A Running Nightmare

It was supposed to be a simple scouting job. Not the shit show that it was currently, I thought to myself, cursing my luck as the wind blew past me as I ran, dodging tree roots, hanging vines, and most of the fauna in the forest; I kept running as fast as I could, keeping up with the Senrial in front of me. Caerwyn glanced back, and I saw the fear in his eyes, as if it could get any whiter, the color drained from his face; we continued to run as I could hear the faint sound of trees breaking, toppling over in the distance. I cursed to myself as I watched the light begin to fade as the night crawled its way out from its slumber. I called out to Caerwyn, but he kept on running. 

“Dammit, where are Sparx and Spex?” I thought as I glanced around, looking for their gold and blue lights through the dense forest. My expectations of them arriving with my gear were gone when I found myself running into Caerwyns back, who had suddenly stopped in his tracks and held his breath. I peeled myself from his back, groaning slightly, and readjusted my mask, but before I could say anything, I heard it, that audible crunching and snapping of bone, directly in front of us. Leaning over, I barely made out its outline. The only light (if you could call it that) now was from the pitch-black star floating in front of its chest. The hunched-over creature was more focused on the feast before it. It had many similarities to the white Senrial before me, and yet, this twisted creature had a more pronounced feral body and ferocious demeanor. It ripped through the carcass below it; the blood dripped from its maw, almost as if it were salivating. 

Lightly tapping Caerwyns arm prompts him to look at me. I motioned for him to follow me, placing the side of my index finger to my lips to ensure he remained quiet while doing so; he nodded, acknowledging my command. We slowly moved to the left, carefully to not alert the monster. Or so I thought. The sound of fallen branches snapping behind us stopped us in our tracks; the growling behind us grew ever so louder as I slowly turned around and saw that the other one that had chased us earlier had finally caught up. Its gaze rested on me, watching every slight movement I made. The monster in front of Caerwyn caught wind of us and turned its attention to us. Cursing my luck, I now was back-to-back with Caerwyn. Now that they were still, I saw the twisted essence escaping their body. It looked as if it were stardust, and the one before me looked as if its face were being twisted on one side of its head with the essence escaping its body, and I could make out what looked to be a wicked grin.

In a swift motion, they both charged at Caerwyn and me. We dodged, but lucky me, I got nicked by one of the claws. Quickly applying pressure to the side of my stomach, I spun around so that I faced the Senrials again. I looked for Caerwyn, but he was nowhere to be found. I was speechless, “CAERWYN!” cursing him loudly as the two monstrous Senrials faced me. I stood there with no weapon or anything for that matter to use, Sparx and Spex nowhere to be found, and the only other being that could help had just run off scared. The two senrials hadn't made a move yet, which was good; using that time, I calmed myself. I ripped some of my shirt off and stuffed the piece into the opening of my wound; I began controlling my breathing so that I could focus on what was to come. 

Both Senrials charged their claws, reaching out ahead of them, ready to grab hold of me. Quickly turning around, I ran in the opposite direction; I had caught a glimpse of one of them to my right, and I could only assume the other was on my left as I continued running. They kept up with me as I continued to weave through the forest floor once more, but this time, I was alone, with a gash on the left side of my stomach, and had two of these Senrial abominations chasing me down. As I continued to run, they began taking swipes at me, and I didn’t let them get one single hit in as I dodged each attack. I wish I could say I had been able to keep it up, but with the wound I had, I could not. One of them swiped at my legs, bringing me to the ground. Groaning from the pain of having fallen on my wound, I flipped over, holding out my left arm, and heard the sound of metal being bitten. Glaring at the senrial as it held my arm in its mouth, I grabbed my wrist, pushing it so that the Senrial didn’t crush me with its weight. It began grinding its teeth, ripping the synthetic skin from the metal frame that was my arm. I winced in pain as the Senrial atop of me placed one of its large paw-like hands on my wound, crushing my lower rubs. I caught my breath as I heard the growling of the other Senrial crawling just overhead, gazing down with its blood-red eyes as they narrowed to focus on me. Drool dropped onto my face as it snarled, opening its maw and biting down.

I bolted upright in bed, panting heavily, my heart beating loud and fast. I quickly lifted my left arm and saw that the synthetic skin remained intact. I looked down at the weight that I felt on my lap and saw Kit asleep, purring loudly. I slowly placed a hand on the scruff of her neck, petting gently. The soft fur and the growing sound of purring from Kit were enough to let me know that this wasn’t a dream or an illusion. I placed my other hand above my chest to calm my breathing and slow down my heart rate to an adequate level. Letting out a heavy breath, I glanced around the dimly lit room and saw Caerwyn asleep at the foot of my bed; nothing looked out of the ordinary, which was good. Sighing softly, I looked out my window and saw it. The same blood-red eyes that I saw in my nightmare, barely making out it’s silhouette in the forest. Its eyes narrowed once again as it faded away in the dark of night.