Tainted and Warped

FIVE

Gameknight laid awake, counting stars over and over, his hands familiarly gripping each other as his eyes burned and blurred.

He heard a screech from deep in the woods. He stiffened even more than before.

Be still or they'll find you.

The screeching got louder... closer. Gameknight had an image in his head of his insides being ripped out of him like spaghetti while he writhed and his friends slept, unaware.

He stayed perfectly still as he heard a whooshing sound accompanying the screeching. I'm going to die a horrible death. And I can't move.

Red tinted his vision. I'm bleeding out. I'm dying and no one knows.

But the red softened into orange, then pale yellow. It was the sun.

Somehow, he had survived the night.

He didn't dare move. The forest wasn't safe the camp isn't safe my head's not safe they're in my head they're in my skin oh god i need to get them out get them out get–

A wolf came up to him and licked his arm. Gameknight pushed the animal away, not wanting to get attached to something that would die so unfairly and so soon and he would have to watch.

But the animal persisted, pushing itself against his chest and climbing onto the bed, sniffing the boy. Shakily, Gameknight reached a hand out as if the wolf would disappear.

He ghosted his hand over fur. The wolf was real. The wolf was safe.

Please don't leave me. His vision blurred in a different way as the wolf snuggled up beside him in the early hours of the morning. He blinked, tears silently escaping his eyes, as he grasped the animal's fur with his scarred and violent hands like it still might not be real.

By the time the sun woke up the other members of his party, he had dried all his tears in the wolf's fur, only allowing himself to desperately cling onto its fur for comfort.

"Got a little buddy there, Gameknight?" Hunter asked, her eyes alight with a twinkle.

Gameknight grinned at her because it was the only thing he could do. "I guess he just senses my amazing personality."

"Oh, yeah, that's it," Hunter said with a scoff.

She hates me. He grinned wider. It's a joke. Stop it.

"Should we get moving?" Stonecutter asked.

He nodded. Gameknight liked Stonecutter's sense of focus. He would be easy to manipulate. He didn't like himself. "We should be able to make it to the desert today if we're efficient."

And if we don't get ambushed in the Pass by a monster army again.

The wolf stayed by Gameknight's side during the whole trip to the Pass, jumping nearly the height of his horse to rub against his left (safe) leg. He didn't mind. It gave him a distraction from the monsters he kept seeing in the woods.

Gameknight stopped short at the edge of (his) Two-Sword Pass. He took in the scenery: the towering mountains, birch forest, blue sky... and dark tunnel. The light wasn't high enough yet to shine directly into the tunnel.

He took a deep breath. I hate this place. "We have to leave the horses behind now– they'll be too claustrophobic in the Pass." His voice was short and still, far from the commanding tone he was supposed to take. He swallowed. "I don't like how exposed we'll be in the Pass. Let's be quick and quiet."