Gory Glory // l.t au

7 - Louis

Louis

“44...45...46...4-”

I stopped abruptly when I heard a gentle low murmuring sound not far from where I was. I stood up and dusted the dirt off my palms onto my trousers. I slowly crept round the tent to discover what the source of the noise was. Leila was wrapped in a navy blue towel, perched on a large log. One of her legs was outstretched, her toes pointed gracefully and she patted down her dripping skin. Droplets were formed on her shoulders and collar bones and she gently dabbed them off. She squeezed the water out of her wavy wet locks.

I then noticed what the noise I had heard earlier was. She was singing softly to herself. I swear I could recognize the song.

She continued to sing as she dried herself off. I observed her for a while, my mind wandering adrift.

Leila put on a tough-girl persona, and for a while, I was convinced that was all there was to her. But now, listening to her voice, I was beginning to see passed the hardy outer shell, the fragile demeanour within. Her singing was sweet, baby-like; almost a whisper.

She tousled her hair and slowly turned to face me, her fingers still raked through her locks. I quickly jumped to the side, hiding behind the tent again. She grew quiet for a few seconds, and I was convinced she'd spotted me. But then, soon afterwards, I was relieved when I heard her pick up where she left off on the song. Not wanting to get caught again, I decided to leave and get back to my press-ups.

***

I was passed my hundredth press-up and my arms began to ache, but I continued. The pain and fatigue took my attention away from the fear that was permanently engraved in the back of my mind.

A noise began again, but this time it was much louder. Maybe Leila had thought I'd left and allowed herself to project more.

When the press-ups became too tiring to handle, I rolled over onto my back to do sit-ups. It took my eyes a second or two to adjust to the summer sun, but when they did, I nearly screamed in horror. A Breather was towering over me, a rotting hole in one side of it's face. I clamped my hand over my mouth to avoid screeching with sheer terror, as I knew their attacks were based off of sound. But it had already spotted me. A predatory growl rose from it's throat. My head snapped to the left, and then to the right in search of a weapon. But there was nothing there.

I hastily scuttled backwards, away from the creature. But this appeared to only anger it more – if they could even experience anger, that is. It grabbed hold of my ankles in a surprisingly strong grip and dragged me towards it. I kicked furiously and attempted to crawl back, but it had already clamped it's claws into my knees and was bending over to bite me.

“Leila!” I screamed.

The Breather let out a roar of fury at my outburst and lowered its head down to my thigh. I kicked my foot into it's chest, making it topple back a few steps, momentarily startling it. It roared again and lunged at me, pinning me to the ground.

“Leila, help!” I tried again, my voice wavering in fear.

Realizing I was far out of her hearing range, I tried a different approach, running out of options.

“Please don't kill me,” I begged the creature. It's milky blue eyes, dull as lead, met mine. It stared at me for a few seconds, as if reading the expression on my face carefully. “Please...” I whispered, “I know you were like me once. A normal, living human being. You probably had a good job, a wife, kids maybe? You and me – we're not that different. Don't do this”.