Madoc watches me speechless as I approach the wraiths stark-naked, and each kid glances at me. There are three girls and three boys, and one of the boys records the poor girl on his phone; I will rip that phone from his hand and shove it up his rectum. The girls give me a once-over with their critical eyes, bringing back insecurities of my own teenage years.
Fuck. Teenage girls. So petty.
“Step away from her.”
My voice is firm, unwavering, and I have no idea where this strength comes from. One of these creatures almost got to me yesterday, yet here I am in my birthday suit, facing off a bunch of similar nightmares.
Other wraiths peer through the trees. There’s a masked serial killer who looks like some Michael Myers rip-off and don’t forget about Pennywise the clown too. He even has a balloon.
A large majority of wraiths are animals, such as lions, bears, and tigers, but none of them have anything on this pack of bullies.
One of the girls steps forward, a pretty blonde with a nasty smirk, and I take it she’s the leader. “Yeah? What are you going to do about it, bitch?”
Her face starts to resemble a mean girl who I went to high school with next. She’d ripped a book from my fingers and tore out its pages, but bullies all start to look the same after a while.
It makes no difference who she is. I’ll beat her either way.
I give her a smirk of my own. “This.”
The wraiths jump back when I send a roundhouse kick their leader’s way, and she returns to her former form once she hits the ground.
Madoc cheers me on. “That’s my beauty! Show that bitch who’s boss!”
The creature no longer resembles a blonde teen. Now it looks like a cross between a skeleton and a withered tree branch, and I’m not surprised they need our nightmares.
They’re nothing without us. True parasites. Yet there is no symbiosis here. The host had nothing to gain from these creatures, and I will destroy them all.
I don’t need a gunora weapon. My legs and fists will do just fine. And courage. Don’t forget good old courage.
“I said leave her alone.”
I stare into the wraith’s beady black eyes, and it starts to shrink. The other wraiths step away from me, and the ones who hide in the trees back off too.
The one on the ground scrambles to its feet and scampers off. But then Madoc throws a knife, and it embeds in the back of the wraith’s skull.
The wraith drops to the ground and disappears into a cloud of smoke, and it’s a message for the others.
Don’t fuck with me and my monsters. And that goes for any human who’s unfortunate enough to find themselves in the Abyss.
I gaze down at the girl. She’s crouched on the ground in a fetal position, and I kneel down beside her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.
I try to channel my mom when she used to soothe me as a kid, and I guess her spirit does live on inside me.
Wherever she is, I hope she’s somewhere better than here. I have to believe there is more to the human world and the Abyss. A place free from nightmares.
“Hey, it’s okay. They’re gone now.”
The girl freezes, gazing up with round blue eyes. I remember that color well. That was the shade the sky used to be before the darkness took over.
Hope blinks back up at me now as she stares at me spellbound. “You... you’re a...”
I smile. “Yeah. I’m human, like you.”
Her sky blue eyes widen in shock, and I have to swallow a lump. The color truly does take your breath away. So luminous.
“And... you survived thosethings?” she asks shakily.
I stifle a snort. I’ve survived many things. Just before, a creature of this very land was fucking me with his knife, but I will keep that to myself.