Threads That Bind (Havoc Chronicles Series Book 1) (7 page)

The darkness of the forest was deep and black, but with my enhanced vision I could see everything in perfect detail. A thousand, a hundred thousand sounds vied for my attention. The smell of sodden wood and decomposing leaves pricked my senses, as did the scents of animals and running water.

I leaped over a stream as I approached, hardly even breaking my stride to do so. How far had I come?  A mile? Two miles? I had been running for only a few minutes, but given the speed I was traveling, I was quickly moving far away from the school, and Amy, and my car.

When I reached a large clearing, I forced myself to stop. I dropped to my knees, not from exhaustion – I felt fine physically – but from despair and hopelessness.

What was wrong with me? How could I be doing this? - Did Josh really kiss Ginger? - I thrust one of my glowing hands into the ground. My hand slid through the earth like it was Jell-o, and my arm sunk in up to my elbow. I made a fist and the dirt oozed through my fingers. I pulled my arm out, leaving a deep hole.

I watched in amazement as the dirt fell away from my arm, unable to stick to me. – Was he over me that quickly? - My arm looked bright and pure.

I stood up and walked toward a tree with a trunk too wide to put my arms around. – Stupid boys. - I pulled my arm back and punched the trunk.

The results were spectacular.

Even though I had only used a fraction of my strength, the trunk splintered, exploding into shards. – Why did I have to see them kiss? - My fist smashed through the tree and it toppled backwards with a loud groan, severed where I had punched it.

I stared at my fist, opening and closing my hand. It was hard to believe that it belonged to me. How could I be strong enough to destroy a tree? Why didn’t my fist hurt? I was frightened, but in the back of my mind a small voice wondered what else was I capable of?

As I looked at the remains of the tree, a strange feeling came to my attention. Only it wasn’t really a “feeling”. It was a sensation I had never experienced before. It began gradually, but soon became so strong there was no way to ignore it.

“Darkness” didn’t accurately describe it, because it wasn’t an absence of light, but that was the only way I could make sense of it. It was as if I had developed some other sensory organ, and I didn’t have the vocabulary to match.

From out of the trees five figures emerged. They looked vaguely human, but four of them were so thin as to be almost skeletal. They were covered with greenish brown skin that was dry and cracked, like monstrous scabs. The fifth one had an enormous abdomen, making it look like a snake that had recently fed.

Each of the creatures had an oversized, elongated head attached to a thin neck. Their gigantic mouths were filled with sharp teeth that dripped a thick yellowish fluid. The eyes on the creatures were large and sunken, and looked like glowing red coals shining in the dark.

The monsters spread out and surrounded me, low hisses and growls escaping them. Their too-thin arms ended in oversized hands that were three times as large as a human’s. The fingers ended in long curved claws and had so many joints that they appeared to be rolling and unrolling.

My first instinct was to scream and run away, but it was overshadowed by a curious anger. Something about these creatures felt wrong - they had no right to exist. Their very presence offended me.

One of the creatures leapt at me, claws extended toward my face. I ducked and grabbed its neck as it sailed over me, redirecting its momentum into the hard earth and shattering its skull. Nasty black goo pooled on the ground, reeking of rot and death. The creature kicked a few times in convulsions and then lay still.

The hissing from the other four creatures grew louder. They moved in closer, their arms outstretched, as if trying to encircle me and not let me escape. As soon as one of them came within reach, I pulled back and punched it in the chest. The results were surprisingly similar to punching the tree. My fist shattered its ribcage and sent what remained of the creature flying backwards.

From behind, the third creature wrapped its arms around my chest, squeezing me so hard that I couldn’t breathe. Considering how skinny these things were, they were surprisingly strong. The creature lifted me off the ground and I flailed about, trying to escape.

While I was held helpless, a fourth creature – the fat one – slowly approached, claws extended, and yellow fluid dripping off its teeth.

Anger exploded at the thought of these creatures touching me. The glow that surrounded me grew brighter and I reached upward with my arms until I felt the creature’s head. Grasping it with two hands, I pulled with all my strength. With surprising ease, the creature’s head pulled free of its neck. As I brought my arms forward, I lost my grip on the head and it flew forward, directly toward the oncoming creature.

The creature dodged sideways, avoiding the flying head, which smashed on the ground. The arms around me loosened and I flung my arms wide, freeing myself from the now headless corpse.

When I turned around to find the remaining creatures, they were gone. I was left alone in the clearing with the reeking remains of the three I had killed.

I spun around several times, but I saw nothing, and the strange sensation I had before they attacked was gone.

I looked down at my glowing body and saw that it was covered with bits of bone, blood, and other fluids too repulsive to think about.

But like the dirt when I’d punched a hole in the ground, this filth didn’t stick to me either. The fluids slid off without a trace, and the bits of bone disintegrated with a series of small pops until I was completely clean.

I walked over to where I had smashed the first creature into the ground. Instead of a corpse, I found a pool of black ooze, more disgusting than anything I could have imagined. The stench was like rotten cheese mixed with death... and feet.

What were these things? Monsters? Aliens? I had never heard of creatures like these.

The creatures were disturbing enough. Far more disturbing was the fact that I seemed to be connected to these creatures. My body instinctively knew how to fight them. It recognized them and acted to defend itself. I could have never destroyed those creatures so quickly on my own, not even with super speed and strength.

What had I gotten into? And how had I gotten into it?

My body began to relax. My senses dulled and the glow surrounding me subsided. I realized that I was alone in the dead woods and had no idea how many miles I needed to travel to get back to the school.

Even if I knew which direction to go, it would take me at least an hour to hike back. How was I going to explain this to Amy?

I looked around the clearing, trying to figure out which way I had come. I had just about figured it out when I once again sensed something.

This time the feeling was different. It still defied description, but that sense of darkness was absent.

Two glowing figures zipped into the clearing and came to an abrupt stop. They halted so suddenly didn’t seem to have a chance to slow down. They had gone from speeding blurs to complete stillness in an instant. So much for Newton’s laws of motion and that whole inertia thing.

I looked at the faces of the two figures and my breath caught. It was difficult to make out their features with the bright glow that surrounded them, but the fragmented glimpses looked beautiful, like images of Greek gods come to life.

“Where did he go?” the one on the right asked.

I opened my mouth, but my brain was too jumbled to get any words out. Who were these men? They were glowing, so did that mean they were like me? And what did they mean “he”? Did those things I fought even have a gender? It figured that something that gross would have to be male.

Unable to speak, I pointed towards the far side of the clearing where my back had been when the creatures vanished. They had to have escaped that way.

In a flash the two glowing forms were gone, leaving a bright afterimage on my retinas. Again, ignoring of those so-called laws of motion.

I watched their bright forms fade into the forest - along with any chance I might have to find out what was going on.

Realizing that I may have lost my only opportunity to discover the truth, I felt my heart begin to race. The now-familiar sense of power welled within me, waiting to be released. I took two steps and the world burst into color as I began to glow.

It was a simple thing to see the trail they had followed. Broken twigs and bent leaves that I would have never spotted before stood out like shining beacons to my hypersensitive eyes.

The trail twisted and turned, winding through the woods for what seemed only a few seconds, but had to be a couple of miles. It seemed to be heading in the general direction of the school, which, while convenient for me, was a horrible thought. I couldn’t imagine the destruction those creatures could cause if they entered a stadium packed with helpless students.

My ears heard growls and the crashes from up ahead, and I slowed down so as not to drop in uninvited on a party I wasn’t sure I wanted to attend.

I crouched behind a tree and looked forward. The two glowing figures had caught up with the uglies and were wreaking havoc. The skinny creature leaped toward one of the men. To my surprise (and admittedly a bit of pride) he used the same maneuver I had. He ducked down, grabbed the creature’s neck, and used its own momentum to smash it into the ground, breaking open its head and spraying monster nastiness all over. Although, I was pretty sure I hadn’t made that big of a mess when I had done it.

The remaining creature backed away slowly. It was much bigger around than the others and appeared to be less willing, or able, to fight. Was it pregnant? Was it full of little baby monsters waiting to come out like thousands of newly-hatched spiders? The thought made me shiver. Spiders made my skin crawl, but the image of a bunch of baby whatever-those-things-were was truly frightening.

The glowing men spread out on either side of the creature, appearing much more cautious than they had been with the other one.

In a flash they attacked, one of them grabbing the creature’s legs, the other ramming a fist through its head, splattering monster brains for at least fifty feet. Ok, I had definitely made less mess when I had fought them.

What happened next was so repulsive that I almost threw up. They thrust their hands inside the creature’s chest and pulled in opposite directions. With a series of pops and cracks, the monster’s ribcage pulled apart, revealing a woman trapped inside. She had light, freckled skin and red hair matted down with a layer of clear jelly-slime that encompassed her. They ripped apart the rest of the creature and pulled her out.

She seemed unconscious, her body completely motionless. After a few seconds she took in a huge gasping breath, and then lay still, breathing normally, but still not conscious. One of the men reached down and gently, almost tenderly, cradled her in his arms.

Leaving the creatures to dissolve into goo, they began running again. I followed, but kept my distance. I wasn’t ready to actually be a part of this yet. Unfortunately, I had a feeling that I already was.

They reached the edge of the woods at the school parking lot where a black Range Rover with tinted windows was illegally parked. They stopped at the edge and waited for a moment. Slowly, (but much faster than I had ever done it) the glow surrounding them disappeared, and they stepped out of the woods.

I moved as close to the edge of the woods as I dared given that my glowing personality was shining through at the moment. My enhanced vision gave me an excellent view.

Now that the glow had faded, I could see what those men actually looked like. Only they weren’t men at all. They appeared to be roughly high-school aged. I sometimes had a hard time judging these things, but they certainly didn’t look old.

One of them had blond, spiky hair and green eyes. He had high cheekbones and a strong jaw line. He didn’t look as angelic as he had while glowing, but he was gorgeous by anyone’s standard. There was something about his eyes and the way he held himself that gave the impression of a very mischievous boy trying hard to be good.