Awakening

6: Shadow

Blake awoke with a start, breathing in sharply while his head flew up. He still sat on the floor next to his bed in the darkened room, and in only a few seconds his eyes adjusted. With a twist of his head Blake examined the analog clock atop the nearby nightstand. 1:43. After a quick groan he rubbed the corner of his eyes and threw his head onto the bed. He didn't even have dinner yesterday.

But something didn't feel quite right. Unease drifted up through his spine and enveloped his neck, and he allowed a gentle breath inside to calm his nerves. If there was something going on, he'd figure it out. His gaze swept across the room in a slow and simple motion. But he saw nothing in here.

A burning sensation tingled within his spine and Blake straightened up. The burn was soon accompanied by a very faint stinging that tried pressing right into his back, as if attempting to weight him down. Even his chest had tightened a little. More than anything, the combination of these uncomfortable twinges rather annoyed him.

This is insane, he thought. Blake looked behind him; the scythe still lay on his bed. With a sharp inhale Blake reached forward and lifted it. He did not necessarily want it, but right now he was almost sure he might need it. With only the slightest reluctance, he began tiptoeing out of his room.

The narrow hallway was such a dim one this time of night, and Blake's sight was aided only by the faint glow of some street lights near the front of the house. But he headed for the rear instead, his pace slow and wary. He clutched the weapon with both hands now, looking left and right.

Once he reached the door to his mother's room, he stopped. Only a large crack prevented him from looking inside very much, just as he'd left it, but he peeked anyway. He barely picked up on the sound of very gentle and leisurely snores, leaving him confident enough to simply tiptoe past her room.

As he entered the office he froze and scanned. Nothing here either. Blake made his way to the back door, which creaked ever so slightly as he pulled it open, the tension growing in his body with every passing second. When the opening was wide enough, Blake leaned his head forward.

Without any lights shining on the backyard, nobody could see a thing out here. The glow of the waning crescent, a sliver at best, also provided no aid for sight. He could not even discern the backyard from the fence, as everything beyond a few feet in front of him appeared as a neverending blackness.

The burn coursed throughout his body and enflamed his back and shoulders in particular, yet it was no stronger here than what it was earlier. Still, his senses told him to come this way for a reason, and like it or not he trusted his instincts. Blake stepped out into the night and let the door slowly creak behind him. In a manner of seconds it shut with a very soft click.

A terrible and searing burn radiated throughout his entire body. Instinctively, he backed up while holding the scythe in a defensive position. But in the same moment a forceful weight crashed into the staff and pushed him back with a startling thud.

Blake clutched the scythe with both hands. He couldn't see it clearly enough, but a shadowy figure grabbed the weapon with its jaws, snarling and growling like some rabid dog. His heartbeat quickened and pounded in his ears, and every muscle in his body had become tense. With a hefty grunt Blake braced his legs, took in a sharp breath of air, and pushed his arms forward as hard as he could muster.

The movement flung the shadow off of him in a mere second, but in the darkness he could not tell how far that was. Blake widened his stance and frantically scanned his surroundings despite knowing the uselessness of it. There! He saw it. The outline of the shadow was clearer to him now, and stood near the base of the fence's corner.

The fence? Blake realized it almost immediately....he didn't think he'd ever seen this well in near or total darkness before.

Something hissed, but not the shadow he'd just pushed away. It came from a different direction. Then something else growled, again from elsewhere. And the panic had yet to overtake him. The shadows were easy to distinguish in that moment, and because of that he almost felt calmer despite the ever present tension in his hands. He saw one, no, two? Another assessment of the backyard revealed at least five more. Each was small, none larger than a coyote, but every one took a very different shape. With lanky legs, long tails, and short snouts, they all looked like strange animalistic creatures, with silvery eyes and puffs of smoke radiating from their forms. And every single one had their malice directed right at him.