~Rain~

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter eighteen

 

Miles’s eyes were closed as he leaned further forward, the knife shaking in his outstretched hand. Behind him, Taya and Cael dripped gleefully onto the carpet, watching carefully. Anticipation lit their wan faces.

Alice coughed, a long, racking cough that was full of uncertainty. Glancing again at her eyes, Tyron hovered in the air between them.

There was something wrong here, he concluded, something very wrong indeed.

‘Miles,’ he whispered, ‘You don’t have to do this...’

Still, Alice’s eyes were unreadable. Slightly amused at most, perhaps, but too filled with emptiness and a hollow sense of pain to really show any emotion.

Miles looked questioningly at Alice, but it was too late. She was fading away. Behind him, Taya was growing restless, edging from foot to foot, as if suddenly afraid that he would turn on him.

Why would he have led them here, to turn on them in the end anyway?

‘What are you waiting for?’ she asked, doing her best to sound pleasant.

The beast rammed into the door once more, which splintered at the edges. The handle clattered to the floor and rolled away, finally coming to rest in a small puddle of water.

Miles took a deep breath. What he was about to do, he told himself, should not have been such a big deal. Alice was almost gone, anyway.

His back to Taya, Miles looked right into Tyron’s pleading eyes.

 The shining blade was touching the bare skin on Alice’s neck now, just grazing the skin. A bead of blood glistened its way to the surface, contrasting brightly against her snow white skin.

‘You wouldn’t,’ Tyron hissed, changing tact. Around him, the door splintered as though it was simply turning to dust at the impact.

‘Oh, I would,’ Miles said, but he wasn’t moving any closer. There was nothing to stop him now, yet he was paused, almost defiantly, ready to kill Alice easily.

‘What are you waiting for?’ Taya snarled, moving closer. She wondered, as she did so, whether or not she would have to take over the task herself. People were so weak. It was just the simple act of murder – as simple as sliding the knife into the girls throat, after all. Yet Miles still hesitated, his eyes steely.

At that second the door crumbled, as though it were made of nothing more than sawdust.

The beast broke through, storming towards them in a tiny torrent of floodwater that the door had been holding back.

‘Run!’ Cael screamed, pointing towards the stairs.

Screams and shouts filled the air, and the great roar of rushing water and footsteps. In the commotion Tyron somehow managed to get Alice to her feet, and within seconds he was pulling her up the stairs, the beast on their heels.

Confused at the sudden multiplication of its prey, the creature lunged first at Taya, who shrieked, neatly clattering her way onto the landing at the top of the stairs and leaning out over the sweeping balcony. Beneath her feet, the soft, ornate red carpets were damp and dusty.

Next, the beat dived toward Cael, battering him backwards in its confusion and rage. Four great scratches ripped through his thin t-shirt and dug deep into his skin. Rolling quickly across the floor, the boy dived out of the way just as the creature moved in for the kill.