Stood behind him, poised to attack, was a great spidery monster. Sam recognised some of its features, though despite their definite humanity, he didn't register them as human - only as a disguise for what now stood infront of him. It had eight black, armoured legs sprouting from its back. Its face was that of his father's - Lightly tan pale skin, straight short black hair slicked back - and its body wore a sleek, tailored black suit.
Two other pairs of eyes opened on its face, next to the white pair in the middle. One pair, red. One pair, blue. He recognised their functions well enough, though he wished he didn't. The white pair, currently missing their cruel green irises and pupils, saw life the same way any other organism did, and could see astoundingly well in the dark.
The blue pair were primarily used for tracking. They could see colourful energies around people. Those energies always left trails on anything the user touched. The blue eyes could see and follow those trails, even in total darkness. Most people only had faint energy, but some - like his siblings and his father, left a trail so powerful the whole house seemed to glow, even if none of them were around.
The final pair, red, could see heat. Any body hidden in the environment would give itself away if it wasn't obstructed by a physical object. A living body would stand out for miles, especially at night, but they couldn't see through anything but thin air. Glass or any other kind of barrier would block it, so he had to sit longingly by the garden fence, looking out into the distance to ever really see as far as he could.
All three of those pairs of eyes focused on him. Sam felt the urge in the primal side of his brain rising to turn and bolt. He hated it, trying to fight it down. He was mad at that monster for tormenting him and his siblings every night, trapping them in their rooms until sundown while he roamed the halls. Sam often snuck out anyway if he needed something, since the spider was not impossible to avoid in such a large house, but that didn't come without its risks. But now? Sam had never come face to face with them. Should he run? Fight? Hide? No, it'd find him. Mitch answered the question for him.
Unable to bear the tension anymore it seemed, Mitch let loose a gutteral howl, and charged the giant spider.
"Mitch, No!-" Sam yelled, his voice drying up in his throat as the words left his tongue.
The spider pounced, lunging back at Mitch.
Sam turned and bolted. He didn't see what happened to his brother, but he heard the crunch - Like a body thrown from a horse into a tree, every bone shattered against the trunk. Sam felt a sob escape his lips as he raced away into the darkness. He could hardly see within the trees, and took a dive. His ankle twisted painfully as he ate dirt, his face ground against it. Sam scrambled to his feet and kept going, his pulse loud in his ears and cheeks wet with tears. The only other sound he could hear was the sound of his feet thudding against the floor. Sam's shin slammed into something hard and rough, shredding the skin on his leg. The ground below him gave way. Sam's arms flailed as he fell into empty space. The ground came up to meet him a second or so later. He saw stars, stunned, but the fall wasn't over yet. The earth came up for a thousand tonne kiss. Sam's spine cracked a dozen times as it arched. His heels cracked into the ground a second later. He slid several meters on his butt, before flying forwards again. His journey downwards came to an abrupt end, with a heavy splash. Sam was shocked by a flush of cold water. Sam cracked his head against a craggy rock, and blacked out, taken by the current.
Sam's body felt cold. He opened his eyes, and he was back in the back garden, but it was flooded. The roses tried to lift him up as he passed, barely able to keep his head above the water. His siblings passed by, walking above the surface. Abigail skipped by as though nothing were wrong, she didn't even seem to see him. He didn't see Mitch though. Maybe he was in a similar predicament.
Sam's head ducked below the water as he walked into empty space. He got a mouthful of dirty water, which he spat out with a hiss when he was lifted back up again, before dropping back below the surface. An icy chill shot down his spine as he realised he couldn't hold his breath much longer, but the water drained away as he looked up. Leo stood atop the water infront of him - or, just above him, since the water was gone now. The rooves of the buildings on the High Street in town framed the edges of his vision, glowing in a warm light. The air smelt the way platinum should have smelt, if it was a fragrance.
"Get up, silly, don't just lie there." Leo scoffed, pulling Andrew to his feet. Leo dissolved into golden smoke as Andrew got up and looked around. He wanted to go and get another pastry, but his instincts were firing off. He felt like he was in danger, like something was wrong, but his eyes told no such story. Everything was fine.
The afternoon air felt warm on his skin, and he realised one of the problems - Despite the warm air he was freezing, his body chilled right down to his core. And his heart, it wasn't beating. He frowned, wondering for a moment what sort of a dream this was. It felt weird, but he was convinced he was supposed to be warm. Good dreams were meant to be cosy, right?
Sam felt a pain in his chest suddenly, like he'd been punched. It happened again and again, just a little more than once every second. Water bubbled up in his throat, erupting out of his throat, but oddly enough it didn't feel like drowning. He doubled over and began to cough and hack, gripping his chest.
The World around him seemed to be slowly dissolving, the longer he lay there. He crumpled to the ground. He was dying, He had to be. The more he tried to hang on and wake up, the darker the world seemed to get...
Both of his eyes snapped open. He gagged and sat up, starting to wretch and wheeze. He was still freezing, but his body was shivering. Cold and alive, thank god, not cold and dying. More tears spilled from his eyes like a waterfall as he parsed what had happened to him, his head throbbing like he'd been hit by a sledge hammer.
Mitch was most likely dead. Sam had fallen into a river or some other fast moving body of water and hit his head. Someone must have fished him out and managed to wake him up.
He stopped rubbing his eyes, long enough to look around. He was lying on something pretty comfortable, in a warm, dark room. It smelled of wood smoke. His ears pricked to the sound of something heavy - Wood, by the sounds of it - being heaved into a pile on the floor. His eyes looked around the room. There was a roaring fire sat in a hearth. His ear picked up on the crackling as it cackled and ate its Splintery meal. Sam's gaze shifted to the right, and followed up the legs of the person fueling the fire, most likely the person who had just saved his life.
Leo turned his head, his features illuminated by the crackling flames. He'd removed his dusty white drapes and was wearing his cloak, with heavy bandages wrapped around both of his legs and brown clothes on. They didn't exactly look fancy, well worn and slightly ragged around the edges, but they looked more like travelers clothes than peasant clothes. The material was fine and looked pretty expensive, too. Some sort of wool, he guessed.
"Hey, you're finally awake."
They said."Uh huh... So where do I find the bathroom?" Is what Sam would have said, but instead it came out more like "uh uhhhduh"
Sam facepalmed, mentally, but his face felt numb. He could hardly feel his tongue, let alone speak.
Fortunately, Leo seemed to find this funny, and giggled to himself. Sam felt his heart lift at the sound. He managed to sit up. He felt like he'd fallen off one of the mountains he'd seen on the ride out with his father, but his memory of its looming beauty felt dull and numb. He struggled to recall its features, or what he'd been doing at the time. No doubt the result of his head injury, but he felt like he shouldn't have been able to remember that either if it had been so serious.
Sam moved his jaw, trying again to speak as he swiveled his legs off the bed and planted them on the slate floor. The moment he rose he immediately swayed. His brain felt like it was floating away.
Leo caught him. their arms were skinny and bony, and even though Andrew was just a child they staggered trying to catch him. They pulled him over to the fire and helped him sit down. The flame warmed Andrews skin as he felt his consciousness settle back into his body.
The flames soothed his mind. slightly as he watched. The sound was familiar and the heat warmed his skin. He reclined against Leo and closed his eyes, drifting back to sleep.
YOU ARE READING
Time will tell
Historical FictionThe story starts in the dark, dangerous world of the British empire, at his peak. We get a glimpse into what makes him tick, and a look in on how his children lived before the many revolutions that led to his downfall, and the way everyone's history...