Date: ???
Time: ???
Location: ???
000 Introduction One - Day 947 (Don's Unfinished Symphony)
"Don't you think we should turn back?" Don asked, his eyes darting around the chattering forest. "We have to make it back before sundown."
"Where do you think we're headed?" Alyssa replied with a heavy sigh.
"We passed the sign back there," he retorted. "And the sun's making its way to the bottom faster than we can walk."
"Oh please," Giles snickered. "Scared are we? Why don't ye tuck yer tail between yer arse and run along home?"
The adventurous lot. Don would call them. Condescending, caring for no one's lives but their own. They always disregarded his every word. He'd become accustomed to this life, their constant bickering, but every once in a while, a few mean words pierced his heart in a way an arrow never could.
"Besides," Giles continued, "Ye'r scaring the newcomer."
Don couldn't tell you much about the newcomer, if not for their persistent reminder; he would have forgotten all about him. All he knew about the boy was that he had brown hair that was too long for a man and a face that befitted a woman.
"Ya shouldn't stick so close to him—newbie," Corey said.
Corey was an abnormally large man; a bald man with a bald face and skin as pale as ash. "Ya scared ain't ya?" Corey lifted his finger, "Well... I wouldn't trust ol' Donny over there to protect ya. He's the worst of us."
Don expected him to open that shit-stained mouth of his at some point, Corey couldn't help but follow the leader. The bastard has no mind of his own. Don thought.
"You're a scary man, Corey." Alyssa blurted out. "I wouldn't wanna get close to either."
Don could see Corey pull back his mouth. Corey turned his head and choked back his words. "That's not what I meant." Corey didn't like getting called "scary." According to Corey, he was a farmer before coming here, a pretty damn good one. He once said that a thousand women and a hundred children crossed his path and he wooed all of them. 'A scary man couldn't do that' Corey told them. The lying bastard.
Nevertheless—Alyssa was the only person willing to call him scary. Giles once called Corey "a foul lumbering oaf" and got his ass kicked back into the ancient days. Alyssa once smacked one of Corey's molars out and forced him to apologize. She was the only person he was willing to submit to. Maybe that's what he meant by being gentle with women.
Don didn't like Corey much. The hideous bastard was nothing more than a lousy excuse of a woman-pleaser and abused his size and strength to shut the rest of them up. He disliked Giles and Alyssa as well, maybe that came from being stuck with them for too damn long. He missed the days when there were more than just the four of them.
The sun began hiding behind the moving clouds. "It's setting," the boy reminded them.
It was the first time Don heard the boy speak. He usually remained silent, observing with an indifferent look in his eyes. Today—however, Don was confident that he saw the faintest hint of a smile.
"I don't need reminding from you, either," Alyssa snapped. I get enough from him as is."
Don felt he could relate to the boy. They were the closest in age, although Don was in his thirties, and the boy looked to be much younger. Don used to be the youngest before the boy arrived. He was the only one young enough to have witnessed the moon landing, and they brought him down because of that.
Even though Corey said he didn't like him very much.
"What happens after sundown?" The boy asked.
"Nothing happens," Don answered.
"Nothing?" the boy scowled, "Nothing at all?"
This was the first conversation between the boy and Don. Corey took him hunting once, said he was a natural. The boy spent most of his time learning to gather water or collect oleander with Alyssa. Don didn't like Alyssa much. She lost her beauty a long time ago and spoke to him sarcastically.
When the boy arrived, he ran from the cabin and hid in the forest. Who could blame him? One look at them was enough to make an adult cry. Alyssa sent Giles into the forest to search for him, and Corey followed. Don could never forget how Alyssa turned to him and asked why he didn't follow. Don didn't know what to say, he simply did not know he should have followed, but Alyssa clicked her tongue and insulted him.
Part of him was glad he hadn't gone. Giles said they found him near the outer gates, at the edge of the forest ready to jump over. Sundown wasn't a good time to play in the forest. Giles said he put up a good fight—even managed to bust up Corey's nose.
They brought him back unconscious, slung over Corey's broad shoulder.
"We told ya... 'ts not safe," Corey muttered to himself.
The boy knitted his brows and sucked his teeth. With a clenched fist, he said, "So, let me get this straight, you beat me, then drug me into that shithole, and whenever I ask about it... you bastards do nothing but dodge the question?"
The boy shoved his bronze hands into his pockets, "Fuck's sake," he said under his breath.
A dissatisfaction washed over Don. That was the only way to describe it. Was it because of how silent the boy had been around him that he thought the boy had taken a liking to him? The boy looked so much like a woman at times Don figured he carried a woman's grace. It had been so long since Don last seen a beautiful person, after all.
Giles reached into an old torn pocket and pulled out a small knife. The blade curved at the end. The descending sunlight bounced off the brass edge and back into Don's eyes. Giles took a large step back, his long legs closing the distance between him and the boy.
"Ye want to know answers ye cannot handle, lad," Giles said.
Giles coiled loose flesh around the boy's shoulders, cracked lips stretched into a whimsical grin—the wrinkles around his sunken-dark eyes twitched and his skin flaked as he rubbed two long fingers across his colorless skin.
"I like a feisty one," Giles added, "If ye so confident in yer ability to survive, then why don't we experience sundown—shall we?"
The boy shivered and backed away from Giles. Who could blame him? Giles was the scariest of the four. A tall man with lanky arms and legs, skin as white as the mother swan, and eyes sunken so deep into his malformed skull they may as well not exist. The others weren't much better, but the boy had chosen the lesser of the four evils and Giles wasn't it.
"Giles," Alyssa looked over her shoulder offering Giles a glare sharp enough to slaughter an entire flock of sheep. Giles pursed his lips, leering behind like a wounded animal. He stared daggers into the boy's back, clawing at his shoulder, nails gnawing away at thinned flesh and bone.
Without a word, the boy moved from Don's side to Alyssa's. Don was under the impression Alyssa didn't like the boy much. She returned once complaining about the boy's lack of patience when gathering flowers. All it took was one mistake for her not to like you. He figured she felt disdain for him the same as Don. Yet—her face lit when he approached her.
Alyssa was beautiful once too. The sight of them beside each other dug a deep crater in Don's chest. At times like this, he missed her crimson lips and long black hair she kept in a braid twirled into a netted bun. She figured she was the most excited to regain her natural beauty, but there was something about seeing them next to each other, how she smiled so genuinely and rubbed his back that gave him his doubts.
Am I the only one who cares? Don thought.
A scent of wet wood wafted in the air. Branches rattled and a single feather fell from above. Here it comes—the thunderous symphony of wings. They fluttered from the trees in troves, their lungs expanding to usher a melody, welcoming them home.
It stood. Don had seen it a million times by now. In the morning, at night, under the blistering hot sun, and soaked from the cold. The never-ending trees enclosed the cabin. It opposed the forest with misshapen logs, its foundation covered in rain. The vacant space where the door used to be welcomed them home with a small wooden sign that read "Home" stuck between the wood boards.
A chill passed through them, Alyssa turned. Her face contorted in a sour grimace. The words strained from her shriveled lungs as her hand trembled, "Where's the boy?"
Don lifted his head. They made it to the cabin, nothing could go wrong if they brought him to the cabin on time. A stupid thought. He whipped around where Giles trailed them and found nothing but fallen leaves. A bolt of thunder struck Don's heart.
"I saw it," Corey said, "He took the newbie."
Alyssa cleared her throat to gain control of her breathing, and her chest rose and fell. She clutched at her collar and stared at Corey with scornful eyes, and with a chilling voice she said, "Why did you let him go?"
Corey backed away, "I... I don't like newbie."
Don trembled. Blood pounded in his ears and his heart pounded against his ribcage. He ran. Ran faster than he ever did before. Snot poured from what was left of his nose. He had to find them before it was too late. He wasn't the only one who cared. He could catch them before the second moon rose.
How couldn't he have noticed? Giles isn't the sort that would take abuse from someone he considered 'lesser' than him. Of course! Don shouted in his head. It hurt. Like a thousand needles striking his brain. A sudden movement could cause his heart to explode.
The first moon was rising. As long as he could find them before the second moon—it was fine. "Get the hell off me!" Don heard the shout. From where? West of him? Maybe East? He rushed into a colony of shrubs and cleaved through the foliage like a samurai and his sword. Grunts and pants grew closer.
A pungent scent burned his eyes. Don could taste iron. It tasted of corroded iron on a wet evening back home. The scent clocked him in the face. The odor made him stop in his tracks. Did he want to come closer? Should he keep his distance? He couldn't answer that. All he wanted to do was fall to his knees and hurl the stench from his stomach.
Don continued, his nose screwed and his hand covering it. He heard Giles as tears welled in his eyes, "I should've let Corey take ye back then," Giles said. "I held the mad lad back, said we needed ye. Ye should be thankful."
He could see him. Giles's abnormally long stature stretched into the darkness, well over two meters high of loose pale flesh and thinning bone. Giles scratched his misshapen skull and stared back at him with deep-sunken nightmare-fueled eyes. Giles looked away to watch as the first moon rose and illuminated the two.
Giles could be impulsive at times. He once ran out of the cabin after the sun went down and tried to kill a beast with his bare hands because he couldn't wait to start hunting the next day. The beast tore a good one into him and took Alyssa the entire day to patch the bastard up. The selfish bastard could make stupid decisions, but this...
Don gritted his teeth, but he couldn't let Giles know that. Giles mistook any negative emotion towards him as bloodthirst. Said it was kill or be killed back home. "What are you doing?" He asked calmly.
"Hmm," Giles scowled at him. "What's it look like?"
He couldn't beat Giles in a fight, he learned that the hard way. Still—Don dug his heel into the dirt. "If ye try to charge me," Giles tightened his grip around the boy's neck, "I'll kill the lad." His nails grew long and crooked with years of dirt piled under them.
"Do you understand what you're doing?" Don threw his arms up and stopped in place. "You're screwing the plan," Don stammered.
As Giles stood, Don's eyes were drawn to the horizon. The second moon began its ascent. It cast a blue light, its shape distinct from the first. It drew nearer to the forest—the rising light reflecting in his eyes. "Ye can't hear it?" There was no howl to follow the second moon, Don noticed it immediately. The silence unsettled him, no... shook Don to his core. Was it tonight? Did they get the date wrong?
He turned to Giles seeking answers. Giles hovered between him and the boy. "Ye said that I 'screwed' the plan," he dug his crooked nail into the boy's muscle, "I got tired of pretending. Ye idiots wouldn't listen to reason either."
Giles—glanced over his shoulder and nodded to Don. "So, I took matters into my own hands," he said, gesturing for Don to look behind him.
A chilling hue cast over the forest. Its surface shimmered with silver, rising from the horizon. A third moon emerged, larger than its predecessors. Don felt his weight rush to the heels of his feet. The air grew cold, his spine shivered, and the moon's light pulsed.
Did he know this entire time? Don wondered.
Don had no time to think as the first howl emerged from the trees. The forest was closing in around them. Giles released the boy, stepping back with a sinister grin. "Our lot shall not be here for the feast," the boy looked at Don with terror in his eyes. Giles clawed at his shoulder and sniffed the air. "We shall withdraw."
Those words echoed in the air, and they vanished.