Issue #182 : From Darkness It Rises
[image error]
Rory skated along the edge of the pond and looked out at the trees, snow creating a solid line along the tops that slowly wafted to the ground below. Before long, the pond would be packed with screaming brats, mostly ignored by their parents or the couples, too wrapped up in how amazing they were for each other. He just wanted to skate, let the cold numb his body and whatever thoughts that might be bothering him.
He drifted across the ice, letting himself wander out towards the center of the pond. The wind was starting to pick up as the season tipped down towards the heart of winter. The change didn’t matter really to him, it just meant that it took that much less time for him to experience the numbness.
As he started into an orbit around the deeper part, he noticed a discoloration in the ice that he had never seen before. Likely, one of the idiot teenagers had spilled something and caused the ice to be discolored. He skated over to see if he could get a better idea of what it was but the ice looked completely normal. The dark coloration he had seen was coming from underneath the ice, something attaching itself to the surface, from the other side.
He couldn’t see what it clearly, and the ice was too thick for him to really do anything other than stare so, after a minute or two, he shrugged it off and turned towards shore.
That was when a pair of eyes opened and shut.
One blink was all he had seen. The darkened shape under the ice opened its eyes and stared at him for several moments before again closing.
Rory gaped at the thing as it tread water to stay in place. He didn’t understand how it could be possible, but whatever was down there was alive. He tried to move back but the thing floated lazily along with him as if attached by some kind of invisible tether. He moved back faster, and the thing sped up, moving with him and not losing pace. Finally, Rory turned and began a frantic skate, losing any sense of calm or caution, as all he cared about now was getting off of the ice and back onto solid ground.
He heard creaking underneath him and looked down to see the ice bulging upwards as the thing tried to break through. Rory sped up to try and stay ahead of it and his right foot slipped, shooting out from underneath him and he toppled forward. Vaguely, he heard the sound of his chin hitting the ice, and everything around him momentarily went to dark. He heard wind howling in his head like dissident screams but could not see or feel anything.
As he woke up, he found himself on the ice, right where he had fallen, cheek burning from the prolonged exposure to the cold. He pulled up, crying out as the skin of his cheek stuck and snapped loose. He grabbed at his face, expecting to see his hand come away streaked with blood, but there was nothing. Looking around, he tried to remember what had happened and why he was on the ground when the ice started to shake.
Rory looked down and saw the darkened shape again, this time easily three times as large and he stumbled back. The ice cracked loudly underneath him, as he collapsed, the sound of tree branches snapping and he scrambled at the ice with his hands, crab walking and desperately trying to get back up to his feet, to get away from whatever it was down there.
He saw the eyes. Only now, instead of one set of eyes, it looked like there were over a hundred of them, staring up at him blankly, unblinking as the thing hovered. Rory was finally able to rise to his feet and resumed his path to shore. His ankle now burned, but so far it still supported his weight. He had considered losing the skates altogether but this would be the fastest way to get him off of the ice. The thing below him kept pace, like a shadow several times his size that would not give up the chase, determined to keep up with him.
Rory tried to ignore it, tried to focus on the shore. Whatever the thing was didn’t matter. It was in the water so as long as he got to dry land, it wouldn’t be able to get him. He would be safe once he was off the water. Looking up, he saw that the shoreline was now rushing up on him and within seconds, he tripped off the ice and toppled forward. Ripping the skates off, he began running towards the tree-line, not caring about the cuts and scrapes he already felt through his thick socks.
As the ground underneath him began to feel solid, he knew there was a good thirty feet between them and he slowed. Turning, he knelt down, hands on knees as he tried to bring his breathing and heartbeat under control. It would do him no good to get away from the thing if he just ended up keeling over from a heart attack. His blood pounded in his ears, a concussive beat that froze him in place, unable to do much more than focus on breathing.
Even that became impossible when he realized that what he was actually hearing was the cracking of the ice. He looked down at the spiderweb that was flowing out from the dark shape underneath. The ground began to shake and just as he started to hear the trees around him splintering, a great explosion shot up from the lake, showering him with ice and debris. The thing under the ice flew up, its wings now beating the air as it hovered above, staring down at him as its scream ripped through him.
The thought to turn and run for the trees came far too late as the thing shrieked again and dove. It crashed into him and somehow in the course of hitting the ground, he felt burning pain along with a dull ripping sound. He was hurled into the air, the breath drawn out of him. It was only in his waning moments as he spun through the air and got one final glimpse at the ground behind him that he realized that he had left the rest of his body behind.
[image error]
