years of her training tried to reclaim control of her emotions and body.
Instinctively, Elosa lashed out with her sword as she spun, still not sure what it was that she was attacking. Her blade thunked deeply into the wood at her side as it stabbed into the shadows of the room. She stood there, one hand on the hilt of her sword as she looked confusedly at the wall.
She could swear that she had seen something move.
Elosa shook her head from confusion and began to turn back into the room. Before she could finish turning a chill raced up her back and along her left side, stopping her in mid motion.
It wasn’t a chill of goose bumps or shivers. It was a chill of ice. The touch of something..
The icy fingers brushed up her left shoulder as she thought that she felt a hand close over it. She tried to turn but it was like she was under water.
Dark, shadowy fingers closed over Elosa’s cheeks and her head was tilted upwards. Turning her back to the wall was her vital mistake. Icy arms went around her right waist as the other hand crept down her chest to her left breast, both arms pinning her
in terror and in an ethereal chill as she was pinned against the wall.
She gasped, her breath coming out in crystalline white as if it were mid winter. She gasped again, more desperately this time. Her voice, she couldn’t hear her voice.
She tried to scream, but only the white mist of her breath filled the vision in front of her..
..then cold chill brushed over her cheek as the arms gripped her tighter. Her heart raced as she felt the breathing of… something.. brush across her cheek.
Elosa panicked, trying to get away but it was no use. It wasn’t human, there was nothing to escape from. There was only the paralyzing cold, and the dark shadows that pressed against her body like misshapen arms.
The breath came again and as it passed over her ear she was sure that it turned red from the cold. In her mind, she heard the thing hiss, and the darkness crept over her body as the “hand” on her breast sank in toward her heart.
She tried to scream and push against the thing but she still felt as if she were under water, and sinking. Her limbs became heavy and her lungs felt as if they were trying to breathe against a great pressure.
As the darkness closed over her body like tar Elosa tried in vain to scream one last time. Her breath was the only light thing she could see as the darkness fell around her.
The scream came to her ears. For a brief moment she thought that she had somehow gotten loose. Shaken her attacker off or managed to weaken it.
Then she realized that the scream wasn’t her own. As her mind shook off just enough panic to think again, she realized that the screams were that of her friends..
Elosa hadn’t realized that she had closed her eyes. She opened them, half expecting tar or some sort of inky blackness to pour into them.
What she saw made her wish that she had not opened her eyes. Her friends, every one of the other students, were held against a wall of black. Their features were gaunt. Some of them - the ones who had been there longer - were slumped forward. But they
all screamed, tendrils of shadows holding them against the darkness.
She looked up in time to catch a glimpse of Keisha. The darkness sunk into her chest as wisps of red flowed through it. She looked up and looked into Elosa’s eyes, sadness filling her vision.
“Elosa,” her soft voice oddly made its way to her through the screams, “I had hoped you escaped…” her chin slumped back down to her chest as her body went limp.
Then blackness flashed up in front of her vision and cold beyond cold stabbed into her heart, and Elosa’s screams joined the chorus of her companions.
—
Outside, the wind blew through the sparring circle. Its touch cold, chill, hollow. It picked up the sand, moved the flora aside, and tossed it into the silent forest. The red glow of the sun passed beyond the horizon, its rays sliding off of the roof of the empty, lonely building..
Topics: Fiction |
October 10th, 2005 at Oct 10, 05 | 4:52 pm
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