Crack!
A streak of red lightning carved across the heavens like the claw of a beast tearing through the clouds.
Boom!
Thunder followed, loud enough to shake the bones. The sky above churned wildly, a crimson hue spilling across it like fresh blood poured into water. The clouds spun, twisted, coiling over each other like serpents writhing in agony.
Whoooosh!
The wind followed next. It didn't whisper or caress... it screamed!!
It howled, sharp and merciless, tearing through the night as if trying to rip the world apart. Loose leaves were caught in the air, swirling madly. Dust rose from the cracked. paths and scattered fields, curling and colliding, forming violent little whirlwinds that slammed into fences and trees. The lanterns that once hung calmly by windows were now clattering, dancing, some even snapping and flying off into the darkness.
From afar, faint at first but soon rising like a flood of despair, came the sound of wails.
Agonized, broken cries… Screams.
Voices.. raw and guttural echoed from deeper within the town. Pain. Fear. Madness.
And still, Bai Lin ran.
Her arms tightened around her son's small body, his head nestled into her shoulder, still half-asleep, unaware of the nightmare blossoming around him. Her other hand held tightly onto Zolli's... her daughter's slender fingers trembling but not letting go.
Their robes fluttered violently as they raced through the uneven, cracked path leading to the town square. Loose stone and dead leaves made footing dangerous, but Bai Lin moved with resolve, her steps fierce yet measured. The square was finally in sight now.. its gates wide open, guards nowhere to be found.
But then... Suddenly.
She froze.
Zolli's fingers tugged slightly at her mother's, confused by the sudden stop. Her feet stumbled in the dirt as she came to a halt beside her. Her chest rose and fell fast. Her eyes, large and green, stared forward.
A man stood ahead, alone in the center of the path that leads to the square's gate. His figure wavered slightly in the night wind. His robe.. once a bright ceremonial white, was tattered, half-burnt and soaked in dirt. His hair hung in oily, wild clumps. His eyes… wide, bloodshot, unblinking.
He mumbled. A whisper, yet loud enough for the wind to carry.
"…It's all over…"
His fingers dug into his arms, scratching violently. Blood trickled down to his wrists.
"…We're finished… there's no place to hide… no place… no... "
A sharp cry erupted from the man's throat as he began gnawing on his own fingers. Biting. Tearing. Munching.
His teeth cracked against bone..
Zolli's breath caught in her throat, her heart pounding so loud she could barely hear the wind anymore. She took a step back instinctively, but her mother reacted first.
Without a word, Bai Lin gently knelt and lowered Yai Lu down, setting the boy softly onto the ground. His small eyes blinked open, still heavy with sleep. His lips parted slightly in confusion, but no words came.
"Zolli," Bai Lin whispered, her voice low, calm, but heavy. "Take your brother. Hold him close."
Zolli's hands shook as her mother placed the boy into her arms. She was trembling.. not from the wind, but from the quiet realization that began blooming inside her like ice cracking through her chest.
Bai Lin kept her gaze on the figure ahead, who now began pacing forward, staggering. The sounds he made weren't human anymore. Growls… soft snarls… gurgling laughter.
"Mom?" Zolli asked, barely managing to speak, her voice hoarse with emotion. "Let's… let's go together… please, don't stay…"
Her cheeks were soaked. She hadn't even noticed she was crying.
Yai Lu, confused and scared now, clutched at his sister's robe, his small hands curling into the red cloth. His deep brown eyes darted between the two, silently pleading for answers.
Bai Lin didn't look at them. Not yet. She was in the center between them and the man.
"Zolli…" she said, her voice firmer now, filled with something unspoken. "Go through the woods. That path to the left, just beyond the gate at the other side. Stay off the roads. If you see someone… anyone… don't stop. Don't talk. Just keep running, no matter what you hear."
Zolli clutched her brother tighter, her legs rooted in place, her body refusing to listen.
"Mom, please… don't... "
The man up ahead stopped suddenly, lifting his head.
His face twitched. His mouth opened wide. His jaw snapped downward, unnaturally low. The skin at his cheeks split. His teeth grew longer, sharper. His eyes glowed faintly, with a light that looked eerily like the crimson moon above.
He took one slow step.
Then another.
Bai Lin turned.
Now she looked at them.
Her green eyes shimmered beneath the moonlight, and a soft, sorrowful smile crept onto her lips.
She reached out, her fingers brushing through Yai Lu's hair.
Then she leaned forward, kissing Zolli's forehead.
"I'm sorry, my sweet girl," she whispered, her voice cracking. "I won't be able to go with you this time…"
Zolli shook her head, her cries rising in volume as her legs weakened beneath her.
"No.. please don't say that... no!"
"Go!" Bai Lin suddenly shouted, her voice like thunder.
She placed both palms firmly on Zolli's shoulders and shoved her towards the trees on the left, the path dark and narrow, barely lit by the distant glow of the moonlight filtered through rustling branches.
"Run, Zolli! Carry your brother and run!" Bai Lin screamed once more.
The man's body up ahead convulsed... his chest swelling, bones popping loudly beneath his skin. His back arched grotesquely, and from his mouth spilled a deep, wet growl.
And just before Bai Lin turned to face him.. her robe fluttering behind her like the final notes of a farewell, she shouted once more.
"GO! Xu Zolli Bing! GO NOW!"
The wind screamed louder than ever.
And the night, once filled with silence, now howled with the song of a mother's final stand.
****
Yai Lu began crying, a small whimper at first, barely a crack in the wind's fury.. but it grew, grew like a wave crashing through brittle silence.
"Mu...Mum...Mother..." he sobbed, his voice trembling with each word, raw and shaky like the wind scraping past brittle branches.
Zolli's arm tightened around his small frame. Her other hand moved quickly, covering his eyes, trembling fingers pressing lightly against his lids.
"Don't look," she whispered with a quiver, her voice breaking under the weight of her own fear. "Don't...please."
The howl of the wind and the crunch of scattered leaves muffled the dreadful sounds behind them. But then it came..
Crack!
A sickening snap of bone.
Thud.
The sound of a body collapsing under the force of something greater..
"AAHHH!"
A scream, not long but sharp.. cutting through the air like a blade across skin.
Bai Lin's scream.
The monstrous man had lunged forward. His figure was a blur of twitching muscle and stretching flesh. His jaw snapped open with an unnatural wideness, and he sank his growing teeth deep into Bai Lin's hand. Blood burst outward like crimson petals in bloom, spraying across the dirt path, painting the rocks, staining her robe.
Her face twisted.. but not in pain. Not entirely. There was sorrow, urgency... and something deeper, something maternal and immovable.
"I said run, Xu Zolli Bing!" she roared, voice rising above the storm's chaos. Her words cracked with power, slicing through the horror. "Protect your brother.. go now!"
Zolli's legs trembled. Her breath came in sharp gulps, like she'd forgotten how to breathe and was only now remembering how to do it in panic. Her eyes stayed locked on her mother, even as she was backing away slowly.
The man.. no, the creature was gnawing, tearing with the hunger of something long dead and newly awakened. Blood smeared across it's chin, it's face twitching with feverish excitement. Bai Lin tried to wrest herself free, to pull away, but the creature's grip was brutal. Her wrist twisted in its jaws as it snarled and clung tighter, teeth dragging down to her forearm, cracking bones like dry wood.
Zolli couldn't move. Her feet refused. Her knees wanted to give way. She just stared, a single whisper falling from her lips..
"M...Mu...Mum."
Tears streamed freely now, burning her cheeks, hot as fire despite the cold wind slicing through the trees.
Yai Lu sobbed louder, his little hands reaching out toward the blur of violet robes in the distance. "MOTHER!" he screamed again, but Zolli pulled him closer, hugged him against her chest, wrapped his face into the crook of her shoulder. "Don't look, just hold on," she murmured, over and over again, her voice cracking like broken porcelain. "We have to go... we have to go..."
Bai Lin's eyes found them in the distance, slowly retreating. Her lips trembled into a faint smile. Her bloodied fingers twitched against the beast's chest as if reaching out toward them, but she no longer had the strength.
Good... they were going...
Her eyes dulled with soft relief.
Something unseen, something unknown, had gripped her ankles since the moment she stopped. She had tried to walk... but it was like the ground itself had refused her, the shadows of the world clutching tight with invisible claws, chaining her to that moment, to that place.
She wasn't allowed to leave.
But her children were.
"I'm sorry, Zolli dear," she whispered, her lips barely moving, her voice silent beneath the wind's scream. Her eyes glazed over with a distant, final sorrow. "Your mother... won't be with you and your brother... for the journey ahead..."
SPLAT. SPLAT.
The creature's claws dug in deep, pulling her closer, tearing into her shoulder, its teeth ravaging what was left of her arm. The sound was... wrong. Wet, sickening, rhythmic. Like someone stomping in soaked meat.
Bai Lin's scream died before it could leave her throat. Her eyes widened... then dulled.
Flesh tore. Bones cracked again. Her limbs jerked for a moment before going limp.
All that remained was a feast... and silence.
...
Far from that place.. beyond the square, beyond the scattering wind and red sky.
Zolli ran.
Her legs burned. Her arms ached from holding her brother. Her bare feet tripped on roots and dug into sharp stones, but she kept running. She didn't care.
Her brother's sobs were muffled now, buried against her robe. His arms wrapped tightly around her neck. He didn't know. He didn't understand.
But she did.
Zolli's heart beat like a war drum, a frantic rhythm in her chest that she couldn't silence. Every breath hurt, every thought was shattered like glass in a storm.
"Mum..." she whispered as she ran, tears falling freely again. "Dad..."
She could still see it. Her mother's face. The red sky. The creature. Her blood. Her voice, full of love, full of command.. telling her to run.
She had obeyed.
But that didn't make it easier.
She stumbled against a tree, her robe catching on a branch, ripping lightly. She didn't stop. Her feet carried her deeper into the woods, away from the square, away from the cries.
The forest was darker now. Darkness crept between the trees like fingers ready to pull, to whisper, to follow. The leaves no longer rustled sweetly. They scraped, dry and sharp like tiny claws. The trees twisted upwards like warped fingers reaching for a sky painted in blood.
And above all, the moon.
Zolli stopped.
She looked up, panting, chest heaving, arms trembling.
The sky was crimson... no longer tinged but drowned in red.
And the moon... that moon...
It was round, massive, bright and smiling.
Not warmly.
Not kindly.
But cruelly.
Sinister.
It looked down upon the world as if amused by their screams, as if it had waited long for this night.
Zolli stared, mouth parted slightly, her tears falling slower now as she clutched her brother closer.
That moon was laughing.
She could feel it.
And everything it shined on... was cursed..
And survival was just a tale left untold..