The Lost Sun

Ch 20.

~
Jolted from another nightmare Haechan sat up from his slumber. He felt around him and with the palms of his hands and bare legs he felt prickly things beneath him that made him itch. He grabbed a fist full of it, yanking it from the ground and held it up close to his face to see. He was sitting on dead grass, though he could barely make out what he was looking it. Everything was so dark. And cold. It only took a couple minutes for his eyes to adapt to the darkness. Far away but still surrounding him were a circle of thick trees, with branches so loose with leaves because winter had arrived but since the trees were so wide, it formed a dense ring of wood. It was beautiful, the moon was, light and radiating, in a few days the moon would be full. Haechan felt his teeth ache and with his tongue he felt around to feel his fangs grow out. He must be craving blood, he hasn't had any in awhile. He should really be looking for prey right now but he just couldn't look away, the moon was so mesmerizing...

Footsteps.
He hasn't heard them from far away but they were coming closer and closer too fast to realize until he turned his head to face the legs of a beast— a treacherous monster too ugly to look at. Haechan screamed and grappled to his feet. He wanted to run far far away but the monster scooped him with its large boney arm and pushed his face into its rough rot smelling hair on its shoulders. Haechan fought to push himself away, he resisted with all his might using so much of his energy that he felt his head spinning and fist go numb from the pain of constant punching at the monster.

"Silencee and I won't do harm." the monster spoke in a raspy hissing voice. It was painful to Haechan's ears. But the monster, taking wide steps and bouncing off on it's hind legs took him inside a cave connected to the ring of trees. The cave was dark and damp but it was lit only by shining purple and blue crystals. Even if the place was dim it was visible enough that Haechan could see the stack of bones piled up around the cave. He had not seen it earlier but there had been a rim of bones in the fields outside where he had woken up from. That's because earlier the Shadow pack had been attacked, with everyone, even Alpha Ezra killed. Haechan was taken away from there but that was just the beginning because now he was in the den of the Wedigo.

~
"Johnny have you gotten word of it?"

"Of course. Does Mark think I'm an idiot and wouldn't find out?" Johnny put his fingers on his temple. "I haven't even got to see the kid yet and he's been taken away again? Goddess give me a break."

"No I'm not talking about that. Well, yes that is important too but I heard from nearby homes that Shadow pack house beens attacked. The alpha's possibly been murdered, we couldn't get in contact with him or any from Shadow."

"Change our course. We should head over there quickly then, this could also be a clue to lead us to where we need to be. "

~
Every day around-possibly noon the thing leaves. The monster comes back as three hours pass, stays for an hour before it leaves again and comes back in another three hours. Haechan has been tracking its movements for three days now. His measurement of time may be wrong but it was the best guess he had. It wasn't like there was anything else he could do. His feet were shackled with a chain that was stuck underneath a boulder. So there was no way to move it. He was still weak from barely eating food back at the house he was held captive in. He was also worn out by all the labor and tests induced on his body. On top of that he was mentally exhausted.

Reality? What even was that anymore, with everything that happened to him. His headaches became frequent again with mark being gone, but thinking about mark still didn't make it easier. Every night without fail Haechan would have a nightmare, and it was always about mark. Hope had long gone by now for him, it had already passed at the time he thought he was about to get raped. Now all he wanted to do was to survive. To get by to the next day.