Hush-A-By

Running through the dead trees;

The hunters chase, the prey flees.

Hush-a-by, hush-a-by, they all fall down.

The wailing child’s voice sounded again; an eerie song drifting on the chill wind. Icy fingers wrapped around them, sending haunting shivers down their spines. In terror they ran. They had been running for days. Every time the song sounded, someone died.

Who will it be this time? Rick thought to himself. He glanced over to Kathy who ran on his left then over to Nathaniel and Adam who ran on his other side. He knew one of them would die. It was a horrible feeling, fear. But this fear was unlike any other fear he had ever experienced in his life. It coiled in his stomach, ran through his veins, and fogged his mind.

Take them, he wanted to scream. Let me live. Just take one of them and let me be. Were he in his right mind his own thoughts would have made him sick. Now, however, these thoughts were the lifeline he clung to.

A shriek sounded somewhere off to the side; heinous, grating, curdling the blood. They all stopped dead in their tracks, not knowing which way to turn. Frantically, they searched the woods they were surrounded by. Nothing could be seen except the endless expanse of trees and thorny underbrush.

The shriek sounded again, and a thick fog enveloped them. Rick tried to reach out to where he thought Kathy had been, but he found himself clawing at empty air. His heart pounded in his chest as he waited for the impending death.

Then it happened. He heard Nathaniel scream somewhere to his right. Instinctively, he backed away, trying to put as much distance between himself and death. Something tripped him in his retreat, and he fell hard to the ground. In an instant, the fog lifted, and he saw the bloodied corpse of Nathaniel lying beside him. Deep claw marks scored his chest, his arms had been torn off, and his face had been chewed unrecognizable.

Kathy screamed at the sight and Adam turned white, hurling in the nearby bush.

“Na...” Rick tried to speak but his voice got caught in his throat. “Nathaniel.” The stench of blood and death wafted up to his nostrils, then he too threw up on the side of the road.

“What do we do?” Kathy said through heaving sobs. Her face was red and puffy from so many days of continuous crying.

“You’d think after so many deaths you would run out of tears,” Adam said solemnly as wet trails stained his face. “We have to get out of here. It’ll keep coming after us until we’re all dead unless we get out of its territory.”

“Yes,” Rick mumbled with a slow nod. “We must keep running.”

“Rick, I can’t do this,” Kathy pleaded. “I can’t keep running. I just can’t.”

“We have to. If you don’t want to run, then you can stay here and wait for death to come to you. At least your dying would give us a chance to escape,” he spat back viciously.

“Rick!”

“Come on Adam, let’s get out of here. Kathy, you can come, or you can stay. Your choice.”

Again, they ran. They could hear the sounds of something running somewhere beside them. Their hunter was pursuing them but at the moment it seemed to merely enjoy watching their growing fear. They all knew it would strike again. It would continue to kill so long as they remained in this forest. It would chase them from the shadows, never showing itself. It would feast on their anxiety, then a child’s voice would sing, and someone would be killed. They never knew who the next victim would be.

Whose corpse will litter the ground next? Rick thought. “Whose blood does it crave?” He only realized he had said this out loud after it was too late. “What I mean is, um...” his mind blanked on an excuse.

“Who will be killed next,” Adam finished for him.

“Right.”

“I don’t want to talk about this,” Kathy panted. “Why did we stop running? What if that...thing catches up to us?”

“It doesn’t have to catch up,” Rick replied in a monotone voice.

“Rick, don’t...”

“It’s always with us. Don’t you hear it running beside us pace for pace? Don’t you sense its intent to kill weighing like a heavy blanket on our shoulders? Don’t you know that it’s never too far away? It never has to find us. It’s always just right over there within killing distance.”

Kathy screamed and covered her ears, her eyes wide. “Then why have we been running all this time? If that won’t save us, then why bother? It’s gonna kill us anyway so why do we run? If we can’t save ourselves...”

“Kathy, snap out of it!” Adam shouted. “Rick, you snap out of it too. Don’t lose yourself.”

“Lose myself?” He laughed. “No. One can’t lose what doesn’t exist. We should keep running. It’s getting impatient. If we bore it, the next kill will only come faster.”

Running through the dead trees;

The hunters chase, the prey flees.

Hush-a-by, hush-a-by, they all fall down.

“You see!? It’s coming!”

They ran. Rick glanced at Kathy’s wide-eyed terror and then over at Adam who was trying but failing to look calm. It can have Kathy. She’s a pain anyway.

They broke out of the tree cover suddenly and saw a run-down stone castle standing like a ghost in front of them. The wooden drawbridge was down; a bridge over the murky, slime covered moat water.

“Into the castle,” Adam suggested.

They ran for the drawbridge and pounded across, not daring to look behind them. Adam was across first and Rick was almost there when a large crocodile – the size of which was something out of a legend – jumped onto the bridge in front of him. Kathy crashed into him and he almost fell into the crocodile's gaping jaws.

It won’t have me. Not yet. Somehow, he caught his balance and managed to back away from the toothy beast.

Kathy, out of desperation, leapt past him abruptly. He was shocked as he watched her fly past him. Not wanting to be left behind, he chased after her. The crocodile lunged and Rick grabbed Kathy, pulling her back. He heard a crunch and a gurgled scream as the large mouth clamped down on her torso. He turned to watch as the scaled monster dragged her below the water’s surface and to her death.

“Rick!” Adam called.

Rick smiled unperturbed down at the rippling waters before smoothing out his face to look at Adam. “It got her.”

“What happened? How did it catch her? I thought maybe you both were going to make it.”

“You heard the song. Someone had to die. I guess this time it picked her.”

Running through the dead trees;

The hunters chase, the prey flees.

Hush-a-by, hush-a-by, they all fall down.

“What?” Rick gasped fear drowning out his brief elation. “But you just had a kill. You can’t want another one so soon!” he screamed at the sky.

“Rick, what are you doing? We should get inside and try to hide.”

“Hide. Right.”

They ran down long corridors trying to find some place to escape the looming death. It got Kathy. I practically gave her to it! Why does it want its next victim so soon? Why is it so greedy for blood? “It won’t have mine,” he mumbled to himself.

“Come on, up these stairs.”

They dashed up the stairs, their legs screaming for a break, their lungs on fire. At the top, they were stopped short as they had come to a dead end. They had reached a circular room with a single window and no other way of escape.

“Out the window,” Rick said running over to it. He looked out and saw the ground below at a much greater distance then he had anticipated.

“If we jump out of this, we’ll both be killed.”

“It doesn’t need both of us. It only needs one to die.”

“What are you saying?”

Rick smiled, a feeling of numbness overtaking his body. “I’m not going to be the one to sate its blood-thirst Adam. You are.”

“Rick, stop! Get a hold of yourself. Rick!”

He wrapped his hands around Adam’s throat and squeezed. Adam fought back but he soon lost air, his face turning red and his eyes bulging in terror. They fell to the ground, Adam limp and lifeless.

Slowly, Rick stood up and backed away, his heart pounding.

“Thank you,” a haunting voice said behind him.

Rick whipped around and saw a girl standing by the window. “Who are you?”

“You don’t know? I’ve only been the one watching over you since the moment you stepped foot in my domain.”

“You...you’re the one who killed everyone?”

“No. I think you’ll find you were the one who killed the last two.”

Rick turned around to see Adam lying dead on the stone floor. “Adam?” he whispered; the veil that had shaded his heart lifted. “What have I done? Adam! No. How could...he was my best friend.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore. You’re about to join him.” The girl leapt at him, her small frame suddenly transforming into that of a sickly black monster. She lunged for his throat with her fangs bared.

“Get away from me!” he screamed throwing his hands up to protect his face. He felt her teeth puncture his skin and he screamed again.

She let go and he fell back, nearly losing his balance as his legs hit against the wall below the open window. She jumped at him again, her fingers wrapping around his throat and holding him so he was suspended parallel with the ground, his knees hooked on the window ledge desperately to keep him within the tower. He grabbed her wrist and tried to pry her fingers from his neck. She clamped tighter and leaned over him to bite his chest. He screamed as her teeth ripped into his flesh.

In a last act of desperation, he twisted his body and threw her back, falling together with her. Except, he did not fall as she did out the window. It was unknown to him how he managed it, but he found himself safely within the tower room once more. His gaze fell on Adam’s lifeless eyes staring fearfully back at him before noticing the blood flowing from his own chest. It was the last thing he saw before his head hit the stone with a sickening crack.