Sueño: Beasts among people ~ Past

The beast started approaching them slowly, almost hesitantly. Herm stood in front of Raz and unsheathed his sword, ready to strike the creature as soon as it got close. The thing stopped when seeing the sword, blinking twice before starting to walk towards him again.

“What are you doing, stop!”

A kid was looking at them from one of the doors that were closed before, opening just enough to see what was happening.

“If you touch him, everyone will try to kill you.” Said the kid, not daring to open the door more.

Herm looked at him with the corner of his eye and quickly analyzed the situation. He may be able to fight a beast, but having to do so while protecting someone else was a completely different matter. He was not there to kill the beast, if it was there, it meant the village was doomed to begin with.

No, if it was in the center of the plaza, and people were aware of it, they should have been dead a long time ago. What is going on?

Unsure of what to do, he decided to take a gamble for safety.

“Raz, follow me.”

Without taking his eyes out of the monster he ran sideways towards the door where the kid was at. She had already guessed what was the plan and as soon as she reached it she put her foot out to stop the door from possibly closing. The kid was shocked, but it was too late for him. They both forced their way in.

Herm closed the door with a slam and quickly moved a cabinet in front of the door. There was a window, but it was too small for the giant monster to enter through. Surprisingly, the beast didn’t even try to enter through the door. The damned thing didn’t even seem to care at all.

Who did care, was the kid whose home they had just barged into.

“What the hell are you doing! Get out of here now!”

The kid tried to push them, but to no avail.

“Sorry, thanks for taking us in.” Said Raz to the kid, who wanted to push her away, but didn’t dare to touch her once he saw that she was pregnant. 

“You can’t stay, if you stay here, they’ll think I’m with you and they’ll come for me next.”

When he said this, Herm stopped paying attention to the door and window and instead turned around to the kid.

“Wait, who is gonna come for us?”

“Everyone! Get away from me!”

The kid now tried to run away, but Herm did not let him to. Raz looked through the window and made sure the beast had left. There was no sign of it, but she did notice someone peeking at them through the blinders of the house in front of them.

“The kid is right, they know where we are.”

Herm saw Raz and quickly went to pull the curtains of the window, blocking the inside from view.

“And here I thought the town looked quite tranquil considering it all. I’ll look for a back door, we are leaving right now.” said Herm, preparing his sword again.

“And the kid?” Asked Raz

“What do you mean?”

“You can’t be serious. We can’t abandon him here”

“Raz, traveling us two is already quite hard, we can’t bring the kid with us.”

“Are you really gonna abandon a kid in a city with beasts in it?”

“There are beasts everywhere!”

Herm forgot to control the tone of his voice and screamed, although he soon realized his mistake and tried to control himself.

“Raz, as we speak, the water and the beasts are taking entire villages away, including kids. That does not mean we can just take any kids we see and bring them with us.”

“You are right, and I’m not asking you to. Can we at least go up and ask him, so we can know what is happening here? We may get some information about the beasts”

Herm let out a long groan, considering for a moment taking Raz in his arms and just carrying her away no matter how much she complained. At the end of this groan, he concluded that it was worth a shot. After all, it was the first time he saw a town that collided with the beasts. The information could be worth it, even if he still did not want to take the child with them.

The kid had gone upstairs, so they both decided to go up and follow him. There was a single room upstairs, but it was unfortunately locked. With little hopes, Raz knocked on the door.

“Hey, are you there? Sorry for barging in. We just want to help.”

She waited for a moment but there was no response.

“Look, how about we just talk for a moment. And if after we talk you still don’t want us here, then we will leave. Is that ok?”

“Just leave!” they heard a muffled shout from inside the room.

Raz sighed, knowing that they would not have other option

“It's not that I like to do this, but it looks like it's time for me to try.” Said Herm, preparing himself, in front of the door.

“I know, but wait a moment. Kid! Get away from the door, it's dangerous!”

After shouting her warning she stepped aside, leaving enough space for Herm to kick open the door. The house was proving to be quite old and shabby, as the hinges easily gave way and flew away.

The kid was looking at them hatefully from the other side of a small bed. On it, there was a woman who seemed to be in a deep slumber. Fearing the worst, Raz got closer to the bed with the hopes of confirming the woman was still alive.

“Don’t you dare touch her!”

The kid had gone around the bed and was about to push her, but Herm grabbed him by the arm and stopped him.

“Hey, calm down. We are not going to do anything to her.”

“No, let me go!”

The kid was squirming in his grasp, but obviously, he didn’t have the strength to liberate himself from his grip. Meanwhile, Raz had at least confirmed what for her was a quite unexpected result.

“She’s still alive.”

Herm let out a small sigh, but the confirmation did nothing to alleviate the kid’s anger.

“At the very least, she doesn’t look sick. But I am surprised she didn’t wake up considering all the noise we have been making.”

The kid stopped jerking around, finally falling limp. Herm looked at him for a moment, but noticed that he was about to start crying. When he saw that, he left him on the floor again and the kid went back to his mother’s side.

“She hasn’t woken up in three days.”

Raz looked at him, trying to scrutinize him, but didn’t find any trace of insincerity. But then, how could that be?

“Have you heard about anything like this, Herm?”

“No, not at all. ”

“The monsters did it. She was supposed to be healed, but she still hasn’t woken up!” Screamed the kid, hugging his mother who didn’t react at all.

Suddenly, they could hear some noises coming from the street. From the window, Herm could see the street where they were before and now the beasts from before were not alone. Several people had reunited around the house, armed with farming weapons like pitchforks and sickles.

But the most worrying thing of all, was the fact that three different, huge beasts were towering over the crowd, and no one seemed to care about it.

They didn’t bother knocking, and with the strength of the monsters in their favor, they started breaking through the door.