The Amulets (An 'Amulets of Andarrin' tale) (3 page)

“Come on” Jack said before they both set off marching again, the girls close behind.

The rumbles were becoming more frequent and Jack could only hope that with all the rumbles and the hard rain showering down on them that it didn’t start lightning as being amongst trees was probably not the best place to be in a storm. Not only this but he could tell Frankie and Lily were becoming agitated and he wanted the mood to stay positive. The last thing he wanted was for Lily to remember their trip for being terrible. He wanted her to have the time of her life but it was far from that at the minute.

The trek through the woods had taken its toll on them; all four were soaked. Lily and Frankie were less than pleased with the soft, soggy mud which covered their jeans up to their knees. Jack and Aaron, the same muddy mess, continued to lead them out of the woods and onto a small road.

“Oh my god a path, thank God!” this was the first time in hours the boys had seen a glimmer of hope in Frankie’s eyes. Lily on the other hand was still shaking from the cold. As the rain continued to pour, the four of them jumped down from the small hill and onto the narrow road. Jack, jumping down before Lily, put his hand out to help her down safely.

“Thanks” she said, lips trembling.

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah it’s just
fr-freezing.” she shook.

“Here” Jack said, taking off his jacket. Passing it to Aaron “hold this a sec" he asked.

Aaron obliged and took it from him whilst Jack began taking off another jacket; thinner and hooded, he was wearing underneath. He then handed it to Lily.

“Put this on under yours, it’s dryer and it’ll keep you warmer for a bit.” He said holding it out towards her.

“No its fine” Lily said shaking.

“It’s already off now so go ahead, I’ll be fine.”

Lily obliged with a small smile and began re-dressing herself. After looking up and down the road Aaron handed Jack his jacket back.

“Which way
d’ya reckon?” he asked, unsure.

Jack searched the road with his eyes whilst putting his outer jacket back on.

“Guessing that way” he nodded left whilst he zipped his coat up. “It’s downhill; we came uphill so the car must be that way.”

“How can you be sure” Frankie burst in “maybe we passed it?”

“No, we started at the bottom and by the looks of it we’re not at the bottom yet.” Jack said trying to reassure her.

Aaron began walking. “Come on then,” he said, “the quicker we get back, the sooner we can drink.”

“First thing I want is a bath” Lily mumbled as they all followed Aaron down the road.

Twenty minutes passed and there was still no sign of the car. It was getting late, rain continued to pour down, smashing against their coats. The trees either side of the road creaked as the wind howled past them. Aaron came to a stop.

“This is useless. We’ve been walking for ages.”

“Aarons right, we’re lost Jack. It’s dark and its cold and I just want to get back” Frankie said with tears building in her eyes.

Jack tried reassuring them “look we just have to keep moving, it can’t be far now.”

“None of this looks familiar Jack. I think we’ve come the wrong way.” Lily said.

Frankie was now in tears though it was hard to tell from all the rain leaking off her face. “Aw what are we going to do?”

“If we carry on down here we can ask someone for directions.” Jack told her.

“Who the hell are we going to ask for directions genius? There’s no-one around here!” Frankie huffed and shot Aaron a deadly look “this is
all your fault!”

Aaron looked stunned “mine!” he replied.

“Let’s go through here” she mimicked “it’ll be fine we’ll get there faster, that’s what you said and now look” she groaned.

“Well we can’t turn around now” Aaron said matter-of-factly.

“I swear I’m never listening to you again, you…” she started.

“Look Frankie we're all feeling the same as you but
its pointless turning around now. We may as well just carry on now we’re here.” Jack said.

“Jack’s right we’ve been walking for ages let’s just keep walking until we find someone” Lily said rubbing her arms together for warmth, the hood from the top Jack had given her now lifted over her head.

Aaron started again. “This is a nightmare, its freezing.”

“It’s not going to get any warmer standing around so come on.” Jack said marching on.

The four of them continued down the dark, empty road. Their legs tired and their clothes soaked through. The rain had come to a slow stop and the moon emerged intermittently through the clearing clouds but their clothes had become so damp it would have taken all night for them to dry. Suddenly, a sudden screech on the wind made them all stop still. Lily grabbed Jack’s arm, turning him slightly, her eyes focused towards the dark of the woods.

“What was that” she said turning to him.

“Just the wind I think”

Another loud shriek came from further in the woods. Frankie screamed.

“I’m scared. This isn’t funny.”

Aaron turned around with a nervy look on his face. “What is that?”

“This isn’t happening” Lily said worriedly.

Jack stood still, scanning the woods for some sign of the source of the noise when suddenly the shriek sounded again, this time louder and more clearly, it was obviously closer. It was a noise unlike anything any of them had ever heard, reminiscent of fingers scraping across a blackboard but amplified a hundred-fold. The sound pierced the air, echoing through the trees. Frankie and Lily were now in tears. Aaron, the same cautious look on his face as Jack,
moved next to him as they searched but it was black but for the outline of the trees silhouetted by the moonlight. Jack felt goose-bumps all over his body.

“What is it” Frankie whispered, lips trembling.

“Ssshh” Aaron cautioned.

Jacks eyes lit up with fear. “Did you see that? Something moved over there.” he said pointing to the dark woods.

“Who’s out there?” Aaron shouted to the empty wood.

Another loud shriek reverberated through the trees making the hairs on the back of their necks stand up. “There!” Jack pointed into the woods where he saw a dark figure lurking. “There! RUN! RUN!”

Jack grabbed Lily’s hand, pulling her with him to stop her from falling behind. They had run no more than a hundred yards before something came out of the tree-line immediately in front of them. They stopped suddenly with absolute fear overpowering them, rooting them to the spot. It stood over eight feet tall and wore a long thin cloak which concealed its entire body. A hood, seemingly attached to its large cloak, or was it its skin? Jack couldn’t tell, hung on its head and darkened its face, concealing its features. It was the scariest thing they had ever seen and it seemed to be staring towards them. It tilted its head to the left and Frankie and Lily gasped in terror.

“What do you want” Aaron shouted to it as Frankie, full of tears, shook behind him.

Whatever it was it didn’t respond. It just seemed to gaze at them. Jack stepped in front of Lily eyeing the unresponsive figure in the dark. “Look we are just trying to get home, ok? We don’t want any trouble.”

The figures head tilted back and the moonlight shone revealing its face. They saw its huge chiseled face crinkled and dark, almost as if it was burnt. Its pin-like eyes glistened scarlet in the moonlight. Its nose was nothing more than a lump under its eyes.  It seemed to be staring
at Jack now. Jack was nervous and took a step back. As he did so the dark figure tilted its head back so that it was looking up.

“What’s it doing” Lily said with a tremble in her voice.

“I don’t…” Jack stopped his sentence as the dark figure’s jaw dropped all the way down to the top of its chest. Its mouth was enormous.

“What the hell is it” Aaron shouted unable to hold his fear in. The girls were crying and shouting “Leave us alone” at the top of their voices in hope that it’d obey. Instead it let out a horrible shriek like the one they’d heard up the road. It echoed right through the forest as they huddled together paralysed with fear. This wasn’t natural and definitely wasn’t friendly. As it screamed something dark silver began flapping within its mouth. As more of the dark silver became visible in its mouth the more Jack thought it looked like tentacles, tens of them growing out of its mouth, seemingly protruding from the back of its throat and engulfing its tongue, if it had one, and resting on its wide thin lip. The creature continued to shriek. Jack looked at Aaron, horror on both their faces. They both knew they had to get out of there and fast. The tentacles gripped the creatures lip as if to spring. As the shriek became louder Jack saw that the tentacles belonged to another creature now resting in its mouth. It was now or never. Aaron turned to the group.

“Run! Now, everyone run!” the rest of them didn’t need telling twice as they ran at full speed past the dark figure. The figure slowly turned as they passed following them with its head, its body unmoved. Jack was running at the back hurrying Lily forward. He turned quickly to see if it was chasing them and he saw with horror the silver tentacles in its mouth shooting out towards them. Jack spun round to face the creature as it scuttled down the road towards him. The dark figure’s shriek was dying down and Jack fell backwards to the floor as the creature leapt at him, tentacles stretched out towards his face. Falling he brought his left hand round in an attempt to grab the creature. “Whoa!” he shouted as he hit the floor with a thud and felt something big and slimy in his hand.

“JACK!” Lily shouted as she came to a stop twenty metres away from him.

Jack gave her a quick glance as he struggled to keep the creature away from his face. “Run! Get out of here”

“We can’t leave you” she cried

“GO!”

Aaron came back and grabbed Lily. “You and Frankie run. Find help. I’ll go back for Jack.”

“Please” Lily didn’t know what she was saying but she couldn’t leave them.

“Lily, come on! We need to get help!” Frankie pleaded with her.

Aaron started back towards Jack. “You two need to go, now!”

Watching as they ran down the road Aaron turned his attention back to Jack, wondering what he could possibly do to help as he saw him grappling the creature with the silver tentacles.

Jack looked at the creature he was holding and screamed, dodging the tentacles as they whipped towards his face. He couldn’t believe how strong it was for something so small. Barely holding it out of reach from his face he noticed it was a fat, slug like creature. Its black body looked odd compared with its silver tentacles, not to mention its black crab like legs. He grabbed it with his other hand to keep it at arm’s length and away from him.

Now feeling as if he had more control over it he began getting up. Aaron was now only a few metres away.

“Wait!” he shouted.

Aaron stopped a metre away “Whoa! What is…what should I do?”

“I don’t know” Jack said grappling the creature.

Aaron looked at the figure standing at the tree line above the road. It was focused on Jack but seemed to be motionless.
“That things not moving. Throw it on the floor and we’ll just run.”

Jack didn’t respond. The creature’s tentacles pulled back towards its face. Jack wondered what it was doing and he
knew, whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be good. The tentacles coiled and Jack moved his head as far back as he could.

“Throw it and run” Aaron shouted.

Jack didn’t have time. As soon as Aaron finished his sentence the creature’s tentacles sprang at him only this time they left its face. Jack let go with his right hand and twisted his entire body sideways. “Whoa” he shouted as they narrowly missed his face, flying into the woods behind him, smashing into trees or hitting the floor.

The creature squealed and Jack quickly turned back to it. In his panic to dodge the tentacles he had tightened his grip around the creature. In the moment that the tentacles were released the creature had been vulnerable, enabling his grasp to crush it. Jack looked at the creature, relieved and disgusted as black sludge covered his hand.

Aaron watched with horror as the creature squealed in Jacks hand until it became silent and still.

“Jesus! What the hell…” Aaron said as Jack let it drop to the floor.

“I don’t know man” Jack said, wiping his hands on his jeans.

A loud scream echoed through the air, wrenching Jack and Aaron back to the wider world. With all the adrenaline pumping through their veins they had forgotten about the tall figure that was now in motion. Jack and Aaron cursed as the creature, still shrieking, swept down the road towards them. “Run!” Aaron shouted.

They both ran but the creature was too fast. Jack couldn’t help but turn his head around as he ran. Instead of running the creature seemed to be floating but it was hard to tell as its cloak dragged across the floor concealing its legs. Looking up Jack saw its eyes; two red dots, no wider than a nail head, bright in the darkness of its hood. Jack spun back round, increasing his speed. The creature was gaining on them. Aaron heard a thudding sound coming from the woods. Whatever it was it was running.

“I think there’s another one coming” he yelled, pointing to the woods as he ran.

Jack had never been so scared. Speckles of tears began building up in his eyes, the only thought he had was that he was going to die.

Jack glanced back; the figure was so close it was within touching distance. It all happened so fast, as Jack turned around it swept past the two of them and stopped in front of them. An arm like a tree trunk emerged out of its cloak, at the end of it sat a claw-like hand, the size of a basketball, with three sharp but filthy claws. It swung, hitting Aaron across the chest. With the same swing it struck Jack on the arm sending both Jack and Aaron crashing to the floor.