Forsaken Fields: Godspawn Part 4

Prompt 1: To Fight a Godspawn :)

Thomas was keenly aware that Keys was behind him, between him and the horrible creature chasing them down. 

He slowed down, turning and throwing an arm out in time to get Keys behind him. 

“Keep going!” Thomas yelled, pulling out his sword. 

The Godspawn was on him in a moment, mantis claws posed to bite down into him, her tongue lashing out, too swollen to fit in her obscenely unhinged jaw. 

Thomas slashed and ducked just in time, hearing her scream as black ichor splattered across the wall from her face, her tongue going flying as she collapsed back, screeching as she pressed her wrists to her eyes. 

Thomas went in for another hit, but the girl was back up, swiping like a blind lemur, and screeching like one too. Her hearing appeared to be better than expected, because even without her eyes she seemed to be able to tell where he was the entire time. 

Thomas quickly backed off, running down the hall with her still on his tail. He didn’t see where Key’s went, but he didn’t have to as he was pulled into a pitch black room, dragged to a corner with a hand over his mouth. 

He recognized the person to be Keys, who had his forehead pressed into Thomas’s shoulder from behind, leaning against the corner as still as possible. 

The horrible creature in the hall thrashed about, still trying to find them. Thomas realized that the creaking of the floor boards had been what she had been listening for as she didn’t seem to hear their breathing or their heartbeats. That was somewhat of a relief. 

But then the nightmarish creature quieted down. She fell completely silent for a long moment before Thomas heard the floorboards creak. 

Then, still standing with Keys behind him and a hand over his mouth, he saw her terrible head creep into the room, her claws gently tapping things in front of her. Meticulously tapping a horrible rhythm of death. 

Thomas felt Key’s flinch when she tapped a soft piece of furniture covered with a dust cloth, causing her to scream and tear it to shreds. When she stopped, panting in the middle of the mess she had created, Thomas held his breath. 

Keys lifted his head watching over Thomas’s shoulder as she started tapping at the floor again, slowly finding her way through the creaking room to them. 

He quietly lifted his other arm, resting it on Thomas’s other shoulder and aiming before charging a fireball and letting it loose. 

The creature screamed, singed by the flame but managing to dodge mostly under it, the room catching fire behind her as Keys shoved Thomas at the door, following behind him. 

Thomas managed to catch Keys’s forearm in his hand, pulling him hard forward, trying to get to safety. 

The Godspawn leapt forward screaming and slashing with her claws. Keys’s scream nearly covered the sound of tearing clothing and flesh as the Godspawn landed a hit on him. 

Thomas pulled Keys hard forward, turning and slashing with his sword, his vision going as red as the blood dripping off of the Godspawn’s claws. 

She shrieked, dodging back from his blade, but still pushing the two of them back. 

Key gasped out words of magic, fire twirling and smashing into the horrible creature. She fell back, the fire spreading out around her through the ancient magic. 

“Please let there be stairs,” Thomas hissed, turning and half supporting Keys. 

Keys opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off as their next shared step sent a CRACK through the air and they fell. 

Keys bounced off of what felt like a wooden beam before rolling to the ground, slamming into Thomas who had found a more direct way to the bottom. 

Keys laid on Thomas, hands gripping tightly into Thomas’s clothing and arm as he fought to get air back into his bruised lungs, blind in the face of the pain. 

There was a bright flash around them, the sense of magic wards being activated, and then the darkness around them became absolute. The scream of the creature above echoed hollowly in the house and the two could hear the sound of claws clattering on wood above them. 

Keys finally dragged a gasp of air into his lungs, tears streaming down his cheek from his good eye as he coughed, the movement sending pain jolting through broken ribs as blood dribbled down his sides from the ragged wounds in his back. 

Thomas recovered more slowly and calmly, groaning and reaching to cradle the back of his skull before he scooted to sit up, supporting Keys, who still couldn’t get the hang of breathing again. 

“Were those wards?”

Keys nodded against Thomas’s arm in the darkness, still unable to breathe. The wards seemed to be in place to fix up the house when it reached a certain point of damage. The two of them falling through the boards seemed to have been the turning point after they’d set the room and hall on fire. 

They sat in silence for a long time, listening to the clicking and screaming above as the Godspawn tried to find her way through the newly remade floorboards. 

“I’m not saying this is your fault,” Keys said raspily, forcing him up to sit against the wall by Thomas, “But-”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Thomas said. “Can you make us some light?”

Keys lifted a hand and signed for his little lights to spawn in. The lights lit up a thin hallway. It looked…. Unfinished? The points of nails were visible through the walls, boards protruding into the small space, parts that seemed to push into the hall strangely. They looked one way, then the other, seeing no doors or windows. 

Thomas caught on first. “Oh… we’re inside the walls.”

Keys groaned, leaning his head back against the boards behind him, gently in case there were nails poking through there. “Course.”

“We’ll just have to find a way out,” Thomas said, slowly getting to his feet before his leg gave out on him, sending him sprawling onto the floor. He gasped and clutched at it, trying to keep from screaming at the pain his brain now recognized. 

“Take your shoe off before it swells,” Keys said, shifting to keep his back from touching anything, one hand pressed against his ribs. 

Thomas swore as he worked his shoe off, putting it down to reveal bruising all around his ankle, swelling setting in quickly. 

It was clear that neither of them were in any state to get out of here anytime soon. Keys closed his eyes, exhausted. 

“And Lock doesn’t even know we’re here,” he said softly, horror setting in. He didn’t want to die like this. No one would even find their bodies. 

“She’ll find us, if we don’t get out first,” Thomas said, trying to be positive. “We’ll be fine. Come on, man. Cheer up. She’ll find us.”

“Please,” Keys whispered to no one in particular. “Please hurry.”