Image by: kamerman1960
TW: Child Abduction, NO graphic descriptions or horror elements, happy ending
The silence in the house was unbroken by the slowly creeping shadows. The sun lingered, hot and glaring, resisting the dusk as the long summer day faded. The clock ticked, sharp in the hush, until with one last defiant flare, the sun sank below the horizon.
The shadows deepened.
A slither across the carpet, no more than a shifting of darkness. The ruffles of the bed-skirt shivered. The floor creaked and all was silent.
Under the bed, amidst the dust and forgotten toys, they gathered. Grim with anger, they waited, restless, writhing. Outside, a streetlight hummed to life, bathing the room in its orange glow. As if it were a signal, the Shadows rose as one to loom around the bed.
“Is it true?” one asked, a hiss like tires on wet pavement.
“Mommy and Daddy went with them,” another said, its voice a whine like a quiet electric motor. “I heard them. She’s gone.”
A third choked back a sob. “Gone!” it moaned. “Gone, gone, gone—!”
“Enough.”
Spoken quietly, it silenced the others. A figure rose from the foot of the bed, menacing and powerful. The others looked up to its eyes, gleaming in the streetlight’s glow.
“What did you hear, Oohnnch?”
The whining one wrung its hands, talons clattering in its fright. “After she left School,” he whimpered. “Mommy waited at the corner. Waited and waited. Called Joyce. Called Stephen’s Mommy. Even Other Mom.” Oohnnch cowered as Xhthunk’s glare bent on him.
“Other Mom? And?”
Oohnnch swallowed, barely able to speak the words. “Those men, the Police. They found My Bike in the Park.”
The others had drawn closer, shadows made solid as the sun drifted further and further away. Lumpy ones, growling ones, spiky ones, all staring at Xhthunk as he towered over them.
It was a fury like he had never known. He had heard of such things, heard of the monsters humans could be. The foot board creaked under his paw as he gripped the gleaming wood.
The others’ terror bubbled up. “What will we do? Where is She? What will happen to us?”
“Cease this futile yammering!” His fangs flashed, a reminder of his position.
He knew what he must do. There was no choice if they wanted Her back.
“We must find Her.”
They gasped in horror.
“Go Outside?”
“How?”
“Leave Home?”
“The Sun!” They whimpered and drew back, instinctively seeking their corners, the cracks where they lurked.
Now his mind was made up, he wasted no time. The night was passing. “Stay, then,” he dismissed with a sneer. “I will search for her myself.”
“And me,” Oohnnch said, still worrying his hands, but his wide, wet mouth set with determination.
“I will come!” Ffffffff added, slithering close to make his heavy whispers heard. “She is our Child.”
A handful of others joined their band. Xhthunk reach out a hesitant paw. Laying prim on the duvet was Princess Anastasia Melody Sunshine. Her wide brown eyes stared her affront at these creatures invading the sanctuary of her Mistress. From the patched seem on her foot to the yarn pigtails framing her face, she radiated a power and light that made the Shadows cringe to behold.
“Most powerful and honorable majesty,” Xhthunk said solemnly. “I beg most humbly that we, this one night, form a truce. Our Child has been lost. We must find her. She will have need of your protection. May I…?”
The others held their breath as he closed his large palm around her middle, sure the princess’s mighty magic would strike Xhthunk down.
He lifted her from the bed, trembling in the face of her affront and disdain.
“Please, great lady. Until our Child is safe once more.”
She scowled, but did not harm him. She even allowed him to tuck her away about his person, resigned to her indignant circumstances. For the Child, anything.
“Let us go.”
The night was warm and quiet. Moonless, it allowed them quick passage between the houses, slipping around corners, ducking under cars. Animals stirred as they passed, dogs growling at the wind, cats with lamp-like eyes watching as the darkness rolled around them.
The blank sky above stretched, nothing like the snug cracks and spaces they hid in at Home. There were noises and smells, the sound of humans all around. They hurried past, intent on their task.
The Park was an open space with strange metal shapes scattered in the grass. The air vibrated with the scent of Children. The shadows dispersed, seeking their own Child.
“Here!” Rreeeeeck croaked. “She was here!”
They gathered, making a dark fog around a large metal disk set above the ground. Now on Her scent, Zhmzhmzhm lumbered over the field, his heavy legs crushing the grass blades and throwing up the bright smell of summer.
Around, under, over, until—
“I found something!”
Xhthunk could smell her now, quite clear. Her fear soured the night air and he snarled. The other drew back as he breathed deep. Her scent. And another’s. He grew in the darkness, fed by her terror and his own fury.
Their path led to the street and faded.
“Where did she go?”
“A car,” Oohnnch muttered, talons no longer trembling, but biting into the pavement.
Zhmzhmzhm’s uneven legs sped by. “It is faint, but I can follow it, Hurry!”
They moved faster now, leaping between shadows, rustling the pools of light dropped by the streetlights.
They swept by the few humans out in the night, leaving nothing but a chill wind in their wake. Down the streets, under bridges, frantic, knowing the Sun was inexorably moving under their feet. That She was scared and alone.
Zhmzhmzhm wheeled suddenly, veering off the road. The car was there, set before a small house. Under the hiss of the wind, they heard a small desperate sob.
A door was nothing to them. Any place the darkness touched was their dominion. And there was Darkness here.
Xhthunk savored the terror in the human’s eyes. It stared up at them, mouth open in a silent scream as they gathered, their fury, Her fear, giving them power, so much power.
She hid her face, which was well. The human let out a single shriek as they surged forward. The lights dimmed, unable to look upon the grisly scene before them.
Xhthunk separated from the mass, unsatisfied, but doubting he ever would be. No torment could atone for the fear of his Little One.
She peeked around her fingers, her face pinched. Xhthunk did not know how much of his form she could see. Children were more perceptive than Grown-Ups, seeing the truth of things others didn’t. She had already seen too much, he knew.
Princess Princess Anastasia Melody Sunshine was rumpled, but joyous at their reunion. The Child stared at Her doll, then up at Her monster. She reached out an unsure hand and took the Princess close to her heart.
The Shadows eased back, panting and replete. They followed at a distance as Xhthunk led their Child from that foul place to the road. Before long, headlights shone and Xhthunk pressed her forward.
She hesitated, hand tight around his paw.
“Go, Child. You’re safe now.”
She nodded, giving a great sniff.
It was a long, weary tramp Home. They slunk around the back, the front ablaze with activity and joy. She cried on Mommy’s shoulder, Daddy’s arms wrapped around them both.
The Shadows listened in tired triumph as She told what halting details she understood. Her fear was still strong, but hope was there as well.
She went to sleep in Mommy and Daddy’s bed. The Shadows watched from the cracks as Mommy stroked their Child’s cheek, softly singing the charms that protected her slumber.
“Come,” Xhthunk said finally.
The sky was lightening. They sought out their crevices, somehow smaller now with the wild Outside in their blood. A few stretched to peek out the window at the new day before fading back to the shadows.
Xhthunk risked much, but could not rest yet. He smoothed his Child’s pillow, his mighty paw caressing. The house grew quiet once more. He sighed and returned to the comforting darkness beneath his Child’s bed.
The Sun rose and the Shadows settled in to wait out the Day.
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Oooohh. Tingly in both a creepy and satisfied way! Loved it.