Fluttering Birds

 “Shihk!”

Dray twitched back, an electric jolt leaping straight from his fingertips to the hairs on the back of his neck before he even registered the curse escaping his lips.

"Dray?" Erold's voice cracked, but Dray couldn't take his eyes off the curtain, slit-pupiled yellow burned into his vision.

"Thyre," he croaked out—

A crunch shrieked into the hatch, glinting black thorns punching underneath, crumpling the metal. And Light, nobody needed him to say anything after that.

Neri let out a short, sharp cry, almost drowned out by a snarl that stole what little air he had left in his lungs, Erold yelping out, "What the—"

"Eyah." Dray choked in a breath, twisting and lunging blindly for the trapdoor, snatching at the blankets and throw-bags. It was the only way out. They had to get to it before the hatch went. The hatch being torn open like tin-foil. "Help me get these off!"

"No no no—" Neri whimpered at a grinding shriek just as Stov joined him, swearing the mess black and blue, and Dray could finally catch the handle, yanking it.

It wouldn't open.

"Shihk shihk!" He heaved desperately, a rusty screech nearly drowned out by the hatch giving way, and he swore he could feel a breeze against the cold sweat on the back of his neck, every muscle bracing to feel fangs or claws—

The trapdoor banged up onto its hinges, a rush of dust and mildew spewing out of the darkness. He didn't waste a moment grabbing Erold's frozen shoulder and hauling him over, shoving him in. "Down!"

He turned for Neri as she backed away, breathing hard, the floffie clutched in her arms. "Neri, we have to go."

"I-I—" She gripped it tighter, her eyes darting to the hatch.

"NERI!"

Stov’s shout made them both flinch, his hands ripping at the floffie in her grip and yanking her over to the trapdoor. “Do you want to die? Leave the damn floffie and kritzing go!”

She finally dropped it, her whimpering breathing drowned out by a snarl as she dropped in, Stov following her, and Dray threw a glance back just as something dark rippled through the crumpled gap. Darkness and teeth stretching too wide, too sharp, blurring straight for him as he tore himself away and lunged into the hole. He could feel them prickling at the back of his neck, snarl breathing hot on his skin—

He dropped into the darkness, fingers locked around the inside handle.

It clanged shut just as something impossibly strong slammed straight into it, wrenching at his arms, rungs slamming into his back. Stars flashed through his vision with a crack on the back of his skull, and he barely caught himself on the ladder, a rough cry echoing.

A muffled growl rumbled through the metal. Couldn't reach him.

He huffed for breath, the sharp pain in his skull throbbing in time to the thunder of his heart. A tremble ran through his hands even as he squeezed the rung. “Everyone... everyone okay?”

Shaky affirmatives answered him, and he let out a long, slow breath. Everyone was okay. Good. That was good.

“What about you? I heard you yell,” Stov’s tight voice floated up, soft clanging and a whisper-mutter further down.

A half-huffing laugh left his lips. “Yeah, fine. Apart from cracking the back of my head on the ladder.”

Lights flickered from below, and he glanced past his feet to see a silhouette sliding down. Stov’s voice travelled with it, echoing strangely. “Better than getting those teeth in it.”

An involuntary shiver rippled down from the nape of his neck as he took a deep breath and unstuck his hands. The last thing he wanted to worry about was the miasma in those fangs. “No hollows.”

Chilly, stagnant air whipped past as he slid down, a sharper clang ringing out above. Hopefully the door would hold longer than the hatch. Glancing back down, he spotted the end of the ladder just a measure too late.

“Nfh—”

His feet clanged into the walkway and buckled, sending him straight onto his butt with an oof, the pain spiking in his head again for a moment. “Ngh— Ow.”

“Shihk— warn me next time. You almost flattened me.”

A laugh escaped him, lasting maybe a little longer than it should've. “Not— not my best landing.”

“...You alright?”

A last laugh shuddered in his lungs as he took the hand offered to him and hauled himself up, legs wobbling slightly. “No, but I’ll be fine. As long as I’m not sleeping anytime soon. That thing was almost in my face when I jumped in.”

"Tell me about it." Stov didn't waste any time moving away from a teeth-on-edge screech of metal, and Dray didn't waste any time following. Right now it was a good idea to get as far away as possible.

"Niff." Erold's shaky laugh echoed over their footsteps as they hurried along the upper-walk. "If Mum and Dad heard you swear like that you'd be grounded so hard."

"Hey." Rubbing at the lump on the back of his skull, he winced, throwing a glance over the other two. Both Erold and Neri looked like they’d just seen their worst nightmare. "Extenuating circumstances."

He tapped at his right wrist, the MIP's back-screen blinking a "no signal" symbol that dropped a rock into his stomach. Dammit. “We need to get out of here so we can contact the force. Can't get any connection here. Too much padding."

"We can just walk out the front, right...?" Neri's shaky voice whispered.

"The doors are all locked and boarded up tight," Stov said. "We'll have to take the tunnels."

They made it to the ground floor with faint scratching and banging echoing through the darkness and nipping at their heels. Pacing shadows stretched across abandoned shuttle cradles, flickering wildly along the walls as Stov lead them to the old rusted door half-overgrown with sickly, rootlike shoots.

"Are you sure there isn't another way out?" Neri's pale face was even more washed-out in the light of his MIP as she glanced back, her breathing quick and quiet. "Do we have to go underground?"

"Maybe a window high up, but it'd be hard to climb around. Never found any cracks, either. It's pretty sturdy." Dray jogged past the others to help Stov shove at the half-closed door. “Feels like the hinges have stiffened up.”

“It’s all the rust.” Stov grunted as they both shoved into it, and it screeched back. “We might have to beat back some bush—”

A crashing shriek echoed through the station, and they both froze.

“Shihk.”

"Was that... was that the trapdoor?"

Dray listened hard, Neri's strangled voice more of a whisper that still seemed to echo, painfully loud. Couldn't hear anything. Couldn't see anything.

The hairs on the back of his neck still lifted, a shiver running down his spine. He couldn't define it, but it felt like a malevolent spirit had drifted into the old station, filling all the shadows just out of reach of their MIPs, the darkened walls hiding faint glints and crouching shapes. "Go. Go go go go—"

Dray grabbed Erold again and pushed him through the doorway. Neri almost nipped at his heels on the way in, dashing through before Stov could pull her this time.

He could hear her terrified panting as he and Stov dragged the door tight as they could behind them, the bobbing lights already running down dark stairs.

They dashed after. There wasn't anything to run from—no pounding footsteps, but every hair on the back of his neck prickled like claws were about to reach out of the darkness behind them.

Careening around a corner at the bottom, he almost crashed into Neri’s back a half second before Erold’s cry rang down the corridor, “It’s a dead end!”

“Left! Take the left!” He huffed for breath. Hadn't even run that far. The dark past his MIP, though, it seemed to shift; a faint screech, maybe a distant thud brushing past his ears—

Abruptly Neri snapped forward again. Dray lunged— and flattened himself against the wall despite the prickling crawling along his skin, shoving Stov down first through the shadowy hole. The rough ground tore at Dray's hands and knees as he dove after, light flickering strangely, the walls threatening to squeeze around him.

Couldn't get stuck now. Not now. He thought he could hear animal panting under the others' pulsing in his ears, a growl under the grunt of effort as Stov wriggled out ahead of him, amplified and muffled by the small space. No, it's just your imagination. It's nothing.

He tried to look over his shoulder, but the light couldn't reach past his own shadow. It felt like he'd see neon-glowing eyes any second if he kept watching.

He had to tear his gaze away, clawing through a gap almost too small, trying to force his lungs to deflate and his breathing to even out, rough edges dragging at his jacket and digging at his ribs painfully. A ringing clatter echoed in his ears as his foot slipped on the wall. Just a rock, not something else, just his own breathing in his ears and his heartbeat pounding at the back of his skull. Shihk.

"Get your fat ass moving," Stov growled in his ears, yanking at his arm.

He grunted, too busy trying to squeeze through to respond. Wasn't his fault no one fed the skinny drelf and he could get into any crevice like an octopus—

A metallic bang crashing down the passage behind them stiffened every muscle in his body.

"Hnh!" He tore free, something ripping and scrapes flaring at his shoulders and ribs but that was the door giving way—

Stumbling out into the open of a wider brick tunnel, half-dragged, he panted for breath. "It can't get through there. It's too big. It wouldn't be able to."

"It'd— it'd have to be really good—" Erold gulped for breath "—at contortion."

"Yeah." Dray forced a smile, his laugh coming out shakier than he meant it to as he rubbed at the lump on his skull....

And froze as a soft sound tickled at the back of his neck.

They all went still as it rose from a whisper into an eerie note rushing through the void on either side. It rose from everywhere at once, like it was seeping through the walls to tap icy fingers up his spine.

A howl.