Tales Of Arcadia Ficlet Collection

♧ Unwanted Inheritance ♧

Laura's eyes snapped open at the dull sound of something crashing. She laid there, figuring it was her father coming home from another night of protecting Trollmarket and accidentally knocking something over and breaking that strange vase Nomura gave to her parents as a wedding gift.

As she was closing her eyes to drift back to sleep, there was another crash and a "JUST DIE ALREADY!" before Laura's eyes snapped open in alarm. She slipped out of the bed and knelt to grab a short sword she kept hidden under there for emergencies. She crept over to the door and slowly opened it to see her mother standing in the doorway of her own room, worry etched over her face.

Claire spotted her daughter standing in the doorway of her room with a sword in hand and pressed a finger to her lips.

"Mommy?" Laura turned to see her baby brother, Michael, poking his head out of his room with a terrified look in his eyes. "Where's daddy?"

"It's okay sweetie," Claire assured him gently, "daddy is just-"

"NO YOU'RE NOT GETTING TO THEM!" Laura's eyes widened in horror, and before Claire could stop her, she was sprinting towards the stairs.

"Daddy!" Laura screamed as she nearly tripped at the bottom of the stairs.

"Laura get out of here!" Her father screamed as he slashed his sword at what looked like a giant shadow that attempted to lunge over him in attempt to get to the stairs. "Get your mother and brother out of here!"

"Jim!" Claire was now standing besides Laura, her Shadow Staff in hand and was prepared to kick ass.

"Claire no!" Jim yelled as he tried kicking the creature away. "It's made of shadows! The staff will only empower it!" Was it just her imagination, or did Laura see the creature grow?

Seeing the Trollhunter was distracted, the creature slammed it's tail against Jim, sending him flying and crashed against the wall, causing several photographs to fall to the floor. Jim gave a groan as the monster crawled over to him, it's sharp tail poised and ready to stab him as he fumbled for the amulet.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE YOU CREEP!" Laura screamed, rushing at the monster and jammed the sword into its back leg, only for it to drop through. The monster turned its ugly head, but before it could turn to attack, Jim pounced on its back and wrapped his arms around it's neck

"NO! YOU ARE NOT GETTING MY DAUGHTER OR MY WIFE OR SON!" Jim screamed as he held on. The monster shook him off, sending him into the wall again, but this time, the tail followed and jammed it through Jim's chest.

Laura heard her mother give out a scream as her father coughed out blood when the beast removed it's tail from his chest, looking to her with fear. His arm stretched out weakly towards Laura.

"Laura...run..." He whispered before falling forward as blood poured out from his chest. The monster of shadow crept to a corner with a hiss before licking the wounds that seemed to be glowing a pale blue.

"Dad? Daddy? Daddy wake up!" Laura cried as she ran over to her father's body shook his shoulder. "Wake up daddy!" No response. Laura couldn't even feel a pulse. "No...no...no!"

Laura wanted to cry, but the tears never came. Her eyes wandered to the creature, taking in its ghastly appearance. The creature looked like a giant humanoid bat with goat legs and a reptile tail. The entire thing seemed to be made of what looked like black smoke, almost the same color as the shadows it was hiding in, save for the bright red eyes and it looked as if it were practically growing to the same size as Aaarrrggh. It sat in the corner of the room licking the wounds Jim must have given it with Daylight. The human's blood stained it's clawed hands and it attempted to lick them clean. Laura could see it watching them from the corner of it's eyes, possibly planning on finishing them off, just as soon as it's wounds healed properly.