Days Are Numbered

19. Broken

"Noah!" The shriek was back again. He rose up from the dust, running into the woods after the voice. It was her! It was his mother!

"Mum!" he called back, running as fast as he could. His voice, strained and filled with anguish, echoed through the silent labyrinth of twisted trees, each desperate call an unanswered plea. Suddenly, a monstrous wolf, dark as the abyss, materialized with a ferocity that sent shivers down Noah's spine. Fear propelled him forward, yet unseen obstacles conspired to impede his escape – branches like gnarled fingers snagging at his limbs, rocks becoming malevolent projectiles in the moonlit nightmare.

Despite the harrowing pursuit, Noah managed to elude the beast's snapping jaws while running restlessly. Surprisingly, he felt his breath shaggy and heavy. However, he didn't hear his heart thumping; it felt like he had no organs, just a void inside his body. He was drawing nearer, and the scream had ceased. He pushed the leaves aside only to stumble upon a grotesque scene. His mother, a spectral figure in the crimson downpour, red hairs now dull as a trampled rose, was helplessly dragged toward a cliff by an ominous, pig-like creature.

"No!" Noah screamed with all his guts, bolting toward the animal with a knife that suddenly appeared in his grip. His mother's scream faded down the cliff, and the air around him thickened. Noah got closer to the creature, now revealed to be the pig Browne had killed. They made eye contact, animalistic black against blue orbs. Without a second thought, Noah brought down the knife on the pig with no remorse. The more he went, the more he felt the void within outgrew his emotions. The very air thickened with a gruesome rain of blood, each droplet a grotesque testimony to the nightmarish reality unfolding and to what he had done.

Then it happened, he broke down sobbing like a child in the middle of a storm. In this surreal cascade of terror, he was trapped between the relentless pursuit of the wolf that appeared behind him taking calculated steps, and the sacrificial descent of his mother, enveloped in a surreal nightmare that blurred the lines between dread and the inexplicable. Noah succumbed in his grief, unable to fight. Then the wolf sprang on him with teeth like knives, the same one he had used to slay the pig.

"Tarh!" Noah jerked from his nightmare, panting. He ran his hand around his body for any fatal wound, only running over scars and cuts from the beating. Then he brought his hands to his view, jerking back in fear just to hit the bars of the basement jail, wincing from the aching in his body. He looked around in anguish, realizing he was covered in blood and was locked up.

It all flooded back to him how Avgustin had mercilessly tortured him, leaving traces of deep cuts on his body before he had poured a bucket full of the animal's blood on him. It made him sick to the stomach, causing him to throw up before darkness overshadowed him. Unable to hold his gut, he leaned over, throwing up again but this time he saw a white fluid mixed with blood. Noah backed away, sore, tired, and shivering.

"Save me, God. I need to get out of here," he whispered to himself. Then he crawled to the spot while the moonlight was leaking through the small window that sat under the stairs. Noah sighed while staring at the moon. He tried to recall a moment of happiness. Emery? Antonio? He winced in emotional pain, shutting his ears tightly.

"Worthless piece of rag," he muttered before laying on his side in silence, waiting for dawn. He couldn't help that feeling that sat on his chest. It was the usual feeling that overcame him when he was serving punishment in the dark well: cold, numb, and trying not to drown in the water that had a monster lurking beneath. Noah hated being thrown in the well and locked up. He was scared and blind. In the beginning, it was petrifying and he always shouted and panicked, but then, a feeling of numbness began resting on his chest and all his feelings died.

********

The clanging sound of keys drew Noah's attention to the door. Noah rose up without a word, waiting for the liberator who turned out to be his enemy, the one his heart wanted to eliminate. Avgustin pulled the door open, coming in contact with Noah, covered in dried blood, his short strawberry blond hair coated with blood, and his face just as pale as a ghost, with bags under his eyes. Noah got into position slowly and tiredly.