Moonless - The Eternal Night

The Other Others

Orion

He switched on the flashlight and fought his way through the forest, glancing down at himself, assessing his wounds. None of them were serious enough to pose an immediate threat, but he needed to bandage his arm. Urgently. Otherwise, he would leave a trail of blood leading straight to him. He wouldn't make it that easy for those beasts to find him.

He continued to push through the undergrowth, between the trees, only stopping when the light from the castle was no longer visible. Panting, he leaned his back against a tree, wedged the flashlight between his teeth, and began to strip off his shirt. The thin fabric offered little protection anyway, so it would serve much better as a bandage.

As the shirt grazed the wound during the movement, a sharp cry shot through Orion's head for a moment, only to sink back into a dull throb. He examined the cut and gritted his teeth.

Damn it.

It wasn't life-threatening, but he needed to rinse and treat the wound somehow. Even after the short journey, dirt had accumulated between the reddened, bloody edges. If it became infected, he could lose his arm. If he was lucky. Or he could be dead. He wouldn't find his men that quickly.

Cursing himself for not bringing any water to at least rinse the wound, Orion wrapped his arm and awkwardly tied the shirt tightly around it when--

Crack.

He froze. His breath froze. His thoughts.

Another crack.

Too close. Much too close. He hadn't heard how it came about, but now it was impossible to ignore. More cracking. Rustling.

And then came a breath. Deep, hoarse, wheezing and gurgling. Like breath from a torn, broken throat.

Slowly, very slowly, Orion raised his gaze from his arm, and the flashlight between his teeth fell on something. Something between the trees.

On mottled, gray shreds stretching over bulges, torn in places to reveal what lay beneath.

Gray. Decayed skin. Dry as parchment. And bones. Bones pressing against it. Outlining. Moving.

Between the trees. Then something emerged from there. Something.

On all fours.

With limbs and bones that where somehow wrong. The body didn't seem to be made for crawling on all fours. The hind legs were too long, bent in the wrong places, while the forelegs were too short. And the head, lifting up, the face turning towards Orion, choked a scream in his throat.

Human.

No. Not anymore. Not for a long time.

But it was a human skull. Yellowish, splintered bones glowed in the light of the flashlight, surrounding white, blind, dead eyes. The skin hung loosely in some areas, missing in others, and Orion could see the jaws moving, could see a black tongue between them. Yellow, sharp-edged splinters clashed together. Teeth.

Teeth that were not human.

In addition, straggly, dirty, gray hair hung in the face, barely covering the scalp, and the claws digging into the earth in front of Orion were hands whose flesh and skin had been lost. Until only bony claws remained.

A ghoul.

The sound came again. The wheezing. The creature seemed to be sniffing almost. And behind it, the forest trembled, more undergrowth crackled. A second ghoul. This one wasn't quite as decayed, had flesh torn from its bones, swollen, blackened, and a bestial, sweet stench pressed against Orion's lungs.