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121. The Monster's Prisoner
🕑 Added 2025-03-02 09:14:46 +0000 UTC"Please run!" I screamed, my voice no longer my own, but much deeper and that of the monster taking over.
Both Azad and Xandra, who were backing away from me, looked as if they were becoming smaller as the were-fox-frog-monster which had come out at the factories steadily made its return. The top of my head brushed the slanted den ceiling, causing the wood to creak against the skull-like bone armor which domed my head. The hot lava-like glow of my skin beneath the emerging slabs of bone armor brightened the fairy-light-lit den even further.
"Can you fight?" said Xandra, her large eyes wide with panic and looking from me to Azad.
"No," said Azad, "I've barely had time to heal from the last fight."
"Then you have to run!" Xandra shouted, "You'll have to leave him to me!"
"Bouncing around isn't going to stop him!" Azad shouted, "What can you do?!"
Xandra, who had already been crying and had stopped, looked to be on the verge of tears again. Looking up at me, she balled her hands into fists and raised them in a fighting stance.
There was nothing intimidating about the stance. From my vantage point she looked incredibly small; if there was going to be a fight it wasn't going to last long.
"I'll have to do whatever I can!" she said, "Now go! Or you'll only get in the way!"
Azad hesitated, and he didn't have that time to spare, because the beast in me, perhaps remembering the fight and the defeat of the last fight, lunged for him.
My huge clawed arm sailed forward aimed directly for Azad's face.
THUMP!
The fox-frog-monster's clawed lunge was stopped short by Xandra striking the arm off-course.
She had struck the arm by leaping and slamming her body shoulder-first.
This gave Azad a reprieve of a half-second before the beast roared and flung the same arm back.
THWOOSH! CRASH!
Xandra was thrown through the den wall panels to the forest beyond.
The rage I felt at what the monster was doing to Xandra seemed to fuel the monster's own.
I tried to think of some way to regain control, perhaps even to go inside my own mind again like I had down before the monster had come back to the surface so soon after the last time; but, like before at the factories, I was trapped behind the eyes of the fox-frog-monster; nothing more than a helpless bystander. Through using the power, and the beast within taking control, I had unwillingly abdicated having control of the power, and my body.
Azad ran for his life. Even running was a monumental effort in his condition. He limped, his right leg dragging and his left hand at the small of his back to support the agony he must have felt there. The beast observed him for just a moment before lumbering forward like a giant gorilla and swiping for him. At the last possible moment Azad jumped. The tip of my claw cut across the back of his black tank top.
The beast snarled, and lumbered closer. Azad tried pushing himself up from the ground, and managed to get onto his hands and knees by the time the beast reached him. Like Xandra, Azad seemed so small and helpless in his current state. But the beast wasn't going to show him any mercy, nor was it going to waste any time with a slow kill. With frightening speed the beast drove its huge head down and opened its jaws wide, ready for the killing bite.
Azad looked up, and screamed in terror.
SHROMP! SNAP! TAT! TAT! TAT! PUSH!
The beast's jaws snapped shut, but bit into nothing but air. The beast's keen eyes saw where Azad had gone. He was in Xandra's arms. She had bounced back and snatched him up a microsecond before the jaws had closed in on Azad. She ran several paces, holding Azad in her arms and then she bounded away with the deftness and power only possible thanks to her rubbery-new-body.
The beast's froggish throat expanded and a cry, a mix of a fox-like scream (which sounded like a witch screaming bloody murder) and a frog's 'REE!' filled the national park forest air. Although it was a few hours still from midnight, and dark outside, the were-fox-frog's keen eyes saw everything as if it were daylight. It had no issue spotting Xandra bounding away, moving to the left and further down the slope of the forest path. Even then, if the fox-frog-monster couldn't see her, it could smell her unique scent with far more ease. And not just hers, but Azad's too.
Even if they somehow got away both would have to remember to change their scents to have a chance of escaping the monster's pursuit.
The beast bounded off, its hulking body breaking through the den doorway and charging through the forest; trees splintered when the beast's armoured shoulder struck it, and the bushes and other foliage did little to slow down the beast's sprinting speed.
The power and single-mindedness of the beast was intoxicating. All it wanted to do was kill. All that mattered was finding Azad and Xandra and ripping them limb from limb, and feasting on the remains; I could see the thought occurring to the fox-frog-monster on the fringe of my own consciousness, like a nightmare mixing with waking reality.
"If you move fast we might be able to get away!" said a voice.
It was Azad's. He was shaken to his core from almost having been killed. The beast's keen ears could hear him and Xandra speaking even in pursuit of them, and with much greater precision and clarity than I had ever been able to achieve when heightening my hearing.
"I'm not leaving Burgess as that thing!" said Xandra, her words hampered by her bounding forwards, trying to stay far ahead of the beast's pursuit. As fast as she was moving, the beast was faster, and drawing in. More forest, more trees and foliage whipped by rapidly, but not as a blur, because the beast could see each blade of grass, every falling leaf, every insect whizzing through the air as if in slow motion. Its senses were climbing as its rage built, and somehow it seemed even more aware of what it was doing than the first time it had taken over.
The forest finally gave way to a vast opening. Ahead was Sisterswaters Lake, stretching on for the length of a football pitch, beyond which lay more forestation.
Directly ahead stood Xandra. She was ankle-deep in the lake water, and Azad was standing behind her.
"What are you doing?!" Azad said in panic to Xandra, "I know what it takes to beat him! This isn't a fight that you can win!"
"Maybe," said Xandra, "But Burgess came back to save me, so I'm not going to abandon him to being this monster's prisoner! Now if you're not going to help, shut up and stay out of the way!"
She raised her fists again.
If I could have screamed at Xandra to run, to leave me, and to save herself and Azad, I would have a thousand times over. Azad was right. This wasn't a fight she could win. And I knew with horrible certainty that I was going to have to watch helplessly as the beast murdered them both.
No, a different part of my mind thought, You don't know that. You decided to heal yourself and to gamble on trusting Azad and Xandra to pull through. It might count for very little, but the least you could do is believe in them.
This was easier said than done because the beast was rapidly approaching Azad and Xandra, both of whom were out in the open. What chance did they really have?
