A howl tore through the night, loud enough to shatter the windows of nearby houses and the stained glass of our Eteria church. It lasted only an instant. My eardrums shattered like those windows and the howl died. A dull ringing remained filling my skull, deaf, incessant.
~ * ~
"Argh!"
I sat up with a jolt, my heart hammering against my ribs. My breath was a rasp in my throat, sharp and desperate.
"Where am I? What—?"
Darkness. No, not completely. Moonlight filtered through the window, white and icy, while the pulled-aside curtain swayed in a warm breeze that smelled of earth and the aromatic herbs from the garden bed.
Why do I feel like I just died?
"Arek, go back to sleep." The voice was a childish whine, thin. In front of me, moonlight struck Sipar's lying figure, rendering it almost silvery.
Or is he the one giving off light? No. What a stupid thought.
"Sorry Sipar," I whispered, trying to push back the lump tightening my throat. "Bad dream."
An annoyed grunt was the only response.
In the bed beside him, Emma lay motionless. In the almost total darkness, a finger still pointed toward Sipar, a gesture frozen even in sleep.
Those two... they'll always be together.
The thought left a bitter taste at the back of my tongue.
I wrapped myself in the blankets, seeking protection in that cotton cocoon, and my gaze fell on the bed to my left. A messy ball of sheets.
Still. Too still.
The emptiness in that part of the room expanded, becoming a chasm. Images of an enormous mouth, darkness devouring me, filled my mind for one long, suffocating instant.
"Lirka?" My voice was a whisper. "Hey, Lirka?"
I reached out my hand even though she was too far to reach, but a guttural, deep meow froze me. It wasn't domestic. It was a mournful howl that vibrated through the floorboards.
"Lirka, what...? No, it's coming from outside."
Too loud. Too different from anything I'd ever heard.
I threw my feet onto the floor. The boards, rough and cold under my feet, gave no sound. That lack of creaking sent a shiver through me, for a moment the room's ceiling transformed into that of my old house. I banished the image along with the nausea and headed toward the window.
"But this doesn't wake you up, does it Sipar."
I shook my head, partly to shake off the remnants of sleep, partly at the absurdity of the situation. My throat tightened. What was about to happen—my brain didn't have words yet, but my body knew.
Wake up, Arek. It's just the night air.
I opened the window completely, being careful not to make too much noise. The rustling of the apple tree leaves a few steps away, the pungent smell of herbs mixed with the evening's heavy humidity felt reassuring.
Proof that the world was still in its place. That the nightmare was merely a residue of the visions.
The garden was swept by a hot summer breeze; the blades of grass swayed in a hypnotic rhythm. Everything appeared normal.
Then a shadow detached itself from the well.
It wasn't gradual, but a fluid dart, a patch of darkness that separated from the stone to leap onto the high enclosure wall.
"What the hell is that?" I whispered, feeling the few hairs on my arms stand up. "Maybe it's the thing that made that sound. It wasn't a dream."
The figure took a prodigious leap. For an instant it stood out against the white disc of the moon, the profile all too recognizable.
I spun around, my heart skipping a beat, and grabbed the sheets of the bed next to mine. Cold. Empty. Just a lifeless mass of fabric.
"Lirka, where are you going?"
The question died in the air when the mournful howl exploded again. But this time it wasn't alone. The sound bounced off the walls of houses, coming from different directions simultaneously. A chorus of predators hunting, closing the circle.
I rushed back to the window, my eyes trying to penetrate the darkness.
And they were there.
Creatures of night and light. Felines black as ebony, their bodies absorbing the scarce moonlight, yet alive with a sinister glow.
Long tentacle-like whiskers danced around their muzzles, moved by a life of their own, and the tips of those appendages along with the tips of their ears and tails pulsed with a spectral, bluish and lethal fluorescence.
My throat closed up, parched.
"Glow-Cats."
Hunting. And Lirka was out there, alone.
"I have to find her."
***
The tower reflected a pale, spectral light, appearing even whiter than usual under the moon's touch. Its pale stones threw back that icy gleam, transforming the building into a bone beacon watching over the sleeping city.
I raced through the streets, breath burning in my lungs, chasing what I hoped was the right path. The labyrinth of alleys shifted with every step. Barks and bestial meows echoed in the air, now distant, now so close they froze my blood.
Each time the glow was within reach. I'd turned the corner, and there was only the shimmer, already vanished into the next junction.
The sounds of my boots echoed between the houses. The paved streets, growing wider and wider. The tower soared between the rooftops, closer and closer.
I know these roads. This way leads to the market square.
I turned the last corner and the pentagonal clearing opened before me: an immense void, devoid of stalls, carts, or people. Only silence, stone, and spectral lights.
At the center, though, the void vanished. Dark shapes jumped and danced frantically around a red patch that writhed, running toward the fountain where a stone winged horse spouted water from its mouth in a continuous and indifferent stream. Small lights danced at their corners like crazed moths.
I lunged forward, my boot slipped on the wet pavement, nearly falling. My hands touched the ground for an instant, then I bolted again.
"Lirka!"
It was her and she was in danger.
As I approached the dark forms took on substance in the night. Six black beasts, felines of dense shadow, as big as me or bigger, surrounded the fountain at the center of the square.
From their faces sprouted soft, tentacle-like whiskers that ended in glowing bulbs. Those lights pulsed with an electric blue, the same color that shone on their ears and tails.
Their teeth were long and sharp, the same color as the moon and the tower.
One of the Glow-Cats lay on the ground. Its flank crushed, shattered ribs protruding from the black fur like white splinters. Around it, a dark pool spread rapidly on the pavement.
The other five were alive, very much so. They arched their backs, snarling with a guttural sound that vibrated the cold air.
At the center of the stone circle, right almost under the water stream the horse spat with indifferent rhythm, there was a red patch trying to stay on her feet. The water reached above her knees, slowing her every movement.
Lirka.
A Glow-Cat struck. It was a black leap, followed an instant later by the glow of its lanterns tracing bluish trails in the dark. Paw extended forward, claws as long as human fingers unsheathed to kill.
Lirka dodged it with a sharp movement. Water splashed everywhere, obscuring the view for a moment, but her fist impacted with precision against the beast's open jaw. I heard the dry crack of teeth breaking. The impact was so violent it catapulted the predator out of the basin.
But that thing wasn't finished. As it was hurled away, its glowing tentacle-like whiskers coiled around Lirka's waist with a slimy sound, and using the elastic tension of the trajectory like a slingshot it snapped back into attack position.
A claw sliced through the air and tore her garment right on the abdomen. She responded by instinct: a brutal kick struck the monster square in the chest, sending it in a wet parabola away from the fountain. The Glow-Cat rolled on the ground among the splashes and lay still.
Right after the impact, though, Lirka knelt abruptly. The water around her feet stopped being transparent, becoming darker with each instant, heavy with a dense red that promised nothing good.
The four remaining Glow-Cats didn't wait. As if moved by a single mind, they arched their backs and took a synchronized leap, describing an arc of death toward the center of the fountain. Their blue lanterns traced spectral trails in the dark, pointing straight at the motionless red haired girl in the water.
The cry that escaped my throat was lost in the roar of water and the snarl of the felines. I saw them almost suspended in mid-air, claws unsheathed and ready to close on her like a closing trap.
Damn it, Arek, move!
But I was still too far. My feet pounded the pavement, my legs burned from the effort, yet the distance wasn't decreasing fast enough. Not enough.
At this speed I'd never make it in time.
The shadows were already plummeting. My hand reached out uselessly toward the void while my legs had nothing left to give and I asked for more anyway., to be closer.
But the pavement under my feet stretched endlessly, transforming the distance into an abyss I'd never cross in time.
My fingers closed on empty air, desperately trying to grasp an instant that was already slipping away from me.
And the air became solid in my fingertips.