Hush

Hush: Torn threads and the living walls

'It's human flesh.' Ace explained when he noticed me watching it curiously. 'The Shadow Master hunts down anyone who shouldn't be here, or any that survive to long in Requirden and skins them alive to make the paths of this place.' He looked at me darkly. 'If Jack is down here, he will be being hunted as we speak.' He stood and began moving towards the cliff edge once more. 'I hate this part,' he turned to me. 'I think I should hold onto you so I don't lose you below.'

I walked up beside him and peered over the edge. Down, so far down into a deep red ocean, the stench of death rushed up to greet my curiosity leaving me feeling sick. 'What is that?' I covered my face with my paws.

'Blood, guts, eyeballs, anything that was once part of the human meat sack really.' Ace shrugged nonchalantly. 'I call it the Rot, seems fitting enough.' He glanced down at me and frowned. 'We have to jump. It's the only way down, deeper into Requirden from where we are.' He looked back over his shoulder into the surrounding trees and shuddered. 'I think they already know we are here.' He reached his arm down to me. 'Unless you would rather jump yourself?' His eyes challenged me.

I glared back at him and none to gently jumped up at his arms, and like a cat sunk my claws in to his skin as I raked myself higher up his arm until I was at his shoulder. I glanced down at his arm, looking thoroughly sliced from my crawl up, then looked smugly at him, only to see his expression was that of amusement.

'I think I'm going to like this little adventure with you.' He mused. 'You're quite an aggressive little thing aren't you.' He chuckled quietly, then turned to the cliff edge once more. I felt my insides knot at the very thought of plummeting into the Rot, but Jack was here somewhere, and if what Ace was saying was true, we didn't have time to feel nauseous or hesitant.

Wrapping me in his embrace, Ace took a few large steps back, then took and run and jump over the edge. I felt him take a deep breath just before we collided with the stormy ocean waves, but rather than a tremendous splash, the ocean gurgled and slurped much like that of a draining sink as it swallowed us. Breaching, and gagging briefly, he swam us to the land, his hair carrying bits of things I dare not consider, for I was likely baring the same things.

He plopped me on my feet and pulled off his white shirt, now stained in a deep red, twisting it free of the blood and wiping off the gore, he ran it over his soaked hair and used it to disperse of any bodily remains it had gathered from the Rot. He wrung it once more then knelt beside me and ran it over me, scrubbing my body and face with the stinking rag as he dried me off and removed slime from my fur.

'Thank you, Ace.' I mumbled as he wiped a bit of flesh from the tip of my nose.

A warm smile spread on his face and his eyes met mine, looking more alive than before. 'I didn't think you would ever speak to me.' He admitted, 'I thought I was to dark for you to handle.' He winked and picked something from my ear, flicking it away with a grimace. 'So what's your name?' He asked finally.

I watched as once more the tendrils of darkness that unnerved me about him from before began to seep from his body and once more curl around him like snakes. He was emitting the very thing that I was created to destroy. Everything about this youth screamed danger, do not trust. One of the tendrils shimmered towards me, I stumbled back and landed on my bum.

'They aren't dangerous.' Ace explained, seeing my reaction to him. I wondered if he was able to see them too, or at least sense their presence in some way. 'They are the reminder that I escaped from here before, a parting gift one might say.' He stood up and turned his back on me, looking around as though wondering which direction to take. The dark sky above us offered no comfort in any of the directions we might have walked, both pathways were shrouded in shadows and overgrowth closed in on either side, in which to many things from the darkness could lurk and hunt us unseen and unknown.