I couldn’t let him win. I couldn’t let him destroy Megan’s soul just like he had done to his past hosts. I had to move.
I took a step forward, but the very act of moving proved difficult. My limbs felt like lead. He was not only draining Juktha’s power, he was draining mine. I took another step forward, and fell, the weakness overtaking me.
“Bobby!” Kurt tried to run to me, but a loud crack stopped him in his tracks.
A piece of the wall shattered, releasing a writhing strand of barbed wire, which wrapped around Kurt’s wrist, yanking him back.
I couldn’t get up, I couldn’t help him. I watched in horror as the barbed wire tightened, piercing Kurt’s skin. The small, sharp barbs cut into him, drawing small streams of blood.
“Grath, stop this.” Juktha was trying to stay conscious. “This isn’t our world anymore. We have no place in it. We are the forgotten ones.”
“Forgotten?” He laughed, stepping away from Megan, down the stairs towards us. “If we were truly forgotten we’d be dead and gone. Not even dust in the wind. And yet...” He spread out his arms, motioning towards the decaying room, “here we are. Our disciples are out there.” He motioned towards Kurt, Ashtyn and myself. “You have already found some of yours. I intend to find mine, and when I do...” He smiled.
I looked past Grath, at Megan, who was trying to pull the barbed wire from her leg, but with every tug the wire just pulled taught, snaking higher and higher up her leg.
“Grath, just let her go. Let Megan go. You can have me instead.” My voice was weak, choked. I slowly got to my feet, not fully trusting my legs.
“Don’t do this.” Kurt’s voice was shaking, the pain evident in every word.
“Have you?” Grath was at the bottom of the stairs now. “Oh, I intend to.”
He arched his back, and the sound of flesh ripping filled the room. Long, gray tentacles sprouted from the ripped flesh, flailing wildly in the air.
As they slithered towards me I braced myself. The first tentacle wrapped around throat, lifting me off the ground. The next two grabbed my wrists, pulling my arms behind my back. Two more wrapped around my ankles, pulling my legs apart. With a tug, the tentacles on my wrists pulled my arms down, causing my back to arch. They tightened, and I gritted my teeth, trying not to cry out in pain.
I could feel tentacle around my neck tighten, extend. It was heading towards my mouth.
“Let him go, you son of a bitch!” Kurt was pulling at the barbed wire around his arm.
“So this is your one and only?” Grath turned his head towards the sound of Kurt’s voice. “No reason I can’t get a taste too, right?”
A tentacle snaked across the floor, moving quickly towards Kurt’s leg. I watched on in horror as it wrapped around Kurt’s ankle, lifting him off the ground upside down. Another tentacle wrapped around his chest, and started snaking it’s way towards his neck.
We were trapped. We had lost. I had not only failed Juktha, but I had gotten Kurt stuck in this mess as well, and now he was going to pay because I failed.
I closed my eyes, giving up.
No comments:
Post a Comment