Howls in the Deep

"It's just acoustics." Dray fought back a shiver, forcing his legs to move. "It can't get us."

The sound still followed them for what felt like minutes under the splash of their shoes in the old disused drain, tickling down his spine. As if it wasn't claustrophobic enough down here with the dark on all sides and faint glimmers that almost looked like eyes blinking in the dangling roots, and the holes of more drains above rusted ladders. Faint skitters rustled with them....

He blinked as Neri's steps hitched, turning to see her staring down the tunnel. "Hey, you okay?"

She twitched a smile at him with a shaky little laugh. "Yes. Just... I've never been chased by a thyre before."

"Neither." He smiled back, trying to nudge her to keep moving, Erold glancing back at him. "But we haven't been eaten yet. That has to count for something."

"Yet?" Erold's voice cracked.

Dray snorted. "Fine, never. It'll take it a...."

A soft, guttural clicking bounced through the darkness.

"What... what was that?" Neri whispered.

He froze for a good second, clanging bells ringing in the back of his head, every instinct screaming at him to run. "Let's just get the kritz out of here. Up into the drains, come on."

He could hear Erold's shuddering breath as he hunted for the next ladder down. "Light, it's here isn't it?"

"Just go." There. He pushed Erold up the rungs in front of him, a louder click rumbling low, shuddering up his spine. It sounded closer. Couldn't see anything in the dark yawning further down the tunnel, on either side. Couldn't tell where it came from.

They just needed to go. He leapt, nearly slipping off the slimy rungs covered in some kind of gunk, heart catching between his teeth. Ley, his hands were shaking.

Get a grip. He clenched a literal grip, dragging himself up and into the drain after flickering lights. The brick tunnel behind plunged into darkness, cold shadows reaching for the corners of his vision, and like something with too many teeth opening its mouth, a soft, throaty clicking brushed his ears, crawling up the back of his neck to freeze him in place.

Air juddered in his lungs, and he swallowed hard, forcing himself to turn, lifting a shaky arm and shining it back down.

Eyes glowed at him out of the darkness.

“Shihk!” He lunged into a flat-out dash. “Stov! The skid! Go for the skid!”

That clicking echoed behind him just as one of the lights ahead leapt up the side of the grungy tunnel and disappeared into an overflow drain.

Something caught at his own foot as he lunged straight after Erold, jerking it briefly off the last rung. Scrabbling at the inside of the skid, he hurled himself up through sheer adrenaline, plunging in headfirst.

Niffing—!

Mould and fungus whipped past his face, his MIP half-blinding him and barely lighting the rush of old metal. Grit and droplets stung his face, a bottled scream from ahead ringing out.

“Crossroad! Stop!” A yell cut through it.

He hissed in a breath, jamming himself against the sides as he fought to slow down. For a heart-stopping moment he was sure he’d end up crunching straight into Erold and send the both of them careening down into the ruins.

Until he began to grit to a halt, something almost brushing at his tucked-in head as he inched another whisker. And stopped.

For a moment he just panted, the stinging in his back and knees a small price to pay for the pure relief he let loose in a half-laughing sigh.

"It won't follow us, right?" Erold panted, his voice echoing strangely.

"Not unless it's dumb enough to take a slide straight to the bottom," he reassured him, grunting as he edged his half-upside-down way to where the other skid cut in.

Though... now that he thought about it, that was a good point. He glanced up into the chilly darkness as he shuffled and twisted awkwardly around to follow the huffs and puffs. Couldn't hear anything drifting down. Not even a howl.

And yet....

Bracing himself on the sides, he couldn't help feeling the darkness was somehow thicker. The echo of his stifled grunt seemed to double, a soft rasp underneath it....

Shuffling a little faster, he tried to ignore just about everything protested all the inching up, huffing breaths bouncing all around.

Was that... panting drifting up from below?

Couldn't see anything past his own knees, just a quiet dread crawling up his spine with every achingly-long minute, the walls tight, pressing in, a soft tick-tacking under everything. Like a dark shape made of wrong joints and too many teeth oozing up, scuttling its way closer—

“Nff!”

He snapped back just in time to avoid a shoe in the eye.

“Hnk!” Bracing himself, he gritted his teeth as his brother slipped, weight coming down on him. “Erold!”

A breathless grunt of a half-apology came from just above him, practically sitting on his head, and he set his hands, straining to keep his grip. “Erold!”

“—Couple measures!”

Someone’s voice echoed from above, half-lost to the explosive huffing in his ears.

Dray clenched his teeth until the throbbing in his head spiked, drowning out the shrieks of the rest of his body. I’m going to slip. Straight into the dark and the waiting jaws scuttling up— Niff it— “Erold— if you don’t— if you don’t move your ass I’m—”

The weight bearing down on him shifted, inching up, and a ragged gasping breath dragged into his lungs, jaw tight and eyes scrunched closed, arms starting to shake. Could hear his heartbeat pulsing in his ears, a quiet rasp of claws against the walls and a rumbling clicking rising out of the shadows.

Any minute now. Any minute now.

Erold cleared him, slipping and sliding up into the darkness, and Dray straightened, not caring that his skull thunked into a shoe. Just needed to get the shihk out of this niffing tunnel.

A hand stretched down and he clasped it, scrambling away from the dark rushing up on his heels, spilling out the top and kicking back.

"You good?"

Nothing came up after him. Not even a breeze. Panting, he scrubbed at the back of his neck aggressively, letting out a shaky breath practically in Stov's face. "Yeah."

“How many of those rings did you eat?” His friend grumbled, shuffling back and dropping below. Still nothing. Not a sound.

“Not enough.” Dray edged his way after him, breathing deep to steady the pulse in his ears. “Erold took them all.”

“Funny. He’s still lighter than you.”

Dray didn’t bother with the rungs. Shoving himself over the edge, he landed in a mostly-collected crouch in the drain, a twinge in his ankle catching his attention, pulsing like the back of his head, warm and wet. What...?

Leaning down, he found a small, dark stain on his pant leg and through the sock. When did I—?

“You’re bleeding.”

Stov could've yelled it, the way everyone went dead quiet.

Pulse lodged somewhere in his throat, caught in the light like a frozen bunnet, Dray opened his mouth. "I...."

“Please tell me you only clocked it on something.”

In the skid, maybe? He'd felt— something had caught it before he jumped in. Dray only hesitated for a moment, but abruptly the tension crackled over seven, and he threw his hands out, waving down the panic. “It’s not a bite—something caught it when I was climbing into the skid. See? No puncture wound.”

Balancing on his right foot, he waved at the offending bloodstain for exaggeration’s sake. And Erold, at least, looked less like he was about to dive straight into a panic attack.

Stov still eyed him intensely. “Are you sure?”

Dray met his eyes, flicking a glance to his ankle as he set his foot back down. “If it was a fang, would I still be in danger if it only grazed me?”

“Depends if they were fully extended.” His eyes narrowed even further. “Let me take a look.”

“We don’t have much time,” he pointed out, but gave in anyway, letting Stov inspect it. “I'm starting to think the thyre knows this place as well as we do. Maybe even better.”

“Feel any burning?”

“No.” Dray eyed him as Stov eyed his leg. “Should I?”

“Only if you want to become a therrolf.”

“No thanks.” He pulled a face. "Are we good?”

“Looks like it to me.”

“Alright let’s go.” He pushed Stov forwards and tilted his head to the darkened tunnel past the other two still standing there. “Come on, show’s over, I’m clean.”

“You don’t know that.” Erold finally started moving with a nudge on the shoulder, the crinkle between his eyebrows as deep as Dray had ever seen it.

“Well, you’ll know if I start howling at the moons.” He glanced back at the other end, listening. A soft scraping...? “Right now we need to move before it does get its fangs into one of us.”

Erold laugh-snorted shakily. "And you said they weren't dangerous."

"Look, I didn't say that."

“People can be dangerous, mew,” Stov broke in.

“People can't bite other people and infect them with miasma to turn them into... into monsters. That’s why they’re all locked away. Because they’re all dangerous.”

“Maybe we should ask it to inject some miasma into you. Then you can confirm how dangerous they clearly all are.”

“Stov, don’t even joke." Dray closed his eyes briefly, feeling like there was an echo under their brisk footsteps. Probably just his imagination again. Had to be. "Whichever way you look at it, this one is dangerous."

Was that a soft tapping? He couldn’t help but feel like they were being watched.

“What makes you think it knows the ruins like we do?”

He glanced at Stov, briefly distracted from the chill slowly crawling up the back of his neck. “It knew how to get to us. Besides, how do you think it’s escaped being thrown into the yard all this time?”

The other grunted softly. “Why’s it coming after us now, then?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe the isolation’s just driven it crazy. They usually have a kinmit—that's a big thing with thyres.”

“You think it wants to talk to us?” Erold broke in on the edge of incredulous hysteria, his voice loud enough to make Dray cringe. “'Oh hi kids, I’m just really lonely and I’d like some company’. Maybe we should've invited it in for evenaste.”

Dray cuffed him, throwing a quick look back. Nothing. But somehow it seemed... quieter than it had before. “Only if you wanted to become its meal. I never said it only wanted to talk—did you see me saying we should wait until it broke into the nook to get out of there? I might not think they’re all monsters, but that doesn’t mean I’m blind, Erold. You can lay off the sarcasm.”

“...Fine. Okay.” His little brother hunched, rubbing at the back of his head, hurt in his eyes. “You don’t need to bite my head off.”

Dray hissed a breath softly between his teeth. Probably shouldn't have snapped at him, but niff, all the "you wouldn't have called a therrolf a monster an hour ago but now one's chasing you, you will" was getting on his nerves. Sure, they were all stressed, but Erold didn't have to be an ass about it. “Look, I know you’re scared, but—"

A damp thud echoed down the tunnel, and he choked off.