Before any of the other monsters could turn towards the direction the rock had flown from, Levi jumped down from the roof and disappeared into the trees, unseen, and heading directly towards the mansion at the top of the hill.
There were two things that Levi needed to confirm. Did the monsters know their location on an instinctual level, or were they subject to sight and other senses?
From the briefest sights of their disgusting faces, they looked like cousins of Voldemort, only uglier, and sharp teeth. Their ears looked much like a human's, so it was safe to assume that their hearing wasn't much better than humans.
After running through the trees as silently as he could, he was at the edge of the forest, right next to the mansion. Taking another rock from his sling, he sneaked out in the open and aimed as far and away from the mansion as he could, towards the looping streets out to the woods, and at a van parked there.
He could see figures, monsters walking around in the town, some screeching. With an exhalation, he loaded the sling, aimed, swung, and fired. Three seconds later, the sound of glass broken shattered the suffocating silence, making most creatures snap to it.
But Levi's attention was solely on the closest one. And he hoped that they didn't turn to him, as he lay down in the ground, using his short height to hide amongst the tall grasses. He saw the creature, a man dressed as a mailman, look around and in the van, and then look opposite to where the rock had come from.
He couldn't see the expression, but he could figure out the body language that was happening. It was confusing, and safe to say, they were confused.
But the next moment, his eyes snapped to the beautiful, young, blonde woman dressed in a 1960s black-and-white miniskirt he had seen in the diner during his first night. She looked to the van from inside the diner, carrying something, which Levi assumed to be a bouquet of flowers.
But then a flash of white in his field of vision distracted him. Frowning, Levi looked down further into the town. At the edge of the forest, there was another humanoid-looking thing wearing all white.
Before he could really figure out what it was, it disappeared into the forest, gone. Turning back to the va, the mailman lifted his head, sniffed the air, then moved his weight toward the van even more. Levi eased his shoulders into the earth and waited. If their hearing was human-level, light noise would distract them.
And he had a stupid plan that could get him killed. Searching with his hands, he finally found a pebble, with one part done. He carefully looked around him and through the mansion's window to see if any of those smiling creatures were inside.
Though he saw nothing, everything was clear. With a silent grunt, he threw the pebble as far as he could with his hand, hitting a tree, making a thud sound echo in the surroundings, and then once more when it fell on gravel.
He carefully looked everywhere around him, where the rock hit, and the monsters by the van.
Nothing.
And then-
SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
A loud screech tore through the air and made Levi flinch and almost run back into the forest for safety, but he controlled himself. As quietly as he could, he turned his body around, seeing one of them exit from the forest, its face morphing back to human-like.
A man, maybe in his twenties, was walking up the mansion door and entering as if he owned it. He looked around once more, making sure there were no other monsters that could spot him, Levi moved towards the mansion as well.
Stopping by the basement window, he spotted them open. With his mace and sling on him, he silently slid inside.
The basement was filled with wooden and cardboard boxes. Some were open and empty, others were closed shut. And then there were those open and filled with random things, from clothes to bottles to household items.
Ignoring all of that and making sure his pathway was clear, Levi cleared the stairway leading up. Seeing nothing, he went to one of the closed wooden boxes and peeked inside. It was full.
Not with bottles or clothes.
Or household items.
There was someone inside.
Someone was hiding inside.
In the dark of the night, the only thing they saw of each other was the whites of the eyes. Levi didn't see the face, the fear, the horror, the gender. He only saw the white eyes, and he screamed inwardly.
It felt like he was flash-banged in his head. He couldn't see or hear anything for moments that they stared at each other, waiting for the other to tear them apart. But then a faint, strangled sound escaped: a human noise, raw and smaller than a scream. Even smaller than a whisper.
"Shh," Levi whispered before he even knew he would. The sound made his throat close, and he snapped behind him to make sure the monster inside hadn't heard. Nothing on the stairway leading up.
He eased the lid open an inch and peered down as the thing- no, human inside moved and went further into the corner of the box. "I'm not them." Levi silently whispered back before they could scream out in panic.
"You're safe." He comforted himself- the one inside, and slowly closed the box.
He stepped back from the box, breath slow, heartbeat hammering so loud he swore the thing upstairs could hear it. He didn't know who that was, didn't have time to know. The basement door creaked open, its hinges letting out that shrill, drawn-out eeeeeee that made every hair on his neck rise.
Levi froze.
The first footstep was light. Careful.
The second one wasn't.
He didn't dare move his head, but the faint shuffle of a shoe against the wooden stairs told him all he needed to know. The monster was descending.
Levi's fingers found the cold handle of his mace, but his body was screaming in something in primal fear. But one thing flashed in his mind. The memory of the barn. He had unintentionally killed someone by trapping the monsters in one place. The person had panicked, made a sound, and then the monsters tore her from the hiding place.
The scenario was repeating itself, and Levi could almost hear the nonexistent whimper from the box.
He looked toward the small basement window he'd come through. His pulse jumped. Quietly, painfully quietly, he moved back, one step at a time, heel first to avoid scraping the floorboards.
The footsteps paused on the stairs for some reason, and if this were a horror movie to him, he would comment on something along the lines of how twisted the director was.
"Is anyone here?" A man's gentle voice echoed throughout the room.
Then a long silence followed. The kind that filled your ears with your own heartbeat.
Levi crouched lower, hand inching toward the window. He slid one knee across the cold floor, then the other. Levi didn't think much further when he saw some leaves and branches. He pushed himself halfway through the window and deliberately let his boot crush down on a small branch outside. It snapped- sharp and distinct in the still air.
The footsteps quickened just enough for the man- monster to see Levi running and heading towards the edge of the monster. With a huge smile on its face, it walked up the basement, then out of the mansion. It heard leaves and branches being stepped on further in the forest.
Levi darted through the trees, counting each stride and eyes looking at his surroundings, lungs burning, but steps and breathing controlled. He glanced back, from behind a tree, and the monster had left the mansion.
The moonlight bled through the canopy, catching his hair, his weapon, then vanishing again as he slipped into deeper shadow. He reached the base of a tall spruce- thirty feet, maybe more. Without hesitating, his mace was between his teeth, he jumped, and began to climb. The bark scraped his palms raw, reopening the blisters Ariana had treated earlier, but he didn't stop. Every pull was either a survival or being torn open by monsters that wouldn't even eat his organs.
He kept climbing until he was high enough that the world blurred beneath him. The branches near the top were thinner, but dense enough to hide him completely. He crouched, balancing between two limbs, slowing his breathing until his chest barely moved.
From his height, he saw the faint glimmer of movement, a man's silhouette walking through the underbrush. Too calm. Too smooth. The same easy gait, like someone taking a midnight stroll.
For a moment, he thought it was over. It would pass. But then, by the faintest betrayal of gravity, one of the leaves above came loose. It drifted down silently, spinning through the air, landing on the thing's stupidly perfect hair.
Then another.
The creature looked up.
The smile never changed. It reached up, plucked a leaf from its hair, and crushed it between its fingers.
A slow breath escaped its nostrils—one that curled into something between curiosity and hunger.
Levi pressed his forehead into the bark, hoping the wood would swallow him whole. That it would hide him. Then-
SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.
The sound split the night, violent and sharp enough to make Levi flinch.
Levi didn't move. Didn't breathe.
He just listened as the screech echoed into the woods, fading into the same void it came from. And when silence returned, his eyes on the monster just underneath him, only one thought ran through his mind.
That he's dead.
PS: I scared myself writing this chapter.