Chimera

Chapter 8

"Chad, where's Tish?" I asked, and everyone just looked around.

"She was right here, I swear." Without hesitation, I skipped up the few steps and ran into the hall again.

"Tish!" I yelled, but the only sound that came back was my echo. I didn't like this at all. Something was coming; I just didn't know it would be this. I started running around yelling her name, but she was nowhere in sight. Even Jax and Chad searched the place and found nothing, which suggested she might have passed us down the road and we hadn't noticed with all the ghosts running around.

I left the hall, not really watching if the guys came with me. I was adamant about finding my best friend. There was no way I was leaving her here alone.

"We need a plan." Jax walked up in front of me and stopped me in my tracks.

"A plan? Are you shitting me right now? We had a plan, and now Tish is gone. We had a plan, and Ronnie and Munroe were gone. We had a plan and Logan disappeared. Fuck the plan!" I yelled as I overtook him on the sidewalk, walking with a mission to save someone I cared about.

I will find her.

I repeated my thoughts over and over again so that it could motivate me in my search. If Tish had walked off, this was the only direction where we might have missed her. I went down the first road, looking in all the windows and calling her name as many times as I could.

"Tish!"

Silence was my only response, but that still didn't stop me from doing what I could. I went up the one road and down the other, still calling to her and still peering in every window I found. Footsteps sounded behind me, and I knew that the guys were following me. They too started calling out to Tish, but no answer came. The nervous knot in my stomach started getting tighter with every silence that greeted us.

Tish was nowhere to be found.

I quickened my pace, trying to cover more ground faster when an arm gripped me around my waist and a hand was placed on my mouth.

"Shh," someone said, and as I looked behind me, I could see Jax holding me while still backing into an alleyway. I was about to ask him what the hell when he pointed down the road we were heading. Chills ran along my spine from the top of my head to the tip of my toes as I locked onto the creature that was in the bunker.

It walked around on all fours, like a dog, but the legs were out of proportion. The hind legs were longer than the front, as it appeared to walk on the balls of its feet like a werewolf. The front legs terminated in claw-like hands, long and skeletal, with sharpened talons. The vertebrae protruded from its back as though it were underfed, while its face was ghostly, long and featured a black mouth and soulless eyes. Not a hair or fiber protruded from the creature's pale skin. The only other object that sported any color was the thing it was dragging along with him. Tish.

I wanted to run up to the creature and pull Tish away from it. As if sensing my instincts, Jax pulled me back even more and shook his head at me. I needed to help her. I needed to save her. I just didn't know how that would be possible. I didn't have the strength to pull her weight by myself while getting away from the thing dragging her further into the woods.

"We can't just let this thing get away with Tish," I whispered to the guys, and by the looks they traded, they were already hatching a plan to save our friend.

"We need a plan first." Jax started and I gave him a look that said 'Are you kidding me?' when he finally spoke again "Two people need to get to Tish while one needs to distract the creature."

"Okay, but who's doing what? I'm not fast enough to run away from that thing."

"I'll do it." Chad volunteered, "I'll distract the creature so you two can get Tish."