Eyeseffendee

12

Warning: this chapter is nightmare fuel. It includes skin walkers, the creature pictured above. Don't read before bed.

A hollow feeling sank through me, resonating deeply, like the sound of dry bones being gnawed on.

I didn't feel the darkness anymore; I didn't feel sad or angry. All I felt was the cold, as sharp and real as any emotion I've ever felt.

A voice of realization shivered through the darkness: the Guerro weren't in the cave. They didn't exist. Sarah lied to you.

The voice was enough to stir me. My eyes began to work again, but I could only see black. Was I dead? Had Sarah's feeble attempts to resurrect me failed?

I heard sounds, but they didn't make sense to me. Something grasped my chest, making the rhythmic rise and fall of it hold still. I panicked, unsure of what to do or how to breathe again.

Something hard hit my chest, and a spurt of water erupted from my windpipe, releasing the grip on my lungs.

I drew in thick breathes gratefully, and as I did so the noises around me solidified into words. Sarah was talking, but I didn't know what she was saying.

" . . . gonna be okay, Astor. You're breathing again."

The darkness rearranged itself into shadows, then to dimly lit spots of light. A stone ceiling hang above me, threatening to crush my lungs again. Soft, thin sand cushioned my back and sifted through my fur. The wet smell of ancient mold tickled my nostrils. I was in the cave. The light coming from the right of me told me we were near the entrance.

"Sarah?" I croaked, followed by a series of terrible coughs.

"Shhh, shhh, shhh, it's ok Astor. You don't need to move." She said as I tried to sit up.

I rolled onto my side, facing the exit of the cave. A sliver of gray sky peeked between the top of the cave's mouth and the sandy ridge we rested on.

"Sarah," I croaked again, "the Guerro . . . they weren't here."

She shook her head sadly. Her ears drooped exceptionally low, lower than my own ears. "No."

My mind raced, picking up speed as it gained consciousness. They weren't here. There was no Guerro to save my tribe. The army that I had been promised, if only through hope, didn't exist. Perhaps they never had.

Panic crept into my brain, and my breath quickened. The Shifter had won. Whatever terrible plan he concocted with Snake had probably been executed already. My tribe . . . my tribe! What would he do with my tribe! What would he do to Hare, to Sego, Negrita, Bat, Creek, Delta, and even Horizon?

Images of them crawled through my mind, laying on the ground, howling in pain, the Shifter with the body of Hawk, laughing at the blood he had collected on his muzzle and across his chest and over his paws-

My insides twisted horribly. I grabbed my head with my claws and sunk them in deep, trying to tear away the horrible scene.

"Astor, no, stop it!" Sarah cried, prying my tight paws away from my skull. "Please don't hurt yourself!"

"He has them . . . " I muttered, shivering violently.

"Astor, what-"