“And you didn’t save me! You’ve said before you’d save me, but was that all a lie too?” I raged on.
“I’m not your savior,” he said, serious now. His expression shifted from amusement to annoyance. Like I was getting on his nerves by demanding he answer for this.
“You aren’t,” I said sadly, shaking my head. “You’re like the rest of the people in my life, putting me in shitty situations, then abandoning me when I really need you. My grandmother also reminded me that I was a burden. So just go. Clearly, you won’t be here to save me if anyone else decides to put their hands on me, or rather dick in me. May as well look out for myself.”
I paused my rant as I took in the change in my personal monster. He was no longer paying attention to me, his eyes were now a violent blue, burning brighter and more fiercely than I’d ever seen. His body rose another two feet at least before he gave a pathetic ‘sorry,’ then blinked out of existence.
What the fuck.
My emotions were a chaotic mess, and his disappearance just proved what I’d said. I was on my own.
Thanks to that little confrontation, sleep was out of the question, at least for now. My gaze shifted to the door and the warning I’d been given about going out at night flashed through my mind.
Which only made me curious. Why couldn’t I leave at night? The bathroom was down the hall, and I wasn’t avoiding it any time after dark, that was unreasonable. Not to mention, it was something to focus on other than my life that was currently falling apart.
I shouldn’t care what a hallucination thinks or does. But I do care, far too much.
No, it’s best to focus on something,anything, else.
Quietly walking to the door, I pulled it open. The first thing to hit me were the sounds. The sounds of disembodied wails hit me, and I swear I hear my name being called again. The screams aren’t just ones of fear either, I can hear the difference. Pain, sadness, euphoria, fear, all of them twisted together into a macabre symphony that sent icy shivers through me.
Every window I passed as I started down the hall showed movement inside. Dark shadows danced beyond the glass, and the light from the hall gave just enough to make the shifting forms even more terrifying.
“Hiro,” I breathed out as I noticed his door was ajar. Roman can’t protect him in his sleep. Or at least I didn’t think so. Not to mention, I had no real idea what I’d find beyond this door.
Everything in me screamed to stay away, to go back inside and go to sleep, but I couldn’t. Even if I barely knew him, he was the gentlest out of all of us, and the idea of something being wrong with him had me moving forward despite the fear.
A low, eerie groan filtered out of his room. It was chilling, the kind of thing only my mind could concoct, yet it was real. It had to be. Even I couldn’t make all of this up.
Right?
“You shouldn’t have come out of your room.” A cold, rasping voice was in my ear, and I jumped, spinning around. A scream bubbled up, but the creature slammed a hand over my mouth, and pinned me against the wall. My eyes were wide as he leaned in, giving me an even better view of his terrifying form. He resembled Monty in some ways, a pale blue light burning under the skeletal ribcage that made up his torso. His arms and head were more humanlike in the sense he had a gaunt face and thin arms. They were covered in charred skin and burning fractures that cracked through it. His eyes also burned with fire, but he had a sharp nose, thin lips, and fanged teeth glinting as he grinned down at me. The horns on his head were short and pointed, tapping against the cinder block wall as he loomed over me. “Don’t scream, you don’t want to attract attention, do you?” A long bluish tongue darted out of his mouth and over my cheek. My skin burned in its wake and fear rocked through me. As my panic amped up, he breathed it in, a soft glow filtering between us as if he were drinking it in.
“Wh-what are you?” I stuttered as I pulled his hand away. I don’t know why, but my fucked up sense of curiosity had me talking.
“A nightmare,” he said as he ran his nose along my neck, breathing me in again. My head spun as he did, and I hated myself in that moment for not heeding the warnings I’d been given.
I definitely shouldn’t have left my room.
“Monty?!” I called out, but of course, again, there was no response.
“No one can save you,” the creature promised as he easily lifted me and flung me over his shoulder. I fought against him, pounding into his skeletal back. The fire licking the bone didn’t burn me, in fact it felt more cool than hot. But he also was unaffected. By the time he threw me down on my bed again I was feral, kicking and fighting. Each ounce of effort I put in was countered by him breathing deeper and deeper, the tendrils of glowing smoke between us thick and foggy in the air.
My energy waned until my vision started to slip away. The creature leaned down, giving me a toothy grin that would haunt my nightmares for weeks.
“Goodnight, human, thanks for the meal.”
* * *
Monty
Helheim
Rage.Annoyance. Frustration.
The emotions warred within me which only made them amplify as I blinked out of my little human’s room and into Hel’s castle.
The throne room was empty, making the large, pale stone walls and glittering marbled floors seem even more immense. Hel’s throne was carved from bone, jutting into the air to accommodate her large frame. It was currently unoccupied. But she’d know I was here, she always did.