Arisu [ #JustWriteIt - Horror - Complete ]

Chapter Seven - The Valiant Hearts

"Silver eyes - full of wary.
Go to bed,
I promise it's only a mischievous fairy."

His breathing was laboured, hitching in his throat as he struggled in the midst of a gut-wrenching nightmare.

I watched him with fascination.
He seemed to be locked in a trance of fear.

They called it sleeping, I thought.
It's been so long since... Since I've ever slept...

Maybe I should pass the time by reading about rules.
What I could do to a human and what I couldn't.
What was the limit of a mortal body's tolerance?

There's a bookcase in the lounge.
I'll just pop over to have a look...

It was gone, rushing out the door at an eager pace, leaving Coryn unguarded.

But it didn't matter; he was a prisoner of his own nightmares. He never wanted to fall asleep, but eventually these things happen whether you like it or not.

The sleep-inducing toxins that flowed throughout the manor, especially around it, might've had something to do with that.

~*~*~*~

Trick balanced the orb of light in his right hand and propped up an old book against the musty wall with his other.

He often glanced outside, back to the Halloween constellations. The only thing separating him from the midnight sky was a pane of glass, glossy but full of cobweb cracks.

"Any time now, Coryn... Any time would be great...."

The fruits of his findings were mostly books of fairytales. The authors seemed to have gone out of their way to disassociate their works from a world with mischievous elven folk, dancing fairies and goldfish made out of bubblegum.

Instead, the books featured charming plots such as a mirror that swallowed the soul of anyone who looked at their reflection, a boot that slowly gnawed on the foot of a naughty tomboy, and a gremlin who burrowed underground and stole newborn babies from their crib.

The one he had chosen to read next was dusty, yellowed. Faded to the point where he could only decipher a few words at all.

Lesser-known beings. Existence in withering shadows. Active during the month of harvest. Must never look at their faces...

It was all in a different language, of course. But one that he was adept at reading. Even so, a few of the words were foreign to him.

gnitirw sdrawkcaB - Backwards writing.

He deciphered that little line quite well. Was it possible...?

I have to go back outside and look at that weird writing again...

Trick pulled the book shut with a snap and rose to his feet. He held up the luminous orb and looked around the lounge again, checking for anything that shouldn't be there.

He swallowed dryly. Would anything terrible by lying in wait? Oh, why had he let Coryn drag him to such a dreadful place on Halloween?

He just wanted to keep us safe... Firm reasoning to his logic.

Trick blinked and shook his head, noticing something that was certainly out of the ordinary.