TWO

There was a crackling in the air, like electricity. It reminded me of the time my friend got struck by lightning when we were out drinking at the creek back in high school. The smell was different, though. It smelled like damp earth.

What the hell?

“Do you feel that?” I asked, glancing around nervously. Our footsteps bounced off the high vaulted ceiling. “I think we should get do—”

Something chittered from the shadows. Wesley’s eyes widened and he held out his hand. I noticed it too late and walked right into it with an oof. The chittering rose in pitch, punctuated here and there with an odd clicking noise. Wesley sucked in a shuddering breath.

“What’s—what’s that noise?” I asked. This is just a prank. This is just an elaborate prank.

Except…Wesley’s fear wasn’t the kind of fear a person could easily fake. Even I could see that.

“Barrow Bugs,” came Wesley’s trembling whisper came through the dark. He shuddered again. “They gather where there is death. Battlefields, tombs…”

His voice trailed off, but I felt his hand clamp down around my arm like a vise. He grabbed a torch from a wall sconce and a small, light green flame flickered to life.

“Stay close if you wish to stay alive.” Drawing his sword, he forged ahead down the hall.

“Sure thing, boss.” As much as I tried to force some levity into my voice, it just wouldn’t come.

Wesley opened his mouth to respond, but whatever he was about to say, It was drowned out by an unholy shriek. Something shiny and black with an acid-green underbelly and too many legs dropped down onto Wesley’s back.

“Hells below!” Wesley cried.

He dropped his sword and as he wrestled with the furiously-hissing Barrow Bug. Its pincers snapped dangerously close to Wesley’s face.

I leapt back, jaw hanging open with a silent scream. When I was a kid, me and my family had to stay in a hotel while exterminators took care of a particularly bad bedbug infestation. To say I didn’t do well with bugs was an understatement. Even now, I could feel my skin crawling with a deep-seeded revulsion.

It wasn’t just my skin that crawled. The wall behind me seemed to undulate. Something thrummed in my ear, skittered along my arm. The air in my lungs froze.

“FAAAA—SHITSHITSHIT!”

I threw myself away from the wall, careening headlong into Wesley. The three of us—me, Wesley, and the Barrow Bug—landed on the slimy stone floor in a tangle of limbs and antennae. I rolled to my feet and backed away in horror. All I could do was watch my maybe-undead savior wrestle with a creature straight from my nightmares.

“Dave! My sword!” Westley grunted, straining against the bug.

Its pincers snapped dangerously close to his face as another bug started crawling up his leg. Crying out in alarm, Wesley flailed, sending the smaller bug flying with a frantic kick. Snarling, Wesley put the torch out in the Barrow Bug’s face. Its eerie, almost-human scream chilled me to the bone.

“Wuh—? Where is it?” I cried. He jerked his chin toward the shadows behind him.

“Back there somewhere—I—I didn’t—gah!” Wesley jerked his head out of the bug’s way, narrowly avoiding certain decapitation. “I did not see where it landed!”

I spun around, facing a long stretch of darkness. Skittering, clicking, hissing, squealing echoed down the hall. If I squinted, I could see the shadows writhing.

“Dave!”

“Oh—okay—”

I grimaced, hesitating only a moment before launching myself headlong into the dark. My stomach lurched at the feeling of thousands of pairs of feet skittering over my hand as I groped along the floor. A Barrow Bug crawled up my legs, up my back, while other, smaller bugs scurried through my hair. I screamed and flipped onto my back, rolling around in a vain hope of destroying the bugs.

“Sword!” Wesley shouted. I cringed.

“I’m trying!” I growled back.

My fingers brushed against something hard yet smooth—metal, with what felt like a faceted gem. I couldn’t help my triumphant grin.

Something sharp sliced through the top of my hand. I yelled out a curse and rolled onto my back, clutching my hand to my chest. More Barrow Bugs swarmed over my stomach and chest, and it took only one foot on my lips for me to clamp my mouth shut. The sharp chitters and squeals rose in pitch the closer the bugs got to my wounded hand. I rolled around, yanking my hand out of the swarm’s way. They were persistent, though, crawling around my hand and snapping at it with their pincers.

“Dammit, Dave!”

Okay. Count of three. One—

Another bite. I clenched my teeth around a scream.

—two—

Wings fluttered in my face. I rolled back onto my stomach. I’d never be okay again.

—THREE!

I jammed my intact hand into the swirling, writhing mass. My fingers scrambled wildly for the handle. A Barrow Bug chomped down onto my calf and I flipped back over. The bug screeched when I kicked it in the head. I shuddered at the feel of its carapace against my bare foot. Scrambling backward, my hand knocked against a jagged stone. I didn’t even think twice. Grabbing the rock, I blindly swung it downward and lodged its tip in the Barrow Bug’s head. It screamed and scuttled backward, swaying once before toppling over on its side. Its legs scuttled feebly in the air, then stilled.

For a moment, I froze. My stomach roiled and my brain had to catch up with the horrors around me—I was buffering, if you will. Then I snapped to attention, leapt forward. Crawling on my knees through the clicking, hissing masses, I groped blindly for the sword. Barrow Bugs still swarmed around me, hungering for my blood, but I was—miraculously—beyond caring. Wesley needed his sword, and, come hell or high water, I was gonna get it to him.

“Yes!”

I snatched up the sword and unsheathed it. The weapon was heavy in my hands, weighing me down as I blindly swung at the Barrow Bugs around me. Slim and bug guts spattered my face with each swing. Again, I clamped my mouth shut. As soon as this was all over, I was gonna throw myself into the nearest lake.

“Here!” I cried, shoving the sword into Wesley’s hand.

He grabbed it and swung it upward, splitting the Barrow Bug clean in two. Wesley threw himself to his feet and shot his free hand in the air. A brilliant ball of light bloomed into existence, so bright I had to shield my eyes. Thousands of screams filled the air around us. I clapped my hands over my ears and my knees buckled. Wesley grabbed me by the arm and shoved me forward, shouting at me to run. He didn’t have to tell me twice. This time, when Wesley pressed the dagger into my hand, I didn’t argue.

“This way!” Wesley shouted. He darted down a hall to his left and I scrambled after him. Just like before, the Barrow Bugs fled from the light.

“Where are we going?” I huffed. “This way to the exit, right?”

We dove into a room and Wesley slammed the door behind us. He dropped a bar across the door and backed away, releasing a breath like a weight lifting from his shoulders.

“Almost,” he said. “Soon, I promise.”

My jaw dropped. “What gives?”

“The Barrow Bugs…” Wesley trailed off.

“Yeah? What about them?”

“They only appear in places long since abandoned.” For the first time, I saw the hollowness in Wesley’s haunted eyes. “I have, I’m afraid, been dead longer than I thought.”

“Wh-what does that mean?”

Wesley let out another breath. “There was an artifact hidden in this fort. We cannot quite leave yet until I am sure that it is safe.”

My knees buckled again, but I nodded. “Okay. Let’s do it.”