Faery Island

The Land of Gloom

 

Chapter XI – The Land of the Gloom

 

"A Fools Dance" by Phillip Phillips

Kind of a short chapter sorry.

 

Anthony

 

 

 

The mist hadn’t lifted, it never would. Anthony awoke before everyone else, listening to the shuffling and scuttling around them, but nothing approached.

 

From the Creek of Sorrow, the water ran dark and quiet; Anthony didn’t dare go close, afraid that the souls, memories and nightmares within it would get him too.

 

“Anthony!” Gyrin screamed behind him.

 

He had wandered only a bit, he took off to his left in to the fog, and ran right in to the small faeries back who had been scrambling for something on the ground. “What is it?” Anthony asked.

 

A moan caught his attention and then a sucking hiss, turning his gaze to wear Dian laid out was Leehaun Shee, her long gray hair slowly turning to a bright brown as she sucked down towards Dian’s face.

 

“No!” Anthony yelled, drawing his sword he charged the faey that wanders the creek’s banks.

 

The sword drove itself in to her shoulder with a sickening sound; she screeched his face, getting penned to the dark ground. Her ruby red eyes bright with Dian’s life force, Anthony only hoped he got there in time.

 

He pressed his boot to her chest and took the sword out, only to pierce her heart this time. She screamed in agony once again and her face began to become sunken, gray and wrinkled to a skeleton. The life forces she had stolen throughout her years leaving her, trying to find their old masters.

 

“Anthony, she’s not waking up,” Gyrin chimed, his voice trembled with the words and his hands shook. Panic rose up inside Anthony, but he fought it down. He was going to make sure she lived, that Gyrin lives and that he does himself, the Captain would be wrong.

 

But kneeling beside Dian’s motionless body, he wasn’t so sure anymore. Her hair once a very pale red had now became white in places and her skin nearly the same color. “Dian?” he whispered and pressed his ear to her chest, not hearing the thump of her heart that should be there.

 

Panic did show itself then and his body shook like Gyrin’s who was now crying. Anthony pressed his hand to her neck, then her wrist, he could feel it then. A small little bump, light and fragile. “She’s alive!” He said, relief flooding over him. Gryin sucked in a breath and started laughing while sobbing at the same time. “She’s weak though, we need to get out of here.”

 

Even has he said it Dian began to stir and groaned. Deep in to the fog, other things responded, attracted to the blood and death. “The Slaugh?” Gyrin whispered, Anthony nodded and scoped Dian up in to his arms.

 

Together, they stumbled around blindly, hoping to not run in to the Slaugh, creatures possessed by the unforgiven dead, and evil spirits.

 

“Anthony?” Dian whispered and then awoke completely, nearly jumping out of his arms. “Put me down! What happened?”

 

Her feet touched the ground and she wobbled a bit, she was still pale and had bags underneath her eyes, but looked better than she had. The white strand of hair. . . It wouldn’t ever go away.

 

“You were getting sucked, now come on!” Gyrin shouted, jumping in to the fog ahead of them.  He could have put it in better words, but they were on the run, trying to hurry.

 

“We can explain later, just stay close and out of the water.”

 

Together they ran, the shuffling was coming from all directions, then a loud scream broke out through the night, a black, hooded figure streaked in front of them in disappeared in to the night. “What was that?” Dian nearly shrieked.

 

“Shadow fey, that’s not what we have to worry about, c’mon-“

 

A large, heavy figure slammed in to his side, ripping him away from Dian.

 

“Gyrin!” She screamed, for him as Anthony fell to the ground by the hideous creature. The Slaugh spat in his face, its eyes glow a bright orange, and the skin was stretched around a skeleton. Sharp, yellowing claws raked towards his face.

 

Anthony shifted and threw the Slaugh off of him; it hissed, rolled and fell in to the dark waters without another sound.

 

He got up as soon as Gyrin returned; they were being surrounded from all sides. One in the middle, glaring down at Anthony, he rose his finger and pointed. “You.”

 

That’s all it took for them to attack.

 

None of them went for Dian and Gyrin, they all crammed in on Anthony. Panic rose inside of him, he swung franticly, cutting a few but he didn’t stand a chance.

 

With their combined weight, he fell backwards in to the water. It filled his lungs and clung to him like jelly, pulling him down, suffocating.

 

That’s when it began, when emotions flooded in with the water and he heard her voice.

 

The Slaugh disappeared down river, no longer holding him down. He gasped but nothing changed. He was blind, the darkness of the water taking over.

 

“Anthony,” she called him. Her voice more beautiful and sweet than he remembered, Leenah’s face appeared in front him.

 

He reached out to touch her face, it was smooth and cold, then he found himself standing, his body numb, and no longer in the river. He stood on a beach alone.

 

She came running down from the woods, tears running down her face. “Leenah!” He called, but nothing changed, it was as if she hadn’t heard him.

 

Then Anthony himself appeared, small and young.

 

He was watching his fourteen year old self.